Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn

From Goodreads: Celebrity werewolf and late-night radio host Kitty Norville prefers to be heard and not seen. So when she's invited to testify at a Senate hearing on behalf of supernaturals, and her face gets plastered on national TV, she inherits a new set of friends, and enemies, including the vampire mistress of the city; an über-hot Brazilian were-jaguar; and a Bible-thumping senator who wants to expose Kitty as a monster. Kitty quickly learns that in this city of dirty politicians and backstabbing pundits, everyone's itching for a fight.

Kitty and I are back from our trip to Washington DC and we had an awesome time! We did some sight seeing, we got to watch a senate hearing in session, we met some good vampires and some not so good vampires, we fought bad guys... Fun was had by all! Okay, well, by me anyway, Kitty might have something to say about how much fun she had, but Luis was pretty hot...

Kitty Goes to Washington is the second in the Kitty Norville series. I had to look back and see how long ago I read #1, and it was in 2008, so 7 years ago, my how time flies! The good thing is that I remembered enough of the first one, or had in story reminders that I had no trouble keeping up. I really like Kitty herself, her intrepid nature, and also her cast of supporting characters, her lawyer Ben, Cormac the bounty hunter, and some of the new friends she meets, Alette and Luis. She may believe herself to be without a pack, but she's formed her own band of loyal people. There were also plenty of baddies of different types and levels of vileness. I enjoy Carrie Vaughn's writing style, it's easy to fall into the story and run along with Kitty.  The pace is good, the action is action-y, but not too much.  I admire Kitty's ability to talk herself down in terrifying circumstances and turn the tables on those taking advantage of her.  This is one wolf who isn't going down without a fight, though her weapon of choice is a microphone rather than teeth and claws.

This story is very pertinent to our current political climate, replace supernaturals with any of today's minority groups seeking to be recognized and given the same rights as everyone else, and it feels just like what I've seen on the news of issues that divide the country in half for various reasons. I'd love to say that Senator Duke is an overblown caricature, but honestly, we have real politicians who are pretty darn close to him in their zeal to stamp out the "others" they are afraid of.

My copy of the book also included a short story called Kitty Meets the Band that was cute and funny.  The band is a little unconventional, with a very interesting bass player who has turned them into a sensation. A fun little addition to Kitty's world.

I definitely recommend this series and am looking forward to more of them, hopefully it won't take me another 7 years to get to #3!