Paranormal / Urban Fantasy / Romance published October 16, 2007
Delacorte Press
Author's website | Goodreads | Buy the Book on Amazon
Synopsis from Goodreads:
I used to think my sister and I were just two nice southern girls who’d get married in a few years and settle down to a quiet life. Then I discovered that Alina and I descend, not from good wholesome southern stock, but from an ancient Celtic bloodline of powerful sidhe-seers, people who can see the Fae. Not only can I see the terrifying otherworldly race, but I can sense the sacred Fae relics that hold the deadliest of their magic.
When my sister was found dead in a trash-filled alley in Dublin, I came over to get answers. Now all I want is revenge. And after everything I’ve learned about myself, I know I have the power to get it….
MacKayla Lane’s ordinary life underwent a complete makeover when she landed on Ireland’s shores and was plunged into a world of deadly sorcery and ancient secrets.
In her fight to stay alive, Mac must find the Sinsar Dubh–a million-year-old book of the blackest magic imaginable, which holds the key to power over both the worlds of the Fae and of Man. Pursued by Fae assassins, surrounded by mysterious figures she knows she cannot trust, Mac finds herself torn between two deadly and irresistible men: V’lane, the insatiable Fae who can turn sensual arousal into an obsession for any woman, and the ever-inscrutable Jericho Barrons, a man as alluring as he is mysterious.
For centuries the shadowy realm of the Fae has coexisted with that of humans. Now the walls between the two are coming down, and Mac is the only thing that stands between them.…
Shelly's Thoughts... (Minor Spoilers)
For me, this series gets better with each book. This one takes us a little deeper into the world of the Fae. Pink Mac has been left behind and now we have Mac 2.0. She still likes her pink nail polish and all her fun rainbow colored clothes, but she realizes that her reality is much darker and she makes the adjustment. Mac has come across another clue that Alina left for her in the alley and when she follows the clue what she finds is not what she expected.
Mac experiences a lot in this book. She gets a little too up close and personal with Malluce and he pretty much breaks her. Thankfully Jericho comes to her rescue and along with a little "dinner" of Unseelie, Mac is good as new, but with a few perks? Or maybe not! She is stronger and her senses are heightened, but she can no longer sense the Fae Objects of Power. Thankfully this is just temporary.
Ok, I don't want to go on too much about this book because, honestly I binge read this series and it's hard to talk about them without getting them mixed up when you read them so quickly! I love all the characters, except for Rowena. We meet Dani in this book and while she can get a little annoying she ends up playing a pretty beg part in this series so she's a super important addition. Mac also finds out that there is a whole group of women out there just like her which surprises her. What is more surprising is that they are all women, which means that Jericho is not a sidhe seer. Mac still doesn't know what Jericho is and that bothers her quite a bit, but she knows that she needs him and he definitely needs her since she is the only one who can help him find the Sinsar Dubh. V'lane comes and goes like usual and is sexier than ever, naturally! He even steps in to save Mac when she needs him.
I loved this book, the world in this one gets darker and is right on pace with how the series is set up. Karen Marie Moning is amazing at world building and characterization. You can't help but want to know more about each one of them. Once again I will tell you, if you haven't read this series yet....go buy all the books now!!
XOXO, Shelly
What Victoria thinks....(spoilers ARE present)
I really liked how smooth of a read Bloodfever was! I spent the entire novel with my blanket up to my chin and my eyes the size of saucers, it was just THAT good. Once Mackayla and Barrons battle the “rhino-boys”, Lord Master, and Malluce at |1247 LaRuhe|, things start to slow down for everyone. Mac realizes just how “tough” she’s going to have to become in order to fulfil her sidhe-seer duties and makes her one main goal to stay alive. Version 1.0 of Mac is long gone, with her flower-print skirts and color enhanced tops, and Mac 2.0 has taken the stage. She and Barrons have almost formed a sort of…friendship. Well, at least she thinks so. They continue to search through the night for OOPS, Objects of Power, and continue to banter with each other every step of the way. She’s running the bookstore now, along with a not-so-happy Fiona, and is really starting to adjust.
But as always, just when Mac gets comfortable, it all goes to hell in a handbasket. It started with Fiona trying to kill her when she purposefully let the Shades into the bookstore one night. Not only does this eradicate Fiona from the situation, but it also opens up an opportunity for V’lane. Since there was no one else at the bookstore at the time of the intrusion, V’lane was able to earn himself one human hour of Mac’s time, whenever he pleased. For once, he was there to help, not to aggravate Mac. I have to admit, I was anxious to see how V’lane’s character would evolve, because I couldn’t handle any more sexually awkward situations between him and Mac. I hated how before he always managed to catch Mac off guard, but here it seems he is genuinely interested in creating a “friendship” with her.
In Bloodfever, we get to meet the ever-spunky, smart-mouthed Dani. She too is a sidhe-seer and lives at an ancient abbey on the outskirts of town. The abbey is run by the extremely rude Head Mistress, Rowena. Of course Rowena seeks out Mac’s help in finding the Sinsar-Dubh, but Mac can’t quite decide how she feels about the Head Mistress. Dani does manage to surprise Mac when she comments that there are no male sidhe-seers in their history. Seeing as how only sidhe-seers can see the unseelie/seelie, Mac starts to question Barrons and everything he’s done to help her so far. As fast as things started to look up for Mackayla, they soon took a dangerous decline. Now, Mac must reach deep down inside herself and focus on her main goal; staying alive and getting rid of the Sinsar-Dubh. Since she is the only person alive who is able to track the book, Mac starts to feel like a pretty big pawn in this dangerous mess. Everyone seems to only care about getting the Sinsar-Dubh, but not about what happens after it is obtained.
“I am no one’s puppet, Rowena. Not his. Not Barrons’. Not yours.” – MacKayla
It’s always at the end that Moning really gets us with a left hook. Just when we think Mac is starting to stand on her own two feet, not needing Barrons to come rescue her at any given moment, she goes and gets abducted. Much to our surprise, her abductor is Malluce, whom we all thought was dead and gone, killed by the Spear of Destiny. Yet, when she gets a good look at him, she realizes he never was a vampire, or any type of magical creature. He’d just been eating unseelie, which for humans gives them superhuman abilities and prolongs life. Because of this, parts of him were rotting from where the spear pierced him, while his human parts stayed intact. Malluce wanted Mac to pay for what she’d done and planned to torture her until she was obsessed with him and was a willing participant. By the time Barrons made it to Mac, she was almost dead. Yet, thanks to Malluce’s little secret about eating the unseelie, she damned all consequences and made Barrons feed her their worst enemy so that she could live. After all, nothing was more important than her life. The next day, Mac realized just what eating the unseelie had done to her; it made parts of her dark. Dark enough that when the Sinsar-Dubh got so close to her, she could have touched it, she didn’t black out or forget. Now, she could put all of her energy into tracking it, thus obtaining justice for her sister’s death.
I can’t praise this book enough! I know I wrote a bit more than normal over it, but I truly enjoyed it from beginning to end. I feel like this novel has so much detail in it, that it would be cruel to leave certain sections out. I commend Moning on her in-depth description and word choice she used throughout the novel, which really gave it life. I feel like if the novel had been written any other way, it just wouldn’t have done it justice.
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