Review--Kitty in the Underworld by Carrie Vaughn

As an alpha wolf, it's part of Kitty Norville's job to protect her pack. So when an intruder is reported in her territory, she immediately sets off to investigate.

Unfortunately, she walks right into a trap and winds up help prisoner in an abandoned silver mine. Her captors are an odd crew of supernatural beings who claim to want nothing more than to put an end to the machinations of the ancient vampire, Roman. They know of a ritual that can destroy him for good, but need the willing cooperation of Regina Luporum--a queen of the wolves--to make it work...and they think Kitty is perfect for the role.

Are her kidnappers dangerous fanatics, or desperate would-be allies? And even if Kitty abhors their methods, can she afford to throw away the chance to learn more about her enemy, and perhaps destroy him once and for all?

I received this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


Carrie Vaughn's long-running Kitty Norville series just seems to keep on going and going! The series has been one I continue to follow purely out of dedication. I am curious to see where all these characters are going to wind up in the end. There have been a few books that dragged, some that were totally awesome and some that were in between. Kitty in the Underworld is one of the in-betweens, but still a pretty good read.

The series is definitely building up to a big showdown with Roman. I can't even remember when he first popped up in the books. It's been too long...and way too many other reads in between to recall exact details. Roman has been the big bad for awhile now, to say the least. And it seems Kitty always gets one step closer to getting to defeating him, but then something happens to get in the way of that. This time it was her getting kidnapped.

It takes about fifty pages for Kitty to be kidnapped, prior to that it was just an ordinary day--days?--in the life of Kitty and working on her radio show and trying to write her next book about werewolves in history. Then when she and another pack member go to investigate a possible intruder, she is shot with a dart filled with a poison of some sort and thus begins her kidnapping.

Kitty is basically kidnapped for the rest of the book, but she soon learns her kidnappers have their own agenda involving Roman and her. They believe themselves to be descendants of particular gods or godlike people and that together they can put an end to Roman, but they need their Regina Luporum and they believe that is Kitty.

Zora, Enkidu, Sakhmet and Kumarbis are an odd bunch. Zora is a magician, but still all human, where Enkidu and Sakhmet are shapeshifters; a werewolf and a were-mountain lion--as seen on the cover--,and Kumarbis is a very, very old vampires. One who has a personal connection to Roman.

Kitty can't decide if she's trapped among crazies or has the chance to work with potential allies. There are times she thinks both, even going back and forth in her mind. When she finally makes her decision as to what to do regarding the group's offer, she is not quite prepared for the repercussions that come with it.

Ben and Cormac weren't in this one too much, sadly. Just for a bit in the beginning and the very end. And I still have to say that I love Cormac the best. I was deeply saddened when Kitty chose Ben and couldn't help but feel for Cormac. Still waiting to see if he will ever find his happy ending. Although, since he's still harboring a ghost inside of him, I am not sure how that will be possible. I think though that Amelia will end up playing a key role in the end. Her appearance in Cormac and even the rest of the pack's lives still seems weird to me, like there's something more going on. But since Cormac wasn't in this one too much, Amelia wasn't either, so any other suspicions I might have will have to wait til next time.

Romance was a little lacking in this one too, but again it's because Kitty is separated from Ben for nearly the whole novel. They have a few moments together which were sweet and all, but I've gotten to wanting a little more than sweet romance in my reads these days! So weird that I can say that now!

There wasn't a whole lot of kickbutt action in this one, more like a simmering of one. There's definitely plans being made--whether by Kitty or Carrie--for what the gang plans to do to take down Roman. I look forward to seeing how these plans follow through!

Overall it was a pretty easy read. Maybe not as exciting as I would have hoped for, but I am definitely going to see this series through to the very end!


Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars