Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Destined for an Early Grave
by Jeaniene Frost
Series: Night Huntress #4
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: July 15, 2009
Genre:  Adult Urban Fantasy
Purchase: Barnes and Noble/Amazon/Book Depository


* contains sexual content, intended for a mature audience

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.

I have been slowly working my way through this series. Believe it or not I own the entire series and they have been collecting dust on my shelf. Do any of you have series like that?  I love the crazy whirl-wind romance of Cat and Bones. Destined for an Early Grave delivered tons of action, life and death situations and created problems for Cat and Bone’s relationship. It kept me riveted from page one and I quickly consumed this over the course of one day.

Bones and Cat are recovering from being practically eaten by zombies from the previous novel and are enjoying a little R&R, when Cat begins having dreams. A vampire that Cat has the niggling feeling she knows is calling to her in these dreams. When Bones asks her where she wants to vacation she chooses Paris and it surprises her. She’s never really wanted to go there. When they arrive we learn the person haunting her in her dreams is a Master Vampire known as Gregor; nicknamed the Dreamsnatcher. He is a powerful vampire who has escaped capture and is now trying to claim Cat belongs to him. Eep! What follows is suspenseful, has Cat and Bone’s relationship in jeopardy and will keep you turning the pages, praying for some kinds of HEA.

First let me just get this confession of my chest..I adore Vlad and I want more! I love the characters Frost brings to this urban fantasy. Cat and Bones are well fleshed out and even the secondary characters have depth. Now I love Bones and tolerate Cat ( cause Bones belongs to me!) but in this book I wanted to throttle them both. The fighting between them and the insecurities made me want to scream. These two have been to hell and back, you think by now they would be secure in their relationship. Master Vampires are manipulative and each had a hidden agenda. This was the case with both Gregor and Mencheres. Vlad was wonderful, supportive and totally had Cat’s back. I would adore a spin off book about him. Other key characters make an appearance, as well as the Queen of New Orleans and a ghost.

The plot is intense and the stakes are high. Frost kept me guessing as to how it would all turn out. The transformation of Cat in this novel was perhaps my favorite thing. Frost is very clever and I look forward to seeing how this develops. Overall I enjoyed this tale, but sadly it was my least favorite. The plot was wonderful, the pace delightful but Cat and Bones were whiny little snots, bickering like kiddies in a sandbox. I felt their insecurities and lack of trust were unjustified. They literally had me ripping my hair out. The ending wrapped up nicely and I still love my favorite fighting duo.

Destined for an Early Grave and the entire Night Huntress urban fantasy series offers plenty of action and a smoking hot romance. This Side of the Grave is the next book in the series and I hope to bring you that review later this fall.  Despite my annoyance this is one of my favorite series and the author is on my auto-buy list.

I gave this novel 3.5 coffee cups out of 5.