First Drop of Crimson

I came late to the work of Cat and Bones, and was so excited to see a book about the mysterious and intriguing Charles, aka Spade. He's the tall, dark, mysterious fellow who drops in to lend a hand and sometimes save the day over in the Night Huntress series. And his love interest in Denice, Cat's recently widowed best friend.As the book opens Denice discovers that a dangerous force from her family's past is behind a series of deaths. In spite of shunning all vampires (including her friends) Denice quickly realizes that she's in over her head. Since she's ghosted everyone, she has only one possibility to turn to, and that's Spade, who swoops in to save the day. Which is what he does.One of the best elements of Cat and Bones is the couple is united in their gleefully murderous sociopathy. They have their rocky start, but they spark off each other. They're well developed and fully rounded characters that we see advance in character. They're funny, passionate and quirky. I mean, Bones is filthy rich and lives in a cave--right? Bones has an East End vibe, subtly evidenced in his language. Cat has lead her violent, solo life and has a prudish streak hiding her freakish nature.This couple feels tropey and underbaked. Denise reads more like the heroine in a contemporary romance. She undertakes multiple TSTL behaviors, right up to the end. She's grieving, but as a reader, I don't empathize because there was no development of her late husband, Randy. So how can the reader care that he died? There is so much potential in this set-up. Denice's accelerated appetite could have been hilarious. Her grief for her husband could have been a weight, but we were told about it, not shown.Spade is way gothic. He's nobility, but uses archaic slang that doesn't really suit what I imagine his accent would be. There's a lot of back story sprinkled in, but it doesn't feel genuine. Of the two, he fares better, but never really shines as a primary hero.Another bugaboo for me is that it's a road trip from luxurious house to luxurious hotel. Spade is filthy rich and we never forget it. The action is frequently cut off. The fight starts, the scene changes and the fight is over, so the reader is told what happened. The major battle between Spade and Web is anticlimactic. The only way Spade can defeat him is by Cat welding "go slow" powers. Huh? When other characters from earlier novels appear, a jolt of life enters the pages. Ian is funny, Bones is intense and all-powerful, sadly, Cat is pretty flat. Nathanial is a treasure chest that's only cracked open. He's a tragic character, but we see only glimmers of compassion from Spade. And of course, more guilty internal dialogue from Denise.A female-driven UF needs a heroine who is larger than life and Denise just wasn't there for it. I don't know what she does for a living, what her hobbies are, I didn't even have a clue what she looked like till later in the book. Her nascent shape-shifting ability was intriguing, as were her claws. I knew she was grieving, that she felt guilt, that she had PTSD because we were told. Not shown. Even though she had a fight scene, she wasn't an active heroine. This fight lasted over two hours, but all we see is Spade coming in to save the day.OK, now that I've been harsh, I do want to say what I liked. The sex was well-written and hot. There was a hint of homoerotic tension. (Ian really should be bi...) I love the team dynamics. They've known each other for centuries but are still hashing out relationships. I love the touches of humor and Spade's easy acceptance of some of the less glamorous aspects of the human body. The set-up of the story is cool, searching out a long-lost ancestor who screwed up your life. I liked that Denise had room to grow as a character. I LOVED her final shape shift. And the resolution was compassionate and somewhat sweet.So, worth a read? Yes. Worth a re-read. Maybe. I do hope she decides to give Nathanial his own story. He'd be great in a M/M paranormal romance.

I'd previously read the first two Night Huntress books, and really loved Cat and Bones. There were things I liked about this book, but it had problems as well. The main one was I never warmed to Denise. She seemed bland and focused on all the wrong things (like her hair and makeup and endless internal dialogue rehashing the same things over and over). I never got a sense of who she was beyond her sexual attraction for Spade and her fear of a shadowy, totally undeveloped, antagonist. (More on that later.) She developed a backbone in the last chapter of the book, but by then it was too late because I didn't care what happened to her anymore. It's too bad, because Spade made a phenomenal leading man. Just the right blend of alpha with pure sex appeal. I kept rooting for him to find a partner other than Denise, which isn't good in a romance. From a technical perspective, there were many things repeated, so editing could have been improved. My other pet peeve was the plot wandered. Ms. Frost is a better writer than this book suggests. The antagonist makes a cameo appearance at the front end of the book, and shows up one other time before the end, but he never felt like much of a threat because his time "on stage" was so limited. Overall, I found this a lackluster read, but I haven't given up on her books.

