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Since half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her undead lover Bones met six years ago, they've fought against the rogue undead, battled a vengeful Master vampire, and pledged their devotion with a blood bond. Now its time for a vacation. But their hopes for a perfect Paris holiday are dashed when Cat awakes one night in terror. She's having visions of a vampire named Gregor who's more powerful than Bones and has ties to her past that even Cat herself didn't know about. Gregor believes Cat is his and he won't stop until he has her. As the battle begins between the vamp who haunts her nightmares and the one who holds her heart, only Cat can break Gregor's hold over her. She'll need all the power she can summon in order to bring down the baddest bloodsucker she's ever faced . . . even if getting that power will result in an early grave. Here is the real skinny. You start the book on a nice vacation with Cat and Bones and then things get really strange as they always do in the paranormal world. Cat is having dreams of a vampire she has never met but he claims her as his own. This vampire Gregor, is known as the Dreamsnatcher because he can steal people out of their dreams. It is revealed that he has met Cat years go and apparently they are married and bound to each other. Cat has no memories of this because Mencheres has erased them and then imprisoned Gregor for his own benefit (He wanted Cat to bond with Bones to strengthen his own line). Gregor escapes and states that he and Cat are married and wants to reclaim her but no one can confirm one way or the other if their bond is true (Mencheres hid Cats memories so deep that he cannot even replenish them) If Cat is truly bound to Gregor then her bond to Bones is void. Gregor needs to die but he is a powerful vampire and Bones is concerned of his strength. Many vampires will not side with Bones if Cat is bond to Gregor because by vampire law Cat then belongs to Gregor. They seek out the partnership of Marie Laveau to gain her on their side incase a battle erupts with Gregor. They fail in gaining her partnership but Cat learns from her that Gregor has the power to return Cat's memories of their time together. This puts a great strain on Cat and Bones relationship because she wants to go to Gregor and get her memories restored so she can know if there was a marriage. Gregor snatches Cat from her dreams and she ends up getting her memories restored by him and it is revealed that they were bound to each other by vampire marriage. Cat stabs Gregor with a silver knife and he allows her to call Vlad to come and get her and bring her back to Bones. This angers Bones to know that she had her memories restored and she does in fact belong to Gregor. Cat and Bones are constantly arguing and they eventually split up, Bones returns to New Orleans and Cat goes to stay with Vlad. Cat is taking sleeping pills that were supplied from her Uncle that would allow her to have dreamless sleep. When it was revealed that the pills side effects included a short temper and were the result of a majority of her and Bones fights she stops taking the pills. This makes her susceptible to Gregor snatching her from her dreams again. The only way he cannot invade them is if she a full vampire. Vlad offers to make the change but she only wants Bones to change her. After a series of misunderstandings Bones agrees to change her into a full vampire and their bond is as strong as ever. When Cat transforms into a vampire there is an odd twist, she only drinks dead blood from vampires, and she does form Bones and Vlad. When Gregor finds out she has become a vampire he is angry because he cant get to Cat in her dreams so he kidnaps her mother and transforms her into a vampire against her will. Cat, Bones and the crew break into Gregors place to take back her mother. In the ambush things were not going as planed and Cat managed to burn the house down with pyrokinetics that she did not know she possessed. They retrieved her mother but Rodney the Ghoul was killed in the process. Bones challenges Gregor to a fight to the death. Law Guardians along with several Master Vampires are there to observe and make sure rules are followed. Each vampire only had 3 knives to aid in the fight. They fought down to their last knives and Gregor used his last knife in Bones back, it was not a killing strike but Bones was dying from the injury and Cat could sense this but did not understand why. When Gregor went in for the killing he turned to smile at Cat and his almost victory over Bones. All of a sudden Gregor burst into flames and instantly was killed by Cats anger. The Law Guardian states that Cat dies for interfering with the fight. Bones then recover enough to reveal that hidden in Gregors weapons was an injection device that pumped liquid silver into him for a faster kill. This meant that Gregor was guilty of cheating and Cat was free. It is revealed that when Cat drinks from another vampire she acquires and special powers that they may posses like Vlad and his pyrokinetics. Cat and Bones are finally able to get back to their vacation. The End! Frost's next book is a sin off about Cat's Friend Denise, First Drop of Crimson due out in Feb 2010. Book 6 of 50 in the 365 Challenge!
