Destined for an Early Grave (Night Huntress, #4) in Dangerous Hero Addict Support Group

Jul 09, 2009 Auntee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: paranormal-romance, keepers, 2009_reads

I was a little concerned before starting this one, since after reading the third book in the series it looked like Jeaniene Frost was heading down the Urban Fantasy/minimal romance path, but turns out my worries were unfounded--the romance is back! Although it's a sometimes rocky road that Cat and Bones must follow, with lots of obstacles that test their love, and jealousies and insecurities they have to deal with, they clearly have an enduring love that I feel will stand the test of time. And w I was a little concerned before starting this one, since after reading the third book in the series it looked like Jeaniene Frost was heading down the Urban Fantasy/minimal romance path, but turns out my worries were unfounded--the romance is back! Although it's a sometimes rocky road that Cat and Bones must follow, with lots of obstacles that test their love, and jealousies and insecurities they have to deal with, they clearly have an enduring love that I feel will stand the test of time. And while the love scenes aren't many, they're smokin' hot and quite emotional--loved them!

As for the plot, Cat no longer works for her uncle as a government agent ridding the country of rogue vampires and ghouls. She and her vamp lover Bones are taking a well deserved vacation when Cat is bothered by some terrifying dreams. She has dreams of a seductive vampire named Gregor who claims she's his. Gregor is a 'dreamsnatcher'--capable of invading her dreams, and wants her to return to him. It seems Cat spent a month with Gregor in Paris when she was sixteen, and something happened during that time that makes Gregor believe that Cat belongs to him. Of course Cat doesn't remember any of this (thanks to Master vamp Mencheres, who wiped her memory clean and then imprisoned Gregor). But Gregor has broken out of his prison, and wants Cat back. But why? Because he truly loves her or for some other reason? And why did Mencheres butt in? Bones is furious that someone would dare to take his "Kitten" from him, and wants Cat to avoid Gregor as he figures out a way to deal with the powerful vamp. But headstrong, impulsive Cat likes to confront her problems head-on, so you just know her curiosity will get the better of her...This leads to all kinds of problems in her relationship with Bones. Just like a regular human couple, they go through some tough times dealing with a person determined to break them apart, and have to fight their feelings of jealousy and insecurity, deal with supposed betrayals, and wounded pride. Will their love be strong enough to endure this test, or will it crumble under the pressure?

I enjoyed this plotline. Things are never smooth sailing for Cat and Bones, but it's usually because someone is trying to kill one or the other, and you get to see Cat and Bones at their kicka** best, fighting the baddies. And while there is some of that kind of action in this book (especially at the explosive end), Cat doesn't do a whole lot of fighting in this one. Mostly its about the problems in their relationship, and if they will be able to work them out. Most of the characters from the previous books return, some with large roles (Spade, Vlad), others with token appearances or mentions (Cooper, Tate, Juan, Don, Denise, Annette, Justina, Rodney), and a couple of interesting new characters (the ghostly Fabian, and voodoo queeen/ghoul Majestic) are introduced. Cat's friendship with Vlad deepens, and she finally comes to a decision about whether she's ready to become a full-time vamp or not. After she makes that decision, there's a scene that reminded me a lot of Bella and Z (and her 'needing') from JR Ward's Lover Awakened--hawt!

Of course it wouldn't be a 'Night Huntress' book without the trademark quips, rude sayings, and laugh out loud dialogue between some of the characters. Cat gets off a couple of good R-rated zingers, one of which showcases her jealousies to one of Bones's French female admirers: "He f**** even better than he looks. And that beautiful face is going to be clamped between my legs as soon as we get "oome', don't you worry." And another, referring to Bones: "Bones has always been smart. His intelligence was just camouflaged under a mountain of p****."

Spade gets off a few of his own too. Speaking to Cat: "The last time you ran off like Henny Penny to shout the sky down, it didn't turn out well, did it?" And after catching her with Vlad: "Lucifer's bloody balls, is that why you haven't returned my calls?"

