Frost, Jeaniene: At Grave's End
At Grave's End (2009)
Writer: Jeaniene Frost
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 342
If it hadn't been my wedding day, I think I would've bought and devoured this book the day it came out. Instead, I had to settle for buying it on New Year's, then finishing up the somewhat dreadful Magic Lost, Trouble Found, before I could finally settle down for this. It's funny, because while I read a fair amount of urban fantasy & paranormal romance, there's only a few series I'm actually caught up on. Of those few, Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series is one of my absolute favorites.
The premise: the third book in the series has everything going well for Cat Crawfield. She's with the man she loves, and her team is kicking vampire ass. Only now, vamps are starting to recognize her as the Red Reaper, despite her many disguises, which makes her job a little difficult. And her father's out to kill her. And to make matters even better, a woman from Bones's past has a serious vendetta against Bones and will stop at nothing to kill him. Cat's got her hands full, and it doesn't help that her best friend is also in love with her...
Spoilers ahead.
So the book starts out running. Cat's on a case and her cover is immediately blown by another vamp in a bar. There's a big fight, but all turns out well. We establish that Cat's too recognizable, and that Tate won't stop his constant pursuit of Cat, and that well, Bones hates Tate. I'd also forgotten that in the vampire world, Cat and Bones are married, something I was reminded of when Bones proposed to Cat and gave her a red diamond. Sweet, eh?
Then Tate wants to be turned into a vamp, and part of Bones's contract with Don is to do so, no questions asked. Then Max hunts down Cat and her mom and that was a rather graphic, disturbing scene where Cat's pretty much helpless and must be saved, but it still worked rather well. I do hope this is the last we see of Max. I didn't mind him in One Foot in the Grave, but in this book, he was positively creepy and I'm tired of him. I think we got what we needed with Max confronting both Cat and her mom, and I like that he's permanently in Bones's custody and in a constant state of torture. I may not mind seeing him again in a later book, but only if it's for info and not as a major part of the plot.
I will say this: if I had one issue with this book, it was the plot. I mean, the dots connected just fine until Patra reveals that part of why she's doing what she's doing is because Mencheres broke his promise to her about keeping her lover alive. I don't get how that relates to Bones and Cat. I mean, the whole vision of the future made sense (though let's face it, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy because Bones would've never killed her if she hadn't allowed Max to make the attempt on Cat's life), especially when we learned she probably hated him anyway, because she slept with Bones to piss Mercheres off and hoped he'd kill Bones as per your typical vampire convention, but he didn't. The additional backstory only served as a parallel to the current story, of what Cat might become if Tate did to Bones what Mencheres did to Patra's lover.
Speaking of Tate, what an annoying character. I was glad when Cat confronted him about his feelings and how he was handling them, and I loved it when she shoved that knife in Tate's chest after we learned of Bones's death. I also loved Bones's suggestion for Tate's future in the FBI. I hope that if Tate sticks around, his feelings for Cat will be kept in check and not in the annoying way they were in this book. Cat is Bones's wife, and Tate's constant pursuit of her was just disrespectful. Unless she's a slut, what married woman wants a man who's not her husband constantly expressing his love and trying to get her to leave her husband? Sheesh.
There wasn't a whole lot of sex in this book, especially compared to the last two. That's not a bad thing, but I was reading along and missing it, which probably just goes to show you how well Frost does the sex scenes between Cat and Bones. I also found myself a little tired of the constant mention of Bones's former conquests, because the only purpose there seemed to be in that was to give Cat enough insecurity for Tate to keep hounding her.
There were lots of cool things in the book. The discovery of magic as something seriously old, bad, and not to be fucked with was cool, and the zombies, way to go! I'm curious though about Cat's future. Not her future with Bones: I feel pretty comfortable with that. But she's told Bones she's leaving her job (which is a good idea, IMHO--maybe they can hire and train up a new girl: hell, maybe Denise will do it to avenge Randy!), then there's the coming (human) wedding, and I'm always wondering what it's going to take before Cat is turned to full vampire. There's at least two more books in the series, and I must say, I can't wait to see how that ends up.
More good stuff: the banter between Bones and Cat's mom Justina, Justina actually hooking up with Rodney the ghoul (how AWESOME!), and meeting Vlad (DOUBLE AWESOME).
Nitpicks: names that are way too similar and that confuse me at my breakneck speed of reading: Rodney versus Randy (the latter not being a problem any more); Doc versus Don versus Dave (ACK!!!).
My Rating
Must Have: I consider there to be a distinct difference between urban fantasy and paranormal romance, and it's more than just where it's placed on the shelves. While this particular title is more urban fantasy than paranormal romance, the romance plays a huge part in the plot. I babble about this to say that of the books I consider paranormal romance, I think Frost is my favorite author. I've enjoyed the hell out of this series ever since I read Halfway to the Grave, and I have no doubt I'll consider to enjoy the books a little more with each release. However, for those of you who are not familiar with the series, don't start with this one. There's so much in this book that relies on your knowledge of the first two that I think NOT reading those books would throw you into a confused tailspin. If you're interested (and if you like paranormal romance, you darn well SHOULD be interested), then start with Halfway to the Grave. The whole series is a great read.
Next up:
Emissaries From the Dead by Adam-Troy Castro