"A woman naked is a woman armed."
Read because: I kept pick it up off shelves and finally decided to give it a go.
Borrowed from: the Sacramento Library
Rating: 8 out of 10
Synopsis (from Publishers Weekly): Our nameless protagonist, a jovial, perceptive sort of 30-something fellow hanging affably about the fringes of society, introduces his middle-class but sleek and beautiful friend Edith Lavery to the earnest but dull Lord Charles Broughton. Much to the dismay of "civilized" society, Charles falls in love and proposes to the social-climbing but largely indifferent Edith. Even after she is married, Edith is snubbed and humiliated at every turn, until she moves out in a huff with her married lover, Simon Russell, an actor/ego-on-legs who is eating up the publicity that comes with being seen with a countess and eager for this entrée into society. To Edith's consternation, the glittering world of theater turns out to be just as small-minded and dull as that of society, with the added disadvantage of it not involving much money.
My Review: This was like modern, much more dark PG Wodehouse. Much like Wodehouse, it was a romp by the rich in the English countryside, but it took on much darker themes (divorce, adultery, wealth, class, etc.). I liked it a lot. I thought the writing was wry, sharp, and humorous, and although I am nowhere near the English upper class, I felt like Fellowes' portrayal was fairly accurate. I liked the writing convention of the unnamed narrator, who I found very likable. Everyone, even selfish Edith, was somewhat likeable. I felt, though, it was meant to be a satire and everyone came off quite well in the end. It didn't seem to pack the punch that I was expecting. But I still relished in the gosspiy storyline and excellent characters (Googie, Edith's mother-in-law, in particular). I also think this would make an excellent movie. Get on that, Hollywood. (Finished 7/28/09)
Read Because: Hills said it got some good reviews, plus it's just about the prettiest hardcover book I've seen in a while. Yes, I judge books by their covers.
Borrowed from: the Sacramento Library
Rating: 8 out of 10
Synopsis (from Publishers Weekly): Charles Unwin, a clerk who's toiled for years for the Pinkerton-like Agency, has meticulously catalogued the legendary cases of sleuth Travis Sivart. When Sivart disappears, Unwin, who's inexplicably promoted to the rank of detective, goes in search of him. While exploring the upper reaches of the Agency's labyrinthine headquarters, the paper pusher stumbles on a corpse. Aided by a narcoleptic assistant, he enters a surreal landscape where all the alarm clocks have been stolen. In the course of his inquiries, Unwin is shattered to realize that some of Sivart's greatest triumphs were empty ones, that his hero didn't always come up with the correct solution. Even if the intriguing conceit doesn't fully work, this cerebral novel, with its sly winks at traditional whodunits and inspired portrait of the bureaucratic and paranoid Agency, will appeal to mystery readers and nongenre fans alike.
My Review: The entire time I was reading the Manual of Detection, I kept thinking about Jasper Fforde and how weird his mysteries are. This was somewhat similar -- with bumbling, funny characters, ridiculous situations, and the suspension of reality. It was dry and very funny, and had some really great writing: "The revolving doors spun endlessly, shunting travelers out into the rain, their black umbrellas blooming in rapid succession." The plot was a little convoluted and it took me a little more effort than I would have liked to expend to really grasp what was going on. But I went with it and it was a fun little ride that I really enjoyed. Definitely recommended to those who like Jasper Fforde or other off-beat, funny mysteries. I hope there are more in this series, too. (Finished 6/21...I'm a little behind)
The fourth installment of the Night Huntress Series will be released on July 28. Here is a promo clip from Jeaniene Frosts website.
