Night Huntress

Night Huntress

Cover for Halfway to the Grave, the first book in the series
Halfway to the Grave, One Foot in the Grave, At Grave's End, Destined for an Early Grave, This Side Of The Grave, One Grave at a Time, First Drop of Crimson, Eternal Kiss of Darkness, Once Burned, Twice Tempted, Up from the Grave
Author	Jeaniene Frost
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Urban fantasy, Paranormal romance
Publisher	Avon
Media type	Print (Paperback)

Night Huntress is a series of New York Times bestselling urban fantasy romance novels by author Jeaniene Frost.^[1] The first novel was published in 2007 by Avon and takes place in a world where supernatural creatures exist but are not known to the general public at large. The series initially focused around the character of half-vampire Catherine "Cat" Crawfield and her full-vampire lover Bones, but eventually shifted focus to other characters such as Vlad Tepesh, a character that Frost had initially not planned to include.^[2]

The original Night Huntress series was initially planned to span seven novels, with Frost later extending the length to nine books.^[3] However, while writing the seventh novel, Frost decided that it would be the final installment in the main series.^[4]

Synopsis

Night Huntress

Due to her mother being raped by a vampire and getting pregnant, Catherine "Cat" Crawfield has spent her entire life being different from other humans. Her half-vampire nature allows her to pursue the full blooded vampires and lead them to their death, an activity that her mother fully endorses. Cat goes out almost every night in the hopes of finding and slaying her father, only to be captured by the vampiric bounty hunter Bones. After some initial reluctance on Cat's part, the two of them form a partnership to find and capture her father and eventually fall in love with one another. Their relationship is temporarily broken when Cat is forced to join with a secretive government agency devoted to hunting supernatural creatures, run by a man later revealed to be her uncle. Cat and Bones eventually reconcile, with Bones joining the agency to be near Cat. This reconciliation is later tested when Bones's precognitive grandsire Mencheres's wife Patra uses grave magic to try to kill Bones and Cat, forcing Cat and her friends to band together to kill her. Other plot points in the series involve Cat discovering that in the past Mencheres had wiped the memory of a controlling vampire she used to love from her mind in order to ensure that she would meet and fall in love with Bones and that she would fulfill her destiny as a powerful vampire. Cat does eventually become a vampire in order to ensure that she would be with Bones forever as well as to assuage growing fears in the ghoul population that she was not intending to become a ghoul-vampire hybrid with unprecedented powers. This backfires as she becomes not a regular vampire, but one that has an occasional heartbeat and can only drink the blood of other vampires, absorbing some of their powers in the process.

Night Huntress World

In First Drop of Crimson the book follows Bones' best friend Spade and Cat's best friend Denise as she tries to find a way to search for Nathaniel, a long-lost relative of hers. Over a hundred years ago, he sold his soul to a shape-shifting demon that has killed several of Denise's family members. The demon decides that Denise could be useful to him, and brands her with his essence instead. Despite wanting nothing more than to be rid of the supernatural world forever, Denise manages to not only persuade Spade to help her but also falls in love with him. They eventually find Nathaniel, who has been held captive and used as a prostitute and for his demonically infused blood, which can be used as a narcotic for vampires, who cannot be affected by ordinary drugs. The demon takes back his essence from Nathaniel, leaving him mortal once more, and Denise and Spade manage to defeat the demon. Since the demon did not take back his essence from Denise, she is left permanently immortal, and even harder to kill than a vampire, while Nathaniel has a chance to live a normal life. Spade and Denise marry at the end of the book.

