The Sorceress raised her hand to the sky. Kate raised her sword and put it through the Sorceress’s throat. Kate had been having these dreams since she swore fealty to Nimsue. But Nim had given her help when Kate needed it. There was a knock at her door “It’s eight oclock Miss Kane”. Elisa had been fostered on Kate by a crazy rat god for some vague information . She turned out to be an animated statue . She brews coffee and fixed Kate’s washing machine. They were just wrapping up a case than very little to do until after Christmas. Kate was looking forward to spending some time with her vampire girlfriend. Than Tash Than tash walked into Kate’s office. She’d pulled Tash at the Candy Bar about three months ago but never called her. Kate never expected to see Tash again. Tash said she needed Kates help. Kate was a P I that had a lot of paranormal cases. Tash’s brother Hugh had disappeared . he had broken his leg and went to the hospital and then disappeared. They had called the police and it’s been more than two days and Tash is worried Hugh isn’t answering his phone and no one has seen him. Tash doesn’t know what to do. Kate asked who saw Hugh last and Tash said she wasn’t sure probably someone at the hospital. H had no signs of depression or personal problems. After visiting the going to the hospital about Hugh, Kate was picked up by some vampires and locked in the cellar and was to stand trial for the murder of thier Prince Of Swords.
I liked this book but didn’t like the F/F aspect as I don't like to read M/M or W/W love aspect or sexual aspects. Just not my thing. I do think this was well written and bypassed the sexual scenes as well as I could. This book had a lot to it: vampires, vampire princes - that aren’t necessarily male- a werewolf model, mystery, evil, rituals, action, a ninja nun, a vampire hunter, a psychopath, witches, and undead wizards and just so much more. I chuckled a couple times reading this. Kate can sure get her self in some situations. I advise you to read the books in this series in order for a better read. So you can see I do have mixed feelings about this book.

Unfortunately this second installment did not continue on the positive ride of book one for me. At times I felt the storyline was paced too slowly and as a result did not hold my interest.

This is very, very good. Hall has re-released this book to but didn't change much besides helping readability and one of the character's names. It works. This second novel is a more complete read - the first, Iron and Velvet being really fast paced- sometimes at the expense of character development and plot. Here, Hall slows down the pace at times to give the plot time to breath, and it pays off.

Kate is still as brash and broody as ever, and now has to deal with a couple of exes, a werewolf alpha who wants to get in her pants, and her current girlfriend, Julien. She also has to clean up the mess left over from the first book, and has found out that there might be a super powerful ancient being creating more chaos in London.

I love that, despite this novel being a pretty gritty who-done-it, Hall has time to poke fun at some of the overly dramatic paranormal vampire romances that popped up in the late naughties and early tens. Kate's ex-boyfriend is basically what Edward from Twilight was like at his worst vampy angsty glory from the view point of a slightly more emotionally mature person. Also, Else, Kate's animated marble statue assistant, remains funny and endearingly sweet at the same time.

I love urban fantasies especially when the lead is as unpredictable as Kate. I also love that, while Kate and Julien are intimate, there's still very little romance - they aren't really ready for large grand declarations of love, even as their relationship is passionate and close. If anything, there's not enough of Julien in this volume, even though Kate dealt more with vampire politics. It was a bit of a weird trade off for me.

Highly recommended for f-f lead urban fantasy readers, and for those who love folklore - there are a ton of easter eggs in these books for you to parse out what they allude to. It's almost as fun as reading about Kate's (mis)adventures

Shadows & Dreams by Alexis Hall

This is the second book in Hall’s Kate Kane: Paranormal Investigator series. The Kate series first appeared a few years ago, but has been republished by Carina Press.

Readers should start with the first book—Iron & Velvet—which introduces Kate and her world, but I’ll offer a brief spoiler-free TLDR for readers who want to read this review. Kate lives in contemporary London, all the fictional supernatural entities are real, and just like ordinary people, they require the services of a private investigator.

Shadows picks up three months after Iron, and concerns the fallout from the end of Iron, as well as a new threat. What starts as a search for an almost-hookup’s missing brother escalates into something bigger, and once again Kate is forced to deal with vampires, werewolves, faeries, and more— when all she really wants to do is relax at home and spend time with Julian, her girlfriend.

