Darkfever

Rating 4 out of 5 OOPs

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….

This was a random find at B&N. I ended up in a section I rarely go in and there was a display for thrillers upon which was this book. It was a good find.

Ok.

Moning's series is a total fluff read, but sometimes that is not a bad thing if it is done right. In other words it has to be pure entertainment and I don't have moments where I roll my eyes in disgust. The characters don't have to be perfect because, hey, it's a fluff read, but they have to be consistent, entertaining, and interesting. The YA novels I have read that are, also, fluff reads (let's be honest) do not meet all of these criteria.

Darkfever delivers. The main character, MacKayla Lane, is awesome. She is a pretty girl obsessed with clothes, the color pink, manicures, and shopping who ends up in Ireland searching for her sister's murderer. While such a girl would not realistically be in such a situation it is an interesting enough premise that kept me going.

What made me interested in this book is that it takes place in Ireland and it is about the fae folk. Moning puts an excellent spin on the fairy mythology (although I snickered a little at the idea that the fairies are aliens from space which is an idea that is implied rather than spoken). Even the beautiful fairies are not to be trusted. MacKayla (Mac for short) can't seem to find a single person in Dublin that she can trust.

As far as the writing, yeah, it lacks. There are obvious plot holes that are easily passed over because the action never stops. I'm not sure. I'm torn simply because I know I'm reading garbage, but I like it. Sometimes it is nice to have a reprieve from heavy reading. Moning's book is a nice little jaunt that is enjoyable, entertaining, and is actually funny (I actually laughed out loud a few times). I give it 4 out of 5 Objects of Power or, as Mac calls them, OOPs.