Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost

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.
 

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Wow. That one word fairly well sums up my reaction to this book. I'd thought At Grave's End was an emotional ride, but this one surpassed it and then some. I'm sure there were at least a few scenes here that weren't emotionally loaded in one way or another, but I'm not recalling very many if any offhand right now. There's not even much of a rest at the end, for the intensity keeps driving hard nearly to the last page. By the end, many things have changed, some for the good and some for the bad, and many things remain uncertain and up in the air. All the more incentive to grab the next book and keep going.

Devil to Pay by Jeaniene Frost

Blake Turner had it all—until a demon decided to take residence in his soul. Plagued with constant black outs and a trail of dead bodies in his wake, Blake thinks vampire Elise is his best chance at ending the nightmare. It’s just too bad he’s fallen in love with the gorgeous vamp right before he has to die… Featuring characters from New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress world. (Originally appeared in Four Dukes and a Devil anthology)







 
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This was a very poignant story that will take you through a variety of emotions, though largely various shades of heartbreak, tinged at times with despair. While it doesn't seem to have any direct bearing on the main story of the Night Huntress series, we do see some of the characters from it. Cat and Bones play a significant, if relatively brief, role, and Mencheres features prominently. Even without these known characters, however, the new characters we meet here make it totally worth reading or listening to.

At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost

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 bloodsuckers, 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.

 
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As the blurb suggests, this book begins to show us the truth of matters for Cat and Bones -- they aren't likely to get to have a true happily ever after, for there will probably always be someone else waiting in the wings for a turn to make their lives hell. Though for all that they have some powerful enemies, they also apparently have many powerful allies, not to mention some freaky phenomenal luck for being able to save things from the jaws of disaster at the last minute, or seemingly so. They come out of these trials irrevocably changed, yet it wouldn't be a very interesting story if they didn't, would it?

One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

You can run from the grave, but you can’t hide…

Half-vampire Cat Crawfield is now Special Agent Cat Crawfield, working for the government to rid the world of the rogue undead. She’s still using everything Bones, her sexy and dangerous ex, taught her, but when Cat is targeted for assassination, the only man who can help her is the vampire she left behind.

Being around Bones awakens all her emotions, from the adrenaline rush of slaying vamps side by side to the reckless passion that consumed them. But a price on her head—wanted: dead or half-alive—means her survival depends on teaming up with Bones. And no matter how hard Cat tries to keep things professional between them, she’ll find that desire lasts forever…and Bones won’t let her get away again. Original.



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I have heard about this book for a few years now, particularly the infamous Chapter 32, and I have to say that it was well worth the wait. I read book one in the series, Halfway to the Grave, pretty much 2 years ago exactly but haven't managed to continue it aside from a couple short stories since then. Now that I'm finally able to I'm quite excited to finally be reading them (well, listening to them on audiobook) and so far am not a bit disappointed. The only thing I'm really worried about is that my ratings for them will likely get rather repetitive if they all live up to the quality of the first two books.

Samson's Lovely Mortal by Tina Folsom

Vampire bachelor Samson can't get it up anymore. Not even his shrink can help him. That changes when the lovely mortal auditor Delilah tumbles into his arms after a seemingly random attack. Suddenly there's nothing wrong with his hydraulics - that is, as long as Delilah is the woman in his arms.

His scruples about taking Delilah to bed vanish when his shrink suggests it's the only way to cure his problem. Thinking all he needs is one night with her, Samson indulges in a night of pleasure and passion.

However, another attack on Delilah and a dead body later, and Samson has his hands full: not only with trying to hide the fact he's a vampire, but also with finding out what secrets Delilah harbors for somebody to want her harm.




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I've had this book both in Kindle and Audible formats for some time now, but never got around to reading it until now. I started it mainly as something easy to listen to while at work that wouldn't require me to pay complete attention to it for fear of missing something. I was expecting it to be mainly sex wrapped up in some sort of thin plot, but was pleasantly surprised to find it was much more than that. It may not seem so at first, for it has a very memorable first line, but if you stay with it a bit you soon see that this book has some meat to it besides the manly kind. Staying with it isn't a problem, for the humor in the writing that's apparent from page one keeps it quite entertaining from the start.

Paranormally Yours by Anne Gimpel, et al.

Seven of today’s hottest paranormal authors come together to bring you a boxed set guaranteed to keep you warm on a cold winter’s night. Do shifters make you howl? Or do you prefer the bite of a vampire? Perhaps the controlling hand of a demi-god is more your style. Paranormally Yours has a story—or seven—to set your pulse racing.

(See the Goodreads link at the bottom of the post for full blurbs of all included stories.)


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It's difficult to write an general review for a collection like this that is comprised of so many different stories, for it is nearly impossible to find descriptions that apply to all of them equally. Overall I enjoyed the collection, though my enjoyment of the individual stories varied of course. Some I loved, some I thought were just OK, others I didn't really care for much. None were "bad" in my estimation though, and the ones I didn't care for so much were mostly a matter of personal preferences, not any real faults with the stories themselves necessarily. It should be noted that the collection is very shifter-heavy even though a couple of the stories do include vampires or other paranormals, so if you don't care for shifters you probably won't care for this anthology. Likewise, if you're looking for stories about vampires or magic users you might do well to look elsewhere (though the one story here that's primarily about vampires is one of the better ones IMO). I'm giving this a 4 star rating overall since that is more or less the average of my ratings on the individual stories. Read on past the jump to see those individual ratings and reviews.

Note: I received a free copy of this collection from one of the authors in exchange for an honest review.

Fireworks at Midnight by Tara Quan

Recent college graduate and part-time cat familiar Dulcina “Sweets” Gato is having the worst New Year’s Eve in living memory. End of year expenses trigger serious cash flow problems, and her microwave just went up in smoke. To make matters worse, her best friend’s overprotective big brother is back in town, and his return threatens to put a huge crimper on her nocturnal activities. The only thing she can look forward to is Madame Eve’s 1-Night Stand service. After all, she’s sick and tired of being a 21-year-old virgin.

Enforcement Agent Mikal Knight is a warlock on a mission. Having finally scored a transfer to Washington, D.C., he’s now at liberty to pursue the object of his desires—his baby sister’s best friend. But first, he has a vigilante to track down and a mysterious matchmaking service to investigate. Sent on an undercover operation, he resigns himself to a pointless 1-Night Stand on New Year’s Eve. As luck would have it, his mystery date’s identity might let him kill several birds with one stone. 


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Decadent Publishing

This series has quickly become one of my favorite by Tara Quan, if not the favorite. They're fast paced, have delightfully quirky heroines, deliciously hunky heros, and plenty of steam to warm up any winter night. This latest edition to the series fully lives up to the expectations set by the first two books and definitely does not disappoint, though for some reason that I can't quite define, this one fell just a tad bit short for me. That said, this one also has me a bit excited for the future of the series, for we get to delve into the workings of the magical community a bit more here and see how their self-governing works. This look inside gave us a glimpse of conflicts that have been simmering and may or may not be gaining prominence, as well as some hints about some possibly major changes that are in store. All of this speaks to a larger story to be told in this universe, which means more books (possibly even longer ones?), which is all to the good as far as I'm concerned.