Shadows & Dreams (Kate Kane: Paranormal Investigator #2) by Alexis Hall

From the 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.

Review:

Be prepared to be plunged back into the chaotic world of Kate Kane.  

Hall is in perfect form with this second instalment of Kate Kane: Paranormal Investigator. Just like the first novel, the cast of characters is huge, but don't let that put you off - Hall wants you to understand just how big, magical, and scary his version of London is.

The most perfect thing about this novel (and there are many perfect things) is Hall's wit.  From the prologue I was cackling like a witch on helium. It was so bad (i.e. good), my partner forbade me from reading it in bed. No big deal. I just finished reading it while they were at work. Relationship skills, I has them.

This time I fell even more in love with Kate than I had before. It's hard not to love a heroine whose catch-cry is "Well, fuck." She's self-deprecating, not a morning person and hates bananas. Her noir-esque style of narration combined with a gen y speech characteristics including the clause structure "because noun" (e.g. "because reasons") meant that I felt a strong affinity and connection with Kate and her voice.

In this book I also felt more convinced by her relationship with the vampire prince, Julian. The first novel it was a little unclear what she saw in Julian other than sex-goddess. Not that that's a bad thing.

The digs at Twilight are super obvious and make for some irreverent intertextual goodness.

Hall's second instalment of Kate Kane is uproariously funny. 

Best consumed with something hard... like whiskey. Trust me, Kate would approve.

Title: Shadows & Dreams (Kate Kane: Paranormal Investigator #2)
Author: Alexis Hall
Genre: Paranormal/Romance
Publisher: Ripdtide Publishing
Publishing Date: June 2014
Type: f/f

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Review: The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles

From the blurb:

Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn’t expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude…and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’s definitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn’t the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die.

Review:

I couldn't put this novel down.

The plot is well focused and the main characters are incredibly well drawn.  The pacing is just phenomenally well executed.  While there are a few cliches, e.g. a tall, strong earl, the fact that Lord Crane has spent 15 years in China adds a really nice embellishment to the character.

K.J. Charles does a really great job of balancing elements of Victorian England with a paranormal story line.  Fans of romance might find the romance plot takes a while to get into, but, trust me, it's worth it.

The pacing of the romance is something that I really admired.  The two heroes really do get to know each other and the attraction doesn't feel forced.  There's also the whole business of being in peril and saving one another that helps to solidify their attraction.  What others would have brushed off as a bromance, K.J. Charles masterfully makes into a romance.

The dynamic between the dangerous, but mostly good Lord Crane, and the mysterious, but grudge holding Stephen Day is first almost hostile before journeying through to romantic interest.  Their passion for one another develops over the course of the novel in a series of unfolding events, and K.J. Charles masterfully controls the unfolding relationship by building up to a crescendo.

The editorial execution was, from what I could tell, flawless.  The ebook cover was professional, interesting, and definitely attention grabbing. Overall, a polished end result.

It is one of the best queer romances that I've read, although I have my quibbles with it.  I am eagerly awaiting book 2, A Case of Possession due to be published Jan 28, 2014.

Title: The Magpie Lord
Author: KJ Charles
Publisher: Samhain
Publishing Date: Sep 3, 2013
Length: Novel (50k)
Genre: Romance/Paranormal/Historical
Type: m/m

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