One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Fever, Book 5
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 512 Pages, 10903 Locations
Formats: Hardcover, Kindle, Mass Market Paperback (coming 8/30/2011)


Sidhe-Seer Mac Lane is stuck in the Silvers, her dead protector beast at her feet and this time, this time she may not survive the grief. She's lost the one person - the final person - the only person who she just now realizes she won't live without. Choices, Mac...it's all about choices. And Mac 5.0 is born.

This sleeker, smarter, far deadlier MacKayla Lane is released on Dublin as the search for the Sinsar Dubh and the race to save the world rockets towards its final chapters. Through grief, through loss, through torture and pain, through rebirth, with questions - endless questions - and difficult, unbelievable, inconceivable answers, this epic battle between gigantic forces teeters on the fulcrum of the sheer determination of one young woman and the monstrous forces impacting her.

Five books. One epic journey. And a conclusion that satisfies beyond my wildest dreams.

I don't know that I have the words to express my impressions of Shadowfever on its own merits, and I don't know that I should even try, because for me, this isn't about a book, it's about the story that takes place over the arc of all of the books. It's about MacKayla Lane, who I haven't always liked, as she evolves from the bubble-headed Amateur Sleuth Barbie, self absorbed and overly entitled, to Mac Lane-O'Connor, weapon for revenge for her sister's murder and to hell with the world at large, to my favorite incarnation: Just Mac. It's about growing up, making choices, and fighting the good fight. It's about deciding, and acknowledging, who you are and what you really want - and then going out with both hands and grabbing it by the short and curlies until it's yours.

It's about life, and responsibility, and love, and hate, and good, and most definitely evil. It's about a book that can unmake the world and the people who join together to fight for that world. It's about picking up the pieces and finding joy in the cracks. It's about stasis. And change.

It's about life, death, and everything - absolutely everything in the shadows between.

With an indescribable quality of writing, imaginative world building and creation that leaves me in awe, and characters that go beyond three dimensional to that iconic fourth dimension that jettisons them from the page, Karen Marie Moning has created an unforgettable, intensely layered story that will forever hold a place in my heart as one of the best in the genre - ever. And she's done it brilliantly.

I'm so glad I went back and re-read the first four books before I started this one, because the depth and texture of the overall experience, fresh in my mind, is something I wouldn't trade for anything. I am, quite simply put, humbled by the breadth and scope of the intricacies and delicacies of the tale, and I'm still shaking at some of the more in-your-face truths and truisms. Moning created this world, this broken, flawed, wrong world, filled it with all the darkness, light, danger, hope, threat, life, debauchery, laughter, murder, rebirth, chaos, and love, and gave it to her readers to embrace. And she did it with exquisite aplomb.

When I force myself to take a critical look at the book, examine the pieces and the construction and ignore the heady weight of the story, I can muster some more objective commentary. I freely admit the series in general and this book in particular could have been trimmed a bit here and there. There were times throughout the series when the pacing of the narrative dragged from superlative information dumping, when it crossed that deadly line between brilliant creation and mental overload and the mythos got truly overwhelming. And yeah, twist my arm, I think that the answers to at least some of the questions introduced at the very beginning could've been better seeded throughout the series, instead of slamming them all into this book. It might have made the first four books a bit less frustrating at times. But maybe that would've taken away from some of the intensity of their reveal. I don't know.

And if I'm to be completely honest, I wasn't always fond of Mac. In fact, through most of the series - including this book - I didn't like her. I found her immature and purposely obtuse and willfully oblivious, even as late as the middle of this book. Occasionally, she just flat out got on my nerves. I don't know that I would confidently say that I believe her character being the woman I could realistically see the mighty and mysterious Jericho Z. Barrons wanting. But hey, the heart wants what the heart wants, and there are certainly too few rainbows in the Z's past.

One true complaint, though, one genuine pea under the princess's bed: Dani. I wasn't a huge fan of her POV in the previous book, but I liked her character and the development that she was afforded. Everything about her in this book, though, I found jarring and unlikable and ultimately, inconsequential. Even her dialogue seemed off. I couldn't wrap my head around why she was in any of the scenes, and didn't like it when she was. I kept expecting there to be some tie-in, some connection to her past, some answers for her tragic childhood, some excuse for her existence. I didn't find any beyond one bizarre thread that came out of nowhere and was never resolved.

