First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World) [Mass Market Paperback]

First Drop of Crimson is the first book in Jeaniene's Night Huntress World series, the spin off from her main Night Huntress series. It follows Denise, Cat's best friend, about a year after the traumatic death of her husband at the hands of vampires. She wants nothing to do with that world and just wants to be left alone to grieve. But a couple family members have died suddenly from heart attacks, and Denise issuspicious. She doesn't want to call Cat though, or her husband Bones, so instead she calls Bones long time friend, Spade.

Spade is a vampire who has lusted after Denise since he first laid eyes on her. But she was married, and his best friend's wife's best friends, automatically off limits. When he gets the call from her he first suspects she's seeing more than there is. But when he arrives at her house and finds a demon recently left, he realises that it's a whole lot worse than either of them knew. He's determined to help her and keep her alive, but the more he's around her, the harder it is for him to resist her. And that could be deadly for both of them.

I loved the first two books in Jeaniene's Night Huntress series, but I didn't enjoy 3 or 4 as much and I wasn't sure I'd like a book with Spade and Denise as the leads. I was wrong, I loved this book! I love Spade a lot more than I do Bones, and Denise has grown on me hugely too. The book is told in third person, but switching between Spade and Denise's perspectives giving the reader a clear view of what they're both going through and how they feel.

The action starts up pretty quick and doesn't really let up. I liked the plot and how it all worked out, along with how both Spade and Denise grew through the book as they dealt with their personal issues as well as the demon ones. They're both strong characters, but with painful pasts that consume them. I really felt for Denise as she struggled to come to terms with what happened to her husband and her feelings about the supernatural world. And I totally fell in love with Spade as more of him was revealed and his actions explained.

Overall, a really great book with some interesting hints at some other side characters already met in the Night Huntress books. I'd love to have more books about Spade and Denise in the future. It could probably be read just fine as a standalone book, but I think readers wouldbenefit from having read the first four Night Huntress books first (Halfway to the Grave, One Foot in the Grave, At Grave's End, Destined for an Early Grave). There was real tension and feeling to the book, and I loved the ending. I'm looking forward to the next books in this series now, and theoriginal one.

I am a huge fan of Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series, following Cat and Bones' relationship and the supernatural problems they come up against. When I heard Jeaniene would be writing a spin off series of stand alone novels, and Spade would get his own story, I was seriously excited. One, it's Jeaniene Frost, and I just love her writing, two, it's still set in the same world as the Night Huntress series, and I love the mythology, and three, Spade gets his story - meaning it would be from his point of view. Jeaniene didn't didappoint; First Drop of Crimson is amazing!

Before I carry on with my review, I just want to clear something up for you all, which might be confusing to those who have yet to read any of Jeaniene's novels. The books following Cat and Bones - Halfway to the Grave, One Foot in the Grave, At Grave's End, and Destined for an Early Grave - are in the Night Huntress series. The stand alone novels in the spin off series are collectively called the Night Huntress World series. I thought it may be a bit confusing, because sometimes I even have to think about which is which.

Back to the review. The story was incredible! We come across creatures we've not met before in this world; demons. There's a whole new mythos to discover, and it's just so awesome! I can't really go into the demons because it'll be spoiling things for you, but the creatures are great, and the plot is just so unique!

There is plenty of action, like we're used to, a lot of suspenceful, edge-of-your-seat fighting several times throughout the novel, but the pacing is a little different. This one story spans about five weeks, where normally Jeaniene's stories span several days. Sometimes hours, even days, go by without us having seen the characters for that time, the time has just gone as nothing eventful or important happened. It made it a little difficult to keep track of how long the characters had been together, which sometimes made the feelings of the characters seem to come about really quickly. On the plus side, we also meet some other characters we love, including Cat and Bones! Just fantastic!

There were a few things I didn't expect in this novel. All the books in the Night Huntress series are writing in first person from Cat's point of view, but this book is written in third person from both Spade's and Denise's points of view. It was a little jarring at first reading third person, simply because I was more used to Jeaniene's first person style. I don't have a problem with third person generally, it just wasn't expected. As I said, I loved the book, but I do think I prefer first person, simply because these characters are just so awesome, I want to be right in their heads and have them tell me the story - rather than have the story told to me by "someone" who seems to be able to read everyone's mind. It's not a big deal, it certainly didn't make the story less enjoyable, it's just my own preference.

