Darkfever (Fever, #1)

by Karen Marie Moning

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 Vlane—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. . . .

Look for all of Karen Marie Moning’s sensational Fever novels:
DARKFEVER | BLOODFEVER | FAEFEVER | DREAMFEVER | SHADOWFEVER | ICED | BURNED | FEVERBORN | FEVERSONG

• ISBN10: 1299119883
• ISBN13: 9781299119888
• Publish Date: 1 January 2006
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 14 April 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Delacorte Press
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[stacey_is_sassy]

I forgot about that...

I absolutely love going back to a favourite story after years of being away. It's exciting to catch up with the characters that you've grown to love and see how they started their journey together. This start...or, revisit, was a little surprising, to be honest. I forgot how shallow Mac was and how rude, gruff and determined Jericho was. There were a lot of times that I 'remembered' parts as I went along and smirked at how different these two end up.

The narrator does a fairly good job but I don't think ANY female narrator could "be" Jericho. He's such an intense, masculine and dominating character, that a female narrator just can't do him justice. On the other hand, the narrator does Mac and the other characters well.

No change to my ratings as I loved revisiting Mac and Barrons. I will definitely be coming back to listen to more of this series, I forgot how much I loved it.

[Chelsea]

This was a solid start to the series! I really liked where the plot was going and hopefully I continue to like it. My biggest issue with Darkfever was that I wasn't really a fan of Mac. She annoyed me by not listening to anyone and kind of just doing her own thing sometimes no matter the danger. I wish she'd just take a moment to think once and a while. I do think she'll start to grow out of that during the series so I'm not really worried about this in the next books.

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

I love a good paranormal book and I'm always in search of one. More often than not I'm disappointed. The Patricia Briggs and Anne Bishops of the world are few and far between. Knowing that, I went into Darkfever with semi-low expectations, even though it appears on pretty much all of the top paranormal lists on Goodreads. From the cover, I thought that it would be a cheesy paranormal romance with that horrible writing would turn me off immediately and another one would bite the dust...

Boy, was I wrong. Let me tell you, good writing and good narration really do make all the difference in the world. I'm still surprised at how much I enjoyed Darkfever. That realization dawned on me slowly. Moning started out with a Southern Belle trope of a protagonist but pretty quickly threw her into a foreign land. Right there, all of my premature assumptions about the MC and her actions were thrown out the window, because I've never read anything with a Georgia Peach (a real Reese Witherspoon-type) in Ireland.

To further unsettle my in accurate assumptions, Moning didn't immediately toss our MC into bed with the first hot Irish dude she came across. I mean, he definitely existed and there was a ton of chemistry, but she kept on hating him through the end of the book. Moning allowed the dynamic between them to grow and breathe. There was no suggestion of an immediate pairing, much less a triangle. That's practically unheard of in Paranormal Romance!

Without the distracting presence of insta-love or a love triangle, I was able to focus on the plot at hand. The catalyst itself was nothing particularly new or noteworthy (her sister was murdered, she wants to find out why), but what was intriguing was watching Moning's paranormal universe begin to unfold and take shape. This happened over the course of the book, not in one or two "info dumps". Moning is actually pretty great with pacing her story. She scattered her seeds of world-building in the beginning of the story, they sprang to life in the middle of it and bloomed in the end. This gradual progression made Darkfever really easy to follow. Even if I was a little bit unclear on certain aspects of the world-building at some points, it was never for too long. Moning has a really subtle way of providing clarification, without rehashing.

If you can't tell, I was really impressed with Karen Marie Moning's writing style. At this point, I'm not ready to elevate her to Patricia Briggs status, but I'm definitely eager to continue with the Fever series. It has a ton of potential, especially where the world-building is concerned. I can't wait to see what she does with it.

Narration review: It was a total coincidence that I began listening to this series right after hearing and loving Joyce Bean's narration of Matchmaking for Beginners. To be completely honest, I don't even think I registered the narrator's name before pressing play on Darkfever. But it didn't take long after that for me to recognize Joyce's warm, rich voice. The fact that she could convincingly play an elderly woman in Matchmaking for Beginners and a 22-year-old young woman in Darkfever is a testament to her talent.

I can't overstate this: My listening experience with Darkfever would have been entirely changed (probably for the worse) if it had been narrated by someone else. Mac (the protagonist) is a hit or miss type of character. Because of her age and personality, she could easily be confused with a YA protagonist. From what I recall, she mentioned her nail color by name at least three times during the story (always some shade of pink). Picture Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. If Reese Witherspoon hadn't walked such a fine line during that portrayal, that character would have been unbearably annoying. But instead, she became lovable and endearing.

