Reading Snapshot

Currently Reading

Audio

Review: Darkfever and Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

With the upcoming release of Shadowfever on January 18th, Twitter has been, well, atwitter with references to the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning.

Until last week, I had ignored this author. Largely because I'm not a fan of fairy stories (thank you very much Laurell K. Hamilton) and because I can't help but go Jr. High and start giggling over the author's last name. Moning? Seriously?  *ahem*

But, seeing how many people know and love this series, I decided I needed to read at least one of them to understand the various references made.

There are a few things to know before starting this series.

1. This is not a romance series. I'm not quite sure what it is (I suck at classifying books by genre) but it's not a romance. I'd go with Urban Fantasy, but that brings to mind more Urban and less Fantasy, whereas this book is primarily fantasy with a little urban Dublin thrown in for color. There is some minor tension between some of the main characters, but this is grittier, more violent and lacks a Happily Ever After. Or any real relationship. At least in the first two books.

In fact, the publishers have rebranded the covers to remove the romance-y elements. The original cover for Darkfever looked very much like a BDB cover.

2. The books end with cliffhangers. Very little is resolved at the end of each book.

3. It's told in the first person. Some hate this POV, so ye are hereby warned.

4. There's lots of fairy/Gaelic words and terms. So many, in fact, that our lead character, Mac, has created her own glossary at the end of the book.

5. The characters are not "likable." Any of them. Not even Mac.