This series caught me in book one and I was so happy to have book two. There's something lovely about a noir fae London as seen through the eyes of a drunk chaos lesbian who somehow manages to solve mysteries in spite of her own disasters. It's a world I love to disappear in to, and I love seeing more of it.

Here lies Jessy, killed by Asphyxiation due inability to breath from laughing to hard. Beloved daughter. Sorely missed. In this second installment in the Kate Kane series the author turned the snark level to an 11 and had me in tears with laughter. Along with the snark the author also turned up the level of complications in Kate’s life. Kate yet again finds herself fighting for her life but while doing so she also has to dealing with not one, not two, not even three, but four of her ex’s. If those items alone do not make you want to run out and grab this book and series immediately then the refreshing look into paranormal folklore and the graphic action-packed fight scenes will. I can not wait to read more in this series, I highly recommend it to all readers

This series really is fabulous, and I cannot recommend it enough.

If you want urban fantasy starring a badass female who is utterly relatable in her imperfection, is terrible at relationships, keeps trying anyways (because really, why not), and somehow remains on at least civil terms with all her exes, try out this series. It reminds me of the Harry Dresden series, but with much better representation.

I enjoyed reading several aspects of this book! The pacing was wonderful, characters were well drawn, and the reading experience on the whole was delightful.

This book is filled with comedy, action, romance, and more! Again, I reiterate, I love the comedic aspect of the series. I'd love to see more of Kate Kane but it was left on a cliff hanger. Sorry for the spoilers so who knows if there will be another one or not. If there is I will read it, If not, then I'm guessing my own hypothesis was correct but I can't mention that in a review.

That moment when you're reading a trashy paranormal romance book that you normally wouldn't be caught dead with and you're literally laughing out loud because the main character is a paranormal private investigator who is half Faery princess and half mortal dating a sex crazed lesbian vampire prince (Yes, it's a she.) who used to be a demon hunting ninja nun in the twelfth century. (There is an actual plot but I am pointedly leaving that part out.)
And the main character keeps running into women that want to bang her including an alpha werewolf named Tara who is a lingerie model and you're laughing like crazy because you can see this as one of those crappy B-movies or comedies as it's playing in your head as you read it.

*~~*ARC kindly provided from the publisher/author to me for an honest review *~~*

Full review to come

5 stars

Kate Kane is a take-no-shit PI who totally drinks whisky for breakfast. Her specialty is in paranormal cases, and she's particularly suited to this being half-Fae. Her mum is the Queen of the Wild Hunt and Kate can draw on her mother's strength and power when necessary. She's recently begun a relationship with Julian St. Germain, a M-Fing vampire Prince. When living, Julian was a pudding-eating lesbian nun on a vatican-sanctioned mission to murder vampires.

Kate saved Julian in the previous story, but it came at the expense of another vampire prince, and now the vampire council is deciding if Kate should be executed for this crime. It was unavoidable, and the vampire knew this going in--gave Kate the go-ahead in the moment, yet it's her word against...well, a lot of vamps want her dead because this might weaken Julian.

Also, Kate's ex-boyfriend Patrick, a simpering vamp, is afraid Kate will somehow-in-someway interfere with his new relationship with a girl who is, unfortunately, being targeted by the same cadre of power seekers that nearly killed Kate years before. So, saving the girl (and the world!) means maybe interfering with Patrick, a bit. And, he's always good for a self-conscious laugh.

In the meantime, Kate's dreams are being overrun by an undead entity, and packs of feral vamps seem to be swarming London. The dream-vamp is in charge of these newbie vamps, or is she? Kate needs the help of her ex-girlfriend, the Witch Queen of London, to make sense of it all--and she's going to reach out to another ex to help execute a big mission...to stop her own execution.

Sound complicated? It is. Kate runs in strange circles, powered by bananas and whiskey, and she makes more messes than she cleans up. She has debts to the biggest power brokers in the paranormal world, and well, she's going to have to pay up soon. Maybe with her life.

There's a dash of sexytimes here and there, but these are more bittersweet as Julian maintains distance in order to make Kate less of a target for the vampire council. The addition of Kate's pseudo-golem, Elise, is an excellent foil to Kate's salty narration. I'm eager to read on and figure out who's really pulling out all the stops to become the most powerful paranormal personage in all of the world... Lots of danger, suspense and intrigue as we delve ever-deeper into London's secret paranormal societies.

A great book. Fast-paced, great dialogue and a plot to blow your head up.

I wasn't always able to follow who was doing what, but if you pay more attention than me when reading, you should be absolutely fine.

