This Side of the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel (Night Huntress, #5)

by Jeaniene Frost

The highly anticipated continuation of Jeaniene Frost's "New York Times" and "USA Today" bestselling "Night Huntress" series, in which Cat and Bones face an enemy unlike any they've met before.

• ISBN10: 0061783188
• ISBN13: 9780061783180
• Publish Date: 1 March 2011 (first published 1 February 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Avon Books
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

Proceed With Caution:

This book contains blood, gore, death, murder, mind control, cancer, and mentions of rape.

The Basics:

This Side of the Grave picks up about a year after the events of Destined For an Early Grave and soon after the two spin-off books. Cat and Bones are investigating the disappearance of some vampires, reported to have been killed by ghouls. Of course, this pulls them into the vampire-ghoul war, which is being centered around Cat and her freaky abilities. Or at least, the potential for her freak abilities.

My Thoughts:

I read This Side of the Grave for the first time six years ago and remembered exactly one event, which doesn't even happen until the final page. And I didn't even remember it was in this specific book, just that it happened, until near the end. Add that to the fact that I didn't even review this one, even though I reviewed all of the other books, including the spin-offs, and well, that shows how much I think about this installment.

This Side of the Grave isn't bad. Not at all. It's just the ultimate filler book. I may have liked it more than Destined for an Early Grave, but it does suffer from some of the same issues. There's a lot of interesting and exciting things that happen here, but that's exactly what they felt like. A string of interesting and exciting things, not a cohesive story. In fact, the plot doesn't really kick in until more than half way in. It's just Cat and Bones going from place to place and doing stuff and learning stuff.

I also just don't like the villain. Apollyon is boring, honestly. At least Gregor was interesting, even if he came the heck out of nowhere. Apollyon is just...there. He's trying to incite a war between the vampires and ghouls, but when it comes down to it, he's a nobody. He doesn't even make an appearance until the last handful of pages! He had potential, but he was just a puppet to get the series' overarching plot kicked into gear.

And that's why I still liked This Side of the Grave despite it feeling like filler. The big plot has been hinted at for awhile now. First it was because Cat was the freaky half-breed that no one knew what to do with. Now, she's the freaky vampire that no one knows what to do with. They've always been worried about her gaining ghoul abilities, and now that she's shown that she has full vampire abilities plus retained some of her humanity, well...it's not out of the realm of possibility.

This Side of the Grave is a fine read. It's important because it really starts pulling all of the little things together and sets bigger things into motion. I just wish it had come together better as its own story in this universe.

[lisacee]

3.5 stars

[Berls]

It's taken me forever to read this series... I seem to read a book a year or something. But I think this is the one that will change that for me. Not that I haven't enjoyed the others - I have. But this really pulled me in. I read it slower due to life getting in the way, but I was always eager to learn what would happen next. I love where cat and bones are with their relationship. I love the complexity of which cat is as a new, weird, vampire. I loved the ghostly aspects and yeah, I just really loved it. Jumping into the next one immediately for once!

[Beth C.]

Have kleenex. Seriously. Because you'll need it.

[mitabird]

This was a solid addition to the series, but not one of my favorites. It took me almost a week to finish it. The storyline is a continuation from the last book, but I didn't find it all that interesting. I still love the relationships and it's what keeps me reading. Bones is not shy about letting Cat know how he feels about her and Cat is finally starting to come around with being more open with him. I also like that she is becoming more comfortable in her skin and growing as a person. One thing that I dislike about some series if when the characters seem to stall without any progression. I admit that I was really sad when Don died. I knew it was coming, but I didn't expect to be so emotional about it. I am looking forward to the next book in the series to see what Frost has in store for Cat, Bones and family.

[Jo]

The highly anticipated continuation of Jeaniene Frost's New York Times and USA Today bestselling Night Huntress series, in which Cat and Bones face an enemy unlike any they've met before.

Danger waits on both sides of the grave.

Half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her vampire husband Bones have fought for their lives, as well as for their relationship. But just when they've triumphed over the latest battle, Cat's new and unexpected abilities threaten to upset a long-standing balance...

With the mysterious disappearance of vampires, rumors abound that a species war is brewing. A zealot is inciting tensions between the vampires and ghouls, and if these two powerful groups clash, innocent mortals could become collateral damage. Now Cat and Bones are forced to seek help from a dangerous "ally"--the ghoul queen of New Orleans herself. But the price of her assistance may prove more treacherous than even the threat of a supernatural war. ...to say nothing of the repercussions Cat never imagined. From Amazon US

Regular readers will know by now how much of a fan I am of Jeaniene Frost and her Night Huntress series. I absolutely cannot get enough of Cat and Bones, and so it is with no surprise that I was hugely excited when This Side of the Grave arrived, and started reading immediately.

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with this book. There was Cat and Bones being Cat and bones, so there was laughter and a few hot moments. There were some really sad moments, and some really lovely moments. For all this, this novel is well worth a read. But there was just too much missing for me.

There was very little action in this book, and the action there was didn't last very long. The story took quite a while to get going and felt quite slow, but as it was Cat telling the story, you weren't too bothered because of how amusing she is. I was thinking at times that it was probably a bit more realistic; things can't be happening all the time, there has to be moments where they're playing the waiting game. But the pace never really picked up for me. As well as there being little action, it wasn't very gorey either.

Cat goes through some important changes in this book, and there is another important event that takes place. This important event and the changes will probably lead to more things happening in later books, but it felt to me that the whole point of this book was for these two things, and a story was built around them.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the story. If this was a first book in a series, it would definitely make me want to pick up the others, it's not exactly boring or anything like that. It's just having read all the previous novels - including the two in the Night Huntress World series... this book doesn't really touch them. I'm sad to say I have read better by Frost, but I really do think this is a book Cat and Bones fans need to read for the important things do occur. And you'll probably enjoy it, too - just don't expect the usual fireworks.

From

[Melanie]

I enjoyed reading this book, but found it was no where near the best of the Night Huntress books. In this book, we learn more about Mencheres. He is much different in this book than he has been in the past Cat & Bones books. You can definitely see the difference that Kira makes. Vlad also has a large part in this book, and is funny as ever. Cat also goes back to Tennessee and see her old team, uncle and mother (that brings more problems for Cat in more than one way).

We also see Cat interact with Marie the voodoo queen ghoul from New Orleans. Marie always seems to be putting herself exactly where see wants to be, but in a back-handed sort of way. Fabian has a very large part in this story. We learn a lot more about ghosts and what their abilities are

I would say that the story is not the best, but there is plenty of character development. I wouldn't say that this book is a "cliffhanger", but I would also say there is an incentive to pick up the next book (luckly it comes out this Fall).

[Linda]

What a great installment about Cat and Bones! I love how they worked together with Denise and Spade, Vlad, Kira and Mencheres and even Cat's old colleagues. It was a very exciting read, a lot of things happening, and more dangers on Cat and Bones' tails than usual.

I was so sad when Don died, that was really tough for Cat to deal with, but she did come out of it even stronger than before. That's just one of the things I love about this series, the character development and their maturing is excellent, and it all really makes sense.

And there were too many funny quotes to mention, but I have added one or two on my profile page :D