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wanderinglynn 's review for:
Halfway to the Grave
by Jeaniene Frost
I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I can't give this book more than 2.5 stars. Even though I might have tolerated it enough to finish it, too many things about it irritated me.
I think what I liked most about it was the pace. The beginning nicely set it up and then kept going. No dragging out the world building. No extraneous fluff. Just good character development and plot movement. And it set up the next book nicely without too much of a cliff hanger.
Sadly, that didn't make up for the rest and my big three issues. (1) the whole Catherine-Cat and Kitten name-thing got old fast. And Bones? The ridiculous nickname aside, his pattern of speech irritated me. And if he wasn't calling her "Kitten" (seriously, how is that not completely insulting?), he called her "luv." I get that he's a two hundred plus-year-old son of a British whore. But seriously, could he use demeaning language to describe the woman he supposedly loves? And seriously, after 200+ years you didn't pick up some slightly different speech patterns?
(2) Catherine, although a kick-ass heroine, was just plain irritating and rather boring. I get that she's only 22 and 22-year-olds do dumb things. And I get that she had self-loathing and self-esteem issues from her traumatized mother. And maybe I'm too mired into middle age at this point and maybe if I had read this 10 years ago when it came out, I might have felt different. But for once I'd like a heroine who wasn't so black and white in her beliefs and didn't always jump the gun and make snap judgments while being a blushing virgin. She goes out to clubs hunting night after night, but yet blushes at any kind of innuendo? Just stop that. And yes, I get that conflict is a big plot device with romance, but her prejudice made me tired. And then the fact she trusts no one (she hardly even trusted Bones until the very end), she goes off and tells the paranorm spooks about vampire traits? Really? Again stop that.
And that leads to number (3), the romance. I agree with Tatiana that this wasn't urban fantasy, but was paranormal romance. Not that I don't enjoy a bit of sexual tension, but this goes back to my number 2 complaint. And for those that compared it to Buffy/Spike, sorry, I don't agree. Joss Whedon did a fantastic job on the complexity and darkness that was Buffy/Spike. Plus, Buffy was never so die hard on her beliefs-she was always shades of gray (plus she didn't have the self-loathing that Catherine had and Spike, despite also being British, didn't constantly call Buffy "luv."). But I digress. In short, there was no complexity here, just dirty talk, snogging, and sex.
So while I understand the appeal of this book and the series, it just isn't for me.
I think what I liked most about it was the pace. The beginning nicely set it up and then kept going. No dragging out the world building. No extraneous fluff. Just good character development and plot movement. And it set up the next book nicely without too much of a cliff hanger.
Sadly, that didn't make up for the rest and my big three issues. (1) the whole Catherine-Cat and Kitten name-thing got old fast. And Bones? The ridiculous nickname aside, his pattern of speech irritated me. And if he wasn't calling her "Kitten" (seriously, how is that not completely insulting?), he called her "luv." I get that he's a two hundred plus-year-old son of a British whore. But seriously, could he use demeaning language to describe the woman he supposedly loves? And seriously, after 200+ years you didn't pick up some slightly different speech patterns?
(2) Catherine, although a kick-ass heroine, was just plain irritating and rather boring. I get that she's only 22 and 22-year-olds do dumb things. And I get that she had self-loathing and self-esteem issues from her traumatized mother. And maybe I'm too mired into middle age at this point and maybe if I had read this 10 years ago when it came out, I might have felt different. But for once I'd like a heroine who wasn't so black and white in her beliefs and didn't always jump the gun and make snap judgments while being a blushing virgin. She goes out to clubs hunting night after night, but yet blushes at any kind of innuendo? Just stop that. And yes, I get that conflict is a big plot device with romance, but her prejudice made me tired. And then the fact she trusts no one (she hardly even trusted Bones until the very end), she goes off and tells the paranorm spooks about vampire traits? Really? Again stop that.
And that leads to number (3), the romance. I agree with Tatiana that this wasn't urban fantasy, but was paranormal romance. Not that I don't enjoy a bit of sexual tension, but this goes back to my number 2 complaint. And for those that compared it to Buffy/Spike, sorry, I don't agree. Joss Whedon did a fantastic job on the complexity and darkness that was Buffy/Spike. Plus, Buffy was never so die hard on her beliefs-she was always shades of gray (plus she didn't have the self-loathing that Catherine had and Spike, despite also being British, didn't constantly call Buffy "luv."). But I digress. In short, there was no complexity here, just dirty talk, snogging, and sex.
So while I understand the appeal of this book and the series, it just isn't for me.