Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand (Kitty Norville, #5) (Fantasy Grand Central Publishing)

by Carrie Vaughn

[Berls]

This review appeared first at Fantasy is More Fun.

If you'd asked me two books ago, I'd never guess I'd be giving a future book 5 stars or it being in part because I LOVE Kitty WITH Ben. Just showed me! (Note, there are some spoilers from previous books in this review)

I love Kitty. I love Ben. I love Kitty with Ben and I love Ben with Kitty. That's the main thing that came out of Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand for me. I was already on the way to complete acceptance after Kitty and the Silver Bullet, but now I'm 100% there. I guess Carrie Vaughn knew what she was doing after all, eh? ;)

So beyond the Kitty and Ben relationship - I loved the mystery in Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand - I was never quite sure what was going on behind the scenes or who Kitty should be trusting, which is absolute gold in a book for me. I also like the strength that Kitty's found and FINALLY hung on too - it's stuck with her for a consistent two books in a row now, so fingers crossed she won't be retreating again! I do miss McCormick and I hope he finds his way into some future books, despite being in prison.

We also met some interesting new characters in this book and I'm curious to see if any of them will make much of an appearance in future books. I thought the "friends" from Ben's previous world as a paranomral hunter were an interesting bunch and provided a fun tension to the story - Kitty was always nervous around them and I couldn't blame her. I was never sure if she should trust them or not. And then another group I'm pretty positive will appear in future books because of the CLIFF that we got left on! Now, it's more like a steep hill than a cliff, because you could survive without jumping into the next book, but I'm so not going to try that. I'm jumping in right away!

Oh and I still love Marguerite Gavin's narration. She IS Kitty - no way I could read these and not hear her voices. And she's spot on for the voice of a radio DJ - or as Kitty is in this book, a tv personality. Very cool twist and Margurite's voice is just perfect for it!

As a side note - I still have no idea why it's called Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, which kind of bugs me (I also don't know why the last one was called Kitty and the Silver Bullet). I can find kind of rambling connections but they feel far fetched... I know it's not important or really relevant to the review but it's bugging me. Just saying!