Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost @Jeaniene_Frost @avonbooks @BlackstoneAudio #Read-along #GIVEAWAY #LoveAudiobooks

Posted January 14, 2022 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review, Giveaway, Read-along / 48 Comments

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.

Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost @Jeaniene_Frost @avonbooks @BlackstoneAudio #Read-along #GIVEAWAY #LoveAudiobooksHalfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
Series: Night Huntress #1
Published by Avon, Blackstone Audiobooks on October 13, 2009
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Source: Library
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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 unlikely partnership.

In exchange for help 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 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.

Meet our heroine, Catherine Kathleen Crawfield – she’s 22, a college student, lives with her mom and grandparents in Licking Falls, Ohio (that town’s name you guys) – oh and she is a half-vampire, half-human. Her mom was date raped by a “young” vampire and Cat was the result. When she was sixteen, her mother told her the truth; then Cat began hunting and killing random vampires – by using her body as bait and opportunity when it presents itself. She developed a nice set of skills in the six years since learning her truth.

Bones is in town, on a mission to stop a white slavery/sex trafficking ring headed by a powerful Master vampire. He meets Cat at a night club when she asks him to go home with her, he turns her down, then follows her when another vampire decides to leave the club with her. She kills the vampire and Bones knocks her out and takes her back to his cave. Once she is awake, Bones violently interrogates her, thinking she is one of the Master vampire’s human minions. Then he discovers that Cat has vampire powers all her own and they make a deal to work together. This is where I am glad I read the prequel first; the amount of violence Bones inflicted on Cat would have turned me off if I didn’t know Bones from the short story. And the violence continues during Cat’s “training”. The violence was a bit intertwined with their growing feelings for each other, although by that part the violence was against the bad guys, not each other.

As for the plot, I loved it – non-stop action and beating up bad guys. I like the twist at the end of the criminal ring, having the vampire and human world mirror each other’s politics. Small towns can have big secrets. But the plot really helped to deepen Bones’ and Cat’s characters, both as individuals and as a couple. Breaking up the gang would go to making the world safer for the innocent vampires in Bones’ worldview; saving women from sex trafficking and sexual violence comes from Cat’s understanding of her mom’s rape. Their character motivations and the plot really meld well together and made their partnership in and out of the bedroom stronger. The plotline is resolved, but the relationship is left on a cliffhanger that has me eager to read the next book.

Side characters really helped to shape the characters of Bones and Cat as individuals. Cat’s mom was a pathological bitch and honestly Cat should have left her to fend for herself at the hospital at the end of the book. To have your daughter risk her and her lover’s lives to rescue your sorry ass and then you spit on them when it was all over and you are still alive is just the height of hypocrisy and cruelty. I hope Timmie shows up in the other books, as I hope Tara and Spade do too. I don’t trust Agent Don Williams one iota and yet I think Tate is going to make a great team member for Cat (the guy learns fast not to fuck around when it comes to Cat and her abilities).

 


Games:

Who said (enter the answer in the Rafflecopter, don’t put in the comments)

Who said                              “Well, strike me pink!”.

There are other options in the rafflecopter for you to enter discussion questions and quotes to share.

 


Share your review/ thoughts on  Halfway to the Grave:

I thought it might be fun to link up reviews so we can find them all easily.  It can be a link to Goodreads or a blog, or wherever you have a review (short or long).

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COYER FB Chat – Sunday January 16

Challenge is adopting our Read-along.  You can read about COYER and join that challenge or just the Facebook community chat HERE.   On the Sunday after the review posts, they will host a FB room (like we do for COYER book club) at 12 PT, 2 CT, 3 ET and 9pm Europe, for a one hour chat.  You do not have to join the COYER challenge to participate, only the Facebook group.


Here’s your to-do list:

  1. Find your copies of these books, borrow them from a friend, get them at the library or buy them.
  2. Read book 1.5, Happily Never After.
  3. Read Book 2, One Foot in the Grave, by February 11.
  4. Make note of a favorite quote or two as you read the book.
  5. If you haven’t read the books before, make a list of questions you have for the discussion. If you have read them, please don’t spoil new readers.
  6. Think of some great questions for Jeaniene Frost for the Q & A post!
  7. Link up your review on Goodreads, FB or other site to the post.
  8. Join the COYER book chat on the Sunday following the post.
  9. Enter the giveaways!

Schedule:   

We are doing one book every 3-4 weeks, posting on Fridays. We will have a review for the books with the team here at Books of My Heart plus some of our friends.  We are following the author recommended reading order.

Jan 14:    Halfway to the Grave               – Melissa @ Tea & Books

Feb 11:    One Foot in the Grave              –  Victoria @ First of All

Mar 11:   At Grave’s End                            –  Kimberly @Caffeinated Reviewer

Apr  1:     Destined for an Early Grave   –  Stephanie @ Once Upon a Chapter  

Apr 29:   First Drop of Crimson               – Kai @ Fiction State of Mind

May 20:  Eternal Kiss of Darkness         – Jen @ That’s What I’m Talkin About

Jun 10:    This Side of the Grave              – Brandee @Unconventional Bookworms

Jul 8:       One Grave at a Time                  –  Lorna 

Aug 5:      Once Burned                                –  Lexxie @Unconventional Bookworms

Sep 9:     Twice Tempted                             –  Angela @ Angel’s Guilty Pleasures

Oct 7:      Up from the Grave                      –  Melanie

Nov 4:     Bound by Flames                        –  Sophia

Dec 2:    Into the Fire                                   – Berls @ Because Reading

Q & A with Jeaniene Frost

 


Jeaniene Frost has also been kind enough to commit to a Q & A post.   I will collect questions for her through September 19th.  I will send your questions to her and she will pick 3-5 questions and send me the response.  I will post her answers in the December 2 post.  So think up some great questions for her!