Despite being in third person, we get into a Night Huntress World's vampire's head as much as we can, and that is what I was most looking forward to! It's odd reading Spade's story - or rather Denise's - because I've always imagined Spade as pretty easy going from the other books, but he is really quite intense. It was great to get to know the real him, his backstory, and how he fits into the circle of undead friends. It was also really awesome to get to know Denise; she had always been this small secondary character, who wasn't that important of a character to me, so it was great to get to know her as more than just Cat's best friend, and the woman who lost her husband. She's an incredible character, seriously amazing but so complicated, I can't really go into her in much detail without spoiling the story.

But the most enjoyable part of this new structure is that Spade is British, and so uses a lot of British words where Denise would use American. A lot of the Urban Fantasy novels I read are written by American authors, and normally I don't notice when American words are used - until a British character is introduced and starts talking. Don't ask me why, but I always get excited, with a stupid grin, and think "You talk like me!" What was really great in First Drop of Crimson, however, was how well Jeaniene kept up her British words and slang for when we were following Spade the whole way through, and had Denise use American words and slang when we followed her. It was just so cool! The only thing I noticed is that, if I remember rightly, Spade took off his "pants", not his "trousers", but it's no big deal! I just loved it!

I really loved this book, it was brilliant! Fans of Jeaniene Frost will love this book, and there's enough explanation in First Drop of Crimson for new readers to understand the world and who the characters are. I highly recommend it, and I can't wait for Eternal Kiss of Darkness, the second in the Night Huntress World series, which will be released 27th July.

(WARNING - THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)

First Drop of Crimson is the first novel in the Night Huntress World series, a spin off series from the Night Huntress series starring Cat Crawfield. The Night Huntress World series are novels, I think are, introducing us to the other characters that you would have met if you have read the Night Huntress series and giving us a more in depth look at their history.

I'm not sure that I knew what to expect from this book or what to make of it. The beginning felt a bit off for me with Spade's automatic lust and feelings towards Denise. This was probably because I am used to reading about the emotions flitting back and forth between Cat and Bones, and haven't really thought much about the other characters and their lives/feelings out with Cat's knowledge before. I certainly didn't catch the look that they gave one another in the Night Huntress series - come to think of it, I don't think it was actually mentioned (I could be wrong, don't have the book in front of me to check).
The plotline was rather interesting as the Night Huntress series, so far, hasn't dabbled with demons so that put a nice new spin on things. The demon is quite essential to the plotline because he is the one of the reasons that Denise and Spades cross paths.

I liked that we found out more about Spade's rather unfortunate and sad past and what happened to Denise as she was hardly mentioned in the fourth book of the Night Huntress series. It's a shame that she blamed herself for everything that happened.

I felt bad for Denise for being dragged into this whole mess with the demon. Denise's family's past has created some serious bad karma for her and has caused some of her family members to end up dead. The demon threatens to kill the rest of her family unless she brings him what he wants, and believe me it's nothing short of simple. His sought after toy has been hidden deep within the vampire world. This demon business has a bad affect on her and she has to learn how to control herself.

Spade craves Denise like he craves blood, ever since the first time he met her, but was warned to stay away, which he has done. But when she calls him requesting supernatural help, he wilfully obliges. He never realised what he was getting himself into when he agreed to help. As the story progresses, Spade doesn't want to let Denise go. He ends up falling for her and because of what has happened in his past, he is determined not to let her die. The only thing stopping him carrying out his plan is that Denise doesn't agree with it one bit.

(WARNING - SPOILER'S FOR NIGHT HUNTRESS & NIGHT HUNTRESS WORLD SERIES IN FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH)
It was a nice surprise to see Cat and Bones in this book. I didn't think they would appear what with the story focusing on Denise and Spade and their problems, but I suppose Spade has helped them quite a bit in the past. Once they turned up, if felt like everything would be okay, they would take over and save the day. They didn't take over, but they did help a lot. I was constantly wondering when Denise would find out that Cat had finally gone all the way to the other side - seemed like Spade wasn't going to tell her.
(END OF SPOILER WARNING)

Overall, I thought the story was very good and there was a fine balance between romance and the plot. There quite a lot of scenes that contain sexual content. It's not too explicit but I would recommend the book for more mature teens and adults. First Drop of Crimson was definitely a page turner and I had trouble putting it down at certain bits, so I had to keep reading, even until the late hours of the night, luckily it was a weekend.

Disclaimer: I bought this book with my own money and I am not receiving money in for this review. Everything I have said is of my own honest opinion and wanted to share it with you.