Up From the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel (Night Huntress, #7)

by Jeaniene Frost

There's always one more grave to dig Lately, life has been unnaturally calm for vampires Cat Crawfield and her husband, Bones. They should have known better than to relax their guard, because a shocking revelation sends them back into action to stop an all-out war ...A rogue CIA agent is involved in horrifying secret activities that threaten to raise tensions between humans and the undead to dangerous heights. Now Cat and Bones are in a race against time to save their friends from a fate worse than death ...because the more secrets they unravel, the deadlier the consequences. And if they fail, their lives-and those of everyone they hold dear-will be hovering on the edge of the grave.

• ISBN10: 0062076116
• ISBN13: 9780062076113
• Publish Date: 30 January 2014 (first published 28 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Avon Books
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Berls]

reread I gave it 4 stars

oops finished this forever ago and forgot to mark it. loved it and really enjoyed it as an ending to the series. things went in a direction I never expected but I liked them. I do like that there's room for more, but at the same time it feels complete. I'm going to have to read other books in the universe now.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

I absolutely love this series, and Jeaniefe Frost is one of my favourite urban fantasy authors, so of course I was going to read Up From the Grave. The seventh and final book in the Night Huntress series is just as action packed and as exciting as we've come to expect, but there was something missing in this one for me.

Life has been pretty quiet and peaceful for Cat and Bones lately, and Cat's come to enjoy it. But when the Don's ghost pays her a visit to say her old team mates and friends have gone missing, Cat will put aside her peaceful life to find out what's going on. Turns out Madigan, Don's replacement, has been conducting experiments on her friends behind the scenes. He wants to create a species that are human, vampire and ghoul all at once to create an unbeatable army for humans. Knowing neither vampire nor ghoul will let something like that slide, Cat and Bones are racing against time to stop Madigan and save her friends. But revelations throw a spanner in the works, and Cat discovers more than she bargained for.

Up From the Grave is a really sweet novel. As I said, there's excitement and danger throughout, and some of the things Madigan has done are atrocious. You're still on the edge of your seat, dying to know what happens. But you can feel it's the end of the series as you go along. Cat comments frequently about how she misses the peace they had, and wanting to go back to that. There's also several instances of Cat truly realising what she wants from life, and that's to spend it with Bones. She accepted how she felt about Bones a long time ago - they're married now, even - but I think in Up From the Grave she discovers just how deep her feelings go, just how much she loves him, and what her life would be without him - nothing. There's also a time or two when we get similar comments from Bones. There's a very strong feel that their life together is more important than anything else, which is part of the winding down of the series. They're going to focus on their own little world when everything has calmed down.

Cat and Bones mentioned things that had happend in previous books quite a number of times. This was probably meant to be a nod to the series ending - showing how far Cat and Bones have come, and the things they've gone through together - but I didn't always remember what was being discussed. There have been two Prince of Darkness books since the last Night Huntress Novel, and a few Night Huntress World books interspersed between the others. It's been a long time since those other Night Huntress books came out, and I simply couldn't remember what they were talking about, but there wasn't enough recap to jog my memory. So sadly, most of the references went over my head.

I did find Up From the Grave kind of predictable in places, though. There were some extremely emotional times in this book, but there were always hints as to what would happen, so I couldn't get as anguished as Cat, because I didn't believe what was happening. I think the predictability is what let me down a bit; I knew what was coming for certain parts of the books, and so although it was exciting and had me on the edge of my seat, I wasn't surprised. And the big, big reveal? Really obvious. So obvious. I couldn't work out how things are as they are, but I gathered really on what the outcome would be. It was just glaringly obvious. And although it fits in with the plot completely, it feels a little too conveniant. It seems like Frost decided how she wanted the series to end for Cat and Bones, and then wrote a story to fit that, one that works, one that's plausible and completely in vein with the other books, but still feels a little... self-gratifying? Or maybe a little too generous to the characters? I don't know, but I'm dubious about it. Not only has the series ended, but it's ended wrapped up in a pretty ribbon too. It's not necessarily a bad thing to do - serious kudos to Frost for creating a great story to get this ending without it seeming like an after thought, "Oh, and by the way..." - it was just surprising that Frost chose to. With all that Frost has put her characters through, it just seems a little out of character for things to be so nice and neat. It left me thinking, "Really?"

On the whole, not the best in the series, but still a pretty good book. A nice way to end the series, even if it I have some misgivings about it. I still consider Frost to be one of my favourite authors, and I'm super excited to read more from her in the future!

[Hixxup]

this book wowed me some definite twists and turns I never expected. but is this really the end????

[Linda]

Action-packed, emotional, harsh, and amazing! Up From the Grave is a rollercoaster ride, and a great end to one of my favorite series.