Bonus round – Read a Series in a Month  January 2023:

Jan 8:    Shades of Wicked              –  Carole @ Carol’s Random Life in Books

Jan 22:    Wicked Bite                        –  Robin

Feb 5:       Wicked All Night             –   Anne

 

These are Sunday noon posts.      There will be one COYER FB Chat at the end of the series on Feb 5th.


Be sure to enter the giveaways!!!

Giveaway:

For US paperback copy of At Grave’s End (read once),and for Intl a paperback from Book depository.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Grand-Prize Giveaway:

For a US winner, this will be 12 digital copies ( your choice of her books) generously provided by Jeaniene Frost  (US only) but they can be from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Kobo.

For an Intl winner,  it will be $50 at Book Depository.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About Jeaniene Frost

Jeaniene Frost is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Her works include the Night Huntress series, the Night Prince series, the Broken Destiny series, and the new Night Rebel series. Jeaniene’s novels have also appeared on the Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal, ABA Indiebound, and international bestseller lists. Foreign rights for Jeaniene’s novels have sold to twenty different countries.

Jeaniene lives in Maryland with her husband Matthew, who long ago accepted that she rarely cooks and always sleeps in on the weekends. In addition to being a writer, Jeaniene also enjoys reading, writing, poetry, watching movies, exploring old cemeteries, spelunking and traveling – by car. Airplanes, children, and cook books frighten her.

About Melissa at Tea & Books

Military wife and military veteran, mom of two elementary school kids, community volunteer, blogger

Anne - Books of My Heart
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • 22-COYER

Posted January 14, 2022 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review, Giveaway, Read-along / 48 Comments


48 responses to “Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

  1. Elizabeth+H.

    Cat and Bones are awesome! I love how funny their dialogue is and I love how strong Cat is, I want to be her when I grow up. Great world building and the secondary characters are great. I’ve added the link to my review above!

    Oh! And Jeaniene Frost is currently writing a full book that is told from Bones’ POV of meeting Cat for the first time! It’s entitled The Other Half of the Grave! I am so excited for this! The full book releases in April 2022 but Ms. Frost has the first 20 chapters up on her website now http://www.jeaninefrost.com

    • Well I like to think of this as UF instead of PNR but it’s kind of a blend. Each couple has a series, rather than a book. Mostly. But there is world development as we go along and that’s what I love which is not always in PNR as much. I guess I also think PNR is more to the romance and UF is more to the action/ plot? Anyway, this series has the right blend for me. I’m so glad you are reading with us.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Lightning in a Mirror by Jayne Ann Krentz
  2. Eva Millien

    I definitely enjoyed it! This is a re-read for me and I loved being able to see cat as she was before she became the kick a** heroine she is becomes and of course as she begins to realize that maybe her world shouldn’t be all black & white only!

  3. I’m looking forward to seeing Cat’s growth as the story moves on. Her mother is terrible and the sad thing is there are parents that turn their backs on their children over who their children are–I appreciated the allegory in this book. I know that lots of people felt that in True Blood the vampires were an allegory for the LGBTQIA community, and I suppose it was, but I think this book is a better allegory.

    Victoria A Hamel recently posted: Halfway To The Grave Read-Along!
  4. Lorna

    I really enjoyed this one as well. The whole series is great! I’m glad you enjoyed it.

  5. Jen

    I forgot how young Cat is and how it all started. And… I didn’t know that there is a Bones novella – what is the name? I’ll have to check it out. Thanks.

    • I had forgotten too much and enjoyed reading it SO much.

      OK there is a novella about Bones which is a prequel to the series called Reckoning. There is also a NEW one coming out in April – The Other Half of the Grave – which is this book from Bones POV. It is currently a serial on the JF website. She was really awfully young when the series starts but there is a time jump from this book to book 2.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: 🎧 The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain
  6. Caitlin

    This is the book series that got me hooked on Frost. Though I have a question? I’ve tried to find where to enter the answer into the Rafflecopter but it only has two options, neither of which have a typing area? It says leave a blog comment but you said not to comment the answer so I’m a bit lost haha.

    • Caitlin, if you do the 2 options which are to enter an email to notify if you win and leave a blog post comment (which you have done) then it opens a whole bunch more options on the rafflecopter. There are ones to enter quotes and observations, it lets you enter one each day. You can also tweet about the giveaway each day, all to earn more points for the giveaway. This is for the first giveaway above, not the grand prize giveaway (which has different options). I hope you’ll enjoy reading or rereading along with us!

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: 🎧 Desolation Canyon by PJ Tracy
  7. jenxx

    I love this series so much! I’ve reread the whole seried for like 5 rounds if not more.

  8. Cassandra Hyden

    This is one of my favorite series. Every book is great and absolutely love Cat and Bones. I probably should read them again.

  9. I love this story the best, it was the book that started my journey into the Night Huntress World and I have loved every book since. I truly can’t wait to read along with you guys and be able to discuss and talk about this wonderful series because in my family I am the only book reader especially of this genre.