Reviewed by Roberta
TITLE: Shadows & Dreams
SERIES: Kate Kane: Paranormal Investigator #2
AUTHOR: Alexis Hall
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 366 pages
BLURB: Second rule in this line of business: be careful who you kill.
My name’s Kate Kane. And right now, I don’t know which is more dangerous: my job, or my girlfriend. My job makes me the go-to girl for every supernatural mystery in London. My girlfriend’s an eight-hundred-year-old vampire prince. Honestly, I think it’s probably a tie.
A few weeks ago, I was hired for a simple missing person case. Next thing I know, I’m being arrested for murder, a vampire army is tearing up London, and even my dreams are out to get me. Something ancient, evil, and scary as hell is on the loose and looking for payback. The vampires are in chaos, the werewolves are culling everything, and the Witch Queen can’t protect everyone.
Which means it’s down to me. And all I’ve got to hold back the shadows is a stiff drink, a quirky sidekick, my creepy ex-boyfriend, and the woman who left me for a tech startup. It’s going to be another interesting day.
– See more at: http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/shadows-dreams-kate-kane-paranormal-investigator-2#sthash.Illyi9R9.dpuf
REVIEW: I thought that the premise based on the blurb on this book was pretty funny. It sounded like it would be a great book to read. Well, I was kinda right.
Kate Kane is the main character in this book and she’s a PI who works mostly for the paranormal community. She does regular PI work, but she seems to get caught up mostly in the paranormal. Kate is half human and half fairy princess. She’s able to tap into her mother’s power when needed. That’s kinda cool. She’s dating a Vampire Prince, who is in fact a woman. Kate seems to be the kind of person that whines A LOT about what’s happening to her. She is witty and sarcastic and whiney all the time. Kate seems to get caught up in so much crap it borders on the ridiculous. She’s got so many ex’s in this story it was almost hard to keep them all straight.
The secondary characters in this book were in my opinion the very best part of the book. Elise, her assistant who is an animated statue was great. I loved her enthusiasm for being human and doing the most mundane things. Julian, Kate’s girlfriend was such a fun character as well. She is a Vampire Prince who runs a Night Club called Velvet and has a bunch of lesbian groupies that she calls kitties. She’s tough and powerful and a bit on the mysterious side. Eve is another ex of Kate’s. She owns a computer company and is also a crime fighter against the paranormal’s that are hurting innocents. Tara is the Shifter Alpha for lack of a better word. She is a very tough and sexy woman who is all about taking care of her people. There was one character that was in the book, Kismet, she’s a child vampire who is kinda creepy, but she’s so very old and knows her shit!! I really liked her, but she kinda creeped me out. Now, Kate’s mom, who’s power Kate kept drawing from, Wow!! Now that is one Bad Ass Woman who doesn’t have morality issues. She’s dangerous and I would have liked to have more of her. That woman isn’t plagued by the niceties of human behavior at all. She’s all about the very primitive and it worked for her.
There was a bit of sex in the book. It didn’t overpower the story at all. It was alluded to most times and give screen time once or twice. It helped to show another part of Kate and Julian’s relationship. There was mention of other people having sex, but again it was alluded to. It was nice to see a book that showed a lesbian relationship that was sexual and sensual.
I had some issues with this story. Kate was written to be a snarky character, however, what she seemed to be in my mind was more of a sixteen year old girl who was horny a lot. She would be in the middle of some stuff and she’d be thinking about sex. It was rather teenage-esque to me. I found that she kept repeating this phrase “ Here lies Kate Kane. Beloved Daughter. She’ll be miss” repeated so many times, I almost wanted her to bite it. Just to see if that would be on her headstone. I find that she reminded me of Stephanie Plum from another series and that she just kept getting into more and more ridiculous situations and how she kept making it out alive. That kept me from enjoying this character. I also didn’t like the fact that there was so much happening in this story. I don’t mind if there is one or two things going on, but this book had so much flying at you, that it really took the enjoyment of reading this book.
Overall, it’s not a bad book. I think that if it was edited down for content and Kate wasn’t so damn whiney, I’d have really enjoyed this book. Don’t get me wrong, this book had bunches of wonderful characters in it. They made me laugh multiple times. It was just the main character that I had issues with. I will say that there was a fair about of humor and the many mysteries of this book were good. I’d say that if this book had less going on and really given more insight into the characters, that would have made it way better for me.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Amazon