Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Halfway to the Grave is the first book in Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress Series.  The Night Huntress Series follows the story of Catherine "Cat" Crawfield, a half vampire, whose goal in life is to bring down as many bad guy vampires as she possibly can.  Cat also has an evil mom and a deadbeat vampire dad.  I LOVE the Night Huntress books because in them, Ohio is the center of vampire activity.  Yeah, that's right.  OHIO!  We never get to be in cool books or movies!! Basically, we have I Am Number Four and the Night Huntress books and that is it.  No one really thinks it's cool to live in Ohio, especially not authors who live in Ohio.  Dunno why.  Maybe it is the farms?  The bad roads?  The weather from hell?  Maybe it's all those things but anyway- Cat lives in Ohio AND gets to have a hot vampire boyfriend.  High Five, Jeaniene Frost!! You just made living in Ohio cool.

In HttG, Cat first meets Bones.  *Sigh*  Bones is a master level vampire and bounty hunter who believes at first that Cat has been hired by someone to off one of his marks.  He kidnaps her and tries to find out who see works for.  Once he realizes that she truly is killing vampires all on her own, Bones offers to train her to do what she does better and to help him with one of his kills.  As time goes by and the two spend more time together, Cat falls for Bones, even though it flies in the face of her whole belief system.  Cat's mom has raised her to believe that all vampires are evil and that they will kill you if you give them the chance.  Her mom doesn't seem to worried about sending her into the night though, as long as Cat kills vampires.  Bones makes her question the way she's been brought up.  Bones doesn't seem very evil and he gets plenty of chances but doesn't kill her.  So .... does that mean that there are innocent vampires and evil vampires?  After Cat and Bones bring down a people smuggling ring, they garner attention from the US government and Cat is given a choice: help the government with their supernatural cases and have no contact with Bones or go to jail for her supposed crimes and let the government take Bones down.  It's not much of a choice is it?  What will Cat do and how will it change the future for everyone involved?

I really liked this book because it set up the series really well.  I have read some of the other books in the series and it's spin-off books out of order.  I can't wait to read the next books to see how Cat and Bones find each other again.  This book is ADULT in nature due to strong violence and sexual content.  Not a book for young teens, for sure.  But for adults, the series is gripping, thrilling and exciting.  Definitely a must read series.

Halfway to the Grave gets 4 Fairies for Bones' hotness, Cat's kick-assery and the props to Ohio.

There are currently five books in the Night Huntress Series: Halfway to the Grave, One Foot in the Grave, At Grave's End, Destined for an Early Grave, and This Side of the Grave.  There are also short stories in a number of anthologies that fit into the timeline for the Night Huntress books.  The next Night Huntress book, One Grave at a Time, is due out August 30th of this year.  Check out the cover and inside cover art!! There are also two books called "Night Huntress World" books and they cover the stories of Bones' friend Spade and his grandsire Mencheres.  Both are GREAT books!! My library happened to have them, so I read them over Christmas and they were SOO good!  You can learn more about Jeaniene and the Night Huntress world that she has created on her website.  She's also on Goodreads and on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and MySpace.  She's a busy woman!  If you're over 17, I dare you to give this series a chance!  The books are all mass market paper backs and cost like seven bucks.  The cover art is great and the flap art usually features the hotness that is Bones.  Yum!