And finally, Bones, to Gregor, after Cat mouths off to him: "Don't care for her tongue, do you? How strange. I find it one of my favorite parts."

So, lots of what you come to expect from the 'Night Huntress' series: some fighting, some lovin', some great dialogue, some great vampire tricks, some intrique--all leading up to a big ol' explosive conclusion right out of an action movie! And while things look like they're settled for now (with the bad guys taken care of), somehow you know that they're...not. I think there's a lot more in store for my favorite vampire couple, and I for one can't wait! 4 1/2 stars ...more

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Apr 28, 2010 Lauren鈦� 💜 rated it really liked it

Shelves: romance, fantasy-sci-fi-romance-romantasy, hot-hunky-hero

At the very least I can say, this book doesn't suffer from lack of a plot. But it's not quite up to JF's usual fantastic par. Humongous spoilers in the spoiler section! (view spoiler) At the very least I can say, this book doesn't suffer from lack of a plot. But it's not quite up to JF's usual fantastic par. Humongous spoilers in the spoiler section! (view spoiler)[
So the plot of this book is apparently Cat was kidnapped and then blood-bound to a vamp named Gregor under coercion when she was 16. He's a nasty piece of work, controlling and emotionally abusive. She gets rescued by Mencheres who then buries the memories of her time with Gregor so deep, not even Mencheres (a very powerful Master Vamp) can unbury them. And then Gregor gets imprisoned by Mencheres for breaking some undead law. Well under undead law, a blood-binding is absolute, you can't divorce whoever you're blood-bound to. It's literally til' death do you part. So needless to say, Gregor is none too happy about her being rescued and "forgetting" her time with him. So he's back and he's staking his claim over Cat. It pretty much goes without saying that undead politics and laws are very complex. And so Gregor more or less begins an all out war, although more of the psychological type than the guns and death type. Because Gregor is a Dreamsnatcher, meaning he can go into and control people's dreams and even hurt them in their dreams and if they're dumb enough to touch him in the dream, he can even transport them to wherever he is and he torments Cat in her dreams in some sick attempt to get her to come to him. But when that doesn't work, he sends an army of Ghouls to where Cat and Bones are staying, and que a huge battle. Bones locks Cat into a closet for her own safety, Gregor contacts her in the closet via cell and convinces her to fall asleep so he can Dreamsnatch her and thus stop the battle, because she thinks Bones and his comrades are outnumbered and going to get killed. So she does it. And then finds out that Gregor was lying to her and that they where not in fact outnumbered. Naturally Cat is mad at him, but his blood can unlock her memories, so she bites him and finds out that he isn't lying to her. As previously stated, they where indeed blood-bound. But even after finding all that out, she still only wants and only loves Bones. She returns to Bones and to say he's furious over her leaving is a serious under statement. They have a huge fight, the mother of all fights. Which ends with Bones leaving Cat and breaking her heart. Reading that was really heart-wrenching for me, because I love Cat and Bones so much. And they stay separated for a while, and poor Cat, it's really hard on her. They do eventually make-up and get back together, but to me, it just seemed to happen a little easily and a little too quickly. I would have liked to see them talk things out more and maybe not have made-up quite so quickly and easily. Cat has decided she wants to become a full vampire and she goes to Bones to have him do it. He agrees and Cat does indeed get turned. But it turns out that Cat isn't really undead, most likely due to her mixed lineage. Her heart still beats sometimes and she doesn't drink or crave human blood. Instead she drinks and craves vampire blood. She attacks poor Bones and more or less drains him several times. The deeper reasons behind why she drinks vamp blood is kinda complicated and I'm not going to get into it here. And because she drank blood from a vampire who pyrokinetic abilities, Cat gets them herself. When i first read that, I almost groaned. Thinking please Jeaniene do not take this down the road of the later Anita Blake novels and give Cat more and more powers until it gets ridiculous. To my great relief, it turned out that by drinking a vampire's blood, you can get some of their powers but the effect may or may not be permanent. *Update* I read the first chapter of This Side Of The Grave, and it seems Cat's pyrokinetic abilities are indeed permanent. And thankfully after that, no other powers manifest. And then Cat gets yet another bomb dropped on her. Her mother Justina gets turned into a vampire by Gregor. And Cat is understandably horrified by that, as for her mother. Oy. If you've read the other books, then you know how Justina feels about the undead community. Which is to say, she'd rather be a cockroach than a member of the undead community. So after she gets turned, to say she's she unhappy is an understatement. She begs Cat to kill her, and tries to commit suicide. Obviously Cat doesn't, and Justina's attempts are unsuccessful. Bones of all people is able to get through to her. And that's because, Justina's boyfriend Rodney the ghoul gets killed saving her. And he tells her that she will not dishonor Rodney by killing herself when Rodney sacrificed himself for her. And that was pretty sad, because I liked Rodney quite a bit. And also Cat more or less adopts a ghost (FYI, ghosts and ghouls are totally different creatures) named Fabian. Which I have to say is really cute and Fabian has a very endearing personality, I not only like him quite a bit, but he also ended up playing a pretty important role in this book. Due to an age old prejudice from vampires regarding ghosts, they get ignored and therefore can eavesdrop more or less undetected. And we do get to see more of Fabian in book 5. (hide spoiler)] Don't get me wrong, this is by no means a bad book. The writing is good, the characters are solid and the plot is good. It's just that Jeaniene Frost crammed waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much into this book. She just keeps dropping bombshells left and right, and after a while, it's less "I can't believe that just happened", and more "Another bombshell." As a matter of fact, I had to take notes on all the bombshells dropped, for when I wrote this review, and I've never had to do that before. Getting back to the bombshells, there is not anything wrong with them, but they would have worked better maybe spaced out in the remaining 5 books, instead of crammed into this book. That being said, I still recommend this book. The humor as per the usual is fantastic, I laughed a fair amount while reading this. But because of reasons stated in the spoilers section, the romance between Cat and Bones suffers a little bit. And we get to know more about characters introduced in previous books, which I liked. So am I going to give up on this series? Absolutely not, I love this series and unless these go down the Anita Blake novels road I will not give up on this series. And I doubt they will, because Jeaniene is a better writer. To wrap up this very long review, problems aside this is a well worth reading entry in the Night Huntress series. ...more

