This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I am loving my re-read of this series! I loved this book when I first read it almost seven years ago and I loved the audiobook just as much now. I had planned to listen to something else but something made me put everything aside to spend a little bit of time with Cat and Bones. I am so glad that I listened to that little voice in my head that told me to forget my plans and listen to this book because it was exactly what I needed.

This is the fourth book in a series that does need to be read in order since each book builds on the events of the previous installments. Cat and Bones were in a pretty good place at the start of this book. Things looked pretty calm but of course, that can't last for long. Cat and Bones have a small issue with Cat's ex that will be much more complicated than you could even imagine.

I love the characters in this series. Cat and Bones are both awesome and I love them together. Vlad plays an important role in this book which was a big plus for me. Vlad is such an interesting character and I love his friendship with Cat. All of the key players from the series play a role in this story and there is a couple of nice additions as well.

Tavia Gilbert does such a good job with this series. I adore the voice that she uses for Bones. It just feels so real to me. The dialogue in this story flowed absolutely wonderfully and I thought that she added a lot of emotion to this story. I loved the story when I read it on my kindle but there was something almost magical about experiencing it through the audiobook.

I would highly recommend this series to others. This book was fantastic even with the unnecessary relationship drama. There were times that I wanted to shake the characters for their behavior but there was never a time that I wasn't enjoying myself so it doesn't even matter. I cannot wait to continue with my re-read.

Initial Thoughts
This book had a lot of unnecessary drama between Cat and Bones and there were times that I kind of wanted to shake them. It doesn't matter though because I loved this book. I really had a great time with it and I almost forgot how amazing Vlad is! Tavia Gilbert was phenomenal with her narration and I might have liked this book even more the second time around.

Book Source: Audible purchase

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I had a great time with this book during this re-read! I fell in love with this series quite a few years ago and decided to get the audiobooks since I knew that I would want to revisit this world. This is the third book in the Night Huntress series, which really does need to be read in order. There were parts of the book that I did remember but I had lost quite a few details over the years. I am very slowly working my way through the series for the second time and found it to be just as enjoyable as it was the first time around if not more. 

I love Cat and Bones. More accurately, I like Cat but I LOVE Bones. There are actually a lot of great characters in this series but Bones is my favorite by far. Bones can do just about anything and doesn't make apologies. His love for Cat is sincere and unquestionable. I do like the two of them together. I must admit that there were a few times in this book that Cat got on my nerves just a bit. I like Cat and I understand that she has some great ideas but it just seemed odd that all of these really old vampires were taking her lead. I wanted to be quiet for a minute and maybe learn something from the very capable people she had around her. I also thought that Cat took some unnecessary risks and put herself in some uncomfortable positions which illustrated the fact she still has a lot to learn. I did think that Cat really showed her strength when everything went horribly wrong and she was forced to take a leadership position.

The secondary characters played really important roles in this book. I believe that this is Vlad's introduction in the series and I was quickly reminded why I love his character. The background that we learn about his character in this book was very touching. Mencheres was in the spotlight for a lot of this book and I have always enjoyed his character. I liked the developments in vampire politics that revolved around him and found his backstory to be rather eye-opening. 

This was an exciting story. There were a few scenes that stayed with me over the years which really says a lot about the book. There were some rather emotional moments in the story which I thought were handled very well. I liked that there was such a wide range of emotions in a single story and it all worked so well. 

Tavia Gilbert did a fantastic job with the narration of this book. This story has a pretty large cast of characters and she handles all of their different voices very well. I am actually rather amazed by the wide range of accents and voices that she does use in this audiobook. I thought that she expressed all of the emotion and excitement of this story expertly. I would say that her narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.

I would recommend this series to others. This is an exciting installment in a series filled with wonderful characters and intense situations. I can't wait to continue with my re-read of the series!

Initial Thoughts
I had a great time with this. This was a re-read for me but it has been several years since I last read this book. I really didn't expect to remember much of anything but I did remember some parts of the story. Maybe my memory isn't as bad as I think it is. Bones is my favorite character in this series by far but Vlad is right up there so I was thrilled to see him play a role in this installment. Ian, Spade, and Mencheres are also around which made me a happy camper. Cat did get on my nerves a time or two but I do like her character and thought that she was rather strong in this book. There is quite a bit of action and some pretty intense scenes that kept the excitement going.

