Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Night Huntress World, Book 1
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Hero: Baron Charles DeMortimer (Spade)
Heroine: Denise MacGregor
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: February 9, 2010
Started On: July 10, 2010
Finished On: July 11, 2010

Fans of the Night Huntress series; all the books of which I have been rapidly going through for the past five days by being holed up in my room, seems to have mixed feelings about the books of the Night Huntress World Series. But you cannot read through the Night Huntress series without being intrigued by all the other characters such as Ian, Charles (Spade), Vlad (Dracula) & Mencheres. Hence I was glad when I realized that Spade’s story had already been published which pairs off Cat’s best friend Denise with Bones’ best friend Charles (Spade).

Spade is a centuries-old vampire who’d been a South Wales prisoner in the 1700’s along with Bones. The overseer used to call the former Baron Charles De Mortimer by his assigned tool, a spade. He’d kept the name so he wouldn’t forget his previous helplessness. Charles/Spade is as chivalrous as they come and you cannot help but be charmed by his character.

Denise first meets Cat when Cat worked for the federal government to train soldiers who would have the ability to deal swiftly with the rogue undead. During the 2nd book in the Night Huntress series (One Foot In the Grave), Denise gets married to her boyfriend Randy who gets killed in the 3rd book, At Grave’s End. Denise has never forgotten what spending new year’s eve at her best friend’s place with the undead had cost her and she has kept her distance from her best friend through all this time. Now a year later, Denise gets hunted down by a demon shape shifter named Raum who marks her with his essence forcing Denise to search out for Nathaniel, a relative of hers who used Raum’s powers and then sent Raum back to the depths of Hell for which Raum is hell-bent on seeking revenge.

Knowing that the only beings who could help her out would be Bones and Cat from whom Denise has been out of touch with for the past year, Denise tries to contact them to no avail and finally ends up calling Spade who agrees to come out and see whether what has got Denise so rattled is not a figment of her imagination. The strong stench of sulfur together with how Spade finds Denise unconscious in her home convinces him beyond any doubt that Denise would not be safe and that her life as well as that of her family’s depends on whether she finds Nathaniel as soon as possible, which is easier said than done.

Understanding that Nathaniel has been under the guardianship of a vampire narrows things down to the point of the search being one similar to that of searching for a needle in a haystack. But that doesn’t deter Spade’s decision to keep Denise safe and when he finds out that the mark Raum has left on Denise has altered her blood such that its like narcotics for the vampires, his resolve to keep her safe at any cost with his burgeoning desire to possess her as his makes this book a great source of romance and endless adventure.

Both Denise and Spade have their own issues to work around with on top of the fact that Denise is now a shape shifter who yet has no ability to control what she has become. And together with the team from the Night Huntress series this is a novel all die hard Jeaniene Frost fans must read!

My favorite scene from the book is when Denise and Spade have their first fight since they got together & Spade storms out, and when Denise hears that he has come back, wanting to talk with him Denise goes downstairs where the vampires feed from willing humans and mistakenly thinks that Spade is the one who is in the room with the woman who doesn’t cease moaning and screaming in ecstasy, goes and bangs on the door only to find a very naked and pissed off Ian on the other side. Priceless!

I am really looking forward to the next novel Eternal Kiss of Darkness featuring the Mega Master vampire Mencheres which releases on the 27th of this month. Though I am more interested in reading Ian’s story which the author has not mentioned of for the near future, I am waiting avidly to read Mencheres’s story which I am sure would hold a lot of surprises in it as it did for Spade’s story. Never be it said that Jeanine Frost spins a predictable tale!

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