I've mentioned several times that I review few paranormal titles for teens largely because I am sick to death of the vampire/werewolf craze. It's not that I don't enjoy a little blood and fur with my reading (and ironically just finished two books for my October column that are excellent in that regard) but that so many YA paranormal is more concerned with the "does he love me/do I love him/will he eat me even if I love him/do I want to be a vamp or werewolf to keep him/how often will he take his shirt off" style of writing then anything else.

In other words, they are very much written for a teen audience (usually girls) utterly preoccupied with love & romance and I just got burned out on it. I remember being completely addicted to Harlequin when I was 14 so I understand this preoccupation with the love aspects of paranormal writing but I'm not 14 anymore which is why when I start getting frustrated reading certain books for teens I step away from a particular genre and look elsewhere. It's not the books fault, it's mine and I get that.

But I still want to read a good paranormal title every now and again!

All this is to say that recently I requested Carrie Vaughn's DISCORD'S APPLE from Tor and they unexpectedly tossed her latest werewolf title KITTY GOES TO WAR into the package. I saw the Kitty books recently when I was browsing for something to complement Gail Carriger's PARASOL PROTECTORATE series (steampunk paranormal wondefulness that I highly recommend) but didn't pick up the first book. Starting with book 8 in a series isn't the best way to dive in but WAR was here and I was curious so I gave it a read and enjoyed the heck out of it. Finally - paranormal for grown-ups!

The rundown: Kitty is a werewolf in Denver who has a late night talk radio show on all things paranormal. She's the alpha for the local pack and is married to Ben, a local attorney and also werewolf. This time around she has two major plot lines - one mystery involving the local Speedy Mart franchise (basically 7-11) and if there are nefarious doings being conducted by their CEO and, more importantly (in terms of detail) she's been called in by the army to help deal with some soldiers recently returned from Afghanistan who were turned into werewolves by their CO (with their permission) but have fallen to pieces since his death in battle. Think about it - werewolves, without an alpha, suffering from PTSD. Kitty tries to save the guys and teach them how to be wolves but finds that their issues with coping with war are very nearly overwhelming. So readers get not only paranormal talk, but PTSD talk as well which makes the book both interesting and timely and also fascinating to read.

What I loved here is that Vaughn makes the book adult without relying on sex to do the work for her. It's not that I don't like sex (pardon me while I laugh) but all too often in this genre in particular authors get lazy and throw in a ton of graphic sex scenes to make up for paper thin plots (yes, Laurell K. Hamilton - I'm looking at you). YA authors do the same thing without being quite so graphic - they walk up to the "R" rating while Hamilton, et all crossover to "X" but either way it's the same result. You are reading badly written erotica (on one level or another) in order to get a paranormal world story and I think that is a lousy thing to do to readers. Which is why I'm so delighted with Kitty and crew.

It's not like Vaughn is squeaky clean in that regard - Kitty & husband Ben have more than a few close moments together but it's just a paragraph or two and doesn't pull the plot away from what matters which is how to deal with the problems at hand. Yep, they love each other and enjoy each other but in the meantime there are some soldiers in serious trouble and big problems brewing for Denver and Ben's cousin is acting a little weird and Kitty gets sued for something she said on the radio, etc etc. The reader is allowed to fully engage in each and every aspect of the plot instead of being pulled constantly into manufactured emotional dramarama - in other words you don't feel like slapping these characters and asking them to focus on the big bad that is trying to kill them instead of screwing around (literally). That is what makes this such a great title for grown-ups, which yes, teens would enjoy just fine as well.

Now I just have to go back to the beginning and enjoy the whole series which I am totally looking forward to. (Oh - and my pal Gwenda says DISCORD'S APPLE Is fabulous so expect to hear more on that soon.)