Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

Karen Marie Moning - Fever series

1. Darkfever (see previous commentary)
2. Bloodfever

Category: Crème Brûlée - My All-Time Moan-Out-Loud Favorites (A+)
Flame Height: 3" out of 9" for sexual tension/potential.

An odd thing happened while reading Bloodfever-- I kept reading slower and slower and stopping to do other things. Now, normally I would devour a book this good in a rush to find out what happens next, then flip it over and read it again to absorb all the character development. But that wasn't the case this time-- I just didn't want to finish it! The entire time I was reading it, I was cognizant of the fact that I had endured an entire year of booklust waiting for it's release and it would be another year of unfulfilled lust before Faefever's release. At only 296 pages, I didn't want it to all be over in just a couple of hours!

This book takes place just after the ending of Darkfever and I highly recommend that the Fever books be read in order. This second book is a transition story. In Darkfever, Mac was thrown into this new world and had no real chance to absorb it. She basically had to accept this new reality at face value with no time to analyze it. In Bloodfever, she is settling into her new reality and, questioning whether she is getting reliable information from those around her, she begins trying to ferret out truths and is no longer trusting ANYONE'S words or motives. Here's the last line of the book, which pretty well sums up Mac in this one- "What had changed was me."

I have to give a warning about the ending-- it's a cliffhanger. And I don't mean an "Oh, that was a deliciously ebil way to end it!" cliffhanger, I mean one that made me a bit angry at KMM and tempted to fling the book against the wall. Yes, I KNOW that the mystery is so good because we are given only pieces of the puzzle, yet none that fit together. But this was a discovery of a foundation piece that is left face down on the table and unrevealed to us. I love knowing only what Mac knows because it adds so many delicious layers to all the mysteries. So when she made a major discovery and didn't tell US about it, I felt cheated because, up till now, if Mac knew something, so did we. It was like KMM broke an unspoken rule and betrayed us. Here we were right along with Mac through two books, and all of sudden, we were kicked out of her head!

In various interviews, KMM said that the entire Fever story came to her all at once, so the only difficult part is deciding how much of it to reveal in each book, and how much to hold back for a later book in this 5 book series. She also said to expect some romance and characters from her Highlanders series to show up. Let's just say that Mac and JB have a significant moment in this one, as do Mac and V'Lane. And we learn more about JB, but those things just seem to increase the mystery surrounding him. Oh, and I wish I could remember where Christian MacKelter fit into the Highlanders stories. I'm guessing he's the son of one of the modern MacKelters (as opposed to the time-traveling MacKelters), but I don't want to make the assumption that he's one of the good guys. And I THINK we get a glimpse of at least one other character from the Highlanders. I say "THINK" because the description fits, but he's not identified by name. Hopefully, I'll get through enough of the Highlanders audio book releases that, by the time Faefever releases, I'll remember details that have slipped my mind over the years.

Overall, Bloodfever is a quest for answers, but gives us few real ones. And the few we do get, only serve to elicit even more questions. BTW, the title DOES have some VERY gory significance.

If you noticed that I gave no summary or details about Bloodfever's storyline, that's because I can't. In fact, if you look on the book jacket or at KMM's Bloodfever synopsis, the blurb doesn't sound all that different than Darkfever's storyline! There's just no good way to summarize the book without revealing spoilers. And with a book this short and this good, you'll want to discover every step of the journey for yourself. This is a blurb from Publisher's Weekly, via Amazon, it's as close as I've seen to a Bloodfever blurb that doesn't sound exactly like one written for Darkfever...

Monig's latest feverish Fae dispatch (after Darkfever) finds that in Dublin the walls are coming down between Man and Faery. That means that the Buffy-like services of MacKayla Lane-the 22-year-old Georgia-born sidhe-seer (or one who can see the Fae) and slayer-are required. Mac is determined to kick the nasties back to faeryland and to avenge her sister Alina's murder by the Fae's dark Lord Master. She's also seeking the sinister Sinsar Dubh, a book of black magic. Jericho Barrons, Mac's enigmatic protector, is a purveyor of books and antiquities (and of course, is a major hunk). As Mac takes direction from Jericho, she must resist the sexy dangers of V'lane, a death-by-sex Fae, and learn about her true family of Irish sidhe-seers. Moning's delectable Mac is breathlessly appealing, and the wild perils she must endure are peppered with endless conundrums. The results are addictively dark, erotic and even shocking.