Description
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Karen Marie Moning's Bloodfever.
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….
Reviews
It started to get better...
...and then it stopped. Literally.
I knew going in that this was a five book series, in her blog Ms. Moning warned us of that fact. I did not realize this would be a classic cliffhanger with a "tune in next time..." last page. If this is the kind of thing that bugs you, as much as it does me, I suggest you wait until all five books are published before you start. In the past the author has taken up to a year or more between books, so it could be a long wait.
Back to our story - as much as was there, in any event. A young college student is murdered in Ireland. The local police are stumped, the family is devastated. A cryptic message from the victim is left on the voice mail of the younger sister's cell phone, and she comes to Ireland to try and find out what happened. The Dark Fae look to be responsible, and our characters need to deal with it. The story twists, turns, starts to come into focus - and then the cliffhanger.
The characters are... okay, awful. The heroine, sister of the murder victim, is supposedly a twenty-two year old sidhe-seer, and most of the time comes across like a twelve year old Junior Miss Pageant winner. She uses the word "pretty" a lot (you will learn to hate the word). She has pretty little tanned legs, pretty blond hair, pretty skin, pretty clothes, pretty little shoes, and (my personal bugaboo) pretty Ice Princess Pink Blush nail polish on her pretty little fingers and toes. Naïve and immature doesn't begin to describe MacKayla. We are expected to believe she is a product of her pretty little small town, and over protective background. Not buying it. If you are from a small town, and I am, you will be insulted by the inference. About the time MacKayla starts to mature to about a thirteen year old personality, here comes that cliffhanger.
Our hero, Barron (I think he's the hero, the jury's still out), is dark, brooding, ultra masculine, handsome, rich, patronizing, and somewhat brutal. At first he tries to get rid of MacKayla by physical intimidation, then decides to use her untrained Sidhe-Seer talents to help him fight the Unseelie Sidhe and find their "Dark Book". After awhile, Barron starts to feel some gentler emotions toward MacKayla - and then the cliffhanger.
There is no actual sex in the book, but, be warned, there are some rather brutal almost rape encounters with MacKayla and the Fae. Because MacKayla is so very young and immature mentally, these scenes seem even more horrific than usual.
(Note to the author: If and when, sometime in the next four books, this turns into a romance between the two main characters, which I suspect it will, I sincerely hope you have MacKayla mature a whole lot, or Barron is going to come across as a rather creepy pedophile. At that point, you will lose me as a reader. Some lines can't be crossed.)
Three stars because -Actually, I don't know why. Two are too few and I did finish the book in an evening. Four stars are too generous for a mere chapter in an incomplete story with characters that are less than stellar. I will be reading the next book in the series because...
... oh, hell. because it's a cliffhanger, and I'm weak.
Not bad, but neither great
I knew the book wasn't a romance, so I wasn't disappointed in that aspect, although I expected more sexual tension or something more between Mac and Barrons.
Although the plot is interesting, the story failed to engage me. It's a little slow and sometimes very confusing with all the creatures and rare terms everywhere. Also, it's written in first person, something I usually don't enjoy very much.
The main problem I had with the book is the heroine. I couldn't stand her!! She's immature, dumb, irritating, too pink... She really got into my nerves, and I don't buy that she's young and was very sheltered. I'm young too (23), and I couldn't identify with her in anything.
At least she matures a little as the story progresses, but I was too annoyed with her to care.
The hero, Jericho Barrons, is more interesting, although he is very stereotypical in the sort of dark-sexy-mysterious way. It seemed to me that I'd read him in countless romances, but at least he has potential.
The last problem I had is that the book doesn't have an end. It feels more like the first chapters of a story than a book of its own, which is very frustrating. I think it would be better to wait for all the sequels and read them in order, and from paperbacks or the library. That's what I'm probably going to do.
It isn't romance... yet.... but it is still wonderful!!!
Karen is back! She took her time, paced the book well, it felt GREAT to be reading a book from her again that I REALLY enjoyed!
I am glad that she took into account that we are not stupid people who will be slaves to an overused formula...however successful.
My problems with her last two books was that the story was forced and plagued by scenes that were far too explicit for characters I desperately wanted to be "in love" not "in lust" with each other.
I am not even sure this is a romance novel...at least not yet. The main characters are plagued with obstacles that make romance at this time impossible...But I do like where it is going and the anticipation is spectacular. At the conclusion of the book I am left with tons of questions and I am absolutely going to buy the next in the series. (Even if the bits with V'lane were treading the slippery slope of tastefulness...its briefness made them easier to tolerate.)
I guess in the end if Moning can remember that her previous books were about falling in love and then the great sex will just happen naturally as the story and plot evolves it won't be offensive.
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