Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Review: Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

I've been reading Shadowfever for months now and I'm pretty embarrassed to admit that!  I recommended it to my bff and she read them all in about two months.  I recommended them to a lady I work with and she finished them in about six days.  Yea.  I feel like the slowest reader in the world right now.  Trust me when I say that my slow speed with the series wasn't because I didn't enjoy them.  Honest!

Synopsis:  From Goodreads, "MacKayla Lane was just a child when she and her sister, Alina, were given up for adoption and banished from Ireland forever.  

Twenty years later, Alina is dead and Mac has returned to the country that expelled them to hunt her sister’s murderer. But after discovering that she descends from a bloodline both gifted and cursed, Mac is plunged into a secret history: an ancient conflict between humans and immortals who have lived concealed among us for thousands of years.

What follows is a shocking chain of events with devastating consequences, and now Mac struggles to cope with grief while continuing her mission to acquire and control the Sinsar Dubh—a book of dark, forbidden magic scribed by the mythical Unseelie King, containing the power to create and destroy worlds.

In an epic battle between humans and Fae, the hunter becomes the hunted when the Sinsar Dubh turns on Mac and begins mowing a deadly path through those she loves.

Who can she turn to? Who can she trust? Who is the woman haunting her dreams? More important, who is Mac herself and what is the destiny she glimpses in the black and crimson designs of an ancient tarot card?

From the luxury of the Lord Master’s penthouse to the sordid depths of an Unseelie nightclub, from the erotic bed of her lover to the terrifying bed of the Unseelie King, Mac’s journey will force her to face the truth of her exile, and to make a choice that will either save the world . . . or destroy it."

Review:  What can I say at this point about the final book in the Fever series that hasn't been said and then said again by about one hundred other bloggers and reviewers?  Yes, it's a great series that made me crazy, annoyed, anxious, eager, sad, and a million other emotions all rolled into one.  Book four ended with a cliffhanger that had me screaming inside.  At the time, I was in a hotel in London, with no access to book five, but knew it was sitting at home on my table.  Needless to say, I waited to read it.

The first half of the book zoomed by with a million twists and turns.  One minute you think that Mac is one thing and then find out she might be another.  That was the most crazy AND annoying thing about this entire storyline for me.  Although I really do have to give Moning props for a story that manages to engage her readers in a storyline that feels nearly impossible to predict, I felt at times like I had whiplash.  Mac is a great character, with a lot of pizazz and vulnerability, strength and normality to her.  From book one on you really do care about what happens to her and want to know if she can avenge her sister, find out who she really is, and save the world.  Yea, that's a pretty tall order.

Overall, I really got caught up in this series and enjoyed how different it was from every other paranormal story I've read.  Moning really seems to be this master crafter of the extended metaphor and simile.  Her comparisons sometimes outnumber the direct answers she gives in the book, which had me trying to unravel who or what she was talking about at times.  The series and book five are definitely for adults, with adult themes.  This isn't a tame version of a paranormal novel, yet is very driven by Mac's story.  In the end, all is resolved, but my one piece of advice would be to keep it moving.  If you get tuckered out by all the "reveals" that then get revealed to be something else, just hang in there and read faster.  The story is engaging and fast paced, but you have to stick with it.

*FTC Disclosure:  This review was based on a library copy of the novel.

Check out additional news about the series, "Dreamworks Hoping to Make 'Fever' Franchise their own Harry Potter."  It looks like the series just might be headed to the big screen.

6 comments:

  1. I thought this was an excellent conclusion to the series. I started thinking there was NO WAY Moning would be able to answer all the questions I had, but somehow she did. I definitely agree that she's a master of her craft. :)

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  2. Buckeye Girl--Yes. Miracles do happen! :)

    Heidenkind--I agree it seemed like she couldn't answer everything. I wish I would have had time to just read it straight through and not be interrupted. The way I read it, I kept getting irritated by the back and forth way things were revealed (or it felt like they were being revealed). Still, I really like this series. So original!

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  3. I can't decide if I would like this series or not. I might just have to take the chance and give it a read...

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  4. I have not heard of this series but it sounds like something that I would like,

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  5. Great review! I`m reading this for sure!

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