Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall

4 STARS

Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator - Book 1

What a fun paranormal romp! I was a little hesitant about this one, seeing as Glitterland by the same author had left me rather cold, but the first big bonus - NO DIALECT!!! Earned a star just for that, I swear. :)

So Kate Kane is a bisexual PI (paranormal investigator) who drinks too much and is very hard-boiled and snarky. She has had liasons with vampires in her past, and witches/mages, and is the daughter of a fairy queen whose power she really isn't very fond of. People are dying... well, people... werewolves and vampires. This might incite a paranormal war between the tribes type of thing, so, when the Prince of Cups demands Kate's presence, she heeds the call and takes the case. Oh, and the vampire Prince of Cups? A woman. I know... I'm not sure about it either. Maybe it's a Tarot thing? I dunno... See, I think that sometimes authors want to be different, want to turn gender expectations on their ear and as a result, there are an awful lot of females running the world of current paranormal London. I found this a tad distracting because there were just SO MANY of them! That's maybe my problem though. :) The burgeoning relationship between Julian, the Prince of Cups and Kate is sexy and fun.

The one problem I did have with the book, and it's not a huge one, really, are the references Kate (Oh, I didn't mention, the novel is written in the first person) makes to events prior to the events taking place in the book. The death of her partner... how she knows so many of these people... what exactly happened with her ex Patrick... etc... But since it's a series, I assume we'll learn more about some of this stuff in books to come.

The secondary characters were terrific and nicely drawn. They have big parts to play and they don't fade into the background or each other. I LOVE Ashriel, the demon - the reformed sex demon, to be exact and Jack.. the um... I don't know how to describe him. :) And Elise, Kate's new assistant. She is a HOOT!

So yes, I totally enjoyed this book despite the few pauses it gave me and I will definitely be continuing the series. And thank GOD, Alexis Hall stopped with the dialect shit. :) His writing is too good, he doesn't need that quirky hipster stuff.

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