I should mention that Julian used to be a nun… and that she’s an 800-year-old vampire…

The narrative unfolds via Kate’s first-person perspective. Kate is in her mid-30s, and like most women of that age, she is not here for your bullshit. Kate has many weapons in her arsenal, but tact is not one of them. Why mince words when you can save time by just being direct?

So, when Kate’s acerbic wit combines with Hall’s bananas take on a modern London full of supernatural beings, the result is a simply magical madcap adventure. Between the banter and the (intentionally) melodramatic personalities that Kate encounters, I spent most of the book laughing. I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll say that the D&D session was one of my favorite scenes. Oh, and I’ll never be able to listen to Clair de Lune without thinking of that interminably long car ride in the Volvo.

I should mention that even though Kate has a girlfriend who she spends time with over the course of the novel—that’s a euphemism, for the record—this book is not a romance. Kate and Julian might have some great chemistry, but unfortunately, their relationship is only a small facet of the plot. Nonetheless, the queer representation was both noted and appreciated.

I would absolutely recommend Shadows & Dreams. I don’t read a lot of contemporary fantasy, but I find the Kate Kane books to be delightful. I’m looking forward to finding out what Hall is going to do with Kate in Fire & Water, the third book in the series.






I received a copy of this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Kate Kane is back and I still love her. Hall has created a marvelous character in Kate. She's brave, makes really poor decisions 99% of the time, has the most bizarre interpersonal relationships ever and somehow finds time to be a detective. Her world if full of the paranormal and that makes this series hilarious and dramatic! If you want truly entertaining plots and awesome characterizations then I suggest you give this series a try!

Kate's life hasn't really changed much since the first book in this series: Iron & Velvet. (My review is here). The things that Kate was involved in - particularly a murder with consent - has brought the Vampires down on her! She's on trial and could lose her life. You'd think that having a stalkery ex-boyfriend who is a vampire, a current lover who is a Vampire Prince and an estranged faerie mother might help - but really, not so much.

One of the amusing things about Kate's life is that no one ever seems to move on from her life. Every ex she's ever had seems to be either stalking her, trying to kill her or actively appearing to annoy her. It makes for really fun reading and I love the wit and snark that Alexis Hall puts into nearly all the encounters in the series.

“Shit. This whole clusterfuck just got way clusterier and fuckier.”

I'm going to sound like a broken record because I just love Hall's writing. There are only a couple of writers who made me, literally, laugh out loud - Alexis Hall and T.J. Klune. It's a rare gift to be so entertained by someone's writing. The short explanation of this series is that it's a strong female lead who exercises poor judgment on regular occasions. Kate is always in trouble but is always working a case that is far more complex than it may initially seem.

Read these books. That's all I have to say.

4.50 Stars. I just love this series. This is book two in the Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator series. Those of you who read my reviews will notice I don’t do rereads often, there are just so many book so little time. This book I have actually read 3 times so I think that shows just how much I love this series. Paranormal/urban fantasy lesfic books are my absolutely favorite genre to read and this series fits what I love perfectly. The reason I am reading this series again now is that it is being re-released. Carina Press picked this up and this new version has the new cover that does NOT include Kate in her hat. Alexis Hall revised the story, keeping most things the same but fixing up the writing a bit. And what I am most excited about is that after waiting almost 6 years, a book three is coming out February 2020. Talk about going right on the list of my most anticipated 2020 reads. I did not think Hall would ever write another Kate Kane book and I could not be happier.

If you are new to this series I highly recommend reading book one Iron & Velvet first. The same cast of characters are entwined in both books and there are some threads that stay open. I think you could figure out enough to understand this book if you started right here, but I don’t think your enjoyment would be as high.

These books star Kate Kane who is a private investigator working in England. Kate mostly deals in matters of the paranormal. While Kate is technically human, her mother is Queen of the Wild hunt in Fairy so Kate can at times tap into her powers. The problem is if she invites her mother in too often her mother would love to take over her mortal body and that would be the end of Kate. Kate is a strong and sarcastic woman who has a weakness for badass women. Her ex is the Witch Queen of London, an alpha werewolf is currently trying to get in her pants, and a Vampire Prince is her new girlfriend. If her social life wasn’t complicated enough she now has to figure out who is turning a bunch of humans into vampires to make an army, that is if Kate can stay alive long enough to find out.

