Book 25 Halfway to the Grave

Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
fulfilled the “Book
Recommended by a Blogger” category for the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. Blogger
Shelly Lazar of Sexy Book Reviews by Shelly and April recommended the story
to me. You can visit them here on
Facebook for more great recommendations.

Thank
you so much, Shelly, for putting this novel in front of me. I’d heard of Jeaniene
Frost before (our names are rather similar) but never grabbed one of her
stories. I plan to binge read the series now.

And
since we are halfway through the blog, it places nicely as Book 25.

Halfway to the Grave is a paranormal romance, with
more emphasis on the paranormal. I’d
throw this novel in with Laurell K. Hamilton’s early Anita Blake novels, and
Kim Harrison’s Hollow series. (Probably JR Ward and Sherrilyn Kenyon also, but
I haven’t read as many of those.) Same dark vibe, same smart sexy women, same
yummy heroes. Our heroine, Catherine Crawfield, is half-vampire, a great twist
on the vamp trope. She’s smart, dangerous, and willing to learn. Her unique
status makes her stronger and faster than humans and able to stay in the
daylight. She taps her inner Buffy and slays vampires to save others from her
fate (and make money too).

Enter our hero, Bones. A sexy, funny vampire ready to
use Cat’s ambition to
get himself ahead too. Here’s where I had a problem with the book, and it had
nothing to do with the writing. I love audiobooks. You all know that. I, of
course, listened to it. The reader chose a particular accent for our hero vamp.
He sounded exactly like Mark Sheppard.

Who’s
Mark Sheppard, you ask? He’s that British actor that’s in everything. He was on The
X Files, Doctor Who, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Leverage,
Warehouse 13, and my favorite, Supernatural. In fact, I’ve met the
man in person at a few Supernatural conventions. (Yep, I’m that kinda
fan.) And he is lovely, like amazingly lovely. He’ll chat with fans, tell
stories, and play the drums for the Con-Band. I love him so. But hearing his
voice (not him, but the reader doing a perfect impression of him) unsettled me.
He’s not my go-to sexy hero, and I kept picturing him with Cat. Everything was
fine until the sex scenes. Then…I was out. LOL

The story was fast-paced and fun. Ms. Frost
maintained the right balance of action scenes versus steamy flirting and real
life. Honestly, it was tough to put this eleven-year-old novel. I personally
don’t think romance books age well, and paranormal romance does not always float my boat. You may
have noted above where I said I hadn’t read many JR Ward or Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Their books don’t pull me through, but Halfway to the Grave totally did.
The hero wasn’t completely broken or an Alpha or a broken Alpha. He had style
and grace (maybe because I was picturing Mr. Sheppard and not Spike from Buffy
as many other readers did. But then again, James Marsters is my Harry Dresden.
But I digress…)

The story gave me the fun, balance, and steaminess I
need from a paranormal romance. The banter is great, the action scenes
realistic, and the real-life problems spoke more to me than any billionaire
book.