Saturday, November 28, 2009

Series Review: Night Huntress Novels

Night Huntress Series
Author: Jeaniene Frost

Halfway to the Grave (Book 1)
One Foot in the Grave (Book 2)
At Grave's End (Book 3)
Destined for an Early Grave (Book 4)

Publisher: Avon
Available from Amazon

Summary: Half-vampire Catherine Crawfield is going after the undead with a vengeance, hoping that one of these deadbeats is her father—the one responsible for ruining her mother's life. Then she's captured by Bones, a vampire bounty hunter, and is forced into an unholy partnership.

Notes: The series should be read in order to really appreciate the plots in each book. I bought the books from Amazon and read them in order, including the shorts. I also recently won a signed copy of the first book from Jeaniene Frost's blog.

The Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost is the first series I read after discovering and reading the Twilight books last fall. Though I had been a huge fan of vampire and paranormal movies and television for a long time, I had never ventured into urban fantasy books. The horror, science fiction and fantasy genre are all favorites of mine, but somehow I had skipped over paranormal romance and urban fantasy. It was an entire new world for me. Where to begin? I remember seeing a quote that said the Night Huntress novels were like an R rated Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The idea of books with Joss Whedon humor, and maybe even vamps as sexy as Spike and Angel was too much to resist. I was not disappointed.

Jeaniene Frost has a wicked sarcastic sense of humor. Where she comes up with the scenes in her books is beyond me. She mixes action that keeps you on the edge of your seat, with romance that makes you grab the arm of your chair and hang on until you can stop holding your breath. I kid you not. When, and I so hope you do, read her books you will understand when I say that Chapter 32 of One Foot in the Grave is the stuff legends are made of.

I do want to caution certain readers about a few things. Jeaniene Frost pulls no punches on the violent world of vamps and ghouls. Also, there are erotic scenes in her books, but for me, they are part of Cat's life, her world. To NOT have scenes about her introduction to love and sex would mean we really wouldn't understand who she is. They aren't the focus of the stories however, but they are a part of them. I don't want to give any details, or spoilers. Part of the joy in reading the Night Huntress books is in the surprises, because there are many and they are HUGE.

Jeaninene Frost is not writing a series for young adults, I wouldn't recommend these to any one not of college age. To really get a feel for the series, read the first chapter of Halfway to the Grave here: http://www.jeanienefrost.com/halfway-to-the-grave.html .

~Moonsanity