The book Eternal Kiss of Darkness follows Mencheres as he attempts to seek death in order to avoid a confrontation with the corrupt law guardian Radjedef, his uncle and old enemy. He chooses this path partly because he has stopped having visions of the future, except to show darkness coming. Kira comes across Mencheres as he waits for a pack of ghouls to tire of torturing him and kill him. She tries to help, only for him to have to rescue her from the ghouls, who attempt to eat her. Mencheres attempts to erase Kira's memories of the incident, but fails due to her having a natural immunity to vampire mind control. He keeps her prisoner for a week in the hope that she will fall under his power, and when she doesn't, lets her go after healing her sister's lung damage from cystic fibrosis in exchange for her silence on the existence of vampires. Kira decided to seek him out due to her feelings toward him, but falls afoul of a trio of vampires in an incident which ends with Radjedef sentencing Kira to death, which inflames Mencheres' animosity towards Radjedef. Mencheres carries out the sentence himself, exploiting a loophole in the law, which doesn't preclude him bringing her back as a vampire. While Kira adjusts to her new life, Radjedef kills the three vampires and arranges for a surveillance video showing Mencheres turning Kira to be found by humans, making it appear as if Mencheres had endangered the secrecy of the vampire race, for which he would be executed. While on the run, Kira and Mencheres begin a relationship, which is complicated by his belief that he is soon to die whether he seeks it or not. Kira and Mencheres eventually set up a plan to expose Radjedef's corruption and put an end to the rivalry. The book ends with the death of Radjedef and Mencheres recalling that Kira's name was Celtic for "Darkness", and realizing that she was what he saw filling his future.

Reception

Critical reception for Night Huntress has been predominantly positive, with Library Journal frequently praising the series.^[5][6] RT Book Reviews has also given frequent praise for the novels, with Eternal Kiss of Darkness winning its 2010 Vampire Romance Award.^[7] Publishers Weekly has mostly praised the series, but has stated that the "would-be witticisms [begin] to grate" in Once Burned.^[8]

Bibliography

Cat and Bones/The Night Huntress series

1. Halfway to the Grave (October 30, 2007, ISBN 0-06-124508-9)
2. One Foot in the Grave (April 29, 2008, ISBN 0-06-124509-7)
3. At Grave's End (December 30, 2008, ISBN 0-06-158307-3)
4. Destined for an Early Grave (July 28, 2009, ISBN 0-06-158321-9)
5. This Side Of The Grave (February 22, 2011, ISBN 0-06-178318-8)
6. One Grave at a Time (August 30, 2011, ISBN 0-06-178319-6)
7. Up from the Grave (January 28, 2014, ISBN 0-06-207611-6)

The Night Huntress World series

1. First Drop of Crimson (February 9, 2010, ISBN 0-06-158322-7)
2. Eternal Kiss of Darkness (July 27, 2010, ISBN 0-06-178316-1)

The Night Prince series

1. Once Burned (June 26, 2012, ISBN 0-06-178320-X)
2. Twice Tempted (March 26, 2013, ISBN 0-06-207610-8)
3. Bound by Flames (January 27, 2015, ISBN 0-06-207608-6)
4. Into the Fire (October 25, 2016)

Anthologies

• Happily Never After (May 27, 2008, ISBN 0-06-147268-9)
• Devil to Pay (June 30, 2009, ISBN 0-06-178736-1)
• Reckoning (August 25, 2009, ISBN 0-06-169993-4)
• One for the Money (August 3, 2010, ISBN 0-441-01868-8)
• Home for the Holidays (October 25, 2011)
• Outtakes From The Grave (December 22, 2015)

Reading order

1. Reckoning (Unbound)
2. Halfway to the Grave
3. One Foot in the Grave
4. Happily Never After (Weddings from Hell)
5. At Grave's End
6. Devil to Pay (Four Dukes and a Devil)
7. Destined for an Early Grave
8. One for the Money (Death's Excellent Vacation)
9. First Drop of Crimson
10. Eternal Kiss of Darkness
11. This Side Of The Grave
12. One Grave at a Time
13. Home for the Holidays (The Bite Before Christmas anthology)
14. Once Burned
15. Twice Tempted
16. Up From the Grave
17. Bound by Flames
18. Outtakes From The Grave
19. Into the Fire

References

External links

• Official author website