Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

(Night Huntress, #1)
URBAN FANTASY

Flirting with the Grave...
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.
In exchange for finding her father, Cat agrees to train with the sexy night stalker until her battle reflexes are as sharp as his fangs. She's amazed she doesn't end up as his dinner - are there actually good vampires? Pretty soon Bones will have her convinced that being half-dead doesn't have to be all bad. But before she can enjoy her newfound status as kick-ass demon hunter, Cat and Bones are pursued by a group of killers. Now Cat will have to choose a side . . . and Bones is turning out to be as tempting as any man with a heartbeat.

“You're not a woman," he said finally. "You're the Grim Reaper with red hair!”

I've been seeing oodles of gushing about this series in my feed, in my UF and Paranormal groups, and from other Goodreads friends. I've owned it for a few years and finally got around to giving it a try. I'm sorry to say I found it average, and was tempted to bring the rating from 3 to 2 stars because the ending irritated me so badly.

I really, really despise that ending.

Since I have the second, I'll read that to hope it saturates my anger at the start - let's hope so anyway, there has to be a reason this series is so highly rated, right?

For positives, I love Bones. It's hard not to. He's the man with a plan who is dedicated to the girl and intent on being a bad boy. I like my heroes dark and he pushed most of my buttons. Even his name...but he didn't grow on me right away. It took a little bit for some reason, but when he did finally draw me in, it will fully and with commitment. Cat was fun with her humor but a little annoying sometimes with her narrow-mindness and trigger quick temper. Sometimes her jump into the action first before using common sense grated on my nerves. Still, she had some redeeming qualities, I'll wait to see if they flourish. For right now we're just on so-so-terms.

I dug the weird relationship with mommy-dearest though, I like dysfunctional family ties polluting the water and bringing drama to the table.

It's not a Paranormal romance that's overly sex heavy. That's there with for-real tension, but it waits a while and lets build up work. The scene when it finally comes it hotter than most. Their relationship is more than lust and skyrockets, though, it's endearing and addictive as well. Damn, still hate that ending!

Story-wise, there's one, but not enough to justify the length. Sure, action fills up the novel, but it's one large game of chase and fight, fight and chase. I'm not sure that tension warranted this length. It wasn't boring, but there wasn't enough of a plot impact to make me love this book's story compared to its size. The world isn't that largely weaved for a paranormal type, so far it's kind of on the down-low, with little description and not much spread beyond vampires and humans, but that can change.

What really works in this book besides delicious Bones? Humor. The entire book, as violent as it is, makes sure to dish out plenty of the funny stuff. Between Cat and Bones lines especially, and that cursed afternoon in her apartment where everyone kept showing up at the wrong time, to the uber-hilarious scenes when she glowers at Francesca. Bravo on the humor front, for it's the novel's best quality by far.

Mainly due to the Cat's sometimes silly decisions and rather selfish outlooks, to that horrible ending that I don't like the plot twist in, this book is a 3 star rating. Here's crossing my fingers that the next is higher.