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Feb 10, 2010 Kelly rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2010-read

I'm so happy the story of Cat and Bones ended on a high note for me.

I think Frost suffers in her character development. Her bad guys are never bad enough, her good guys flaws are never really explored.
She has however created a romance between Cat and Bones that has you always wanting more.

Destined for an Early Grave was a page turner I couldn't wait to find out what happened to Cat when she was 16. I was a bit torn up over Cat and Bones big fight.

Great series for vampire lovers who like quic ...more

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May 30, 2009 Megan rated it liked it

Shelves: vampire-romance

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Book number 4 in the Night Huntress vampire series. Unfortunately, this book was not nearly as good as the previous three. While it was enjoyable (overall) it had several excruciatingly maddening parts too. The first two books in this series had SEVERAL scenes where I was literally laughing out loud. The third had a few one-liners that made me smile, it was a more serious book. I think this book had even fewer than the last one. Yeah, it was more serious, but where is that LOL humor that we fans Book number 4 in the Night Huntress vampire series. Unfortunately, this book was not nearly as good as the previous three. While it was enjoyable (overall) it had several excruciatingly maddening parts too. The first two books in this series had SEVERAL scenes where I was literally laughing out loud. The third had a few one-liners that made me smile, it was a more serious book. I think this book had even fewer than the last one. Yeah, it was more serious, but where is that LOL humor that we fans have come to expect from this series? I鈥檓 afraid that it is missing- at least from the most recent two books. The third book ends with Denise鈥檚 husband鈥檚 (Randy) death. Bummer. Also, Cat decided to quit her job working for the government. Through Bone鈥檚 co-leadership with Mencheres Bones can now hear humans thoughts- yes that includes Cat too. There is one brief appearance of Cat鈥檚 team in this book to help her out. Otherwise don鈥檛 get excited about seeing Tate or the rest of her team again for this book.

