Kitty Kitty -- Michelle Jaffe

The weekend before Jasmine Callihan is scheduled to begin her senior year of high school, her anthropologist father (AKA Dadzilla) announces that they are moving from LA to Venice, Italy, so that he can do research for his masterwork, "the definitive book on the history of soap".

So Jas is dragged from her friends, her senior year and saddest of sadders, her Hottie McHotHot rock star (literally) boyfriend. But! As always, our girl has a plan.

Despite the fact that Venice was like a pitfall party just for me, and I was a broken girl who spent her time walking around with a hole in her chest where her heart should have been, I had surmounted these challenges and managed to steer clear of Trouble and his best friend, Lurking Menace, for six weeks.

Her plan is to stay out of trouble in the hopes that her darling Dadzilla will realize she is Mature and Responsible and thus able to go home early. Of course, she didn't account for the fact that her friend from Italian class, Arabella (who insists that, by saying 'le' before words and adding an '-o' to the end of them, she's speaking Italian), would Ask For Her Help. You see, Arabella claims that she's being stalked by an assassin. 

Poor Jas. Try as she may, Trouble and Lurking Menace just refuse to be avoided.

I loved Bad Kitty. I loved it so very, very much. 

I loved Kitty Kitty even more. Everything about the first book that I loved is there: Jas' creative and hilarious mode of expression, her Little Life Lessons, the squabbling in the footnotes (not just with her friends, but with her alter ego, BadJas) and the descriptions of the ensembles worn by her cousin Alyson, the Evil Hench Mistress. In Kitty Kitty, though, Michele Jaffe has upped it a notch -- this time around, I found the mystery totally engaging.

Again, highly, highly recommended to those who liked Lulu Dark, to those who enjoy Louise Rennison's books because of Georgia's invented slang, and to those who love silly caper stories.  I also really do think that this series is worth trying on fans of the Rich Girl* genre.

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*While I personally find the cover pretty unattractive, sadly generic (the book is anything but) and a throwback to the unfortunate Decapitation Trend, it's possible that it might attract Rich Girl genre readers.  And it is nice that they gave Jas her cowboy boots**, untamed hair and "cappuccino" skin tone.

**Of which I am mondo jealous. Speaking of, check out the cowboy boots of Justine Larbalestier.