Review: One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Okay, I admit it. I should have read these books earlier. I can't believe I passed them by. I finally caved to the blogosphere and twitter pressure and picked up the only Night Huntress novel at the closest Borders. It happened to be book #2, One Foot in the Grave.

One Foot in the Grave takes place 4 years after the first in the series. Catherine "Cat" Crawfield has moved on, as best as she is able, after leaving Bones. She now heads an elite black ops style government operation dedicated to taking down the bad vamps.  The irony, of course, is that Cat is still in love with Bones (a vamp) and is half vamp herself.

While I liked Bones, I didn't feel the same slave-like devotion for him that so many Twitter devotees seem to have. I did find Cat to be incredibly compelling, though. She felt 100% real. Which is kind of unusual for paranormal romances.  I don't think I've read a more emotionally genuine character recently. She's kick ass without being cold. She's vulnerable without being wimpy. Loved, loved, loved her.



The Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance genres have a fine line with me. Some are just too gruesome. I'm a gore-wimp. I have too good of an imagination and a weak stomach. So I love writing that skirts up to my gore-tolerance without crossing over. And Frost does just that with this book. The writing is edgy without being too graphic. There's gore, but it's not so descriptive that I can't munch on some food in one hand while holding the book in the other.

The vampire hierarchy had me confused...but I think that's deliberate because Cat was confused, too. And since the book is first person narrative, I know what she knows. Which is apparently squat about the culture. I was lulled into a false sense of complacency about the sexual explicitness, too. The first 2/3 of the book were fairly tame. Then *wham* some seriously smut right before the big confrontational ending. I didn't bother me in the slightest, but it did surprise the heck out of me given the previous (tame) scenes.

I'm not going to summarize the plot here, though, because I can't really do it justice without spoiling the entire thing. The overarching themes are about a reunion of lovers, a new level of trust and openness with Cat's vampire hunting, and a peek into Cat's past...and future. Vague, right? And more than a little annoying. But in case there are some of you who haven't yet taken the plunge with this series, I don't want to spoil it.

I am, however, seriously po'd at myself for not ordering book #1 and reading it first.
My Grade: A