My Urban Fantasies: Review: Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Title: Darkfever

Author: Karen Marie Moning

Series: Fever, #1

•Source: Purchased
•Publisher: Delacorte Press
•Publication Date: November 2006

Opening Line: My philosophy is pretty simple—any day nobody's trying to kill me is a good day in my book.

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 V'lane–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...

MacKayla Lane is a small town Georgia girl that goes by Mac. She works at the local bar, takes a couple college classes and Mac's biggest worry is over her tan. She's perfectly content with her life. That was before the phone call, the call that changed everything. Mac's sister, Alina, who was in Dublin studying at Trinity College, has been murdered. Three weeks later Mac's family receives an official phone call from the Dublin police stating that due to the lack of evidence, and the fact that there are no leads or witnesses, they are turning Alina's case over to the unsolved division. That's not good enough for Mac, especially after she hears a distressing message on her cell phone from Alina, it was left four hours before Alina was murdered. Mac uproots her life and goes to Dublin to persuade the police to reopen Alina's case. If the Dublin police refuse, Mac plans to find Alina's killer herself.

After arriving in Dublin, Mac learns a secret about herself, one she never saw coming. Mac is a sidhe-seer, a person Fae magic does not work on. Each sidhe-seer can see past a Fae's glamour, but their resistance to the Fae varies. Some have a limited ability, while others are lucky enough to have multiple "special powers." Two of these powers are being able to see the hidden portals between realms, and being able to sense Unseelie and Seelie objects of power. Mac is one of the lucky ones with multiple powers.

Mac's quest to find her sister's killer becomes more complicated the longer she stays in Dublin. Mac's guide to all things Fae is Jericho Barrons, a dark, sexy, arrogant man whom Mac does not entirely trust. In order to find the person who murdered Alina and a rare Fae book, the Sinsar Dubh, Mac has no choice but to work with the mysterious Jericho Barrons.

An urban fantasy novel that takes place in Dublin, it's just to good to be true!!! I am beyond ecstatic that Darkfever takes place in Ireland. I've always wanted to go and this is a fun way to experience it with a paranormal twist. With Moning's brilliant writing the characters feel completely real. It's so easy to imagine yourself in the lively pubs or the dangerous, deserted Dark Zone.

Mac is simply amazing. After having her world shattered by the call, which is one of the most heart-wrenching experiences one can go through, Mac has all this supernatural craziness to deal with too. Despite everything that has happened to Mac she keeps going for one soul reason, her sister. While I love Mac my favorite character is definitely Jericho Barrons. There's something about the combination of an alpha male and a bad boy that just makes a girl weak in the knees.

Favorite Quotes

I'd never had any desire to save the world. Decorate it? Yes. Save it? No.

The mind works hard to reject that which opposes its essential convictions, and Monster Fairies From Outer Space deeply opposed mine.

There are really only two positions one can take toward anything in life; hope or fear. Hope strengthens, fear kills.

"Suck it up, Barrons. The least you can do is paint my nails while my arm's broken. It's not like I'm asking you to do both hands. And I'm not asking you to do my toes at all."