Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39610 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

Synopsis
Half-vampire Catherine Crawfield pursues the undead with a vengeance in the hope that one of her prey will be the father who ruined her mother's life, but her plans go awry when she is captured by Bones, a vampire bounty hunter.

Customer Reviews

Great Start to New Urban Fantasy Series
Catherine Crawfield kills vampires. Half vampire herself, she is trying to pacify her mother, who was raped by a vampire and subsequently became pregnant with Cat. At the beginning of the book we join Cat on one of her hunts, but instead of being the one doing the staking, Cat finds herself at the mercy of Bones the vampire. Deciding to work together, they join forces and pursue Hennessey a vampire who definitely deserves killing. Their feelings for one another deepen, but Cat will eventually have to make a choice between her own happiness, and the safety of those she cares about.

I don't think Halfway to the Grave is helped by being labelled a paranormal romance. I think if the romance had been allowed to develop more slowly over the course of the series and the urban fantasy pushed harder the book overall would have been stronger. As it is the relationship between Bones and Cat feels a little rushed. Also romance readers who prefer their endings to be tied up neatly need to be aware this is the first in a series.

Catherine's character doesn't really settle down for the first forty pages or so of the story. As she's a first person protagonist the story doesn't really settle down until then either. She's very much a contradiction, and I think some of this is down to inconsistency.

I find it very hard to believe that Cat at age 22 has never used hard swear words. So on p5 my suspension of disbelief went out of the window. This woman has been to school, presumably been to the movies, hangs out in bars trying to pick up vampires. I realize her mother is over protective to say the least, as are her grandparents but this didn't quite gel for me. There is an incongruity between her physical age and her thought processes, which feel younger.

Luckily once we get past p.40 the plot takes off and we are sucked into Cat's world.

Overall then, I loved it, and was racing through the pages to find out what happened next. The relationship between Bones and Catherine, their banter, their chemistry, how they spark off one another - these are the things that makes this story come alive and raise it from being just another vampire book.

There are also nice little touches that flesh the world out - the vampire club, their visit to the cemetery, hiding out with a ghoul. Cat having to rethink her prejudices against the undead, working out how to deal with her mother - the woman could have started a cult she's got so much righteous venom. We're also given lots of little things that aren't resolved. Who is Cat's father? Will we be finding out more about Ian (Bone's sire)? What are the consequences of Cat's decision going to be?

The end goes a little Buffy Season 4, but I wasn't too bothered by that. What concerned me more here was Cat's seeming invincibility. Hopefully this will be addressed in the next book, and we'll be seeing a more realistic and mature heroine. And more from Bones.

Book 2 One Foot in the Grave (May 2008)

Half vampire Vengence
Catherine Crawfield is a half-vampire destroying vampires left, right and centre trying to keep the love of her mother who was date raped by a new made vampire. One night she targets Bones and her world changes forever. Bones not only hones her half-vampire skills making her stronger and tougher but also makes her question her beliefs and the values that she has been raised with - especially in regard to vampires.

At the introduction of Bones into the book I found it a bit hard going - Bones sounds to much like Spike out of Buffy the vampire slayer - with his British accent and the desprition of his appearance. A lot of his dialogue even sounded scripted straight out of the series. Having read past that and how the characters developed in the story I could not put the book down. I absolutely loved this book and once having read it went straight back and re-read it. I am eagerly looking forward to the the next book in the series. People who read (as I do) Charlaine Harris, Kelly Armstrong, Patricia Briggs, MaryJanice Davidson will I am sure fully enjoy this book

A waste of time
I bought this book on the basis of other reviews and feel badly misled. It is poorly written exacerbated by the belief the author's belief that she can use English slang, the misue of 'luv' and 'quid' being particularly annoying. The heroine's sad chilhood is restated repeatedly, just in case we didn't get how it screwed her up the first time we read it. The storyline is held together by a series of unbelievable coincidences and its main purpose appears to be to cobble together a series of descriptions of sexual encounters which I skipped after the first couple. This is a book I would advise you to avoid even if you are an admirer of this genre. If you only read this type of book for the sex scenes you might enjoy it but as I found them intrusive to the storyline and skipped most of them I cannot comment on how well or how badly written they are.