Bloodfever

By: Karen Marie Moning

Publisher Summary:

I used to be your average, everyday girl but all that changed one night in Dublin when I saw my first Fae, and got dragged into a world of deadly immortals and ancient secrets. . . .

In her fight to stay alive, MacKayla must find the Sinsar Dubh—a million-year-old book of the blackest magic imaginable, which holds the key to power over the worlds of both the Fae and Man. Pursued by assassins, surrounded by mysterious figures she knows she can’t trust, Mac finds herself torn between two deadly and powerful men: V’lane, the immortal Fae Prince, and Jericho Barrons, a man as irresistible as he is dangerous.

For centuries the shadowy realm of the Fae has coexisted with that of humans. Now the walls between the two are coming down, and Mac is the only thing that stands between them.

My review:

This is the second book in Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series. I gave myself a good chunk of time to read it after I read the first book. In the first book, I really enjoyed the story but Mac’s inner dialogue annoyed me quite a bit. I wasn’t really sure if I even wanted to read the second one because I didn’t think I could put myself through that again. However, I found myself in a kind of book-limbo where I was nursing a book hangover and didn’t want to start anything new at the moment. So, I turned to my trusty library and downloaded the Bloodfever ebook.

The beginning was a bit slow for me and it took me a bit to really get invested in the story. Mac is still pretty naive and annoying, but the writing and her inner dialogue improved big time. There was none of the ridiculous foreshadowing like there was in the first book (okay, maybe not none but it was drastically cut down, which I very much appreciated). And Mac still says things like frek and petunia but hopefully in the next book, she’ll come to understand how silly it is to censor herself like that. As a southern girl myself, I can relate to the conditioning that girls are taught at a very young age to “not talk a certain way” or how “girls shouldn’t talk ugly like that”. In this book, Mac is 22 years old. I feel like if she wants to say ass, just say it and push through the knee jerk reaction to silently apologize to her mother who would clutch her pearls if she had heard such a word come out of her 22 year old daughter’s mouth.

There were several things I liked about this book. In Bloodfever, Mac is put through some tough trials and tribulations and she’s forced to grow up fast because of it. I greatly appreciated this. Mac learns to stand up for herself early on.

“People treat you as badly as you let them treat you. Key word there: let.”

This quote stood out to me and put a smile on my face with a HELL YES GIRL kind of pride in my heart.

Mac meets some new people that say they want to help her figure out who she is. But she knows what they really want is to use her for her sidhe-seer gift. Barrons needs her as his OOP detector, V’lane and his Seelie Queen want her to track down the Sinsar Dubh for their own agenda. Then there’s Rowena, the assumed leader of the sidhe-seer who has already turned her back on Mac not one, but twice. Now she wants Mac to join her merry band.

All in all, I enjoyed this book. I thought the writing was better than the first book. I liked this book more than the first one. I liked how Mac grew up. I like how Barrons actually showed he cared about her (more than once). I’m looking forward to reading the third book.