Destined for an Early Grave is an emotional rollercoaster from the warmhearted and romantic start to its bloody finish. It’s a testament to Jeaniene Frost’s increasing mastery as a writer that this book grabs your heart and carries you along so relentlessly.

Part of this is due to Jeaniene Frost writing this series in the first person. This is always risky because it leaves large swathes of the story unknowable, save through hearsay, to the narrator or the reader. To make this POV more difficult, if the narrator is restrained from the action (as Cat so often was in this book), then the reader is forced to share in this passive role which is quite frustrating.

However what first person POV does deliver is an immediacy of impact and an urgency of feeling when living the story through the eyes of the narrator, and so our bond with Cat is all the stronger for it.

This is book 4 in the Night Huntress series and once again we’re engrossed in the world of Cat and Bones, the fight against predatory vampires, the politics of power and the bond between people (dead, undead or just mostly dead). We’re also back with a fantastic ancillary cast, all of whom have a distinctive voice and role to play. As their characters are revealed we are given terrific surprises, laughs and very often anguish and tears.  

Like so many others I have followed this series eagerly. I love Cat as a protagonist. She’s complex, strong, witty, has a mother from hell and is wonderfully conflicted about hating vampires as a whole, but loving Bones the vampire quite deliciously specifically.  A lot has been written about Bones. I prefer to see him as ‘Billy Idol-esque’ rather than a Spike action figure … but you get the picture…. Bones is English, blond (although this changes) and tough as nails.  As well, he’s remarkably well adjusted for a vampire…..

Cat and Bones have had a difficult road in the Night Huntress series but by this book Cat has come into her own sense of worth and strength and, as readers, we’re confident that the bond between them is unbreakable. 

And then Jeannine Frost tilts the world and sends us in a whole new direction.

Suddenly Cat’s ongoing internal conflict about vampires is given an external focus in Gregor who has a claim on her that, according to vampire laws, supersedes her relationship with Bones. Additionally Gregor is a Dreamsnatcher able to link with human dreamers and ‘snatch’ them away to wherever he is. For Cat, her dreams are now her greatest vulnerability.
It is at this point that Bones, who is normally the emotionally well adjusted foil to the more erratic Cat, does a caveman act, refuses to talk and in a panic, drags Cat from place to place trying to find safety and allies. And Cat? Well a heroine I’ve so enjoyed for her strength and resolve – suddenly finds her inner wuss. 

Basically the two of them need a good smack across the back of the head! From believing in each other so deeply, their fall into lack of trust and all out depression and abandonment made me want to simply shake both of them and get them to talk to each other.  But, Jeannine Frost was obviously determined that Bones and Cat to face up to the faults in their relationship and so we were destined to tag along at the ends of their trailing, and unraveled heartstrings.

And the most remarkable point of all this – Jeannine Frost’s writing is so honest and clear that I was totally caught up in the torment of their failing love (despite wanting to smack them!) and had to keep reading and reading, feeling their pain, knowing that the threat from Gregor was growing and completely unable to trust that Jeaniene Frost would give me a happy ending. It wasn’t fun, but as the plot developed I understood why this was a journey we all had to take.

So, what a ride! Sure, I would have liked more of those wonderfully graphic battles we normally get, I got frustrated with Cat and Bone’s lack of communication but I was completely caught up in this book. I can’t wait to see where we go with this series next!