Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost Series: Night Huntress #1
Published by Avon on October 30, 2007
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 358
Format: Paperback
Source: Avon Addicts
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Flirting with the Grave...
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 unholy partnership.
In exchange for 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 newfound 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.
The 10 year anniversary of Halfway to the Grave is today! And in honor of this momentous occasion, I present to you…
My original review from probably 2010:
*some spoilers, but it’s a ten year old book, so I don’t feel bad. However, you’ve been warned (and yes, my reviewing style has changed since 2010 lol).
**Oh and I would like to say that knowing this is UF, and knowing how my tastes have grown, you can tell Cat is obviously a different character at the beginning of the series than she is several books later, or even, by the end of this book. Character growth is important, and Frost does a good job of showing how Cat grows as a character. I just wanted to add this in, so you can get a more contemporary view from Today Me vs  7 Years Ago Me.
***Also Avon is releasing a 10th Anniversary edition of Halfway to the Grave with bonus content and deleted scenes!
| I had a really hard time with this book, and to be honest I was fairly “meh” about the book until about halfway through. Once Cat began to see herself as more than the crap her mother had force-fed her, that was when I began to like Cat…and the book.
I realized we were supposed to see Cat as bitchy, arrogant, insecure and self-righteous. A few contradictory personality traits made her quite a girl. I think Bones can definitely make the book for some readers, but I actually began to like Cat once she began to like herself. Bones took her in stride, and was so much more patient than I could have ever been with such an ignorant and prejudiced Cat. I think that it got tedious for me using Cat as bait for every single mission…I felt like they could come up with another plan, just once to shake things up a bit. But it still led me to read this book and ignore everything else 🙂 Cat’s mom…wow. methinks the woman doth protest too much and I’m wondering if she wasn’t raped by Cat’s father, but maybe had a relationship with him and then took it badly when she found out he was a vamp? I don’t know, this is just me theorizing here. But this book also drove home to me that this is an Urban Fantasy series. I hate endings that don’t have a happy tidy bow on them. Shallow of me, I know, but I hate that I didn’t see Bones and Cat have a happy ending. But the ending had the kind of promise that makes me want to read the next book. I might have had mixed feelings on this book, but on the whole, it was a fantastic UF novel, and Bones is sooo delicious! Cat became quite the woman by the end of this book, and I do mean it literally; it was the last few pages. But I expect she’ll deal with her mom differently in the next book, and I really hope there’s an early reunion between her and Bones, because DAYUM! That vampire is all that is gorgeous and delicious in Romanclandia.
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