3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I must confess that I have not read this series in order. Ive been picking up the books at used book sales and using them in challenges whenever possible. Having read Kitty and the Dead Mans Hand (book 5) first, I was really surprised by the reviews of this book. Surely it could not be about the same series? I kept hearing about Kitty being very submissive, almost nauseatingly so. Certainly this was not the Kitty in the later books. When I finally got to read this book, I could not believe the transformation. For those of you that are put off by Kittys character in this book, rest assured that she really does develop a spine in the later books.Kitty Norville (how ironic is a werewolf named Kitty?) has been a werewolf for about three years. She is a very low ranking wolf and extremely submissive. Kittys wolf is eager to please the pack Alpha, a thug named Carl. Kittys submissiveness is a terrible thing to watch, especially when Carl takes advantage of Kitty sexually even when he is mated. I found it hard to read about Kittys transformation into a werewolf. Her story is just awful: a bad date, a date rape, and left alone in an isolated park during a full moon. Kitty got the attention of a pack of wolves. Kittys evening from hell becomes even more hellish as she is bitten.Kittys saving grace is her career as a radio personality. Kittys Midnight Hour radio show becomes very popular, despite the objections of her Alpha and the local vampire leader. When the show goes into syndication, Kitty was able to bring in a lot of money into her pack. Kittys show allows her to develop as a character, to get stronger and more assertive. It also allows her some financial independence as well. At one point, the Alpha suggests that Kitty may want to challenge his mate for an Alpha position. I liked how the author gives us the wolfs perspective. Submissive females are a little repugnant to me, but when the scene is explained from the eyes of a wolf, I was able to understand the character better. The pack politics are not very well developed in this book as they are in other werewolf/shifters series. Perhaps it is because this Alpha was more of a thug than a leader to his pack. The idea of a church group having a cure for vampirism and lycanthropy was intriguing. I had hoped that the story line would have been expanded. I would have liked to have seen more on that.The supporting cast of characters in this book is interesting. While most of Kittys pack was a bunch of thugs, TJ stood out and protected Kitty from Carl and the other weres. Cormac deserves special consideration. Hunky, effective, and lethal, Cormacs primary function was an assassin. I loved how he worked with Kitty. I cant say enough about Ben the lawyer, who provided excellent advice to both Kitty and Cormac. I cant wait to read the rest of the series.

Oh my - old timers! I thought I had this book, but couldn't find it. For some reason I'd collected the next 4, but didn't have the first, which was weird. I hadn't realized I read it! Well, I'm going to re-read it & then read the others that I have. I guess it wasn't particularly memorable.I barely got into it & remembered it fairly well. I blame my lack of memory on me & reading dozens of similar books over the past few years. It was fun! On to the next!!!------- From 27Oct08 -------------The book started off slow for me, but was readable. I actually didn't like the heroine much. About halfway through & I couldn't put it down, as the heroine came into her own (a little too rapidly, but it worked for me). It's not great literature by any stretch, but it was a fun, quick read. It wasn't quite as predictable as so many of these books are & while sex happens occasionally, it isn't graphic. I'll look forward to reading another.

