Author: Karen Marie Moning
Bantam Dell, 2006
348 pages
This first-of-a-trilogy (so far) by an Indiana author who typically writes "Highlander Romance" novels is more of the Paranormal Romance (what a friend of mine calls Monster Porn - LOL) genre. It was recommended by another friend who enjoyed the Twilight series so much she read all four of those books in a couple of weeks. We're all looking for something, anything, to give us our fix now. (I still haven't read the fourth Twilight book because I just don't want it to end. But I'll have to read it soon b/c everyone else is passing me by.)
OK. Back to Darkfever. The main character is a 22 year-old bartender and Southern Belle named MacKayla Lane. (I'll just accept that instead of complaining about the horrible spelling of the name that should be spelled Michaela. I hate modern phonetic spellings.) Fortunately, everyone calls her Mac. She's a spoiled brat who's been given everything on a silver platter - well, that's my perception. But that was before she and her parents found out that Mac's older sister, Alina, had been murdered while studying in Dublin, Ireland.
Turns out, Alina tried to call Mac's cell phone on the day she died, but Mac had just dropped the cell phone in the swimming pool, so she didn't get the call until sometime later when she replaced her phone. Alina's frightened, cryptic message prompts Mac to high-tail it to Ireland to solve the murder, since Dublin's Finest can't seem to figure it out. Mac, in her pink cropped pants, silver sandals, long blonde ponytail and I'm-Not-Really-a- Waitress nail polish, almost immediately begins encountering the strange. A crazy woman approaches her in a pub and calls her an O'Connor, which makes no sense to Mac since she's a Lane. While walking back to her inn, Mac gets lost and passes through a strange, dead part of town. By a strange twist of fate she lands at an incredibly well-lit bookstore, and there she meets Jericho Barrons, the mystery man who will become her mentor when it becomes clear that she is a sidhe-seer ("SHE-seer"), or one who sees the Fae (fairies.)
There are some evil fairies out there - and some who are just, well, interesting - like V'Lane, the Prince of the Seelies (Light Fairies), who has this, well, interesting affect on women. (I imagine him as looking sort of like Fabio back in the 1980s, and having that magnetic throw-your-panties-on-the-stage affect that Tom Jones had in the 1960s. Or so I was told.) Mac begins learning her way around this new paranormal world. Along the way she solves the mystery of her sister's murder, but gets deeper into her new role. The "old" Mac transitions into a warrior - the symbolic cutting of her hair (and dying it black) and wearing all-black clothes instead of her previously-preferred pastels and bright colors. Look out, she's becoming a serious Goth Chick! Yet the old woman (whom she will see again) insists that she is an O'Connor and not a Lane. Mac begins to question her parentage, and Alina's.
The cliffhanger in this book is so tight that you really want to pick up the next book right away, without a break.
Rating: 4 stars - OK, so I'm kind of embarrassed to give it 4 stars, but the truth is, I liked it, this is my blog, and I calls 'em like I sees 'em.