But even with that, even with the other minor issues, I loved this book and thank Karen Marie Moning from the bottom of my book-loving heart for giving us this series, these characters, and this wild and wicked, and sometimes wonderfully horrifying world that is the Fever series. I don't know where that world goes from here. Frankly, I don't care. If waiting the seemingly interminable wait for Shadowfever taught me one thing, it's confidence in Moning as an author and as a purveyor of sheer reading entertainment. I'll keep to the lights until she gives us more. Of whatever it is she's going to give us next.

The Fever Series:


And its stunning conclusion...

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The Fever Series, Book 3
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook/CDs

4.5 Stars
The Intensity is Climbing to a Fever Pitch


Note:  Due to the nature of this series, the review for Faefever has been combined with Dreamfever so the following review is also the review for that book, fourth in The Fever Series.

I had a plan. It was a good plan, really. Knowing what I knew of the Fever series, I thought it was even a wise and sage plan. See, I stumbled across Darkfever (Fever Series, Book 1) not too long ago when it came up as a free Kindle download. I didn't like it. No, that's not exactly true. I thought the story was interesting and I had a very Jerry MacGuire, he-had-me-at-hello experience with the wildly wicked Jericho Z. Barrons. But....I vehemently opposed MacKayla Lane's continued existence. I hated her. Hated. Her. She was every stereotypical self-absorbed, brainless southern belle cliche rolled up into one nagging, whining and very pink ball. She was my first awful brush with a lead character that I thought was truly TSTL...and as Darkfever was my first introduction with Karen Marie Moning's work, I was certain just why Darkfever was offered to unsuspecting readers at the bargain-basement price of $0.

The only reason I even pondered the second book, Bloodfever: The Fever Series (A Mackayla Lane Novel), was the aforementioned Jericho Z. Barrons and the belief, judging by the Mac's narratives in Darkfever, that MacKayla Lane wasn't going to stay TSTL. And she didn't. Thank hell. To make a really long and totally boring story (mine, not Moning's) as short as I can, I ended up liking Darkfever enough to know that I would continue with this series, and paid closer attention to some of the reviews for the following books.

I wouldn't say that Darkfever and Bloodfever ended on cliffhangers, exactly, but I had noticed they really didn't have an encompassing story arc that was concluded at the end of each of them. I found out why. Moning has intended from the beginning to give this story to readers in a five-book increment. The Fever series is not like Moning's other works. They are not encapsulated stand-alone stories with a thread of over-all series arc running through them. This is, in fact, one monster epic of grand proportions - with war, death, magic, mystery, hate, betrayal, love, loss, family, friends, enemies, and all manner of frustrations and triumphs...split into five pieces.

Not everybody likes that. I understand why, I really do. Spending X amount of dollars on five books to tell one story could be a bit of a put off, especially in these trying economic times. That being said...I've read four books now...the expense is totally worth it. TOTALLY. Yes, one story=five books. But each book is a masterpiece of plotting and pacing that I couldn't even see just by reading the first in the series. Like Mac, I was TSTL - with a very narrow world view - and like Mac, as each book has progressed, I've learned more and appreciated more, and come to understand just what a truly amazing gift this series is for avid readers and fans of the genre.

Not everyone's going to like it - that's okay. Some people even feel really cheated out of their money. I can even understand that, though I agree with some reviewers who indicated that since it's been well elucidated by author and reviewers alike exactly how these books are set up, that starting to read it uninformed, or going into it informed and still complaining, shouldn't really result in a criticism of the author's decision to write them and publish them this way.

Personally, I love it. I love everything about it. I even love (though perhaps a bit wryly) those glimpses of the TSTL Mac that we occasionally see through Faefever (book 3), glimpses that seem to morph into more of a cautionary tale in Dreamfever, where Mac has been put back together (with some Jericho Z. Barrons assistance) but perhaps with too much blood under the bridge, so to speak (there's nothing as innocuous as water left in Mac's world by that point), to ever be even a shadow of her former amateur-sleuth-Barbie self.