Now while I understand this was a stand alone novel, the characters have gone through development in the Night Huntress series world previous to this. Denise is Cat's best friend who is suffering from PTSD, because her husband was killed in the brutal attack from Book 3 (At Graves End). She is also unfortunately suffering the consequences of a late late family member who trifled with a demon, took part of it's power and then bolted. Gipping the demon from his price for giving it's power, the late family members soul. As punishment the demon is going to each of Denise's family members and killing them via heart attacks. Luckily for Denise she has connections with the underworld and soon hooks up with Spade! Bones' (Cat's husband's) best friend. I'm not going to lie I always wanted these two to get together ever since he gives Denise a interested look in Book 3, but Denise was then married to Randy. Which left me kind of feeling like the author killed Randy off just so Denise could be with Spade and so Spade would no longer be lonely. It irked me a tiny bit, but on the other hand it shows how dangerous their world is, and shows logical outcomes of that, Randy's death. Overall this book left the couple getting together feeling a tiny bit forced, and in my opinion I felt like they had little chemistry. I kind of would have preferred them just being friends. They were good friends. I liked Spade better as a character when he was single than a drooling-over-Denise Spade. At least he isn't love-zombified to the point that he gives her whatever she wants, and neither is Denise. Which is why, again, I say they should have been friends, but I digress. We get to learn more about Denise, who was a bit of an unknown character; all we kind of knew was that she was Cat's best friend. She has the stereotypical southern girl personality and surprise surprise she has a temper. Although this may be amplified by something else...Without giving too much away I will say the ending was fresh and a nice surprise. I absolutely love the new character introduced and can't wait to read more about him.

Spade from the Night Huntress series is the vampire lead in this spin off, who ends up with more trouble than he bargained for when Cat's bestie Denise phones in a panic after being branded by a demon.She has to track down a lost relative to save her whole family, though she still suffers from PTSD after the events in book 4 with Cat and Bones.The PTSD is handled very well, and the growing relationship between the two is great, Romantic, funny, dangerous and full of adventure. We also get cameos from the other books

This story feels like it should have been a side-plot in one of the Cat and Bone's novels. Ilona Andrews has done something similar with Andrea's standalone novel, but at that point we'd had several novellas and a decent amount of page-time for her and Raphael to justify such an expansion. I was actually excited to see how Andrea resolves her issues with Raphael after the events of Magic Bleeds. With Denise and Spade, by comparison, they're virtual footnotes in their parent series and have barely established a rapport.

Denise MacGregor knows all to well the dangers of the vampire world. Her last foray there ended in the death of her husband so since then she has shunned the vampire world, including her best friend Cat Crawfield. When a demon shapeshifter marks her and threatens her family, Denise has no choice but to reconnect with it. She calls Spade, a mysterious vampire who has been fighting his attraction to her since they met and together they must fight to save Denise and her family.This is the first book in the Night Huntress world series that has spun off of the great Night Huntress novels (which started with  Halfway to the Grave ). Falling after the fourth book in that series, this features two of my favourite characters - Cat's best friend Denise and Bone's best friend Spade so I was really looking forward to reading it.The plot is well-thought out but surprisingly simplistic compared to the Night Huntress books. At first the book had difficulty keeping my interest as it just felt like the characters were going through the motions, but it then picked up and I really enjoyed the second half. There were some clever twists and a brilliant ending.I already liked Spade and Denise and I really enjoyed reading their story and learning more about them. My enjoyment was dented a bit by the fact the tension stopping the pair from getting together is almost completely down to misinterpretation. There were times where I wanted to reach into the book and knock their heads together. One simple conversation and their relationship problems would have almost entirely disappeared.One thing I really enjoyed was that there are cameos from other Night Huntress characters, including Ian who I have always loved. He is his usual arrogant rude self but he helps to ground the story and to create a counter point to Spade.All in all this was a good read and I'm looking forward to  Eternal Kiss of Darkness .Plot: 8/10Characters: 9/10Ending: 10/10Enjoyment: 8/10Cover: 7/10Overall: 42/50 Halfway to the GraveEternal Kiss of Darkness

