DarkFever

MacKayla Lane’s life was normal. At twenty-two, she was dabbling in college, working as a bartender and soaking up the summer sun in her hometown in Georgia. Until the phone call that changed her life.

Now she is in Ireland, hunting for clues to her sister’s murder, attempting to track down her killer and discovering there is much more to the world she thought she knew. Mac discover she is a sidhe-seer capable of seeing the Fae or Fairies and after she receives a cryptic message from her sister, she is on the hunt for the Sinsar Dubh an ancient book of evil that everyone she comes in contact with is also hunting.

I should preface my review by stating this is the first book in a series. Most of the book is setting up and expanding on the world Moning started in her Highlander series. It’s a dark world where monsters and things that go bump in the night exist.  Most questions do not get answered. I was ok with this because Moning is a very capable storyteller and is really great at character building. I’m fascinated enough to have ordered the next book in the series before finishing this one.

If I had to choose my favorite part of this book, I would have to say the narrator, Mac is my favorite. From the first page, I was engaged with her. Moning has done a fantastic job with her lead heroine. At first Mac can be easily blown off as a blonde, carefree, naive, twenty-something - unless you are paying attention. Mac may come across as all of those things and maybe to an extent she is but Mac is also determined and loyal with a backbone of steel.

Jericho Barrons is the owner of Barrons Books and Baubles and claims to be a sidhe-seer, just as Mac but he is deeply mysterious and Mac only chips at his surface in DarkFever. The chemistry between Mac and Jericho leaps off the page from their first encounter and I expect it may get even hotter as the series continues.

One thing that annoyed me and is very definitely a personal dislike that may not affect other readers is the way Mac and Jericho call each other Ms. Lane and Barrons. They never use each other’s first names and it leaves a very nasty fifty shades of crap in my mouth. Plus, Jericho is a much sexier name than Barrons.  As I said, it’s personal.

Labeled as urban fantasy, DarkFever is a departure from what I normally tend to read. Intrigued by the world of Fae in Moning’s previous books but worried it would be too out there for me, I hesitated to pick it up for months but finally capitulated after seeing so many positive things about it. I’m so glad I did, I am addicted after one book.

Yes, it’s out there but not as much as I thought. In the world recently opened to MacKayla Lane, faeries and vampires exist, dark shadows steal life from humans and things we only dream about it nightmares are real but I myself think it’s kind of intriguing. I’ve read in more than one book that fairy tales have some basis in reality. It can be a scary thought but also an interesting one. Can it be true?

DarkFever is the first in the Fever series a MacKayla Lane novel in which she hunts her sister’s killer and searches for the mysterious and sinister Sinsar Dubh, the ancient and powerful book of Fae. If you enjoy a good mystery and don’t mind a little paranormal, read this, it won’t disappoint.