Every single one of these books are filled with a layered plot and rich, full storytelling. Complex, thoroughly original, indescribably imaginative, and driven by a cast of characters that are intensely detailed (if often inexplicable) and utterly real, the Fever series, and Dreamfever in particular, is a frustrating and fantastic delight.

And that leads me right back to my good - nay - brilliant plan. Following Bloodfever, I knew I was at risk of burning through all four published books only to be left languishing for almost a year for the conclusion, so my plan was to read just a chapter or two of Faefever: The Fever Series and Dreamfever at a time, between other books. That way I could stretch out Faefever and Dreamfever for at least a few months, seriously cut down the wait time to the last book. It...really was a solid plan...a piece of cake.

And that brilliant plan didn't last six chapters into Faefever. Not only did I completely blow off that other book I was reading, I hit the end of Faefever, quickly downloaded Dreamfever, and kept racing through Mac's and Jericho's world with, dare I say, fevered intensity, only to come to a screeching and scream-filled stop as the last page of the book slammed into my mind and chest with the force of a Hunter on a rampage.

My plan? I still say it was brilliant, darn it. It was just...well...utterly usurped by the ever-growing intensity of Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. Ripped to shreds, really. And devoured like so much Unseelie flesh.

4.5 Stars for Faefever - almost perfect, and such an rich, intense read.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The Fever Series, Book 4
Formats: Hardcover, Kindle, Audiobook/CDs, Mass Market Paperback

5 Stars
Wow. Just...Wow.

I had a plan. It was a good plan, really. Knowing what I knew of the Fever series, I thought it was even a wise and sage plan. See, I stumbled across Darkfever (Fever Series, Book 1) not too long ago when it came up as a free Kindle download. I didn't like it. No, that's not exactly true. I thought the story was interesting and I had a very Jerry MacGuire, he-had-me-at-hello experience with the wildly wicked Jericho Z. Barrons. But....I vehemently opposed MacKayla Lane's continued existence. I hated her. Hated. Her. She was every stereotypical self-absorbed, brainless southern belle cliche rolled up into one nagging, whining and very pink ball. She was my first awful brush with a lead character that I thought was truly TSTL...and as Darkfever was my first introduction with Karen Marie Moning's work, I was certain just why Darkfever was offered to unsuspecting readers at the bargain-basement price of $0.

The only reason I even pondered the second book, Bloodfever: The Fever Series (A Mackayla Lane Novel), was the aforementioned Jericho Z. Barrons and the belief, judging by the Mac's narratives in Darkfever, that MacKayla Lane wasn't going to stay TSTL. And she didn't. Thank hell. To make a really long and totally boring story (mine, not Moning's) as short as I can, I ended up liking Darkfever enough to know that I would continue with this series, and paid closer attention to some of the reviews for the following books.

I wouldn't say that Darkfever and Bloodfever ended on cliffhangers, exactly, but I had noticed they really didn't have an encompassing story arc that was concluded at the end of each of them. I found out why. Moning has intended from the beginning to give this story to readers in a five-book increment. The Fever series is not like Moning's other works. They are not encapsulated stand-alone stories with a thread of over-all series arc running through them. This is, in fact, one monster epic of grand proportions - with war, death, magic, mystery, hate, betrayal, love, loss, family, friends, enemies, and all manner of frustrations and triumphs...split into five pieces.

Not everybody likes that. I understand why, I really do. Spending X amount of dollars on five books to tell one story could be a bit of a put off, especially in these trying economic times. That being said...I've read four books now...the expense is totally worth it. TOTALLY. Yes, one story=five books. But each book is a masterpiece of plotting and pacing that I couldn't even see just by reading the first in the series. Like Mac, I was TSTL - with a very narrow world view - and like Mac, as each book has progressed, I've learned more and appreciated more, and come to understand just what a truly amazing gift this series is for avid readers and fans of the genre.

Not everyone's going to like it - that's okay. Some people even feel really cheated out of their money. I can even understand that, though I agree with some reviewers who indicated that since it's been well elucidated by author and reviewers alike exactly how these books are set up, that starting to read it uninformed, or going into it informed and still complaining, shouldn't really result in a criticism of the author's decision to write them and publish them this way.

