Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost

(Night Huntress, #4)
URBAN FANTASY

Source: Purchasedrating

Her deadly dreams leave her in grave danger

Since half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her undead lover Bones met six years ago, they've fought against the rogue undead, battled a vengeful Master vampire, and pledged their devotion with a blood bond. Now it's time for a vacation. But their hopes for a perfect Paris holiday are dashed when Cat awakes one night in terror. She's having visions of a vampire named Gregor who's more powerful than Bones and has ties to her past that even Cat herself didn't know about.

Gregor believes Cat is his and he won't stop until he has her. As the battle begins between the vamp who haunts her nightmares and the one who holds her heart, only Cat can break Gregor's hold over her. She'll need all the power she can summon in order to bring down the baddest bloodsucker she's ever faced . . . even if getting that power will result in an early grave.

“Slumber party with Dracula, all things considered why not?”

And this is where the series finally stakes a deeper claim in me and starts improving. Other friends seemed to salivate over this series from the start but I found too much annoyed me to fall head over heels with it. With this fourth book it fares better - the things that annoyed me before aren't there anymore and the characters are driving the story without too many distracting sex scenes.

The biggest game changer is that Cat no longer annoyed me. I think the author tried too hard in the first three to make her so tough she felt unapproachable and too unsympathetic. While she's still tough as nails and impressive as hell, she's also more enjoyable as a main to follow around. Her heart exists besides where Bones is concerned and she's willing to listen and have a decent conversation instead of obnoxiously shrill over anyone trying to talk. Instead of meeting people with an attitude, she acts like a decent person unless they give her a choice otherwise.

Vlad was great too - the vampire is too funny and he rocked every scene he was in, which was several. My eyes were glued.

There's trouble in paradise with Bones and while sometimes it was a little too angsty, there was relief to see real emotion from Cat. With what he planned, they had to have some series regulars at play - mainly Slade and Vlad - and I found the two in the house and with different scenes to be fascinating.

We get to meet Marie the Voodoo queen and that was pretty epic as well. Really the characters made this one - the story was good on its own standing but it wouldn't have worked without some of the humor from Vlad, the enduring charm from Slade, and the sexy appeal of Bones. Oh, and Mencheres was awesome too.

There was a slight mystery as Cat has to figure out what Gregori means to her, even making me question what was right and what was wrong, until the author cleared that muddy picture up quickly when revealing new things about the vampire and Cat's history. Bones was in the dark, but not all friends were, which made an interesting reveal.

The book closes with a brilliant battle and some grim changes, making me an official fan of the series who finally wanted to read the next few books.



   Book Quotes:

“Movies. Drinks. Headless chickens. You know, girl stuff. ”

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