Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty Norville, star of radio talk show "The Midnight Hour", is finally getting married to fellow pack member and her former lawyer, Ben O'Farrell. But the whole "big wedding" thing is getting on her nerves, and the Wolf inside her won't be able to deal with meeting lots of people and being crammed into a crowd for the wedding dinner.

Her parents want her to have a big wedding, but Kitty is leaning more towards something small, even if she feels guilty going against her mother's wishes, because her mother has cancer, and Kitty wants to keep her happy. But when her producer tells her that she might have a chance to do a televised version of her show... in Vegas, Kitty decides to hold her wedding there, at a tasteful wedding chapel, not one of the "Be married by Elvis" jobs.

Her mother finally agrees that one "big Wedding" per family is enough, and joins her and Ben in Vegas for the wedding, along with Kitty's father. Ben decides to join a Poker Tournament while Kitty checks out the supernatural scene. In particular, Kitty is directed to an animal show where the tigers and Lions seem too intelligent to be just wild animals, and a magic act where the magician might have the real thing. But she also has another job while she's in Vegas, to deliver a letter for her friend Rick, the Vampire Master of Denver, to Dom, the Vampire Master of Vegas.

While Kitty checks out the shows and delivers the letter, she and Ben enjoy being in Vegas. Ben wins the pre-tournament, mainly because of his Werewolf senses. But there is a problem as well: the same hotel is hosting a gun show, and lots of bounty hunters who hunt Supernaturals and who know Ben as the brother of Cormac, the Bounty-Hunter who nearly killed Kitty, are there for the show.

To them, the only good supernatural creature is a dead one, and they just might have Kitty, and now Ben, in their sights. So when Ben goes missing after uncovering cheating in the Poker Tournament, who is to blame? The mafia boys who set up the cheating scheme? The Werelions and Weretigers who are part of the animal show? The Stage Magician who is hiding something? Or the Bounty Hunters who have discovered Ben's new secret?

As Kitty searches desperately for Ben to get back the man she loves, she will have to investigate each group to see who might have taken him, and uncover the many secrets of Vegas itself to get Ben back and punish the ones who took him. But with all the secrets held by Sin City, will Kitty be up to the task? And will she ever get her "Happily Ever After" with the man she loves?

I am a big Fan of Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series, and this one is another excellent continuation of the series. Kitty may be a werewolf, but what she becomes when she changes isn't some huge killing and eating machine, it's a wolf. Just a regular wolf. And just like a wolf, she is cautious and hesitant about approaching new things, frightened of crowds of people and doesn't like things that are sick, diseased or unnatural.

Here, she hopes that her marriage to Ben (whose last name she won't be taking, because as she puts it "Kitty O'Farrell is a name out of a bawdy Irish Ballad.") will put some order and normality in her life. But as she looks into the Supernatural scene in Vegas, she notices some weirdness that will impact her life in a significant way, and the events in this book lead directly into the next, "Kitty Raises Hell".

Despite the limitations of being a werecreature in this universe, and being formerly abused by her old Alpha and his wife, Kitty has risen above her past to become courageous and even a bit of a Celebrity for being the first Publically Known Werewolf. But it also brings danger with it. Can Kitty continue to survive with so many people hating werewolves and wanting her dead? We'll see, but I bet she can survive and overcome just about anything... and that's why I keep reading.