Halfway To The Grave - A Review
A Night Huntress Novel
by Jeaniene Frost

In a genre that has become very crowded it takes a lot to make a debut novel stand out from the pack. Jeaniene Frost’s urban fantasy romance Halfway to the Grave does that and more. Her half-vampire protagonist Catherine ( Cat ) Crawfield is more than a stak’em, slay’em and decapitate’em vampire slayer. She carries the weight of the world on her young shoulders.

Cat has spent her life trying to make-up for the circumstances of her own conception to her mother, a situation over which she obviously had no control. This leads the reader to wonder why her mother went through with carrying her to term and why she and her own parents raised Cat rather than putting her out for adoption. In any case Cat’s youth is spent either in school or patrolling her town, baiting inexperienced vampires to feed upon her, then disposing of them much the way trash disappears in a Disney park..quietly and out of sight.

Into her comfortless life comes a very old master vampire who is not so easily baited and definitely not easily disposed of. Cat learns that not all of the undead, not all supernatural creatures are evil monsters. Not that there aren’t plenty out there ready to exsanguinate unwary club hoppers but there are also those that don’t kill and a few like Bones the British accented bounty hunter that she was unable to best in a fight on one fateful night. Bones reminds me a little of James Marster’s Spike. Unlike Spike it didn’t require a secret government chip in his head to make him stop killing humans but he does have a similar sense of humor, a talent for reading people, an archaic notion of chivalry and a territorial streak that at times is downright scary. Why he is a bounty hunter is unclear but I presume we will learn more about him in future novels.

Review by June Williams
Buzzy Multimedia

Buzz-O-Meter Scale 1-10 (10 being the Highest)
Halfway To The Grave Gets A “7″

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Halfway To The Grave - A Review

By June Williams

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Categories : Reviews: Books, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Movie and Book Reviews

Tags : Halfway To The Grave, Jeaniene Frost

Jhous

You would think with all the “halfling” crowd and all the “Van Helsing” crowd someone would write about the plight of the poor vampire. They seem to be nothing more than “cannon fodder” to be dispatched by whichever group gets there first. Sad, really; an endagered species.

Oh well. Actually I like the stories. I own both UNDERWORLD movies. So I guess that because the field is so crowded, the story will have to be exceptional. I hope it is and doesn’t go too deeply into the “all the troubles of the world on her shoulders” issue; ala Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I guess I’ll have to see for myself. I look forward to it.
http://www.buzzymultimedia.com June Williams

Ms Frost does write of the plight of the poor vampire. “Bones”, who is Cat’s mentor in this novel is a master vampire and one of the white hats. He even occasionaly lectures Cat about branding an entire species with the same brush.
gail stover

I started reading fantasy books about five years ago and was hooked from the first Anita Blake book I read. Then I moved on to Simon Greens series and then finally to Jim Butchers. I also read the Twilight series and countless others in that genre. I don’t think the field is too crowded. Until libraries get more on board with this genre though not as many people who are “mainstream” will find them.

Halfway to the Grave sounds like something I would like and I will definitely be on the look out for it.

I have to say that I do not like vampires or vampire hunters as much as I do demons and wizards but still I’ll give this one a try.

Looking forward to it in fact.
Charity Owensby

I have loved vampire stories for as long as I can remember. I’ve never been very picky about story details either, as long as the story is good. This review made me think an awful lot about Buffy, and since I love that more than most things I’ve ever seen that’s not necessarily a bad thing. When I get a chance to read this however, I hope I don’t spend too much time thinking about things I’ve already seen and read. That would truly be a waste. It’s definitely worth me giving a chance though.
Dorothy

I have to add my voice to the crowd applauding this book. At first it escaped my notice, but then both my friend and my father recommended it to me as a humorous well-written tale. The one drawback I could mention is that Bones’ character differs so little from Spike’s that at times it felt like I was reading a Buffy book. Now I’m a Buffy fan, so its not a big drawback for me, but it doesn’t leave me feeling like the author is a new original voice on the “urban fantasy romance” scene.
Petra Kamlachová

I am interested in this book, it looks great. I love Buffy and of course Spike’s character so I think that Bones character could be very attractive. I hope that I would get on to this book. I am looking forward to it.
June Williams

One of the things that I left out of the review is that both Bones and Spike have hard exteriors with creamy molten chocolate centers. Bad boys that girls fall for may be nothing new but as long as an author can put a new twist on a favorite theme I’ll bite. Besides this isn’t just about love of either the requited or unrequited sort, it is also about perceptions a views of what makes one good or evil