One Foot In The Grave by Jeaniene Frost
Apr. 21st, 2010 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
You can run from the grave, but you can’t hide ...
Half-vampire Cat Crawfield is now Special Agent Cat Crawfield, working for the government to rid the world of the rogue undead. She’s still using everything Bones, her sexy and dangerous ex, taught her, but when Cat is targeted for assassination, the only man who can help her is the vampire she left behind.
Being around him awakens all her emotions, from the adrenaline kick of slaying vampires side by side to the reckless passion that consumed them. But a price on her head – wanted: dead or half-alive – means her survival depends on teaming up with Bones. And no matter how hard she tries to keep things professional between them, she’ll find that desire lasts forever ... and that Bones won’t let her get away again.
4 years after Halfway to the Grave and Cat Crawford now heads an elite team of FBI agents dedicated to capturing and killing vampires and other undead creatures who prey on humans – a team that’s earned her the nickname “the Red Reaper”. However although Cat has tried to move on with her life – dating a vet called Noah and hanging out with next-door-neighbour Denise – Bones remains the love of her life. When she unexpectedly meets him again at Denise’s wedding the chemistry is still there. She tries to resist him but someone has put a price on her head and while her men are well-trained, they can’t protect her from this danger – only Bones can. As the two try to work out who’s trying to kill her, their mutual attraction becomes overwhelming and Cat discovers things about her personal history that call into question everything she ever thought she knew about herself.
The second in Frost’s Night Huntress series was a little disappointing. Although Frost does a lot of work in developing her vampire mythology and her take on vampire society is interesting, there isn’t a huge amount of plot here and the mystery element is easy to solve. Indeed, the book itself feels rather like filler, a way to bring Cat and Bones back together in order to move the series forward with the next books.
The action set-pieces are well handled and exciting and the sex scenes are raunchy (although the anal was a little too extreme for me). Cat is a strong-willed heroine with an engaging narrative voice, although her blatant refusal to listen to reason or consult with anyone before carrying out her foolhardy plans is a little irritating. In fact, the only things I didn’t buy was her reaction to the death of one of her team, mainly because there wasn’t enough interaction between them or her failure to realise that another member of her team loves her.
Bones remains a British vampire written for a US audience, with the Britishisms being a little over-egged. He’s written as being an arrogant, powerful being and if that’s your thing then he’ll tick all your boxes. Fortunately Cat’s wilfulness cancels out the worst excesses.
It’s not a bad novel and the ending offers up a good set-up to the next in the series, which will mean I read on.
The Verdict:
The world-building comes together well, Frost’s take on vampire society and rules is well thought through, the plot feels like filler to move on the overall series arc. There are enough steamy scenes to keep paranormal romance fans entertained, but I wish that the mystery had been a little better developed.
Half-vampire Cat Crawfield is now Special Agent Cat Crawfield, working for the government to rid the world of the rogue undead. She’s still using everything Bones, her sexy and dangerous ex, taught her, but when Cat is targeted for assassination, the only man who can help her is the vampire she left behind.
Being around him awakens all her emotions, from the adrenaline kick of slaying vampires side by side to the reckless passion that consumed them. But a price on her head – wanted: dead or half-alive – means her survival depends on teaming up with Bones. And no matter how hard she tries to keep things professional between them, she’ll find that desire lasts forever ... and that Bones won’t let her get away again.
4 years after Halfway to the Grave and Cat Crawford now heads an elite team of FBI agents dedicated to capturing and killing vampires and other undead creatures who prey on humans – a team that’s earned her the nickname “the Red Reaper”. However although Cat has tried to move on with her life – dating a vet called Noah and hanging out with next-door-neighbour Denise – Bones remains the love of her life. When she unexpectedly meets him again at Denise’s wedding the chemistry is still there. She tries to resist him but someone has put a price on her head and while her men are well-trained, they can’t protect her from this danger – only Bones can. As the two try to work out who’s trying to kill her, their mutual attraction becomes overwhelming and Cat discovers things about her personal history that call into question everything she ever thought she knew about herself.
The second in Frost’s Night Huntress series was a little disappointing. Although Frost does a lot of work in developing her vampire mythology and her take on vampire society is interesting, there isn’t a huge amount of plot here and the mystery element is easy to solve. Indeed, the book itself feels rather like filler, a way to bring Cat and Bones back together in order to move the series forward with the next books.
The action set-pieces are well handled and exciting and the sex scenes are raunchy (although the anal was a little too extreme for me). Cat is a strong-willed heroine with an engaging narrative voice, although her blatant refusal to listen to reason or consult with anyone before carrying out her foolhardy plans is a little irritating. In fact, the only things I didn’t buy was her reaction to the death of one of her team, mainly because there wasn’t enough interaction between them or her failure to realise that another member of her team loves her.
Bones remains a British vampire written for a US audience, with the Britishisms being a little over-egged. He’s written as being an arrogant, powerful being and if that’s your thing then he’ll tick all your boxes. Fortunately Cat’s wilfulness cancels out the worst excesses.
It’s not a bad novel and the ending offers up a good set-up to the next in the series, which will mean I read on.
The Verdict:
The world-building comes together well, Frost’s take on vampire society and rules is well thought through, the plot feels like filler to move on the overall series arc. There are enough steamy scenes to keep paranormal romance fans entertained, but I wish that the mystery had been a little better developed.