Personally, I love it. I love everything about it. I even love (though perhaps a bit wryly) those glimpses of the TSTL Mac that we occasionally see through Faefever (book 3), glimpses that seem to morph into more of a cautionary tale in Dreamfever, where Mac has been put back together (with some Jericho Z. Barrons assistance) but perhaps with too much blood under the bridge, so to speak (there's nothing as innocuous as water left in Mac's world by that point), to ever be even a shadow of her former amateur-sleuth-Barbie self.

Every single one of these books are filled with a layered plot and rich, full storytelling. Complex, thoroughly original, indescribably imaginative, and driven by a cast of characters that are intensely detailed (if often inexplicable) and utterly real, the Fever series, and Dreamfever in particular, is a frustrating and fantastic delight.

And that leads me right back to my good - nay - brilliant plan. Following Bloodfever, I knew I was at risk of burning through all four published books only to be left languishing for almost a year for the conclusion, so my plan was to read just a chapter or two of Faefever: The Fever Series and Dreamfever at a time, between other books. That way I could stretch out Faefever and Dreamfever for at least a few months, seriously cut down the wait time to the last book. It...really was a solid plan...a piece of cake.

And that brilliant plan didn't last six chapters into Faefever. Not only did I completely blow off that other book I was reading, I hit the end of Faefever, quickly downloaded Dreamfever, and kept racing through Mac's and Jericho's world with, dare I say, fevered intensity, only to come to a screeching and scream-filled stop as the last page of the book slammed into my mind and chest with the force of a Hunter on a rampage.

My plan? I still say it was brilliant, darn it. It was just...well...utterly usurped by the ever-growing intensity of Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. Ripped to shreds, really. And devoured like so much Unseelie flesh.

What is truly brilliant is Dreamfever and the Fever series in total. Amazing. Really.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The Fever Series, Book 2
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle

4.5 Stars
A Big Step in the Right Direction

Mac is coming into her own! I'm so glad I stuck with this series after being horribly annoyed by Amateur Sleuth Barbie, aka MacKayla Lane in the first book, Darkfever (Fever Series, Book 1). She's stronger, more assured, less naive, and far less...pink-and-pastel in Bloodfever, and I loved that change. She's not perfect by any means. She's still got some issues that get on my nerves, but the characterization was such an improvement in this book that I actually really started to like her.

Jericho Barrons, by the way, I've never had to try to like. I've always liked the enigmatic and mysterious...man?...who keeps saving Mac's life even while making her existence a study in frustration and lack of information. In fact, there's so much beneath that particular surface that I can't help but adore every delicious syllable of exchange between Barrons and Mac and every time he calls her "Mac" I just...well...do what Mac does herself...smile on the inside. He's the perfect incarnation of unimaginable-depths-beneath-the-urbane-surface. Love. Him.

There's not a lot of secondary character development, because there's just not a lot of secondary characters (however, a few potential gems were introduced here). I really want to find out more about the voice on the other end of IYCGM, the even more mysterious Ryodan, and his relationship with Barrons.

I wasn't as fond of the first book, Darkfever (3.5 stars), in more than just the characterization of Mac, either - Bloodfever drops what I think is a really annoying trend of prognostication storytelling - where the narrator, Mac, is speaking of things that happened in the past while incessantly alluding to what's going to happen instead of describing it as it's happening. There's almost none of that at all in Darkfever, and the story seems to unfold as Mac's living it, which is my personal preference.

It's been mentioned in other reviews that these books tend to end on a bit of a cliffhanger and are in no way stand alone books. That really puts some people off, and I understand that, but I started the series with the understanding that it's a five book arc and had been forewarned by the reviews that the books aren't encapsulated stories within that overall arc. That isn't my preferred type of series, but I'm okay with it here because in reality, the series and world in which it exists is interesting and well developed and exciting enough to make it worth it, in my opinion. It...uh...also helps that I started the series while the forth book was just being released so I've got two more to go through before I add my voice to the screams for the conclusion.

