Sunday, January 11, 2009

At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost

Back Blurb: 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 lover 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 bloodsucker, 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.


I admit 100% that I had a lot of trepidation going into the book. I really didn't like One Foot In The Grave all that much and wrote a pretty scathing review after I'd finished the book. I'd read some reviews out there that weren't all that promising, but since this is book 3 in the series, I had to see what happened. And I'm glad I read the book.

My biggest complaint about OFitG was how foul-mouthed and immature Cat was. She continually jumped into situations without thinking and she couldn't open her mouth without swearing. It got on my nerves VERY quickly and I was so afraid that it would happen again in this book. But...it didn't! Yay!

It seems that Cat is finally growing up. Hallelujah! I was beginning to wonder if that would ever happen. She's matured a great deal and finally thinks before opening her mouth. 'Tis a miracle!

Here are my thoughts. Good and Bad. :)


Bad:


Bones. He's definitely good, as always, but his appearances in this book are almost token. Cat gets hurt. He shows up, feeds her his blood, they have sex and then he disappears again. It was just a little odd.

Tate. Oh, my goodness. What an annoying creature he is! I wanted to smack him upside the head. He loves Cat. Well goody for him. He needs to get his head out of his butt and find someone else. His obsession was ridiculous.

Too many characters. This book is presented in first person. So, it's totally Cat's viewpoint. There were so many secondary characters in this book that my head spun. I think if the characters had been cut in half (0r more) the book would've been a tighter read. As it was, too many people taking up too much page count.

Good:


Cat. As I said, she's finally maturing. This book seemed to deal more with her figuring out who she was and what she wanted more than anything. I know Katie(babs) had issues with that, but I actually liked it. After the first two books, I never really fully believed that she was mature enough to have the kind of relationship she was supposed to have with Bones. Now, she's becoming a woman I can see him loving (if that makes sense).

The history. Wow! Some things were revealed in this book that were really surprising. A lot of Bones's history is revealed and I've begun to understand the man he is. There's still a lot not known about him though, so I hope more is revealed in the next book.

The characters. Justina has been a thorn in my side since book 1, but in this book she seems to have mellowed quite a bit. Thank goodness! She had a few appearances and actually caused me to have a good laugh in a particular scene. I'm glad she's not the psychotic shrew she was in the first two books. I know I complained about too many characters, but there were a few that I thought made the book. Mencheres, Vlad and Ian are the three main ones. One of the names is in white, because this character is pretty major and a surprise. :)


All in all, I really enjoyed this book. The tight pacing, the fast action and the overall world building are as good as they've been from the beginning. Here's hoping book 4 continues with the further maturation of Cat and more of the relationship between her and Bones. Bones needs more page time! Just saying. :)


Rating: B

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