Book source: Audible Purchase

CW: rape & slut-shaming

Though the Night Huntress series is pretty basic urban fantasy -- a half vampire lady stalks the streets at night to stake the undead threat -- there's enough little twists to keep it interesting. Our night huntress is the product of rape, and everything she knows about vampires come from her vampire-hating mother, which isn't much, or just plain trial and error. She meets up with a Master Vamp (named Bones ugh) after trying to stake him in a bar. After he disarms her with laughable ease, Bones proposes they team up to hunt vamps of his choosing, and he'll train her not to get killed. She thinks she's being real clever when she agrees to this while plotting to kill him at the end of the training period. Inevitably, they hook up. &c. 

I sort of let this slide in the first book, but boy does Cat shit on other girls. But I thought, she's maybe 18, and has been raised by an embittered mother who tells her she looks just like her father, who is a rapist. Mom sends her out to get killed on the regular, using her as a revenge proxy. Her mother seems to punish her daughter for her father's sin, so it made psychological sense to me that a girl raised without much affection and as the product of rape would be all "slut" this and "whore" that. By the second book, though, there's a big time jump, Cat is adulting pretty well, and seems to understand her mother's deep failings as a parent while maintaining a relationship with clear boundaries. 

And yet, the girl-hate only deepens, at times seeming to warp the behavior of many of the female characters. A variety of lady vamps from Cat's paramour's past show up through the novel, and they are all bombshells who spend their time crawling all over Bones or reminiscing about all the threesomes (or fivesomes!) they had with Bones back in the day. They are ridiculous misogynist caricatures, and not even relying on the more fun sexist tropes like Ice Queen or Hitchcock Blonde; they're just Slut Trash. Bones is not criticized for catting about in his youth, natch. 

Cat's inner and outer monologue is basically WHORE BITCH DIE, and this is passed off as "vampire possessiveness." Which, no. From all evidence, vampires screw around a lot, and without a lot of regard for gender norms. If they were sexually possessive, they would not be leaping into big fuckpiles all the time. (Indeed, the vampire penchant for fuckpiling is used at least twice as a plot point.) The concept of "vampire possessiveness" is inserted into the text so Cat (and by extension, the reader) can feel ok with how much she hates other women. It does not come up, either in word or deed, at any other point in the plot. 

Admittedly, Cat now has a woman friend on whom she does not shit, so not all of the female characters are treated this way. (And there's her mom, but that's obviously a whole other thing.) But it was a common enough element of the books that I began to sour on Cat. She regularly is required to dress up in "slut gear" (I think she calls it "slut gear") to lure male vamps to their deaths, so there's this weird acting out of the very thing she castigates other women for. Cat may look like all those other slutty sluts, but of course she is Not Like Other Girls™. 

Cat is a fun character: a hard-drinking hard case who is way more naive that she pretends. What I've read of Frost's later books don't have this girl-hating element in them, so maybe it's just Cat, like girl-hating is just part of her personality or whatever. Maybe Frost isn't in control enough of her first person (yet, these are her first novels) to delineate the thoughts of the character from the parameters of the world. (That's the standard objection when a reader criticizes the actions of a character, anyway: that I can't tell the difference between what the character thinks and what the author does.)

However, given the stated behavior of the slutty sluts, which are objective acts and not subjective opinion, that is not the case: the world works like Cat says it does. Which is to say, most women are oversexed and duplicitous by nature, except for Mom and Designated BFF. Put another way, women are slutty sluts whether Cat calls them that or not; this characterization of women is baked into the world, not one character's worldview. 

I just ... can we not? Can we not enact girl-hating and slut-shaming in girl pulp for girls? Don't we get enough of that hot garbage in real life? When I read escapism, I want to motherfucking escape. That gets hard when I keep running right into the same misogynist trash fire that is so vigorously burning in the world today. This is legitimately a fun series, but I just don't feel like pushing past the girl-hating at this point in time. Happy New Year! 

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I am having a lot of fun with my audio re-read of this series. It has been a little more than five years since I read this book the first time so it was definitely time to revisit this wonderful story. This was a book that once I really got into the story, I didn't want to put it down. I ended up listening to the whole audiobook in just a couple of days and I think I liked the book even more the second time around.

I do have to admit that I had a bit of a rough start with this book. This book begins several years after the events of the previous book where Cat left Bones to protect him. She is working her government job that she took to protect her mother at the end of the first book. She is very good at her job and has a good team working around her. 

I learned something very important while listening to this book. I like Bones a whole lot more than I like Cat. So much more. Bones wasn't around for the first part of this book so it was all Cat. I missed Bones. A lot. As soon as Bones entered the story again, my enjoyment increased dramatically. If you had asked me a year ago, I would have told you that I loved Cat and Bones. I discovered that I do love Bones but Cat has the potential to drive me a little crazy at times. Maybe by the end of my re-read of the series, I will love her just as much as Bones.

