Darkfever by KM Moning

After listening to some conversation involving Karen Marie Moning’s Faefever, I became interested and picked up the first novel in the series – Darkfever.

MacKayla was having the time of her life until she received the phone call that literally changes her life.  When her sister is murdered and the police have labelled it unsolved, Mac flies to Ireland to continue the search for her sister’s killer.  There she learns more about herself than she has in her 22 years of life.  With the help of a new associate, Barrons, Mac begins to learn the new strange world her sister stumbled into and ultimately got her killed.

Moning’s characters have some odd characteristics, but they are definitely working for me.  Mac is a little too Barbie dollish for me, but the personality works against Barron’s “take no prisoners” mentality.  The evolution of Mac’s character can be seen throughout the story and her reluctant acceptance of the Fae is a refreshing change from the automatic acceptance.  She doesn’t blindly accept the fact that she’s someone with special abilities and that there is a world out there she knows nothing about.  Now as for Barrons, he’s a little bit of an enigma.  It’s obvious there’s more to him than he tells Mac, and there really isn’t anything about him that screams “you can trust me”, but yet Mac stays with him since he keeps saving her life.  His whole mentality of “you’re mine because you would get yourself killed without me” attitude does get a little irritating, yet at the same time, I want the two of them to end up together.  Needless to say, they haven’t yet, but the chemistry that is building between the two is intriguing.

As for the plot, I’m not sure what I think about it yet.  It works and it’s a new take on the whole Fae universe, but it seems a little slow to me.  I think Darkfever is a set up novel and we’re going to get more into the overall story arc in Bloodfever, so while the action is good, a lot of the information is more informative than anything else.  The story is told as if it is a memory and Mac is looking back on the events that have happened.  While this format is nice, it does get annoying since little tidbits are dropped and then not explained.  Of course, that is what the future books are for.

Overall, I liked the story and I’m going to read Bloodfever next.  The plot was enough that I’m interested to see where it’s going to take us and I really want to see Mac and Barrons hook up. I’m also really curious about the character V’lane and whether he becomes a bigger part in Mac’s life.  He seems like a good one night stand that continually happens and it’ll be fun to see if Mac takes him up on it.

Read Order:
Darkfever – excerpt
Bloodfever – excerpt
Faefever – excerpt
Dreamfever (2009)
Shadowfever (2010)

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

2 Comments

  1. Now that I have seen your review and recap I remember reading this some time ago. It seemed dark and sinister and I liked it, especially the bit about the dark blocks of the city with missing streets no longer on any map (hope I got that right). Completely forgot to followup and see if there were any sequels. Good to know there is.

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