Title: At Grave’s End
Author: Jeaniene Frost
Series: Night Huntress #3, Night Huntress Universe #3
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy, Vampires
Dates read: 22nd September – 15th November 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Avon
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: I showered again and went downstairs.

Some things won’t stay buried… At grave’s end.

It should be the best time of half-vampire Cat Crawfield’s life. With her undead lvoer Bones at her side, she’s successfully protected mortals from the rogue undead. But though Cat’s worn disguise after disguise to keep her true identity a secret from the brazen bloodsuckers, her cover’s finally been blown, placing her in terrible danger.

As if that wasn’t enough, a woman from Bones’s past is determined to bury him once and for all. Caught in the crosshairs of a vengeful vamp, yet determined to help Bones stop a lethal magic from being unleashed, Cat’s about to learn the true meaning of bad blood. And the tricks she’s learned as a special agent won’t help her. She will need to fully embrace her vampire instincts in order to save herself – and Bones – from a fate worse than the grave.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It took me a little while to read, because I couldn’t read it late at night before bed, or while I was trying to study, or really do anything productive in any way, shape or form. It was just really, really good and I never wanted to put it down. I finally had to set aside a night to finish it… just so I could get my little happy fix.

Unlike a lot of the books I put on the strong women shelf, Cat finds her beau in the first book, and ever tale afterwards is all about them. And you know, all the people trying to kill them, preying on the weak, yada yada yada. Yet this still works brilliantly. Cat and Bones are trying to create their lives together, but they keep coming up against hurdles. One of which is Bones’ past as a gigolo. But they’re accepting of this. Neither was pure and innocent when they got into the relationship. Neither is free of a past. And they both use their sexuality to constantly trap predators. Its kind of a nice balance – because they both do it. don’t get me wrong, I don’t love that Cat is constantly having to dress provocatively and seduce men into going with her to kill them… but I love that both her and Bones do it, get jealous and understand each others’ motive.

This month, I needed a book that had Dracula as a character. I figured I was probably just going to finally get around to actually reading Dracula… but then Vlad showed up in this story. What a brilliant idea! Not only does this novel feature Vlad the Impaler / Dracula / Haunter of My Dreams, but it also features Cleopatra’s daughter. Now I’m curious to see what historical figure Mencheres is… because he must be to be that old and powerful… yay for reading the next books in the series!

The war that takes place in At Grave’s End feels like it should be finished at the conclusion of the book. But I get the feeling that this is just setting the story up for a much greater war. Makes me feel a little like a conspiracy theorist in my musings… but there is no way that such an intense war between characters can be over so quickly… so I suppose I had better pick up the next book and get reading!

Image source: Goodreads