There are quite a few really important developments in this book. Bones and Cat are reunited which is a very good thing. Cat is in some danger which is not so good but Bones is able to help keep her safe since he is back in her life. We do also get to meet some other important characters including Cat's team and some of Bone's friends and acquaintances. There are some pretty intense action scenes and some scenes that are more than a little hot. 

Tavia Gilbert does such a great job with this series. She really brings both Cat and Bones to life. I love the voice that she used for Bones and think that the accent is perfect. All of the characters are very easy to distinguish with each voice used being unique and very believable. She handled a wide range of emotions and a lot of different types of scenes with ease in this book. I had no trouble listening to this book for hours at a time.

I do highly recommend this series to others. This is the second book in the Night Huntress series which really should be read in order since each book builds on previous events. I can't wait to continue my re-read of this amazing series!

Initial Thoughts
I had fun with this one. I had a bit of a rough start with it though. I found that I am a much bigger fan of Bones than I am of Cat and Bones was absent during the first part of the book. Even when Bones was back in the story, Cat still drove me nuts at times with her actions and jealous behavior. Don't get me wrong...I still had a great time with it. Tavia Gilbert did a fantastic job with the narration.

Book source: Audible purchase

Lately, life has been unnaturally calm for vampires Cat Crawfield and her husband Bones. They should have known better than to relax their guard, because a shocking revelation sends them back into action to stop an all-out war…

A rogue CIA agent is involved in horrifying secret activities that threaten to raise tensions between humans and the undead to dangerous heights. Now Cat and Bones are in a race against time to save their friends from a fate worse than death… because the more secrets they unravel, the deadlier the consequences. And if they fail, their lives—and those of everyone they hold dear — will be hovering on the edge of the grave.

This is the final book in the Night Huntress series . On the one hand it was bitter-sweet to see Cat, Bones and friends go on the other it was time.

 Now that I finished the complete series I think it was overdue. I would have been happy with five great books instead of the last two books seeming like Mrs. Frost is running out of ideas and just forcing things to happen.

This was not any different for this last book. Don’t get me wrong I liked it (well most of it) but it was not the same as what we got in the beginning of the series.

Sure we get the same characters, but something just seemed to be missing.

As far as this last book goes. I liked it we have Cat and Bones in full actions to not only save themselves but to prevent yet another full-blown war between the species. At the same time they ate trying to figure out what the government or more Madigan is and was up to. Once it is revealed what he has been up to, I thought “NO WAY”. But not in a good way.

I really didn’t care for this part of the story, it seemed too farfetched and yet reminded me of another vampire franchise, that done that. I didn’t care for what we find out. Not because it was (sort of) done before but because it just didn’t seem to fit and felt very forced.

I liked Cat in this book for the most part, except a few parts where she seemed to have lost the ability to think clearly. But mostly she as okay and it is rather amazing how far and how much she grown since the first book.

Bones, well he was Bones not much more to him and his moody self. Let’s not forget Tate.  Things change for him in a big…… I thought he handled it better that I thought he would fort being Tate that is.

Charles or Spade as we mostly known him, he used to be more the books and I used to like him but ever since the whole Denise thing, he turned into a big ole douche at least that is what I thought.,

Denise on the other grown so much, she might have even outgrown Spade and all the others. I really loved her in this book.

One other person I surprised me in this book and that was Ian. Man did I love him in this book, we learn so much more about him and I wish we would get more of him. Maybe someday as a spin-off we get Ian.

Overall I liked this book, it had suspense, humor, romance and action.  I rate the book at 3★     ...I wish I could have rated it higher being the last but it is what it is.  

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the entire series, I sure did and I will miss Cat & Co for sure.

Some of my favorite quotes:

“Can we move this along?" a bored voice stated. "I have places to be and people to shag."

***

“Shame on you, Crispin. Married how long, and you haven't spanked your wife with a metal spatula yet?"

***

“Only a fool chooses to live in ignorance when knowledge is so easily obtained.”

***

“That's how two vampires, a medium, and a dog came to sit around a Ouija board in the back room of a floral shop.”

***

Available NOW 

Jeaniene Frost is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of the Night Huntress series, the Night Prince series and the Broken Destiny series. To date, foreign rights for her novels have sold to twenty different countries. Jeaniene lives in North Carolina with her husband Matthew, who long ago accepted that she rarely cooks and always sleeps in on the weekends. Aside from writing, Jeaniene enjoys reading, poetry, watching movies with her husband, exploring old cemeteries, spelunking and traveling – by car. Airplanes, children, and cook books frighten her.

For information on Jeaniene's books, reading the first 20% of each book free, book trailers, deleted scenes, creature mythology, and more, please visit: www.jeanienefrost.com

Links

Website *** Faceboook *** Twitter *** Amazon