DemonessTenebrae

The last book in the series...

Heart-breaking, action-packed, unexpected twists and turns, mystery, drop dead hot characters...

What more could you possibly want? If you read the rest of the books in the Night Huntress Series this will be the ultimate ride for you. If you didn't I strongly encourage you to do it before you read the final book, the conclusion of Cat/Bones story.

It has been a hell of a ride so far... the Red Reaper and the master vampire Bones had never had it easy. Not when she was a vampire slayer and he was her intended victim, not when he made her train under his supervision, not when they fell in love, not when she left him (for his own good) and worked with the government, not when he finally found her and made her acknowledge her love for him, not when they were forced into marriage, not when they were in mortal danger (far too many times to count), not when their marriage almost ended because of alleged infidelity... well, you get my point. There was never a peaceful time for them. Always danger, people who needed their help, constantly on the move... but they survived it all and now they have one final challenge to face.

   “I would never hurt you that way save for one reason: to keep you safe. I can live with your anger, your retribution—bloody hell, despise me if you must, but don’t expect me to behave as though you aren’t the most important thing in my life. You are, and I will let no one, yourself included, bring you to harm.”

Up From the Grave wraps up the Madigan story. Madigan, a man who took over after Cat's uncle Don passed away (well... passed away isn't quite true, he will always be bound to the land of the living as a ghost and serves him right). Since Don refused to tell Cat why he is so afraid of that man and why he got his job, Cat had to find all that out on her own. When her friends from her unit disappeared, her uncle told her that he is worried about them and Cat decided to find them. That decision led her on a path that almost cost her and Bones their lives. And I don't mean that figuratively, I mean that as in my heart almost broke when I thought Bones was dead. Yep, I couldn't breathe through the next few chapters while praying to god that the author didn't lose her mind and broke my heart in the process. Anyhow, no, she didn't. Everything ended as it should. As we all want it. With a new addition to the family. And with the help from their friends, Mencheres, Kira, Shade, Denise, Majestic, Juan, Cooper, Dave, Tate, Fabian...

Let me just say that I never thought Cat being a half-breed meant so much to everyone. Not just to humans, but to vampires and ghouls as well as demons too. Humans used Cat for despicable experiments without her even knowing any of it. Vampires and ghouls were afraid of her, what she meant since she was the first of her kind since Jean d'Arc. And demons... who could guess that they played a part in her upbringing from the very beginning. All of it coming together, secrets revealing, lost friends and family finding their way back, alliances forged, enemies unveiled...

Jeaniene Frost made the world a better place with her novels. I can always find refuge in them. I can look up to Cat, she is a great role model. Everything a strong female needs to be. I wish more little girls and teenagers would look up to her instead of Bella. Cat is strong, independent, smart, she doesn't care what the world thinks of her, she doesn't back down just because something is hard from the start, she never leaves her friends or family in danger, she makes her own destiny and her husband is her life.

Bones is well... Bones. Perfect in his love for Cat but he had less than a normal life until Cat. As a master vampire he is strong and independent. He has his own line of vampires. Until Cat came along he worked as an assassin. And before that, while he was still human, he sold his body for money. So, sure, he made some bad decisions throughout but always made it out on top. Cat is his anchor, what he needed to settle down.

Ian sired Bones. And they are cousins. And he is the only one from the lot who didn't find love and settled down. He stayed the same whorish, straight-forward but loyal friend that would die for Bones and Cat if needed. Ian and Cat never had a good relationship but they tolerated each other because of Bones. In this book, their relationship will finally flourish and Cat will see him as a part of the family.

   “You don’t? Shame on you, Crispin. Married how long, and you haven’t spanked your wife with a metal spatula yet?”

I’d gotten used to Ian’s assumption that everyone was as perverted as he was, so I didn’t miss a beat. “We prefer blender beaters for our kitchen utensil kink,” I said with a straight face.

Bones hid his smile behind his hand, but Ian looked intrigued.

“I haven’t tried that . . . oh, you’re lying, aren’t you?”

“Ya think?” I asked with a snort.

   “The day you love anyone but yourself is the day I’ll take your marital advice, Ian,” Bones bit back in an icy tone.

“Then today is that day,” Ian replied sharply, “for I love you, you wretched, pig-headed guttersnipe. I also love that arrogant, overprivileged dandy smirking at us”—a wave indicted Spade, whose aforementioned smirk vanished—“as well as the emotionally fractured, malfunctioning psychic who sired me. And you, Crispin, love a bloodthirsty hellion who’s probably killed more people in her thirty years than I have in over two centuries of living, so again I say, don’t bother trying to convince her that she isn’t who she is.”

   No one better say anything bad about Ian around me after today. I officially loved that son of a bitch.

Bones and Cat have a relationship that is filled with tense emotions, eroticism, loyalty, possessiveness, love, romance, wild behavior, a will to die one for another. Bones decided to die for Cat (well not completely) so he could make sure she wouldn't be hurt more than necessary when Madigan captured her. That is what makes your heart seize, tears threaten to spill, your skin aches... You fill like you will lose your mind. It sucks you in. Their relationship is something special, something I will always cherish.

   Years ago, Bones had made me promise to go on if he were killed. I’d done so, yet now, I was going back on that promise. Death was my only chance to be reunited with him. I wasn’t missing that for anything.

“Wait for me,” I whispered, my voice breaking on another sob. “I’ll be there soon.

Jeaniene Frost made something special here, she made this story come to life. I will always keep these books close to my heart. And I will recommend them to anyone who will listen. It really makes your life brighter and happier. It gives you energy and strength to overcome all obstacles. And her style of writing is what makes my heart clench or beat faster or it makes me laugh out loud until tears start pouring out.

     „ ... he also had the attention span of a ferret on crack“