I'm just going to have to face it I don't like Kate Kane. So much of this was just a slog to get through and I don't find Kate Kane compelling enough to enjoy any of it. Everything is there that I usually like but this just did not work for me. The first in the series was alright, but where I can forgive Kate's rougher edges in the first as a reader I want characters in books to progress not stagnant.

Book two in the Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator series, Shadows & Dreams continues Kate's escapades as she avoids the usual cabal of supernatural beings while not being murdered, possessed or otherwise fed too many bananas by her assistant. Previously self-published, Carina Press reissued the trilogy with a new cover and some revisions to the writing. The third, never-released book, Fire & Water, is set for release this year.

If you've been following the series, you'll know Kate is the daughter of the Queen of the Wild hunt in Fairy who would like nothing more than to take over her mortal body each time Kate exercises her power. This makes Kate obviously hesitant to unleash her significant abilities, a problem she confronts with her typical sangfroid. Her ex is the Witch Queen of London, and her current squeeze is a Vampire Prince (catch all that?). She's currently working a case in which she has to discover who is creating a vampire army all while trying to keep from being executed.

Being an older book of Hall's, I still struggle to find his voice in all the dry sarcasm and devil-may-care badassery that characterizes Kate. Still, the books are funny, ironic and just a ton of fun to read.

ARC Provided by NetGalley

A brilliant addition to this series. I'll admit this isn't really my genre (or sub-genre) but Alexis Hall really can't do wrong in my eyes so I had to read it; as always he just has a way with words, it's so vivid and clear it's like looking at a picture.

Might not be my favourite kind of story but I still thoroughly enjoyed myself reading this.

This book was just as funny as it's predecessor and I enjoyed Kate's narration immensely. She just has the funniest way of describing things and her love life is such an interesting and tangled mess. Similarly with the first book I found Kate and her love interests interactions to be entertaining but I wasn't sold on whatever love-dovey emotions they felt for each other and I didn't feel super engaged with the plot, it wasn't bad or anything I'm just too impatient for mysteries. I was reading solely for my love of Kate. All around, this was a cool installment in a lesbian paranormal murder mystery series. Always enjoy Alexis Hall's work.

this was just as funny and adventurous as the first book.

elise is my most favourite animated statue lady ever. galatea could never.

kate is still the biggest disaster lesbian ever with the most inexplicable harem of ex-gfs.

patrick is the most frustrating character ever written. i want to decapitate him as much as he makes me laugh.

and julian is a terrible gf but at least she's good at sex.

I picked up the previous book in this series when it was published with Riptide, so I was so happy to see more of the series finally coming out with a different publisher after the author retained rights back.

Here lies Kate Kane. In various amounts of supernatural drama and constantly coming up against ex-girlfriends around London. Beloved daughter. Sorely missed.

I read Kate's personality as about as butch as it gets. I'm not just meaning kickass either, although there are several different urban fantasy and paranormal novels with those kinds of leads. She is, however, half-fae so she's definitely no wilting flower either in the supernatural powers department. Kate's weakness for women in this noir version of London is likely to get her killed one day, especially given that her girlfriend is a jealous succubus vampire.

Yup, you read that right.

This novel is paced really quickly, doesn't hold back its punches, and has about 3 different plotlines running at once. If there isn't time for Kate or her cohorts to have time to sit and reflect, that's mostly because they are rushing from one disaster onto another.

I found it a curious choice just how much the character of Patrick was deeply ridiculed for being a cardboard cut out of your teen vampire romances, given how many readers may cross over between the two genres. It was a bit on the nose, and overdone, during the course of the novel, in my opinion.

Shadows & Dreams is just as hilarious and high-stakes as its prequel, introducing new characters and revisiting much-loved (and not-so-much loved) faces.

Content warnings include: violence and death, graphic injury, semi-explicit sex on-page, kidnapping, past and ongoing relationships between a minor and someone of age, toxic family and friendship dynamics.

One of my favourite things about this series is Kate's humor. It's ever-present and while maybe not the most original for a novel with noir-vibes, I love her voice and being in her head, plus, really, a lesbian protagonist alone is already a vast improvement to most out of that genre.
I adored how the vast majority of power players are women, thought the amount of men in important roles is higher in Shadows & Dreams than in book 1, Iron & Velvet.

Some of the iffy side things, like how Kate's ex is now together with another seventeen year old girl, or his toxic family dynamics, or the murder obsession with pretty much all of the paranormal world, could have been reflected more critically, though it's all definitely condemned on-page by Kate.
I also feel like the many parallel running plots could have been tied together a bit more neatly, with some parts not having much consequence in the long run and seeming kind of pointless - though who knows, there's another book in the series upcoming, after all.
Speaking of, I'm super excited for Fire & Water, which will tie closely into events of Shadows & Dreams.

Kate Kane is a paranormal investigator who’s dating a vampire prince (female) and carrying the power of the Deepwild, which wants to take her over. When an ancient vampire wakes up and tries to take over London, Kate is dragged into the resulting problems, which involve at least four of her exes: a tech billionaire, a werewolf, an arcane thief, and the vampire she dated when she was a kid who didn’t know she was a lesbian. The last one is a fairly hilarious sendup of the Twilight/Angel-style vampire who angsts over his attraction to young girls but doesn’t actually stay away from them. I enjoyed it but am not pining for more.

“Here lies Kate Kane. She achieved something. Beloved daughter. Sorely missed.”

After having so much fun with the re-release of Iron & Velvet, I was fairly confident I’d enjoy the second novel in the Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator just as well. And I did. This time around, Shadows & Dreams was as delightfully incongruous and enjoyable as before, with the added benefit of familiarity and a lingering fondness.

Once again, Kate somehow manages to wind up in the role of both sleuth and unenthusiastic savior in a world on the brink of annihilation when an almost hook-up hires her to track down her missing brother. Naturally, pandemonium and several near-death confrontations follow, but all Kate really wants is some quality time with her girlfriend. Unfortunately, things don’t quite work out that way, given that most of the other parties involved are either actively trying to kill her, possess her in order to slaughter everyone in sight, or use her in their deification ritual. Typical Kate stuff.

“’Eve, you are f**king nuts.’

‘Yet still the most normal person you’ve dated this century.’

She had a point.”

One of the things I like most about Mr. Hall’s writing is his ability to consistently write characters that I end up caring for a great deal. While Kate is still my favorite in this series, several others in Shadows & Dreams left their mark as well. Julian was a riot, as expected. Nimue was more fascinating than before, her power unexpectedly impressive for how casually she wields it. I also liked getting to know Eve (another of Kate’s exes) better, and found Elise (Kate’s living-statue-flat mate) completely wonderful. Kate’s frequent interactions with her former girlfriends could have been problematic, but watching her lingering frustrations with them give way to a mildly sparkling kind of nostalgia was actually very sweet.

“There’s no such thing as an ordinary girl.”

In addition to being a satisfying mystery, Shadows & Dreams was simply good entertainment for me. Despite near-death scenarios (largely due to the lethality of the company she keeps), this is a fun series. I love that Kate is always tired and that she can’t stop doing the things she knows she’d be better off not doing. She engenders loyalty in others that even she doesn’t seem to understand most of the time, and she’s fully aware that her best intentions might get someone—or her—killed. But, she can’t not try.

Once again, Mr. Hall has created a world of tantalizing impossibility and a hero unlike any other I’ve read. Shadows & Dreams is proof that Kate is a mess sometimes, but I think it’s a lovely mess. Though I haven’t gotten the paperbacks yet, the new covers are beautiful, and I’m determined to have them for my favorite bookshelf soon. I’m also super excited for the third story in the series, Fire & Water, which is due to be out next year.

I was given this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I ALWAYS enjoy Alexis Hall's stories and this one did not disappoint me!

A sassy PI who seems to court trouble as much as she courts the ladies.

A cast of characters - yummy vampires, animated statue/roommate, pixies, werewolves, Queens of fairy realms. This series has it all.

Multiple plot lines - disappearing pixies, tangled lust, loyalty issues and dodging the metaphysical bullet almost every day.

Kate Spade is funny, ironic, loyal and just a bit jaded. She makes her living as a private investigator - catching cheating spouses in between searching for missing pixies, untangling magical debts and conspiracies.

Grab a coffee, a banana and prepare to be entertained.

Kate Kane is back and bad ass as ever. This series is brilliant. Finally a queer paranormal investigator/ PI in the urban fantasy mainstream. Personally I thought this book was even better than book 1. The plot was tighter and the characters are already established. It’s dark, witty, sexy and a whole lot of fun. I can’t wait for the release of book 3.

God, I love this series.

This book hit the ground running with Kate's capture/arrest/trial by the vampire princes and council, and never stopped throwing punches. Most of the still alive characters from the first book are back, still as gorgeous, sassy and out of fucks as ever. And the new characters are equally hilarious.

Alexis Hall is great at banter, and sure maybe the amount of banter isn't realistic or possible during fights, but this is story magic, and it works here. All in all, a great addition to the Kate Kane books.