Quick Take
- Narration: Cat Gould’s performance as Kate Kane is the book’s backbone, her comic timing and emotional range carry a plot that moves almost too fast to breathe.
- Themes: Sapphic urban fantasy, found chaos as chosen family, the cost of surviving everything
- Mood: Witty and breathless, with real emotional undercurrents beneath the comedy
- Verdict: Book two of the Kate Kane series doubles down on everything that made the first work, sharper wit, more impossible situations, and a protagonist you follow not because she is invincible but because she is compelling.
I came to Shadows and Dreams having already spent ten hours with Kate Kane, paranormal private investigator, in the first book of Alexis Hall’s series. I knew what I was signing up for: a protagonist who courts disaster with something close to enthusiasm, an ex-girlfriend situation that has escalated from complicated to cosmically complicated, and a narrative voice so dry it could absorb moisture from a glass of water. What I did not fully anticipate was how much more Hall would cram into the second volume while keeping the whole thing from collapsing under its own weight.
The setup for Shadows and Dreams is functionally an escalation of every thread from book one. Kate is on trial for murder before a council of vampire oligarchs, a murder she essentially committed while saving her girlfriend, who is one of said oligarchs. There is a primordial queen of the damned who visits in dreams with hostile intent. The conspiracy of undead wizards who tried to sacrifice Kate fifteen years ago has decided now is the right moment to try again. An ex-girlfriend who left for a tech startup is back. Another ex-girlfriend to whom Kate may owe eternal mystical fealty has opinions about that. A werewolf whose intentions toward Kate are ambiguous in both valence and appetite rounds out the situation.
Our Take on Shadows and Dreams
Alexis Hall writes with a particular gift: the ability to sustain genuine wit across an entire novel without once confusing humor for frivolity. The comedy in this book is doing real structural work. Kate’s sardonic narration is how she processes a world that is genuinely trying to kill her, which gives the jokes a survival function that makes them emotionally resonant rather than merely entertaining. One reviewer described the book as “nothing but Kate getting in and out of one near-death experience after another” and noted that only the tone saves it from feeling over the top. That is exactly right, and it points to what Hall is doing: the plot is an excuse for the voice, and the voice earns that arrangement.
The character work on Elise, the vampire girlfriend at the center of the murder trial, is where book two makes its most interesting moves. Several reviewers note Elise as the character they find most compelling in this installment, and her scenes have a weight that grounds the supernatural chaos around them. Kate’s relationship with Elise is complicated in ways the first book established and the second book extends without easy resolution, which is the correct choice for a series with room to develop.
Why Listen to Shadows and Dreams
Cat Gould is the voice of Kate Kane in the way that some narrators become genuinely synonymous with a character: not just reading the performance but inhabiting it. Her comic timing on Hall’s dialogue is exact in the way that only very good narrators achieve, the pause before the punchline, the deadpan delivery that lets the absurdity land without announcement. The paranormal cast of characters is large and varied, and Gould differentiates them clearly enough that a listener can track the often chaotic ensemble without losing the thread.
At 10 hours and 6 minutes, this is a comfortable two-session listen or a demanding single-day commitment. The pace of the plot rewards listening over reading for many listeners, the verbal texture of Hall’s prose, which is built around rhythm and cadence, benefits from being heard rather than parsed on the page.
What to Watch For in Shadows and Dreams
The book is emphatically a sequel. Starting here without book one is possible, Hall writes with enough contextual generosity that newcomers are not completely lost, but the emotional resonance of the ex-girlfriend dynamics, the weight of Kate’s history with the undead wizard conspiracy, and the significance of specific character relationships all depend on the prior volume. The series is designed as a continuous arc, and dropping into the middle of it diminishes the experience.
One reviewer noted that the suspense of Kate’s survival is undermined by book two because readers have learned she will not actually die. That is a real tension in series urban fantasy: the immunity to permanent consequence that a continuing protagonist implies. Hall navigates it through emotional rather than physical stakes, but listeners who need genuine uncertainty about a protagonist’s survival will find that aspect less satisfying.
Who Should Listen to Shadows and Dreams
Readers who have finished book one of the Kate Kane series and want more of exactly what they got should proceed immediately. Fans of Alexis Hall’s other work, particularly those who came from Boyfriend Material or Glitterland and want to see what Hall does with genre fiction, will find the same verbal intelligence applied to very different material. Sapphic urban fantasy readers looking for a protagonist written with genuine wit rather than wish fulfillment will find Kate Kane one of the better examples in the subgenre. Those who need their urban fantasy to take itself seriously, or who want a protagonist who makes sensible decisions, should look elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to listen to book one of the Kate Kane series before Shadows and Dreams?
Yes, strongly recommended. The emotional weight of the relationships, the history with the undead wizard conspiracy, and the specific dynamics of Kate’s ex-girlfriend situation all build on the first book. Starting here is technically possible but experientially diminished.
How does Cat Gould handle the large ensemble cast of vampire oligarchs, werewolves, and animated statues?
With considerable skill. She differentiates a wide cast through voice texture and rhythm rather than exaggerated accents, which keeps the listening experience coherent even when six or seven characters are in a scene. Her Kate Kane voice is the anchor that everything else relates to.
Is this audiobook suitable for listeners who are not usually urban fantasy readers?
The appeal of this series extends beyond genre readers primarily through Hall’s prose voice. If you are drawn to sharp, witty first-person narration and are comfortable with a supernatural setting, the genre elements are not barriers. If you need realistic fiction or cannot engage with the supernatural as a premise, the genre framing is non-negotiable here.
How sapphic is the content, and does this function as a romance as well as urban fantasy?
Kate Kane is a lesbian protagonist, and her romantic life is central to the plot in both books, the ex-girlfriend complications are not incidental but structurally significant. The romance elements are woven into the thriller-fantasy plot rather than presented as a separate romantic arc, which is part of what makes the series distinctive.
