My Urban Fantasies: Review: Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

Title: Shadowfever

Author: Karen Marie Moning

Series: Fever, #5

•Source: Purchased
•Publisher: Delacorte Press
•Publication Date: January 18, 2011

Opening Line: Hope strengthens. Fear kills.

MacKayla Lane was just a child when she and her sister, Alina were given up for adoption and banished from Ireland forever.

Twenty years later, Alina is dead and Mac has returned to the country that expelled them to hunt her sister's murderer. But after discovering that she descends from a bloodline both gifted and cursed, Mac is plunged into a secret history: an ancient conflict between humans and immortals that have lived concealed among us for thousands of years.

What follows is a shocking chain of events with devastating consequences, and now Mac struggles to cope with grief, while continuing her mission to acquire and control the Sinsar Dubh--a book of dark, forbidden magic scribed by the mythical Unseelie King that contains the power to create and destroy worlds.

In an epic battle between humans and Fae, the hunter becomes the hunted when the Sinsar Dubh turns on Mac, and begins mowing a deadly path through those she loves.

Who can she turn to? Who can she trust? Who is the woman that haunts her dreams? More importantly, who is Mac and what is the destiny she glimpses in the black and crimson designs of an ancient tarot card?

From the luxury of the Lord Master's penthouse, to the sordid depths of an Unseelie nightclub, from the erotic bed of her lover, to the terrifying bed of the Unseelie King, Mac's journey will force her to face the truth of her exile, and make a choice that will either save the world...or destroy it.

I usually try to provide smaller plot points when doing a review. I do this to give a little more information than the synopsis can provide, so you can get a better feel for the book. With Shadowfever it's just not possible. Every detail is a small part of an epic ending. Red herrings are revealed and all questions you may have are answered. Shadowfever is what every Urban Fantasy should be. It's an amazing story with strong characters and a hint of romance. Perfection.

Shadowfever starts exactly where Dreamfever left off. Mac has just killed someone important to her, someone she cannot live without. To say she is overcome by grief would be vastly understating it. The beginning of Shadowfever is horrifically sad. I am not ashamed to say I cried like a baby. To me that says everything about an author. The ability to weave words together so the reader is able to feel exactly what a fictional character is feeling... beyond brilliant. To grieve with Mac... to feel the despair, rage, guilt and the emptiness. To go from wanting to slap Mac upside the head as she continues to deny her feelings, to applauding her when she finally admits them. It was an honor and an exceptional journey.

Favorite Quotes

My self-serving, arrogant, constant jackass was the constant rock beneath my feet, willing to die so I could live.

Unpredictable as a hungry lion, he might be feared by everyone else, but he never ripped out my throat, only licked me, and, if his tongue was a little rough sometimes, it was worth it to walk beside the king of the jungle.

If none of this is happening, because I'm really locked up in a padded cell somewhere, hallucinating. If so, I hope they change my drugs soon. Whatever I'm on isn't working.