This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews

[littleread1]

Meh. Good but predictable ending. I must say I am getting sick of everything coming down to kids. Why is it women aren't complete until they have a kid? It really irritates me. I mean FUCK people. Cat is kind of an idiot. She falls for the dumbest shit and after all these years she and Bones still don't trust each other? *facepalm*

[ellieroth]

El Extraño Gato del Cuento

It's over, luv. No more Kitten and Bones. I'll miss you, guys.

Es tan difícil de una historia que te acompañó tanto tiempo, el último libro me gustó pero no me satisfizo como esperaba.

En Up From the Grave encontramos todo lo que nos hizo enamorarnos de la serie: risas, acción, lo hot, Bones, Cat Badass, Ian descarado, recurren también a personajes pasados, se descubren un montón de cosas de las cuales no teníamos sospechas. Solo que yo cometí un error, la serie Night Huntress tiene un spin-off, los libros se leen por orden de publicación y lo leí en desorden,Twice Tempted viene primero, y me spoileo un poquito, no tanto como pensé pero igual hizo que mi ánimo en la lectura bajara un poco. Ya saben ¡léanlo en orden!

Hablando ya concretamente en la trama de este último libro, y aquí dónde viene el spoiler si no leíste este último libro, es que se me hizo un poco... No sé como definirlo, pero el que a Cat le sacaran una hija, si bien prueba otra de las bombas que suelta el libro, no me convenció del todo. Disfruté leyendo, experimentando esta nueva etapa maternal de Cat, es solo que creo que ya me había hecho a la idea de Cat, Bones y su gato. Además no me gustan los niños xD

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[Melanie]

Listening to audiobook

Review originally posted at Hotlistens.com

This book is very bittersweet. It is the last book in the Cat & Bones series. While I understand that Ms. Frost must end the story where her muse tells her she must, it is very sad to see them leave early. I was overall happy with the ending. I think ending a series is an extremely difficult thing to do. No one ever seems happy with how the story ends, you always want something to have a different outcome than what actually happens. I have been disappointed with the ending of many series, and while this one didn't knock my socks off, I was not disappointed like I was with some others.

This review will be pretty vague and I'm sorry about that, but I don't want to give away any spoilers. There is a bunch of action. Bones and Cat are in trouble as always. I'm a little disappointed in the lack of trust between the two of them. After all of these years, they still don't trust each other when planning and continue to go behind each other's back. I wish that after all this time, they could learn to work together and trust each other's abilities.

There are several large plot twists and I've seen both good and bad responses to them. For me personally, I kind of liked how everything ended up, at least in part. I don't know how to give more detail without revealing anything. I know, it leaves a lot to be determined, but I'll just have to say, read or listen to this book to find out more.

Pretty much every character shows up in this book, some more than others. Don has a large presence and proves he still isn't winning any father of the year awards. There is tons of Ian, which was great. I really hope that he gets his own book before Ms. Frost walks away from this world completely. We also get some quality time with Spade and Denise, Mencheres and Kara, a small cameo from Vlad (his wedding to be exact). I was really surprised that we didn't really see Justina, she is mentioned, but didn't have a single line.

We get to see a new side to Mencheres. He has a human who is trying to recover some data off a damaged hard drive. This human is seventeen years old and Mencheres interacts with him like he was a seventeen year old human as well. Fist bumping, and even says, "You are are the shit". That was a little weird, but it was nice to see that he was "human".

I will say that I've loved this series from the very beginning and while I feel that the series has had ups and downs, overall, I love Cat, Bones and the gang. I will miss them greatly. My favorite quote in the entire series is from Bones in This Side of the Grave, "Ask me if I sparkle and I'll kill you where you stand." I spit my drink all over my desk when I heard that. I can't wait to see what Ms. Frost has waiting in the wings with her next project.

Tavia Gilbert did a great job as always with the narration. She has done the narration for this entire series and for the spinoff Night Huntress World and Night Prince books. I love the voice that she does for Bones with his British accent. I also love the way she does Ian's voice and he has a large part in this book. She does a great job with how Cat thinks inside her own head and brings out Cat's snark well. I can't say enough good stuff for her narration of this book and all the series and spinoff books.

Information from Jeaniene Frost from signing in Dayton on 2/2. This will spoil the ending of Up from the Grave.

I was at the Jeaniene Frost signing in Dayton on 2/2 and she informed me that she wants to write something from Katie's POV. It would probably take place around ten years in the future. It would show a different side of Cat and Bones as parents. She did not give any indication of when this book might come around, but something that she really wants to do. I couldn't get any other character books out of her, though she did refer to Ian as the "I" word.