Review: At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost

Title: At Grave's End

Author: Jeaniene Frost

Series: Night Huntress #3

Pages: 342

Publisher: Avon

Pub. Date: 2008

Genre: Urban Fantasy 

Goodreads Description: 
 It should be the best time of half-vampire Cat Crawfield's life. With her undead lover Bones at her side, she's successfully protected mortals from the rogue undead. But though Cat's worn disguise after disguise to keep her true identity a secret from the brazen bloodsuckers, her cover's finally been blown, placing her in terrible danger. As if that wasn't enough, a woman from Bones's past is determined to bury him once and for all. Caught in the cross hairs of a vengeful vamp, yet determined to help Bones stop a lethal magic from being unleashed, Cat's about to learn the true meaning of bad blood. And the tricks she's learned as a special agent won't help her. She will need to fully embrace her vampire instincts in order to save herself—and Bones—from a fate worse than the grave.

My Review:

I really enjoyed that the emphasis was placed more on actual vampire society and politics in this book. I like the concept of war between the supernaturals simply because its lots of awesome violence and fight scenes :) This war is really different though, because it all seems to center around Cat. It is really fun to see her interacting in this world that she's been either outright killing, or at least patrolling the borders of until now. She really grows as a person, and also as a vampire in this book.  

The plot was definitely a crazy ride this time. There really wasn't a single moment of boredom because something crazy happened, something blew up, someone sent zombies after them, or someone was going all Michael Meyers on someone else...There was so much going on sometimes that you would think that the character growth would be neglected, but that so wasn't true. There was enough witty banter and comic relief to keep the book flowing and so that it didn't go all angsty-gritty-typical Urban Fantasy on us. There was enough plot twists and new things that came to light to keep me guessing the whole time and I loved it.

Of course I am in love with Cat and Bones. This book was great because we got to see tons of emotional development rather than just physical chemistry...though that was still present. I seriously threw the book against the wall when a certain something happened that broke my heart (anyone who reads this series will probably know what I'm talking about). It was hilarious to see the couple trying to work out their issues while being attacked from all angles and still being witty and sarcastic.There were scenes that literally had me laughing out loud...not an easy accomplishment. And I just love the way Bones traumatizes Cat's mom...

 Speaking of Cat's mom, Justina is actually more of a real person in this book. She still rubs me the wrong way, but I can't outright hate her like I have for the last two books...ah, well...I guess she grew on me... I'm not really sure what I feel about Dracula, also known as Vlad Tepesh. I mean he basically saves Cat's life but then he's still rather shady and I'm not sure if I want to trust him or not. It seems to me I have a really hard time forming personal attachments to the  characters that are secondary. It is only in this book that I am beginning to fully warm up to Juan, Dave, Cooper, and Tate...I feel like in the second book they were all a little lacking in depth, but as the series continues, they are becoming fine and fascinating characters that I actually care about.

I really enjoyed Tate turning into a vampire. I can't think of any series or stand alones that feature a member of law enforcement willingly turning vamp, so this was rather enjoyable. Usually the only descriptions of "the big turn" are either memories of an already turned vamp, or the hero/heroine turning vamp in the present. In this unique situation, we got a view of what it looked like and felt like to someone who knew the person as a human, and the kind of creepy horror you would feel when watching a friend of yours be murdered by your boyfriend and then be reanimated. Then Tate actually being a vampire makes the tension between him and Cat worse because now he's the ideal person to help her out and he is NOT shy about trying to piss all over Bones' territory...figuratively speaking of course. Because literally speaking, Cat would be the territory and that is a WHOLE level of kinky that I'm not willing to contemplate.

And on THAT happy note, I give this book a 4 1/2 keys. It was really good. There were moments of angst and hearbreak, hilarity and snark, and I loved every one of them. The characters and the series in general just seems to be getting better and better! :)

1/2

Adios Muchachos!

~Andra~