Audiobook Review – Up From the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 7) by Jeaniene Frost (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 8 hours and 41 minutes (384 pages)
Publisher: Harper Audio
Release Date: January 28, 2014
ASIN: B00H8V9UM8
Stand Alone or Series: 7th book in the Night Huntress series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This is the 7th and final book in the Night Huntress series. I am so happy that Frost chose to end the series here. I felt like the last couple books were starting to lag, and I would rather see the series end than completely pitter out. This was an enjoyable wrap-up to the series, it was action packed and added some really interesting things to Cat and Bone’s life.

I listened to this on audiobook and really enjoyed it. I have listened to most of the series on audiobook because the audiobooks are just spectacularly done. Really this is one of those series I like listening to more than reading, the narrator does such a wonderful job.

Cat and Bones have been enjoying a little peace and quiet for once. Of course that doesn’t last. Cat gets a call that her friends from the CIA have gone missing. As her and Bones struggle to figure what has happened to them, they find out that Cat’s nemesis at the CIA has been doing some crazy genetic experimentation and has created something that no one can control.

There were some things I liked about this book and some things I didn’t. In general I think it was a good way to close out the series and I think it was time to close out this series.

I love Cat and Bones, I love that they have finally gotten some peace and quiet. Their relationship has settled into a more comfortable happiness, there are some very steamy scenes between them which were well done.

That being said the steamy scenes were the best written part of the book. There were a number of plot points that felt forced or didn’t really make sense. Cat again, underestimates Bones a number of times and goes behind his back…this is something that I thought Cat had grown past doing. I was a bit sad to see Cat making the same mistakes as usual. Some of the action scenes were written a bit awkwardly as well.

There was some awkward dialogue, especially in the beginning of the book. There were also a number of times when I thought “Why in the world would ___ do that? It doesn’t make any sense.” For example Cat calling the CIA agent and having him meet her on an abandoned pier. Why would she do that? Why would he agree to meet her? Why would Cat actually think that he would come alone and not bring reinforcements…seriously is she that stupid? This was just one example of a point where I thought things didn’t really make sense or fit with the characters personalities.

There is also a major twist in the middle of the book that I thought was just plain silly. It doesn’t fit with Cat’s personality and Cat’s sudden strong feelings towards this deadly individual were just absolutely out of place and odd.

There are a lot of cameos in here. Mencheres is in the story, so is Denise and Spade. Denise actually plays a fairly large role in the story and I enjoyed that. Ian plays a pretty large role as well. Vlad shows up for a smallish part of the book too. All these characters have excellent back stories, although you need to read the Night Huntress World books as well as the Night Prince series to have all the background here. I am kind of hoping we see a story about Ian in the future.

Overall a decent urban fantasy. There are some well done steamy scenes and Frost does a good job of wrapping up the series in a way that will leave readers happy. I think this was a good point to end the series at. However, this definitely wasn’t the strongest book in the series. There are some awkward moments in here; some of the action scenes weren’t written all that well, there were plot points that just didn’t make sense, and even some of the dialogue was a bit forced. Overall I definitely recommend this urban fantasy series to fans of urban fantasy, it is for the most part a wonderful series. This book was a good wrap up, but more of a necessary evil than a spectacular finale.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Series Reading Challenge
– Audio Book Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge