Finished Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. Someone (I believe Chasity) recommended this book in another post. So I snatched it up when I saw it at RT in the goodie room. Warning: there be spoilers ahead.

This is the first book in Frost’s Night Huntress series, which stars Catherine Crawfield. Cat’s mom was date-raped by a vampire, which means Cat herself is half-human, half-vampire — and on a mission to kill every vamp she can. Cat goes out to local nightclubs in her Ohio neighborhood, waits for a vamp to pick her up, and stakes them when they go for her neck. Until she meets Bones, a master vamp who offers Cat a deal — die or work with him to hunt down a particularly nasty vamp who’s abducting girls for a slave/blood ring. Cat chooses to work with Bones, who begins training her and teaching her that not all vamps are evil.

I liked a lot of things about this book. Frost has a great voice and a very easy-to-read style. Cat is a likable character, who’s only trying to get her mother to love and accept her by killing vamps (which her mom hates more than anything else).

Then, there’s Bones. Ah, Bones. He totally made the book for me. Loved everything about his character. Someone (again, I think it was Chasity) commented that he’s a lot like Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yeah, I can see that. Bones is British, has blond/white hair, and is just super-cool, just like Spike (who was always my favorite character on Buffy). But I think Frost made Bones her own character. He was definitely the highlight for me. 

I also really liked the way the romantic relationship developed between Bones and Cat. The progression felt natural, and by the end, you felt like these two would do anything for each other.

I felt like the end spiraled out of control just a bit. Surely, there would be more consequences for killing the governor of your state, which Cat does. I would think it would be hard to remain incognito after that, even if you were recruited for a secret government task force. But it did set up the storyline for the next book and made me want to see more of Cat in action — and how she reconnects with Bones.

The only thing I didn’t like was Cat’s mother (but I imagine Frost intended it to be this way). What a harpy. She wasn’t a good mom, and I didn’t feel that she really loved Cat. I know the mom was severly traumatized by the rape, but what kind of mom would let her teenage daughter go out, kill vamps, and risk her dying? If the mom was going out with Cat, I might have understood it. But it felt like she was punishing Cat and withholding her love for something that wasn’t Cat’s fault and something she can never change. Gotta say, I was rooting for the mom to get it in the end.

I also wanted Cat to stand up to her mom. It didn’t happen to the degree I’d hoped (because she chose her mom over Bones), but perhaps in the next book.

Overall, a solid urban fantasy read. Looking forward to getting the next book. Thumbs up.

Up next: The anthology Playing Easy to Get.

Books in my TBR pile: 18.

BTW, this is 100th book I’ve reviewed on the blog. Quite a milestone, eh? :ww: