Maya

💬: "There is only one way to fight, and that’s dirty. Clean, gentlemanly fighting will get you nowhere but dead, and fast. Take every cheap shot, every low blow, absolutely kick someone when they’re down, and then maybe you’ll be the one who walks away.”

Frost, Jeaniene. The Other Half of the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel (pp. 47-48). NYLA. Kindle Edition.

📖Genres: fantasy, romance, urban fantasy, paranormal, vampires

📚Page Count: 398

🎧Audiobook Length: 13h 14min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 - 4.5/5

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The Other Half of the Grave written by Jeaniene Frost, is an alternate perspective book based on the first book in her Night Huntress series, Halfway to the Grave. The Other Half of the Grave was entertaining and just as exciting if not more exciting than it's original predecessor. In this book, Cat and Bones meet for the first time but everything is from Bones' perspective, and even though he makes some interesting decisions, I still like him as a character. I appreciate Cat and Bones' relationship that much more.

There are still outdated scenes in this book, but that's because the original was outdated and had poorly aged scenes. I think the outdated scenes were handled much better than they were in the original story. For example, there were less triggering details about these particular scenes this time around. That might be because it's from Bones' perspective, it might be because the author realized her mistake from the past and maybe she understood that rewriting these scenes was a way to make up for the outdated scenes from the past. I'm unsure, either way they're done better around this time.

The spicy scenes were enjoyable and the audiobook narrator made them even more interesting than they normally would be. I'm giving the spicy scenes three point five chilies 🌶️🌶️🌶️.75 out of five chilies

This was an entertaining story and I enjoyed it a bit more than reading the original from Cat's point of view. There was still an okay amount of triggering content in this story but most of that stuff was glossed over in this version. I'm giving this 4.50 out of 5 stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4.50/5 Stars

I used an audiobook credit to buy this audiobook. I was not able to locate the audiobook on hoopla, libbyapp, or everand. (as of 3/4/2024)

💬: "He didn’t budge. “Plenty of room, Kitten. I’ll stay here.” “Don’t call me Kitten.” My voice was sharper than romance dictated, but I was seriously aggravated. The sooner he was truly dead, the better."

Frost, Jeaniene. Happily Never After (Night Huntress) (p. 83). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

📖Genres: fantasy, romance, urban fantasy, paranormal, vampires

📚Page Count: 97

🎧Audiobook Length: 02h 47min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3/5

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Happily Never After is book 1.5 in the Night Huntress series, it's about a human named Isabella and one of Bones' friends, a vampire named Chase. Isabella somehow was promised to be engaged to a wanna be mob boss, one that she is repulsed by and one that wants to kill her brother. Well, Chance is going to try to make sure this wedding doesn't happen, even if he has to "die" several times to ensure it.

This was okay, it was somewhat interesting so it kept my attention for the short duration of the audiobook (which was about 3 hours long.) I was disappointed to find out that this novella wasn't about Bones but just one of his former acquaintances.

There was one spicy scene and it was okay, I think it could have been more exciting so I'm going to give this scene 2.75🌶️ chilies out of 5 chilies🌶️.

Overall, this novella wasn't as good as the first novella in the series, "Reckoning" the story about Bones. I even Happily Never After has spicy in it and Reckoning doesn't, I still think Reckoning was a more exciting story. I'm going to give this 3 stars out of 5.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3/5 Stars

I listened to this for free on [Libbyapp.com]

💬: "‘I’m sorry’ if Bones gets killed doing what you didn’t have time to. After all, it’s so much easier to say you care than to prove it.”

Frost, Jeaniene. First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World Book 1) (p. 30). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

📖Genres: romance, paranormal romance, paranormal, supernatural, urban fantasy

📚Page Count: 374

🎧Audiobook Length: 10h 06min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4/5

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TW - <spoiler>Cursing, Gore, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Trafficking, Drug use, Grief, Murder, Death, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Rape, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content</spoiler>

First Drop of Crimson is the first book in the "Night Huntress" spin-off series, "Night Huntress World" both by Jeaniene Frost. Denise has seen so much violence, chaos, and death recently and it seems as if it's not going to stop any time soon. A demon has set his sights on Denise and he won't leave her alone until he's forced to leave her alone. In comes Spade, a centuries old vampire who has promised to protect Denise at any cost. Will Spade be able to save Denise or will all be lost once the first drop of crimson falls?

This was exciting and entertaining just like the books from the Night Huntress series, the only different is that we're following characters who are normally side characters, but in this story they're main characters now. You might need to start the "Night Huntress" series before picking up the "Night Huntress World" series because "First Drop of Crimson" starts off where one of the "Night Huntress" books end. I really enjoyed that the sexy vampire Spade was our main male character. The main female character, Denise, really needed to grow on me. She's a survivor of a horrific attack and she has PTSD, I liked the mental health representation. What I didn't like about Denise is that she had the tendency to misunderstand almost every situation and every other conversation. By the end of the book I liked Denise a lot more but I still don't think she's as compelling as the main female character of the "Night Huntress Series", Cat.

Another thing I didn't like was the threat of sexual assault that Denise had to deal with. There's a character that gets rescued in this book by Spade and Denise and they say that they've spent decades as a prisoner/victim being assault sexually and physically. As you probably guessed, if they don't stop the evil forces in this book, Denise is being threatened with the same fate. I don't like when characters are threatened or have the threat of sexual assault looming over their heads so I'm just going to knock a star off and leave it at that.

The spicy scenes in this story were nice and sizzling hot! I thought Bones was the only vampire I was attracted to but Spade also seems like a good choice in a vampire companion. I'm giving the spicy scenes four chilies 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ out of five chilies

Overall, First Drop of Crimson was a good story, I loved how some of the side characters from the original "Night Huntress" series are the main characters of this series, "Night Huntress World". It was entertaining and I enjoyed most of it aside from the parts that mentioned sexual assault, those simply did not have to be included. I'm giving this 4 out of 5 stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4/5 Stars

I listened to this audiobook for free on [Libbyapp.com]

March 12th, 2024

I currently just listening to part 1 of the DRAMATIZED version of Fourth Wing. The dramatized version by the company "Graphic Audio" makes the story much more interesting. I actually liked what I was listening to, and I didn't feel like the story was mediocre like I did when I read the novel. There are still some plot hole issues, the main character is still a Mary Sue, and I don't think the author really understood what "enemies to lovers" meant. With all that said, the dramatized version is STILL exciting and entertaining. It's definitely worth the listen, especially if you're like me and you didn't like the novel upon your first read.

I'm giving the DRAMATIZED version 4.5 stars out of 5 stars.

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October 1st, 2023

I wanted to come back and also add that the characters were flat and one dimensional and the main character didn't <spoiler>train with her dragons not once. she had two dragons and we got no training sequences ? yeah , lmao okay.</spoiler> I could deal with her being a Mary Sue but the dragon bit that I just mentioned? Very disappointing. This was just really mediocre.

I'm giving this a 2.5 stars out of 5.

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July 7th, 2023

I would say that I read this book because I had FOMO (fear of missing out) because almost everyone in my friend group was talking about this book and I couldn't join the conversation, I just had to sit there feeling silly and confused. So I decided to pick up this book!

That being said, I think it was okay. I'm not used to reading long fantasy books so I'm not sure if it was me or the book, but certain parts seemed to DRAGON (drag on - lmao I love puns). The audiobook was about 21 hours and I just remember listening around hour 18 wishing it was already over.

I also had an awkward time with the intimate scenes, not because I'm a prude and don't like sex or intimacy but because I'm a women who is 32 years old (as of writing this review) and the main character was about 20 and her love interest was about 23. I have no interest in reading inmate scenes about characters more than 10 years younger than me, it just felt a bit awkward.

Other than those two issues, I think the book was fine. I enjoyed certain parts more than others, like I really enjoyed the actions scenes and the scenes where "secrets" were releveled. If there wasn't much going on in the story, I was probably a bit bored.

I'm giving this a 3 stars out of 5.