Riley has threatened Murphy with arrest if he doesn’t back off the investigation, but it’s Riley who feels handcuffed by Kye’s lupine charm. Torn between her vamp and wolf natures, between her love for Quinn and her hots for Kye, Riley knows she’s courting danger and indulging the deadliest desires. For her hunt through the supernatural underworld will bring her face-to-face with what lurks in a darkness where even monsters fear to tread.
But there’s a far greater danger threatening Bon Temps. A race of unhuman beings—older, more powerful, and more secretive than vampires or werewolves—is preparing for war. And Sookie finds herself an all-too human pawn in their battle.
In exchange for finding her father, Cat agrees to train with the sexy night stalker until her battle reflexes are as sharp as his fangs. She's amazed she doesn't end up as his dinner—are there actually good vampires? Pretty soon Bones will have her convinced that being half-dead doesn't have to be all bad. But before she can enjoy her newfound status as kick-ass demon hunter, Cat and Bones are pursued by a group of killers. Now Cat will have to choose a side . . . and Bones is turning out to be as tempting as any man with a heartbeat. Ok so Cat is a half vampire because her mother was raped by a newly made vampire and becomes pregnant with her. As a result of this her mother has a hatred to vampires and insist that Cat kill as many as she can find because they are all murderous monsters. Cat goes out to clubs and lets vampires hit on her and leaves the bar with them, when they make their move to drain her she kills them. This leads to her meeting Bones, a master vampire hit man, who notices Cat and her little mission. He kidnaps her because he thinks she it working for the man that he has been tracking to kill. When he discovers that she is something different and realizes her potential gives her a choice of death or partnership in his mission. Cat accepts because she knows that it is her only chance to live. Bones trains cat for weeks and they set out with Cat as bait to catch bad vampires with Bones waiting to question them before they kill them. Bones is trying to get to Hennessy a vampire who is selling young human girls to vampires for considerable amounts of money. He has been searching for him for 11 years and intends to track him with information form the vampires they hunt down. In this process Cat falls for Bones, who is already in love with her, but is fighting her feelings because she was brought up believing that all vampires are evil. Cat is also still scarred from her first serious relationship with a boy who left her as soon as she had sex with him. As Cat struggles with her feelings Bones tricks her into going out on a date with him and just as they are about to kiss Hennessy walks into the club. Cat lures Hennessy out of the club and her and Bones attempts to kill him but they fail. They continue hunting vampires to get to Hennessy. In the process Cat decided she loves Bones and they start dating, but she lies to her mother and tells her that she is dating her human neighbor. Hennessy's vampires find where Cat's family lives and they kill her grandparents and kidnap her mother in order to get Cat. Bones is busy killing Hennessy and Cat discovers that his partner is the governor, she goes straight to his house and kills him. The police show up and arrest her and the FBI comes in to take her into custody. On the way there the FBI agent Don tells her they are in a new devision in paranormal investigation and wants to hire Cat to hunt rogue vampires because she is the only of her kind. She is offered a job new identity and a home for her and her mother each, for 10 years in the FBI and no contact with vampires. She agrees knowing that this is the only way she will not go to prison and the only way to save them form killing Bones. Bones shows up just after Cat agreed to their terms and is unaware of her plans. He stops the car that has Cat in it and gets Cat and her mother. They go to a place to hide so he can make arrangements for them to leave the country. Cat has no intention on leaving with him because she knows the FBI will track them down and kill them, but she doesn't want to tell Bones because she knows he will talk her out of it. Bones leaves to take care of a few last minute plans and Cat leaves Bones a note breaking up with him. Cat and her and her mother leave and go meet Don and his crew where she starts her new job and is in command of a new crew she must train. She doesn't stop thinking about Bones but she knows this is the only way he will be safe. Book 4 of 50 in 365 Challenge!