This is the first spin-off in Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress World series. I always find it really helpful to have a reading order when I start a series, so just in case you've bought this book on it's own, whilst it can be read as a standalone, it's much more satisfying if read in order. The series including the Night Huntress books is:HALFWAY TO THE GRAVEONE FOOT IN THE GRAVEAT GRAVE'S ENDDESTINED FOR AN EARLY GRAVEFIRST DROP OF CRIMSONETERNAL KISS OF DARKNESSTHIS SIDE OF THE GRAVEONE GRAVE AT A TIMEThis is Spade's tale. I've really liked Spade whilst reading the Night Huntress series, he's Bones' best friend and over the other books you've come to know his loyalty, strength and a little bit of his back story.Denise, our lovely heroine, is Cat's best friend - she has a rather large Demon problem and when she tries and fails to reach Cat to get her help she eventually gets through to Spade and he comes to her aid.Denise has had a bit of a rough time lately, she's been widowed and members of her family have been murdered, she suffers panic attacks and is terrified of all things paranormal. But she's a strong little thing and she's determined to get things solved. I do like the way that JF writes 'humans' - the women are funny, gorgeous, smart and not afraid of speaking their minds. Whereas the Vampires are sometimes so set in their ways and laws that the fresh human women comes along and tramples all over their ideals of how a woman should act.Spade is a fine hero, he's always had a bit of a 'thing' for Denise, but because of his past he has avoided humans. He can't avoid Denise though and it's nice watching their mutual respect grow before the love thing happens. I'm already pretty invested in Cat and Bones, so it's harder to invest in new main characters in their world but I think JF manages this well. She writes such a good story, and her characters are so descriptive that it's hard not to love them. I also love seeing other characters from the books come in and play a part too.These books make me smile, I devoured them in a few days and I shall go back and re-read them some day soon. That's a pretty good sign of a series I think.

First Drop of Crimson is the first book in Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress World series, a spin off from her Night Huntress series featuring Cat and Bones. While the original series straddles the line between paranormal romance & urban fantasy and focuses on one couple through all of the books this new series definitely fits into the paranormal romance category and will feature a different couple in each of the books. The characters that it is focusing on have all been introduced as side characters in the first series so I'd recommend reading the Night Huntress books before starting this book but I do think you are given enough information that you can probably catch up if you are new to Jeaniene Frost's work. You will pick up spoilers if you read this first and then move onto Cat & Bones' series though.I absolutely love the Night Huntress series (I am crazy about Bones!) so I was really looking forward to reading First Drop of Crimson. Spade has been a character I have liked whenever we have seen him in previous books and I was keen to find out more about his past. Denise is Cat's best friend and (mostly) human and I never really felt we got to know her in the other series so I wasn't too sure what to expect from her in this book. I have to say she really grew on me and I enjoyed getting to know her better and watching her change throughout this book. I loved Spade (he'll never replace Bones in my affections but he isn't a bad stand in!) and really feel I understand him a lot better now.Although Denise could be a little irritating at times I felt that the way she acted was understandable considering her recent experiences at the hands of vampires. It isn't surprising that she has no trust of the supernatural and doesn't want anything to do with them - all she wants is to have a quiet life where she won't be in danger any more. She doesn't get much choice in the matter because an ancestor has put her whole family at risk and if she is going to have a chance to save them she will need help. When she is unable to get hold of Cat or Bones she turns to the only other person she can think of - Spade. Luckily Spade is willing to help, he has been attracted to Denise ever since he first saw her but he has also been hurt in the past and is scared to get into the same situation again. I really felt the attraction between them (the shower scene in particular had me more than a little flustered!) but I liked the way they didn't jump right into a relationship. They both had issues that needed to be dealt with first and I liked the fact that they were able to discuss things. I think they're very well suited to each other and I'm hoping that we get to see more of both of them in future books in both series.If you've already read Jeaniene's work then you'll already know to expect plenty of action and some interesting plot twists and I don't think you'll be disappointed even though there is more focus on the romance as their story is only told in one installment. I love the fact that we are introduced to new supernatural creatures in the demons & I'm curious to see if they'll cross over into the Cat & Bones series. I also really liked the fact that we get to see some of the other characters we've come to know and love - Cat & Bones in particular but also Mencheres and Ian (who is growing on me the more I see of him & I'm hoping he will get his own story eventually).Overall I probably like the Night Huntress series slightly more but I've spent 4 books with Cat and Bones and adore them both so that probably isn't surprising. When you compare this to other standalone PNR stories then it really does hold it's own. I'm looking forward to reading Eternal Kiss of Darkness - I'm so curious to read Mencheres story! I would recommend this series to fans of the Night Huntress series but also to people who enjoy a good PNR book that has a fast paced plot as well as hot romance.