Joyce Bean's voice has a lower register than most female narrators, which makes her sound more mature. Her voice is exactly what the character of Mac needed to be taken seriously and tolerated through, let's be honest, some ridiculous scenarios. Her voicing of this character influenced and enriched my mental image of Mac. I have no doubt that was by design. A+ casting! ♣︎

[Vicki]

2.5 stars

I struggled to finish this one and almost put it down, except I really wanted to know how it ended and if Mac would find out who killed her sister. Mac (I hate the name by the way) was really annoying. Some of her inner monologue was unbearable...she kept claiming she wasn't a shallow Barbie, but she really kind of was. This went on for throughout the entire book! Also, the scenes where she was stripping her clothes off uncontrollably in public were completely ridiculous. Barrons was an interesting character. I couldn't tell if he was good or bad or what his deal was. Honestly, the only things that kept me going were Barrons and my curiosity about what was going to happen. I'm debating on whether the continue the series but some interesting reveals at the end are tempting me to read the next one.

[liz089]

Planning on re-reading this entire series, since I never continued with book 3 like 5 years ago XD Still really liked this one, can't wait to continue.

[mitabird]

3.5 stars

This is my second time reading this book and I remembered nothing about it. The first time I read it (4 years ago), I gave it a 4.5. I'm not quite sure why I didn't like it as much this time around. Mac was fine as the heroine. I thought Barrons was a jerk. Maybe I was expecting more to happen? I'm not really sure. I am going to be reading the next one soon.

[Kait ✨]

I was pretty disappointed in this after reading some rave reviews. It felt like such a slog to get through, I think because of the weird narration — the main character Mac’s present-day voice really encroaches on the narrative. E.g.:

Jericho Barrons and I were done with each other.
Or so I thought. It would turn out to be just one more of those things I was wrong about. Soon, we would be living inside each other’s hip pockets, whether we liked it or not.
And believe you me, we didn’t.

I also found it really hard to relate to the main character’s incessant focus on fashion and obsession with pink; she’s pretty superficial and entitled. (Not my cup of tea.)

Finally, this also felt like it was just serving to lay the foundation for future books in the series — I would have liked better world-building and the relationship between Barrons and Mac felt a little lacking in development to me.

Not sure I would recommend this unless you are really into paranormal romance. The strength of the narrative, characterization, and world-building were all too weak for my taste.

[tellemonstar]

Full review here
I enjoyed Darkfever quite a bit. I have a thing for the Irish legends of the Sidhe and the Tuatha De Danaan, so I was pleased that the fae in this series is based on that particular mythology.

Mac is an interesting character, and from her narration of the story I got the feeling that she has changed a lot since the death of her sister and her trip to Ireland. She’s grown up quite a bit, and some of that growing was evident within Darkfever. I thought her portrayal was fairly realistic – the not wanting to accept that there are very bad things out there, or that she was one of few who could see those very bad things, and her desperate need to avenge the death of her sister all felt very realistic. You could put yourself in that situation and think – yep, I would probably feel that way. Barrons is also an interesting character, and I know there is much more to him than he reveals, so I hope more about him is revealed in the next book.

I was quite grateful that there wasn’t an insta-love thing going on between Mac and Barrons. She tells us he is attractive, but I am just glad we weren’t three or four chapters after their initial meeting and all of a sudden she’s professing her undying love for him or getting frisky with him. There’s no denying there was sexual tension, and definitely attraction on both sides (no matter how much Mac denies it), but it was a nice change to not have it resolved a couple of days after they met.

Overall I thought that Darkfever was a great start to the series. A couple of parts maybe could have moved a little bit faster or been skipped, but nothing too major. The world building – the descriptions of Dublin and the Fae world as well – was well done, especially with Mac’s comparisons between home and Dublin. The only thing I could have done without was the constant descriptions of precisely what shade of nail polish she was wearing and exactly what she was wearing every single day. The outfits she wore to the homes Barrons wanted her to sniff out were fine, because they lent to the atmosphere of Mac’s feelings when she was there. But I could care less about whether her undies matched her nightie or not.

[Berls]

For more reviews, see: Fantasy is More Fun

I heard all sorts of good things about this series long before I started it, and I'm at no loss as to why. While this book suffers from the first-book syndrome (slow starter to develop characters and world), it promises to develop into a really great series.

Mac is my favorite kind of heroine - seemingly hopelessly flawed and confused, yet deep down strong, brave, and good. I love that this book is told exclusively from her point of view, too. Her confusion keeps you guessing the entire time; you're as in the dark as she is. Jericho Barrons is a wonderful character as well. He's so mysterious and, at least through Mac's eyes, you really don't know what to think about him. The same is true for V'lane - the Death by Sex Fae (I love the names she gives to the Fae, BTW). It's torture trying to figure out who to trust, and more importantly, who not to trust.

Overall really great and can't wait for the next one. I'm not sure if my review would perhaps be 5 stars if I hadn't made the mistake of reading the first several chapters on audio book. I can't stress how much the horrible narration threatened to ruin an otherwise really good book. Barrons - who I had heard about long before I started the book - seemed like a weak old man because of the narrators voice for him. I cannot stress this point enough - if you're going to read this book, do not buy the audio version. Joyce Bean's accents are just atrocious.

Okay. Now I get all the hype. That was addicting!
Full review coming soon.