Preternatura Book Club: Halfway to the Grave, Chapters 17 and 18

Welcome to this week’s “meeting” of the Preternatura Book Club! Today, we continue with the first book in Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series, Halfway to the Grave.

Here’s how it works. Each week, I’ll post a summary (spoiler alert!) on two chapters, and we’ll chat about them. Try to minimize spoilers beyond what’s happened in the book we’ve read so far. You can read along, read ahead, or just stop by and read the summaries. After the Book Club has been up a few days, I’ll move it to archives so you can still come back and read. There’s a “Book Club” tab above. So, let’s get started!

HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE, CHAPTERS 17-18

Bones takes Cat back to her apartment after their busy night chasing Hennessey’s contacts, and who’s next door to meet them but Timmie. I think it’s fair to say Bones doesn’t take Timmie’s presence well, and Cat forces him to apologize sincerely. So he sincerely apologizes for being offended that Timmy thought he was Cat’s brother since he, Bones, will be “shagging” her tonight. So Cat tells him to leave. Poor Timmie—if he is just a dorky college kid, he’ll be scarred for life.

Cat makes it to class—barely—then comes home and crashes…until Mom shows up at her door. She’d forgotten their movie date. Cat tries to weasel out of it by saying she’s tired because she killed two bad vampires the night previous. When she doesn’t find food in the fridge she accuses Cat of drinking blood. Timmie comes in, and Cat sees an opportunity—she introduces Timmie as her boyfriend because her mom’s really biased against..Englishmen.

Bones comes back after mom leaves, and is not happy to see Timmie and threatens to neuter him.

Two weeks pass, but they aren’t able to get info on Switch, Hennessey’s right-hand man. They know he’s also working with someone politically connected but can’t figure out who. Spade calls with news that someone from Hennessey’s organization wants to switch sides, so Cat and Bones go to Spade’s hotel room, where there is a gorgeous woman that immediately sets Cats’ hackles up and makes her act hilariously jealous of Bones. Her first words? “Hi, we’re sleeping together.” Then the woman, Francesca, crosses her legs and is in dire need of panties. There’s much bantering, but the gist is that Francesca was turned by Hennessey and she wants out—she’d rather belong to Bones.

Afterward, Bones shares Vampires 101 with Cat, and how they are descended from Cain after he slew Abel. On the way downstairs, C&B have a little stairwell sex, and Bones says he’s pleased at how territorial Cat was about him that night—she’s acting like a vampire. She almost tells him she loves him, but can’t quite get there yet.

LET’S CHAT!

Okay, I really find mom annoying. Trying to be understanding here and empathetic and all that, but…sheesh.

I’m finding Charles/Spade interesting…do we get to see more of him as the series progresses, those of you who are longtime series fans?