Gregor, a powerful vampire (AKA Dreamsnacher), starts invading Cat鈥檚 dreams while she and Bones are on vacation. Apparently Gregor kidnapped Cat at age 16 and made her his vampire wife. Problem is Cat doesn鈥檛 remember- and Gregor wants her back. Of course, Bones is SUPER upset about this. Gregor sends hundreds of ghouls to their house in order to get Cat back (since he hasn鈥檛 been able to kidnap Cat in her dreams). Bones, not wanting to endanger Cat鈥檚 life, locks Cat in a panic room (against her will I might add) with no way to get out and the only way to see is through monitors. Cat sees that Bones and his vampire friends are losing BADLY. To save Bones and her friends Cat strikes a bargain with Gregor that she will fall asleep and go with him in her dreams if he stops the attack on Bones and her friends (Spade, Ian, Rodney, Mencheres, Vlad, Annette, etc.). Gregor agrees. Before Cat falls asleep she writes a note to Bones that reads: I鈥檓 coming back鈥�

Cat wakes up with Gregor- naked. Ew. Apparently clothes don鈥檛 travel well through dreams. Cat drinks some of Gregor鈥檚 blood in order to get her missing memory back (unfortunately the only way). And discovers that she is indeed vampire married to Gregor (he used Cat鈥檚 youth against her) the only good thing out of all of this is that they did not have sex. Cat gets a silver stake right near Gregor鈥檚 heart, but because of their past (even though she doesn鈥檛 love him) she doesn鈥檛 want to kill him. Cat calls Vlad to come get her (she did not call Bones because she knew he鈥檇 probably need some time to calm down after her decision and note). Vlad got Cat and brings her back home. Bones then decides to break up with Cat. Bones tells her that even though it looked like Gregor鈥檚 ghouls were winning he actually had additional vampires out of sight to charge at a moments notice. Men are so stupid I swear. Bones said that Cat obviously did not trust him to keep her safe. But, Bones didn鈥檛 trust Cat with the additional information either. Thus, Cat did what she thought she had to keep the love of her life safe. And Bones would have done the same thing for her.

So, most of the rest of the book takes place with Bones not around, because he left her like the stupid double-standard vampire he is. So, Cat stays with her friend Vlad for awhile, just as friends, but in return she does give him some of her blood as payment. Can鈥檛 expect something from nothing from a vampire of course. Cat is utterly devastated by Bones鈥� abandonment. Can鈥檛 say I blame her. Cat learns information from Vlad that Bones is trapped in the Quarter in New Orleans with Greogr waiting outside of town to trap and kill him. Cat goes into rescue Bones with her old government team. Just because they aren鈥檛 together doesn鈥檛 mean that she wants Bones dead. Cat calls in her huge favor to her uncle, Don. Cat鈥檚 replacement (Geri) goes as a decoy to Bones and gets him on a helicopter out of the city and on a mid-air plane swap to fly him where Cat is. When Cat learns that Bones is supposed to be flying to her she makes Don re-direct his flight to anywhere, but to her. There is an interesting scene where Vlad and Don are talking very quietly (Don claims he has a cold). Cat doesn鈥檛 know what is going on and she doesn鈥檛 have time to really probe deeper, she needs to get out of there so she doesn鈥檛 come across Bones. It wouldn鈥檛 surprise me to learn in a later book that Don has something terminal- why else would he be talking to a vampire that鈥檚 NOT a member of his team? Vlad and Cat fly back to his castle. Bones comes to get Cat. He states that he will kill Vlad if she doesn鈥檛 come with him. So, she goes.

