7:100 Kitty's Mix-Tape by Carrie Vaughn

 Ms. Vaughn is diving back into Kitty Norville's world in order to give us a collection of short stories about not just Kitty, but many of the other side characters that inhabited the world that people wanted to learn more about. There are songs and story notes for each piece, and many were written for specific anthologies but it's nice to have them all collected in one place and a few new pieces as well.  I hadn't read all the anthologies so many were new for me during this read.

I found it a fun collection but definitely suffered from not having read any of these books those characters appeared in since the last Kitty novel came out, so some of the smaller side characters who got their own stories I had no context for and had to do a quick look up to remember who they were. Those stories were enjoyable but lost what would have undoubtedly made them more special had I remembered what they meant to Kitty and the series. 

Page count: 272p/1,674p ytd/349,055p lifetime

87:100 Badlands Witch by Carrie Vaughn

The second book in the Cormac and Amelia spinoff.  Cormac made a lot of enemies when he was a bounty hunter and thankfully most of them are dead...but not all of them. When he gets recruited by an archaeologist for a job and Amelia seems eager, they head off.  Now someone from his past is gunning for him and instead of just killing him has managed to steal Amelia away.  This leads Cormac to understand just how close he and Amelia have grown and how much he will do to get her back.

I'm enjoying getting to return to this universe with other characters and Cormac and Amelia is such an unusual pairing so that makes it doubly fun.  I've heard that there will be more and I certainly hope so.

Page count: 83p/21,757p ytd/330,454p lifetime

84:100 Dark Divide by Carrie Vaughn

A spin-off set in the Kitty Norville series but focusing on the strange relationship between Cormac and his new mental guest, Amelia, since he got out of prison and Kitty's arc is over. 

Cormac and Amelia have been asked to come to Donner Pass to investigate the death of one of the docents who starved to death in a cabin full of food.  It certainly seems to have a possible supernatural cause but is it merely some type of haunting based on the tragedy from the past or something even more sinister.

I thought that the twining of Cormac, a supernatural bounty hunter, and Amelia,a deceased witch, taking up residence in his head was a great idea when it first happened in the Kitty series and I really enjoy that Ms. Vaughn is now giving us stories of the two of them as they learn how to navigate the world and exploring how they can work together.


Page count: 94p/21,370p ytd/330,067p lifetime

127:120 El Hidalgo de la Noche by Carrie Vaughn

Set in the Kitty Norville universe.  This takes place many centuries ago as we find out more about Rick the vampire and get a glimpse of his relationship with his maker and other vampires that cross his path in the New World.  He was turned but given no real knowledge of his new race but finding a new group of vampires that belong to a family answers questions in ways he almost wishes he didn't know.

It was an interesting look at Rick's past which didn't really answer a lot of questions (other than his approximate age) but showed that he has continued to do his best to remain true to the ideals and beliefs he held when he was still human.


Page count: 30p/32,515p ytd/247,431p lifetime

86:120 Kitty Saves the World by Carrie Vaughn

14th and final book in the Kitty Norville series. Roman is finally ready to end The Long Game and Kitty and her friends have finally become a big enough nuisance and potential threat that he has decided to contact them directly. With the chance dangled in front of them, Kitty feels they have no choice but to try and take him out but when that doesn't work she is made aware of just how very vulnerable she and her friends are.  Now with most of her allies out of commission, she must do what she can with Ben and Cormac and the few others that are showing up out of the woodwork.  Now if they can just figure out where Roman plans to strike they may have a chance.  That is a big "if" made even more improbable with his pet demon continuing to make their life interesting.

I found this to be a very satisfying end to the series.  There was a good lead-up within the book to the final showdown but that was not short changed into something so quickly done that I felt cheated.  All the major questions were answered and the aftermath was dealt with nicely.  I'll miss Kitty and her friends but I feel like their story has been told and told well.  I will be happy if they show up again in other stories but if they don't, I won't feel like I was left hanging.

Page count: 318p/22,612p ytd/237,544p lifetime

38:120 Low Midnight by Carrie Vaughn

The 13th book in the Kitty Norville series, the second to the last and the first to be told from Cormac's point of view.  Kitty feels that the secret to defeating Roman may lie in the Book of Shadows they got from Amy Scanlon before she brought the mountain down on top of herself and the cult that was trying to kill Kitty in an effort to power a spell to defeat Roman.  Cormac and his ghostly hitchhiker feel that Amy's aunt may hold the clue to deciphering it and he goes on a fact finding mission.  To prove himself worthy, her aunt sets him a challenge that will require much of Amelia's expertise and help and sees him falling back into a world he thought he had left behind.

Cormac has always been one of my favorite characters (and apparently I am not alone) and it was fascinating to get such an intimate look inside his head and his internal interactions with Amelia and how they are managing to co-exist.  I'm hoping that although this series will be wrapping up with Kitty Saves the World later this year that Ms. Vaughn will still throw short stories and novellas from that universe our way occasionally and I really hope that some of them will have Cormac leading again.

Page count: 309p/7,805p ytd/222,739p lifetime

29:120 Paranormal Bromance by Carrie Vaughn

A short story set in the world of Kitty Norville.  Sam, Jack, and Aaron are typical bachelor roommates except for the fact that they are fairly young vampires.  Made in their 20s by a rouge vampire who was then taken out by the Family, the guys decided they would rather be out on their own then try to join up.  Their life has turned into a fairly boring and conventional one, ordering pizza on a regular basis so they can take a few sips off the driver, playing video games, selling stuff on eBay, etc, Sam has been okay with it until he meets Ginny and starts developing a mid-life crisis filled with all the 'what-ifs' her presence brings up in him.  His roommates don't understand his melancholy or his new desire to have a maid in to get the place in order.

I really enjoyed the heck out of this.  Seeing a group of vampires trying to figure out life and deal with more day to day type of stuff while not being super rich, or super powerful, or super sexy as most vampires we see in books are.

Page count: 64p/5,968p ytd/220,902p lifetime