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At Grave's End (Night Huntress, Book 3) | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeaniene Frost
Publisher: Avon
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $4.93
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Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 286
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0061583073
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780061583070
ASIN: 0061583073
Publication Date: January 1, 2009 (New: This Week)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Great evolution for the series January 5, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I happened to love this entry in the Cat and Bones franchise. Yes, their relationship is different. It's evolving, and thank goodness for that. I loved the fact that Cat was forced to make some decisions and changes in her life. She's married, and to an extremely complicated man. Her relationships with those around her are evolving as well. I got very caught up in the emotion; it isn't as light as the previous books, but had some very real, heart-wrenching moments. Bones remains one of the hottest male protagonists in the genre, and Frost develops and deepens some of his relationships as well.
To sum up: If you are looking for another light romp, this might not be for you, but if you're looking for real evolution and emotion, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Jeaniene Frost has done it again... January 5, 2009
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This series gets better and betters as it continues. I think that this book is the best by far. Can't wait until the next one comes out! You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll cheer and you'll growl... LOVED IT
Filled with excitement and action... January 5, 2009
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Not sure why some didn't like this excellent book!
At Graves End starts with a bang, and doesn't stop. I couldn't put it down. As the story continues it's filled with plot twists, excitement, betrayal, romance, and lot's of action. this one fell a little short in the "hot sex" department, but otherwise it was the great read that I've come to expect from Frost. I reccomend it highly =)
 great cover...but the content isn't in the same league January 5, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After becoming a Cat & Bones fan (well, a Bones fan--Cat drives me insane with her juvenile sniping and bull-headed stupidity most of the time. Honestly, she's a bit TSTL...) last year, I definitely got caught up in the hype for this third book. The author's website and blog were absolutely masterful in the pre-publicity for At Grave's End, which must have made the publisher about wet itself with the sales anticipation. So, kudos to that--you made me buy it. I almost didn't, after reading the very first amazon review. But I couldn't help myself when I found it on sale at Target (hope this review doesn't get excised because I revealed I bought a book somewhere else!). Obviously, the pre-release mania worked here too, as the book's current sales rank is 227, which is pretty freaking good.
But I am, ultimately, disappointed with what I'd anticipated. And perhaps that isn't all the writer's fault. Now, as an author--a saleswoman, someone savvy to the ways of the buying public, well-versed in how to use modern media to her books' advantage--Frost didn't let us down. I was practically salivating to get my hands on this book, entered every pre-release contest I could find to win a copy, etc. etc. Brilliant marketing. But the *author* let me down with her *writer's* end product. This book is just not what the hype indicated it would be.
And perhaps, as I mentioned, the *writer* isn't as much at fault for that. Because it's damn hard to carry a series forward in the third book when the first two books were so good because of their uniqueness, the quirky character names, their highly unusual and extremely sexy hero, and the blazing action, among other things. The reading public becomes very possessive of beloved characters and worlds, and woe to the author who missteps. Not to mention, I'm sure the deadlines were brutal, as both publisher and agent likely urged Frost to hurry, hurry, ride the wave while it lasts and get these books out so we can all make some moolah. So maybe the writer felt pushed due to the very success of her books. I don't know this for a fact, but the thought is there, because At Grave's End strikes me as rushed, scattered, and more of the same--which was okay for the first two books. Then, the rush was new, and it was great. But by the third title, we need the same, yet it also has to be *different*, and that can just be damn hard to capture.
I have the same quibbles as in some of the other less glowing reviews. Some examples: 1) Bones, sexy devil though he may be, was simply tiresome in his overused ultra-possessiveness of Cat. We get it already. Enough. He's alpha. Gotcha. 2) All those who died in this book were indeed mostly faceless and nameless, and even some of the named and faced ones I just could not care less about, because they were toss-off sketches, mere cardboard cutouts, and cut hastily with ragged edges at that. Not to mention there were so damn many of them I was genuinely confused. There were errors with these abundant secondary (tertiary, even) characters that added fuel to my idea that this novel was a bit rushed: for example, early on Cat meets three new vampires with interesting names. She mentions that, in her head, she calls them by three *other* cute little names. But then we never again hear those names in her head, which rendered that bit unnecessary, not to mention confusing me further with the extra names.
Following me so far? Yeah, that's my point.
3) As for the sexual tension between Cat and Bones, I also thought it was far less present than in the previous two books, and when mentioned, it was definitely told rather than shown. Sure, they still have sex. Sure, there's the added tension of Tate *still* trying to get between them. And...I kind of didn't care. Gosh, it might almost make Cat more interesting if she does finally fall for Tate's overtures, I found myself thinking as I read. But when I got to a certain scene in a limo between Cat and Tate, I was just really annoyed. That scene was written simply for effect, and did nothing to further the plot except to, you guessed it, make Cat appear even more immature and annoying and Bones ever more jealously protective of the evermore single-minded Tate--which just made Tate annoying too. He's somewhat boring to me now, because he seems to exist only to exacerbate tension between our heroine & hero...and they should be able to create that tension between themselves without him around.
Now, yes, I read the book quickly and was definitely hooked by the action and flow, which is part of why I gave it 3 stars instead of 2. (The other part is that even if he's becoming tiresomely possessive, I still think Bones is just flat-out sexy.) Frost can write enough tension to hold a reader. But--I was also reading to see where this story was going...would it get better...even tenser in a brilliant way...and would I end up loving At Grave's End as much as I do the two previous books?
Well. No.
Ultimately, I found At Grave's End to contain contrived plot points, somewhat mindless action (great. Cat can survive having her head bashed through a concrete wall. Twice. Yawn.), and sweeping scenes and themes that left me disinterested and dissatisfied. I sense that Frost was casting around for what to do with her really great characters, and she latched onto stuff that simply lacks heart. (Ha! Pun not intended in this vampire-laden series.) Another example: a character we met in the previous books does permanently die, and it seemed kind of--pointless. Yes, seemingly pointless deaths unfortunately happen all the time in real life, but this is not real life. It's a novel, and an urban fantasy/paranormal romance novel at that, and as such there are different rules. I think Frost may also be suffering from too-many-characters syndrome, and she's desperately trying to figure out what to do with them all, while propelling the plot forward and holding her readers' interest. This book definitely falls short of the mark.
So. Will I read the next book in the series, due out in July? Probably. Maybe it's way better than this one, with the sort of literary redemption authors (and readers) dream about. Will I re-read At Grave's End before the next book comes out, as I did Halfway to the Grave and One Foot in the Grave before this one released? No. It just did not hold my attention and fascination like the first two books, and that's really too bad, because I had high hopes. Here's wishing the rest of the series regains the wild momentum and savage beauty of the first two, without treading the same old ground in the same old way. Because really, that's why I like them so much.
 Not a favorite January 4, 2009
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I miss the fun. The previous books managed to pack in fun, action, romance. The balance was off. I look forward to the next in the series with more character relationships.
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