Thoughts from before I finished the book:Only 3 chapters in and I am slightly disgusted. All the reviews here talk about this story being a coming to story for Kitty, a woman traumatized and learning to stand on her own again. Seriously though the way she is treated within the pack is just as emotional and mentally abusive as the half ripping her to shreds to make her a were in the first place. In the name of 'protection' she cannot even go out by herself, has to fork over half of her money to keep her job, and isn't taught to hunt or protect herself so that the alpha can keep her as a 'cub' within the pack. Not to mention that the alpha Carl basically treats Kitty like a whore. He has his way with her and she allows it all for some minuscule scrapes of so called affection. Even if I hadn't read a ton of other were books that strictly adhere to the mating for life idea I would still find this demeaning and sad. And Kitty doesn't seem to have been this submissive and undemanding before she was turned into a werewolf. Also, whenever Kitty shifts into her werewolf form Vaughn switches into this weird 3rd person POV. She treats the wolfs as completely separate entities from the characters when in their forms as if that makes it ok that Kitty is now prostituting herself for a pat on the head. The plot though involves assisins, fake faith healers pedeling a supernatural cure, dissapering vampires, and the revelation that were's and vamp's exist to an unknowing world. In other words, the plot seems awesome. It is just the pack ideals and dynamic that I find disgusting, demeaning, and as another reviewer put it - 'rape-y'. Finally, I detest the woman's voice who is reading this book on the audiobook. She makes Kitty sound like she is running a 900 number with her deep, breathy take on the character. I'm hoping that this was the reason I didn't enjoy the book as much. I am going to read the second book myself, and am hoping this will have me enjoy it more. Thoughts from after I finished the book: The plot is what saved this book. If there hadn't been some great plot points I would not have survived throught the 4th chapter. Truely the beginning of this book just disgusted me with the characters thoughts and ideals. I especially enjoyed the involvement of the faith healer Elija Smith. The ending though totally annoyed me plot wise. I couldn't believe that it ended the way it did. Totally pissed me off. It must be for a reason that is further developed in the next book, but for now I'm sad and annoyed. Thankfully though Kitty grew up as a person and realized some key things not only about herself, but about her pack, her WORTHLESS alpha, her true friends, basically everyone and everything in her life. I must say in the end I am proud of her. Who knows, maybe I have just been spoiled by how wonderful the werewolfs are in Patricia Briggs's novels. This new take on their society (an alpha who can take what he wants without mercy, love for the pack, or compassion for its members, etc.) is just horrible and I really disliked it.At this point the next book in the series is going onto my TBR pile, but I doubt I will be getting to it anytime soon. I did redeem itself slightly in the end but now as much as I had hoped. There are something like 8 books in the series though so it MUST get better.

I listened to the narration of Kitty and the Midnight Hour. I was expecting to not be impressed and walk away from this series believing it was just another take on an overdone theme. After all, the series is about werewolves and vampires -- hasn't this theme been done before? But I was pleasantly surprised with Kitty and I plan to continue on to the next book ... sometime. But I won't be rushing to read it or listen to it. Kitty is the main character and I liked her well enough. Kitty is not like Mercy, Elena, or even Riley. While she is a werewolf, she is not a tough ass-kicking she-wolf. Instead, she is at the bottom of her pack, typically submissive and she takes self-defense classes to work on her fighting skills. The side characters of TJ, Carl and Cormac were interesting and rounded out Kitty's world somewhat. There is a unique setup with a love interest that is not ideal, beauitful or romantic -- usually not a path taken in this genre. I was able to put this book down (or rather turn it off since I was listening to it). The narration was decent and the storyline was okay. But nothing about it compelled me to go on. A negative for me with Kitty, which likely contributed to my lack of investment in the story, is that not enough time was spent developing Kitty's character. There is barely anytime spent with Kitty alone; she is always reacting or acting. There is not enough of her outside of the action. I would have preferred more character development, hopefully the next books do this a little bit more.

This was a cool book idea, but the weak protagonist and horrible gender dynamics completely ruin it. There are plenty of ways to write werewolves. Why, why, why did this female author choose to write hers in a way that justifies the main character's repeated rape?This is not okay. Seriously. Take out the werewolf aspect of this book and you are left with a story about a woman being abused and repeatedly raped by a man who is treating other women the same way (oh, and taking half of their earnings). This is gross and wrong and why the f*** would a female writer choose to create her pack dynamic like this without soundly slapping the concept down? There was no critique of rape culture to be found here, just a mewling, whimpering protagonist who kinda sorta actually likes being raped and it's kinda sorta actually okay because werewolf. Well, I guess the moral of this story is that if a man has power over you it's okay and you really want it. Slapping a paranormal facade over a real and common phenomenon that women experience at staggering rates all over the world does not make it any less a gross justification of that phenomenon.This kind of garbage is turning me off of the entire paranormal subgenre. I almost see this book as I see Twilight--as less a novel and more a long-winded cry for help. Ms. Vaughn, although I will not personally be contributing to your finances any further, I sincerely hope you can afford therapy now with your absurdly high book sales. It's unfortunate that this book even exists.It's worse that it was written by a woman.And it's absolutely appalling that female readers are eating this rape apologia up (along with other similarly-themed books, so many of which are also written by women). I'm ashamed for my gender. To my fellow women: you deserve better.