Shadows & Dreams by Alexis Hall

3 Stars

Kate Kane: Paranormal Investigator - Book 2

A fun read, just like the first one.  Kate Kane is a tough cookie, very noir-like in inception and her adventures with the vampires, werewolves, faeries, and all sorts of different supernatural creatures are certainly filled with action.

The plot is twisty turny and non-stop.  We meet a ton of characters (old and new) and I find myself wondering if maybe there weren't a tad too many?   And not only were there many, Kate has probably slept with the majority of the ladies!  *LOL*  She likes her pleasures.  :)

So yes, a fun read and I have no idea why it took me so long to get through it.  There's a note in the back of the book about a #3 in the series coming, but I have the feeling that Alexis has moved on to other things.  I'd have read it though.

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.

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

3 STARS

This book could have been rated 5 stars, but the DIALECT! UGH! There is a lot of dialect in this. 

Ash's (the main character) love interest, Darian is what they call an Essex (in England) boy. As such, he speaks with an accent, a heavy accent. Ash, the main character, is a much more... refined sort and the class difference is one of the big stumbling blocks to these fellows' happiness. But for God's sake, readers aren't stupid, they don't need to be hit over the head, over and over and over, with one of those huge cartoon hammers. That's what it felt like every time that Darian opened his mouth to speak. And when we had scenes with his friends and nan? *facepalm* Nearly incomprehensible on the first read. I lost count of the times I had to reread a section of dialogue to understand what the boy was saying. I even resorted to reading it out loud to try and understand. And maybe it's the 8 year-old that lives inside of me, but deep, emotional passages with the word 'fink' repeated over and over again just made me giggle.

The thing is, Alexis Hall has told a wonderful story here. The characters are excellently drawn with flaws and wounds that people have suffered from since the beginning of time. I do not suffer from depression, but the picture that Alexis drew of Ash's illness seemed real and tangible to me and maybe I gained a little more understanding of something I have never experienced first hand. Darian could easily come across as too good to be true, the street urchin with the tragic past but the stoic heart of gold and positive outlook. You know... Annie-like. But he really is charming and sweet and yeah, I do know people like that. Not many, but they do exist. My mom was like that. 

And the romance! It was lovely to watch it unfold and even the heart-breaking parts of it were so human, so real, that they were lovely too. BUT THE DAMNED OVERWHELMING DIALOGUE... it pulled me out of the story every time. And it could have so easily been rectified. I don't know, maybe for a UK audience this is normal, but I'm in Canada and it was far too much for me. Pick a word or two and just use those. 

The story is written from a first person POV so the differences could have so easily been shown in Ash's reactions and inner musings. Readers will remember all through the book that this divide exists between Ash and Darian (and his friends) and I think Alexis Hall is a good enough writer to pull that off. So in the end, I was disappointed and thrilled at the same time. I loved everything about this book except for the dreaded dialect dialogue - the DDD - and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a bittersweet but ultimately happy read, with the caveat that the DDD could be problematic. 

I have Alexis Hall's Iron and Velvet which comes out in December on my wishlist and I am crossing my fingers that there will be no such tidal wave of unreadable DDD in it.