Review: First Drop of Crimson by J. Frost

Format Read: ARC- MMPB
Number of Pages: 384
Release Date: February 9th 2010
Publisher: Avon Books
Formats Available: MMPB , Ebook
Purchasing Info:preorder at The Book Depository, GoodReads, Author's Website



Book Blurb:

The night is not safe for mortals. Denise MacGregor knows all too well what lurks in the shadows - her best friend is half-vampire Cat Crawfield - and she has already lost more than the average human could bear. But her family's dark past is wrapped in secrets and shrouded in darkness - and a demon shapeshifter has marked Denise as prey. Now her survival depends on an immortal who craves a taste of her.

He is Spade, a powerful, mysterious vampire who has walked the earth for centuries and is now duty-bound to protect this endangered, alluring human - even if it means destroying his own kind. Denise may arouse his deepest hungers, but Spade knows he must fight his urge to have her as they face the demon nightmare together...

Because once the first drop of crimson falls, they will both be lost. 

Spoilers: This book is a spin-off of the Night Huntress Series. If you not read the Night Huntress series, this review may contain spoilers.


My Thoughts:

I won this ARC in a contest and I was just thrilled to read it. Winning it was a near heart-attack moment for me.  I'm a huge Jeaniene Frost fan. I devoured all her previous book in the Night Huntress series. She is on my auto-buy list and this book didn't change that.

First Drop of Crimson is the first book in Ms. Frost's spinoff series, the Night Huntress World. We meet secondary characters from the Cat & Bones books again in this series and I'm so curious about that. One of the things that make Ms. Frost's books so special to me are her wonderful characters and I can't wait to learn more about them.

This book is story of Spade and Denise. Okay, I have to admit one thing first: Denise wasn't one of my favorite characters throughout the whole series and that didn't change while reading this book. I know that she lived through hell not only because of Randy's death but she never reached my heart as the other characters did.

Denise is still convinced she wants to leave the supernatural world behind. She wants to live a normal life without horrible deaths and gruesome monsters. She hates that the vampires think about humans only as replaceable property. She only sees the bad sides of this society and to be honest I can totally understand that but with time she should learn to see the good in the vampires around her too. She always complains about being degraded for being human but after all she does the same with the vampires- a hard case of hypocrisy in my eyes. She met good vampires, Bones and Cat for example but she still sees them all as the bad guys. After she gets in trouble with this demon, Spade who she has to depend on for the survival of her family and herself. She becomes attracted to Spade and I can't blame her for that, I would be putty in his hands for sure, but she still can't stop her own prejudices. That annoyed me through the whole book. Don't get me wrong Denise is a nice character with good morals and quite an attitude but she doesn't meet my expectations.

Spade starts out as a real prick. At the beginning of the book I thought: "That can't be fun. I don't like the heroine and the hero. Just great!" But Spade only needed a few pages to sneak into my heart. He had a horrible incident with a human he cared for and her death in his past. After this event he swore to himself that he would never get emotionally attached to one again. When he realizes that there is no way around being in love with Denise he tries to do everything in his power to save her and win her heart. The latter includes for him to turn her into a vampire and as you can imagine that is something Denise won't be too so fond of.

The chemistry between these two is sizzling. They need a bit of time to get going but OMG the wait is worth it. It's nothing like chapter 32 but damn near.

Quote Denise:

"If this is dying, Denise thought, I highly recommend it."

I so agreed with that!
As in all of Ms. Frosts book we have witty comments and snarky remarks in this books too. They made me laugh out loud more than once.


Quote: Denise to Spade:


"Don't you 'Denise' me," she snapped. "I don't care how old, powerful, or strong you are. If you ever do something like that again, I'll stab you in the heart. Son of a bitch, I can't believe you throw me out of  a plane."

As you can see the book is full of action and the story sucked me in from the start. I couldn't put this book down and was so frustrated as I had too.

One tiny thing I noticed: The name of the bad guy is Raum- in German that means room. Really confusing for me but probably not for the rest of you. LOL

I recommend this book to everyone who read the Night Huntress books. I really think it would be better to read the other books before starting this one because it relates to many events of the previous books. 

First Drop of Crimson is a great addition to this world and I can't wait to get the next spin-off.

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