This series is really entertaining with plenty of excitement. It also has a sarcastic humor that keeps the book from being too dark. These books were originally written in 2013 and 14 so it’s pretty funny the way Hall pokes fun of the Twilight books. I also really like the chemistry between Kate and her vampire girlfriend. It’s a little more sex than an actually romance, but the longer they are together the more real feelings are starting to emerge.

If you are a paranormal or urban fantasy fan I think you will enjoy this series. It’s sarcastic, fun, and just pure entertainment. While there are a few loose ends open, these books do NOT end on cliffhangers so you can start this series now with no problems. I’m going to be counting down the days until Feb when I can read the book three that I have been waiting over half a decade for. I can’t wait!

Iron & Velvet, the first Kate Kane book, had taken me by surprise, in the best way. I’d really enjoyed the gothic vampire / film noir atmosphere, and the cynical but benevolent Kate. I therefore had great expectations for the next one, Shadows & Dreams. I was not disappointed.

Kate is on trial for the murder of one of the London Vampire Princes (read the first book). As she waits for the Council to decide whether her killing him was indeed murder, Kate, with the help of her assistant Elise, a living statue, tries to stop some sort of vampire zombie army from killing everyone in London, all the while dealing with too many girlfriends, past and current, including the one who killed her partner, and all sorts of witches, werewolves, sorcerers and even more vampires.

I won’t even try and get into the details of the story, spoiling it would be a shame. Suffice it to say it’s just as fun, dark, cynical and zany as the first instalment. There’s an excerpt from the third episode at the end of the book, which I didn’t read because I’d rather wait for the whole story, but what matters is that there’s a third episode coming (the first two were reprints, this one seems entirely new). And that’s really good news.

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

I wasn't a huge fan of the first instalment but it was is excellent and I enjoyed it.
i loved the gripping and entertaining plot, the humour and the well thought cast of characters.
I look forward to reading the next book in this series.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Second book in the Kate Kane Paranormal Investigator series, and you DO need to read book 1 (Iron & Velvet) first. But you'll enjoy book one and will eagerly snap up this book 2!! This was so good.

Kate Kane is a (mostly) human PI, with a fairy queen mum, dating a vampire sex-goddess, and a reluctant knight pledged to the witch-queen of London. Totally normal life... nothing could possibly go wrong. Except being tried by the vampire Council for the murder of one of their own, a missing person who has likely been turned undead, an escaped-from-prison murderous ex-girlfriend and the rising of a psychopathic, super-murderer, ancient vampire - let's call her Susan. As said in the book, the clusterf*ck just got clustier and f*ckier.

Kate Kane is so incredibly snarky and has such a dry humor, which is understandable when your life is consistently out of control and the supernatural keeps trying to f*ck you - in all possible ways. A completely unpredictable and delightful whirlwind supernatural adventure.

**I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Kate Kane, paranormal investigator, is a gosh darn delight. I enjoyed the first book, and that background meant I could slip into this one without needing to catch up on who's who and what's what. I got to jump in and enjoy the ride. And it is a ride. It's more or less non-stop action.

An old almost-hookup hires Kate to look for her missing brother, who walked out of the hospital after checking in with a broken leg. Kate not only finds him, but unearths a plot that involves an ancient awoken vampire queen, the Witch queen of London, the vampire council, and the local werewolf pack.

I love Kate's voice in this - it's this sort of noir-snark that I adore. I am also halfway in love with Elise, Kate's assistant who happens to be an animated statue that Kate took in at the behest of the Multitude - a rat gestalt that takes the form of a priest, among other things.

If you like action, snark, and animated statues that think you should have a banana, you ought to read this series.

Mentioned in bimonthly SBTB Whatcha Reading post: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2019/11/whatcha-reading-november-2019-edition-part-one/

I listened to Alexis Hall the affair of the mysterious letter and I absolutely loved it, the humour was outstanding, I did not think that could be repeated, I was wrong, very wrong, I would dearly love to hear the author relate how these stories come in to being because they are class