Following her adventures prior to getting hitched Vegas style, Kitty and her husband Ben try to settle back into life in Denver.  She’s a radio talk show host who’s popularity is augmented by the fact that she’s a werewolf, something that really helps when you have a radio show that deals with the paranormal.  Ben is as well, which is how they found each other.

Not one to shy away from a challenge, while in Vegas Kitty drew the attention of a werewolf and vampire cult known as the Cult of Tiamat.  Back in Denver, Kitty attempts to get back to life with their loosely governed pack, but that’s not to be.  The cult seems to be stalking her, making her pack question her ability to lead.  At the same time, she runs into a team of paranormal investigators at a local haunted house.  Add in the possibility of a challenger to the local Master vampire as well as meeting the brother of her best friend from the first novel in the series, and this is one action-packed novel.

Kitty Raises Hell has so many different characters and angles going on, it was ripe for too much.  Fortunately, Carrie Vaughn has a good hand with this style and keeps the action and story moving along while managing to tell a pretty cohesive story.  This isn’t great literature, but it’s a lot of fun and a step up from many other popular vampire novels on the market.

Kitty is a sympathetic character.  She manages to find trouble and although some of it isn’t her own fault, there’s a lot of it that is.  Still, she wouldn’t be the Kitty that I’ve grown to like quite a bit over the course of this series if she didn’t do this. There are consequences to what she’s brought on and she feels them quite deeply and doesn’t treat them lightly.

The new characters are very interesting and will hopefully open up a world of different adventures coming up. Kitty Raises Hell draws back in characters we’ve met before and does so quite well, and not just in a way that’s convenient for the plot.  The action and conflict also have a natural flow to them rather than just being there for the sake of being there.  I found the story to be quite good in general and the character development overall to be very good.  Kitty grows once again, even as she’s trying to revel in being a newlywed.

Vaughn doesn’t lay everything out for the reader, either.  Although it appears the Cult of Tiamat is behind everything, there’s enough held back to keep the reader interested and guessing about what exactly is going on and who’s behind it.  The solution is a lot of fun, as is guessing who in pop culture some of the characters might be modeled on, especially with the explosion of paranormal television shows over the years.

It’s nice to see the character remain strong and take control of her destiny.  As usual, Kitty seems to hit a crossroads as she fumbles through life as a werewolf and a radio host.  Her interactions are a cross between reluctant suffering and truly enjoying what life has thrown at her, and it works.  Not least of all in her relationship with her new husband.

If you haven’t read any of the other novels in Vaughn’s series, I do recommend you start with them.  There are characters who reappear in Kitty Raises Hell that have their roots in other stories.  Although I think you can make it through this one without having read those, I do think it’s better overall to have read the others first.  The series is terrific light reading, though, and a lot of fun.

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