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What might not be as immediately clear to readers is: After Kitty’s lackluster sophomore tale (Kitty Goes to Washington), should they hope for a return to the stunning form of her debut (Kitty and The Midnight Hour) or take their own holiday (one that doesn’t include the perpetually plucky heroine)?

Vaughn is quick to prove that Kitty’s latest episode isn’t to be missed. After retreating to a cabin in the mountains of Colorado, Kitty’s hopes for a Walden-like setting in which to write her memoirs are dashed when first dead, blood-smeared rabbits turn up on her porch followed by her lawyer, Ben O’Farrell – who’s also bloody, but not dead, despite his desires to the contrary. To add to this, Kitty’s never-quite-gotten-off-the-ground romantic interest, werewolf hunter Cormac, shows up as well. Cormac brings the werewolf bitten Ben (not only Kitty's lawyer, but also Cormac's trusted cousin) to Kitty eager for her to guide Ben into the world of lycanthropy, and, more importantly, convince Ben to give up his request to be shot.

As the dead rabbit incidences escalate, so too does the tension between Kitty and Cormac. Cormac has always been the most elusive and mysterious of Vaughn’s players. Heretofore, she’s kept Cormac’s page time limited, only hinting at the possibilities between him and Kitty. Theirs is a history of missed opportunities and unacted upon feelings. It would seem this would-be couple’s insurmountable obstacle is that Kitty is a werewolf and Cormac, is, by profession and legacy, a werewolf hunter. Vaughn doesn’t simply allow those particulars to sit on the surface, but rather mines what Kitty is and what Cormac does to produce an emotional bedrock. Even while Cormac trusts Ben to Kitty and Kitty trusts Cormac to help her and keep her safe from harm brought on by others, Cormac can’t resolve that Kitty is a monster, and Kitty has never stop fearing Cormac’s silver bullets.

Kitty’s first person point of view is engaging and compelling as is her particular take on the world around her. At one point, after another sacrificial rabbit shows up on her doorstep, Kitty says: I wanted Walden and I got Evil Dead. Things don’t turn out to be quite that blood-spattered or demonic, but nonetheless Kitty is markedly vulnerable as she struggles with the unwelcoming residence of her mountain enclave, the fragile, small pack that she and Ben form, and a self imposed hiatus from her radio show “The Midnight Hour.”

Of all Vaughn’s choices, exiling Kitty from her radio show is the most daring, and most effective. In Kitty’s debut, her radio show, and the show’s callers, were integral to the plot, the forward momentum of the story. But, in Kitty’s second installment, the show and callers were amusing, but never essential, never an impetus. Now, with Kitty laboring under a lack of motivation towards her call in talk show, the show is, once again, fundamental to the plot.

However, it’s the dire repercussions of Cormac’s climactic actions that provide Kitty with ongoing forward momentum that will sustain her for stories to come. It’s also those actions that ensure it will be some time before readers see a conclusion to Kitty and Cormac’s would-be love story.

Kitty Takes a Holiday far outpaces the series’ second book as Vaughn brings the enigmatic Cormac into sharper focus. She further revs the emotional tension, and rather deliciously the sexual tension, between Kitty and Cormac only to throw Ben (an obstacle whose depth and breathe isn’t fully known) into their path. With Kitty Takes a Holiday Vaughn regains the footing the series lost in Kitty Goes to Washington and restores the notion that there are more Kitty stories to enjoy.

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