One thing I for sure want to mention, as I give total kudos to Moning for the excellence of the scene...the one in which Mac ends up in Fairy. What happens while she's there was so emotionally honest and realistic to my own emotional experiences that it had my heart in my throat with a renewed sense of grief and closure both. The emotional development in that scene and the affects from it struck a very deep, very honest cord in me and I thought it was brilliant, and not at all overwrought or overdone. A perfect perfect goodbye. I appreciated that unique sense of rightness and wanted to make sure I mentioned it.

All in all I think Bloodfever was just a much better book that Darkfever, and if the trend continues in the development of MacKayla's character and the sizzling, intense interplay between she and Barrons, I'm going to be a happy, happy chick. 4.5 Stars overall, with a half star taken off for the very beginning, because I'd read the first book just a few weeks ago and found the rehash for new readers to be a bit tedious, and even if I hadn't I've read other series that do it better, and for other minor dislikes about the still developing MacKayla.

Also, a question to loyal readers...is it just me or has Mac EVER seen Barrons during the day? Ever.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Fever Series, Book 1
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle

3.5 Stars
Her Name is MacKayla Lane but it Should Be Amateur Sleuth Barbie

MacKayla Lane is a twenty-two year old southern belle from a tiny Georgia town. She's got the perfect parents, the perfect sister, the perfect life - and as you'll hear often - the perfect plethora of pastels and pinks in wardrobe, accessories, and nail polish. Then comes the phone call that utterly destroys that pretty, magnolia-scented bubble. In the aftermath of her sister's brutal slaying, MacKayla (Mac) embarks on a quest for vengeance and justice, determination and steely grief her constant companions...well, those and all the ultra-hip and heavy-on-the-pink accessories she can drag along with her.

God, she's annoying. I mean seriously, thoroughly, bang-my-head-against-the-wall-at-her-insipidness annoying. With an almost pathological need to explain every wardrobe choice (not to mention how great she thinks she looks in each and every one) and all the waxing philosophic on the names of nail polish colors, Mac is the single most superficial, shallow, inane, and self-absorbed princess I've ever read as a lead character.

Trust me, that alone would usually be enough to completely strip me of any desire to continue this book, let alone get invested in the series, and yes - that's not the only fly in the ointment that is Darkfever - but there IS a lot I liked here (just about everything not MacKayla), and it's enough to make me stick with the five-book Fever series despite a lead character who has this to say: "I've always liked museums. I should probably pretend it's because I'm so erudite and scholarly and love to learn, but the truth is I just love shiny, pretty things..."

Yes, that sound you're hearing is my head impacting the wall. Again. Though admittedly, points to the twit for stellar vocabulary. And that's actually when I started to notice things beyond my annoyance - the first being, in Mac's defense, she's led a very sheltered life - and we're only starting to find out how, why, and that there really is a reason for that through this first book. And in truth, she's naive, she believes in happy endings and doesn't believe in things that go bump in the night (or better yet, Things That Can Eat You), and she's far too interested in gauzy pastels for me to ever think her normal, yet she's not stupid.

Ignorant of the full scope and breadth of just how bad her life's gone to the dogs (or Sidhe in this case), but not stupid. And as this book is told from her point of view, looking back at the happenstances of a year ago, the reader knows almost immediately that what Mac has had to become (I'm assuming we'll see that development continue through the series) resembles not at all what she is as she first steps foot in Ireland to find out who killed her sister. The way it's done is a device I don't particularly enjoy reading - too much foreshadowing and endless comments about what's going to happen and not enough seeing it unfold as it's happening - but the world that's being created by the author and the characters that are introduced around Mac are intriguing to say the very least. There is nice depth in the world building, and the magical mythos of Irish history is itself almost tertiary character that adds a unique flavor and tone. I just really wish Mac had been toned down (a lot) after the author impressed on us (see also: beat us over the head again and again) that she would mature and get with the program eventually. It would've made it a better read without losing the point.

I'll stick this series out, I think, because I've just got to find out what Barrons really is and I'm very interested to see what V'Lane's got up his...er...sleeve. This particular installment in the series gets a 3.5 from me for that very reason.