Review: Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

  Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

  Publisher: Delacorte Press

  Publication Date: October 1st 2006

  My rating:  4 Stars

 

MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman.

Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens.

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….

As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane–an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book–because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands….

Well I just jumped into the world of Urban Fantasy and I loved it!

Twenty-two year old Mac Lane’s world has just been turned upside down. Her older sister and best friend Alina was murdered in Ireland.  The police have no suspects and have pushed it over into the cold-case files, and Mac’s parents are so overcome by grief, they’re paralyzed.  Mac gets a cryptic voice mail message from Alina saying that she needs to find the “shi-sadu.”  Armed with that information and a plan, Mac flies out to Ireland to get to the bottom of her sister’s murder.  Unfortunately, she runs many dead ends, until she walks into Barrons Bookstore and Baubles, and asks if they know the meaning of the strange word.   This is where the famous Jericho Barrons comes in.  Here’s where we first meet him and his description:

”He studied me with his predator’s gaze, assessing me from head to toe. I studied him back.  He didn’t just occupy space; he saturated it.  The room had been full of books before, now it was full of him.  About thirty, golden skin, and dark eyes. His features were strong, chiseled…..He wasn’t handsome.  That was too calm a word. He was intensely masculine.  He was sexual.  He attracted. There was an omnipresent carnality about him, in his dark eyes, in his full mouth, in the way he stood."

Needless to say, things get very interesting from here on out and Mac finally starts getting somewhere.  Mac finds out Alina was immersed in a world she never thought possible.  A world where Fae, vampires, and more exist.   There are also those who can see the true nature of these fantastical creatures, sidhe-seers as they're called, and Mac is one of them. Not that she believes it.

This story was so well-paced, and kept my attention focused throughout.  The world we’re introduced to is a dark one, and we’re gradually learning more about it right along with Mac, so it doesn’t matter if we don’t know all the details yet.  I’m glad this world is revealed in this way instead of having a massive information dump in the beginning that would bore me to tears. This way, as I learn something new and accept it, I then want more.   

Mac is a strong yet innocent character.  I love that she was raised a traditional Southern woman with manners, who wouldn’t dream of uttering a cuss word.  She even has some pretty cute substitutions, like "petunia" for ass: “I didn’t give a rat’s petunia about Mr. Barrons’ stupid deadline.”  Her fashion sense, desire for color, and all things sparkly had me cracking up.  She had spunk and sass and an unfailing devotion to avenge her sister’s death. 

Now onto Jericho Barrons.  He’s maddeningly evasive, arrogant, sometimes brutal, and opportunistic.  He’s also strong, protective, and for the moment, seems to be on the same side as Mac.  Yet we still don’t know so much about him.  I hoping his character and motives are revealed more in the next one. 

One thing I was a little disappointed on, was the lack of romance!  Yes, there was sexual tension for days, but we we’re left hanging!  I know this is the first book and I can see where (hopefully) things are headed, but I’m a romance girl!  Give me a little more, please.  Other than that, I thought this was an excellent start to what appears to be a thrilling series.  Oh well, guess it’s more of a push to read the next one, which I will be doing VERY soon.