Category: Crème Brûlée - My All-Time Moan-Out-Loud Favorites (A+)
Flame Height: 3"out of 9" for sexual tension/potential.
From Booklist "MacKayla "Mac" Lane is a small-town southern girl living a life of suntans and shopping. All that changes when her sister dies in Ireland and a cryptic message on Mac's cell phone raises disturbing questions about the nature of her sister's death. Mac follows the lead to Dublin and the strange life her sister led, on to the darkly dangerous book-dealer Jericho Barrons, and a burgeoning war with deadly Fae that humankind doesn't even realize has begun. Time-travel-romance maven Moning reshapes her Celtic lore for a radically different and engaging new dark fantasy series. Mac's first-person narrative is more than point of view; it's a true recounting of how a sheltered young girl grows to accept the role fate has dealt her. And while moments of sexual awareness hint that a relationship between Mac and Jericho could complicate matters in the future, wisely there is no full-blown romance here to distract from the complex introduction to Moning's new world."
I've been singing the praises of this book for months. Darkfever is the start of a new series. There will be some romantic elements at some point in the series, but not in this one. As much as I like spice in my books, this book was just so damn good that I didn't even miss it! I fervently hope the rest of the series lives up to the promise of this first book because it truly blew me away- I read it and then downloaded the audiobook because I needed to listen to it too. It's an urban fantasy about the sidhe. But we're not talking cute waifs, or even LKH's sexy sidhe here. The unseelie are the monsters from our nightmares.
I know alot of people have problems with the popularity of books written in first person POV, but the FPPOV added to this book's enjoyment. We, as readers, don't know anything until/unless Mac does, so it makes the reader feel that much more involved in the story. And it is written from the future perspective (I guess that would be the term). Mac is recounting to us things that already happened. However we don't know right now if this is Mac telling us or something she wrote down in her ever present journal and we are now reading... maybe even after her death.
Mac is a bit too self absorbed to be completely likeable. And I believe that was KMM's intent because, by the end of Darkfever, we are starting to see glimpses of the heroic, yet disillusioned and world-weary woman who is narrating the story. And Jericho also comes off as a mercenary bastard, yet we suspect he cares far more than we know. In fact, his one frantic shout of "MAC!" leaves a huge gaping hole in his icy facade. Speaking of Jericho, I can't wait to find out who, or should I say WHAT, he really is!
This book was soooo worth breaking my "wait for the paperback" rule! The Fever series looks like it will become Karen Marie Moning's Eve Dallas, Anita Blake, Betsy Taylor, or Sookie Stackhouse. This is as close to a modern masterpiece as I've ever seen.
The next one, Bloodfever was due out in August, but Amazon is now showing it's release as the end of October. That's just cruel.
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