SHADOWFEVER

Author: Karen Marie Moning ISBN: 9780385341677 1/2011 PARANORMAL Publisher: DELACORTE

“Evil is a completely different creature, Mac. Evil is bad that believes it’s good.”   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 who 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, containing 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 haunting her dreams? More important, who is Mac herself 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 to make a choice that will either save the world . . . or destroy it.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

What can I possibly say about SHADOWFEVER that can truly sum up my feelings? My emotions about this part of the story are too complex and wild to fully explain. I could go on and on about it and bore you to death with comparisons, questions, and just plain astonishment at it. Especially the end...that's it?...That's it!! Honestly, the best I can do is to say that this is my least favorite, because it signals the end, and yet my most favorite book in the Fever Series.

So much happens in SHADOWFEVER that to give a full-blown honest accounting of it requires me to read it again, which I am going to do as soon as my TBR pile goes down a bit. I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one (and seriously devoured it the moment I got it), so I know I have missed and misunderstood things contained between the pages. It is beautiful and ugly, wrong, and yet no other outcome really would fit to me. To be cliché, "I laughed and I cried." I won't give spoilers here, but simply say that with my emotions out of control over Barrons, the fascinating happenings, characters (OMG, all my fav's came out to play, and Dageus still has my undivided attention!!) I couldn't/can't get enough of it. MacKayla Lane is an unforgettable character that takes me from one extreme to another, and I just can't get enough of her and the way she has grown, yet stayed the same.

SHADOWFEVER should not be missed, nor should it be the end. And yet, it is. Not for the characters, but for the series that is beyond great; and for me, so much better than anything else out there, aside from J. R. Ward's Brotherhood. This is my "Harry Potter." I have a feeling several players will be back in a different capacity, but the greatness of the Fever series will always live on for me.

Shannon Johnson