Big problem. She doesn鈥檛 want to be around Bones because she still loves him AND she needs to ask him to make her a vampire so she won鈥檛 be so weak and helpless anymore. Cat finally asks him, and he agrees, on the condition that he sleep with her. The big. Of course she does, and they work everything out- PHHHHLLLLLEZZZZZZ! After all the hurtful things they said about each other? About him abandoning her? I guess it doesn鈥檛 matter. Just the typical romance book plot of 鈥渕isunderstandings.鈥� UGGGGHH!

So, to try to some things up quickly- I know I鈥檓 dragging this out in a very painful manner. Cat becomes a vampire- but a really weird one- she has to drink vampire blood to survive- she has some new powers (everyone is still unsure of where they come from)- and she still has her heartbeat- at least when she gets very emotional (i.e. angry). Then they go to attack Gregor, and to save her mom, whom Gregor had recently abducted. While rescuing her mom (which succeeded, just not fast enough as Justina is now a vampire), Rodney is killed by Greogr and Cat almost kills Gregor by fire- she鈥檚 pyrokinetic- at least temporarily. Mencheres, apparently has been holding back a ton of information. In my opinion, he is not trust worthy. Bones and Cat no longer completely trust him either. He tells them that Cat is not really dead and that he has had visions up until Cat becoming a vampire, however, he has lost that gift and assumes that means he will die soon. Gregor accepts Bones鈥� challenge. They have to fight until one of them dies. The vampire Law Guardian her lackeys oversee the rules and no one is allowed to interfere on pain of death. However, Gregor cheats by having injectable liquid silver in his silver blades to slow Bones down for an easy kill. Cat doesn鈥檛 know exactly that Gregor is cheating, but she knows something is wrong. She gets made- her heart starts beating- and then Gregor鈥檚 head explodes in fire. So, the Law Guardian rules that now Cat must die. However, Bones speaks up and shows her that Gregor cheated, the ruling stands however, because Cat couldn鈥檛 have known about the cheating. Cat fakes it and lies, and the Law Guardian decided to believe her so she gets to live. What a mess. The story basically ends there. Justina doesn鈥檛 want to live as a vampire. Bones tells her that she is NOT going to disrespect Rodney鈥檚 death by dying when he risked his life to save her. Justina tells Bones that if he kills Gregor then she鈥檒l live as a vampire even if she doesn鈥檛 want to. Looks like Justina will be around for a good long while then.

Ms. Frost has stated on her website (or was it her blog?) that Bones and Cat have to earn their happily-ever-after, which they will achieve by either book 7 or 8. But come on! Their misunderstanding was so incredibly stupid it was pretty painful to read- and very maddening. If she can bring back the action, romance, AND humor of her first two books then I鈥檒l happily keep reading this series. However, if she doesn鈥檛 then I鈥檓 afraid this will go the way of Ms. Hamilton鈥檚 Anita Blake series (minus the sex with multiple partners of course).
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Jun 30, 2011 RogueHireling rated it it was ok

what a pity party this whole book is. The main character do not much more than whine all the time. And one would think that two people in love would have a chance to be nicer to each other at least sometimes.

The ending has some neat results, but other than that, I dont think I like these characters enough anymore to want to read on.

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May 20, 2010 Not Now...Mommy's Reading rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, night-huntress-series, vampires, 2011-reads, i-love-him

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 23, 2009 Sarah thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: paranormal-adult

okay so i ordered this book for my kindle 5 hours ago and i am already finished with it. this book was easy to get through and fun for most of the way. all your favorite characters come back and chaos of course ensues. my one warning is... that the whole lover from a past life is not what it seems to be in the previews a it's way less romantic more creepy. but overall worth the money. ...more

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