Catherine is a rare creature: a half-vampire, half-human twenty-two year old. She has sworn to kill all vampires after one of them abused her mother. She hunts on her own, until she meets Bones: a vampire bounty hunter who might be able to give her her revenge.
Halfway to the Grave sounds all right in principle, but it's highly problematic. On the level of the narrative, it has a ridiculously narrow focus. To call the book an urban fantasy requires a leap of the imagination. It is clearly a paranormal romance: the only two characters worth knowing about in the book are Cat and Bones. Although it might seem from the blurb that Cat's mom has a significant role to play, sadly, her only role is to be raped by a vampire. She pushes Cat to kill all vampires, because obviously, they all have to be evil. I would have accepted this incentive, if Cat's mom was actually a major character in the story. Instead Cat just does the thing, and her mom only shows up for two conversations during which she only reiterates that Cat has to do the vampire-killing-thing.
Nothing exists beyond Cat and Bones' banter, their training together, and just general boring 'let's kill this evil vamp dude' plot. The world-building is non-existent, and how this can grow into a decent series I have no idea.
Many reviewers call Bones swoon-worthy, a perfect gentleman, and other high praise. To me, Bones is merely fake-British. Despite throwing around some key British words (luv, bollocks, blimey) I have no idea what his accent is supposed to be. England contains dozens of highly distinct accents, and to me he sounded just like Ron Weasley. I mean, who else says blimey?!
Ladies, gentlemen, and other gentlepeople, behold this swooney guy harassing the shit out of Cat's only friend:
"Hi, Cathy!"
Timmie opened his door with a wide smile. He must have seen me through his window.
Bones gave Timmie a look that froze the smile on the younger man's face.
God, nothing makes me so hot as a ridiculously controlling and jealous man. How DARE Timmie say hi to Cat! Where is his propriety?
But wait, did you think he just glares? Oh no, he will also fucking threaten Timmie for no reason after Cat makes him apologize.
"Nice to meet you, mate, and here's some advice: Don't even think about it. You try anything with her and I'll neuter you with my bare hands."
"Leave!" I stamped my foot for emphasis.
He swept past me and then swiveled, kissing me hard on the mouth before jumping back to avoid my right hook.
"I'll see you later, Kitten."
I detest that this scene is played for laughs and is meant to be endearing. But I think this is merely emblematic of a deeper problem in the text, which is its slut-shaming. In order to seduce vampires into leaving bars to be killed, Cat dresses up in short dresses.
Didn't I look lovely? With this dress and my heavy makeup, Tara was probably thinking I must be ten shades of a slut.
This is not the only time she refers to herself in these clothes as a "slut", "easy", or other extremely problematic terms. Nor is she any better whenever Bones dares to come near a female person. This passage deserves to be quoted in full.
I just stared at her for a minute. Only in cartoons did women have such minuscule waists, big breasts, round bubble butts, and legs like that. It wasn't hard to notice her figure, either. Her dress could barely be called one, and it was so tight, it was a good thing she didn't need to breathe.
"Francesca," Bones said, going to her and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I'm glad you've come."
And that was all I needed to see to decide right then and there that I hated her guts.
"Bones..."
She drew his name out like it was candy, and when she kissed his cheek, leaving a bright red lipstick imprint, her eyes met mine in open challenge.
I have no time for casual misogyny in my fiction. At 60% in, I'm abandoning this book.
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Trigger warnings: mention of rape, threat of rape, slut-shaming, abduction, violence, death.