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One Foot In The Grave

Jeaniene Frost

Published 2008         357 pages

Summary

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 him awakens all her emotions, from the adrenaline kick 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 she tries to keep things professional between them, she'll find that desire lasts forever . . . and that Bones won't let her get away again.

The Review

One Foot In The Grave is the second book in the Night Huntress series and is the follow up to Halfway To The Grave, Jeaniene Frost’s debut novel that first introduced readers to living/born vampire Cat Crawfield.  Reading Halfway To The Grave gave me genre confusion – I just couldn’t pigeon hole what I was reading: was it a romance or was it urban fantasy?  One Foot In The Grave settles the confusion with much stronger romance elements that are not so swamped by the urban fantasy plotline.  This is urban fantasy romance (and I like it!)

What is urban fantasy romance?  A good example would be Katie MacAlister’s Aisling Grey series, where the romance is extended over several novels while the protagonists battle with various supernatural beasties on the way to their HEA.  Michael and Alexandra from Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn books would be another example of an urban fantasy romance couple. 

Events in One Foot In The Grave take place four years after where Halfway To The Grave finished.  Cat has spent these years killing vampires for a secret vampire slaying government department and training a team of tough humans up on how to kill vampires too.  Dedicated to her job she uses her vocation to fill the hole left in her life by her former lover, the vampire Bones, who she had to leave four years ago in order to save him from the government’s vampire hit squad. 

Bones finally traces Cat’s new secret identity and they meet again – with both the action and the romance immediately heating up as a result.  Being reunited with Bones isn’t the only surprise in store for Cat, she finally gets to meet her father’s side of her family for the first time but since her father was a newly made vampire who raped her mother it isn’t exactly a happy family reunion.  When you combine all this with Cat’s vampire slaying job and the assassination attempts on her life you have a recipe for just about non-stop supernatural thrills.

Vampire fans can’t flail to be delighted with One Foot In The Grave since unlike most urban fantasy worlds that contain every supernatural creature man has ever dreamed of, this one just has vampires, ghouls and ghosts - meaning that the story firmly concentrates on the vampires.  With more details of the vampire and ghoul mythology being revealed as the story progresses it looks like there will be plenty more exciting vampire material to fuel the future books planned for this series.

If I had one criticism of this book it would be Cat’s reckless impetuosity.  She is supposed to be a team leader, working with her team to slay evil vampires.  As I know from countless dull management training days “there is no “I” in team” (trite but true) however there is a big “I” in her team.  I don’t realistically see her inspiring devotion from her fellow team members as she rushes off alone to do jobs that they should tackle together.  If I was in her team I think I’d find her annoying… 

Still, I’m not in her team so I can enjoy the results of her recklessness - which usually involves her having to fight her way out of various dangerous situations after impulsively jumping in over her head!

Scorching hot romance, buckets of blood, a plethora of vampires and non-stop action make One Foot In The Grave in must read for urban fantasy romance fans everywhere.

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