First Drop of Crimson
Night Huntress World, Book #1
By Jeaniene Frost
ISBN# 9780061583223
Author’s Website: http://jeanienefrost.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

First Drop of Crimson is the first book of Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress spin-off series, Night Huntress World.  The series is set in the same world that Night Huntress is, but focuses on the side characters that are in Bones’ and Cat’s lives.  This one is about Bones’ best ‘mate’, Spade and Cat’s best friend, Denise.

After Spade tragically lost his human lover, over 150 years ago because he was too late to save her, he has sworn never to get romantically involved with another human because they are too fragile and he can’t bear that kind of heartache again.

But when Denise calls him in trouble and frantically searching for a way to contact Bones or Cat, he goes to her aid to keep his friend’s much deserved trip with his wife from being cut short.  But he never expects Denise to be quite so in over her head.

Members of Denise’s family are mysteriously dying of supposed heart attacks.  But when her suspicious cousin, Paul, is murdered right in front of her eyes Denise can no longer pretend it’s a genetic defect causing the deaths.  And, when a demon shows up at her house threatening to kill the rest of her family, she has no choice, but to agree to help.

One of Denise’s ancestors made a deal with the demon and didn’t keep his end of the bargain.  Now Denise has to forge into the vampire world to find him and deliver him to the demon.  She is branded to make sure she sticks to her promise and the longer it takes her to find Nathaniel, the more demon essence her body will absorb.

Denise is still recovering from the loss of her husband and has shunned the vampire world ever since Randy’s death.  Now she must embrace it to be free of the demon’s power once and for all.

Can Spade and Denise fight the things they most fear and embrace the attraction they feel for each other or will their torrid pasts be their undoing?

I really loved Spade when he was introduced to the Night Huntress series, so I was excited to see a story about him.  I never imagined him and Denise together, but once I thought about it, it made sense.  But I’m sad to say I found this book to be a bit of a disappointment.

I found the first half of this book to be pretty bland.  This whole I like him, does he like me, oh he couldn’t possibly and pretty much the same coming out of Spade as well.  To say nothing of his she WILL be a vampire mentality.  After Giselda, I can understand why he’d fear being with a human, but he was being a bit too domineering and not even cluing Denise into his plans when they so heavily involved her and her future.

I was happy when the duo finally gave in to their desires and decided to be a couple and I felt the story picked up from there.  They both lost former loves in a tragic way and it seems that the two of them were meant to be together. And I loved the whole shower bit in their hotel suite in Vegas:)

As for Nathaniel, once they had him I knew that Denise wouldn’t be able to hand him over to Raum.  So I assume he will become yet another unexpected sidekick like Fabian.

I’ve never been a big fan of Ian’s, but I really enjoyed his humor in this one.  I especially enjoyed the payback scene when he went banging on Spade and Denise’s door and then walked away.

I just felt with a main character like Spade that this book had a lot of potential, but it was squandered as the story just didn’t live up to my expectations.