Series: Fever (Page 2 of 2)

Synopsis:

I used to be your average, everyday girl but all that changed one night in Dublin when I saw my first Fae, and got dragged into a world of deadly immortals and ancient secrets. . . .

In her fight to stay alive, MacKayla must find the Sinsar Dubh—a million-year-old book of the blackest magic imaginable, which holds the key to power over the worlds of both the Fae and Man. Pursued by assassins, surrounded by mysterious figures she knows she can’t trust, Mac finds herself torn between two deadly and powerful men: V’lane, the immortal Fae Prince, and Jericho Barrons, a man as irresistible as he is dangerous.

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.

Review:

*spoilers for Darkfever (Fever #1)*

Bloodfever slowly morphed into a phenomenal second installment in the Fever Series, and I can’t wait to see where it goes!  I was reading along, enjoying the ride and somewhere past the 50% mark I transitioned from like to love!  Bloodfever sunk it’s claws deep into me.  It stole my breath, it was impossible to put down, the tension and unknowns were through the roof and the peril was fantastic.  When I reached the final page I screamed NO at my kindle because I knew I would take a little break to write out my thoughts.  I am counting the minutes until I can start the third book in the series, Faefever.

In one short month I’ve managed to piss off virtually every being with magical power in this city.  Half of those I’ve encountered want me dead; the other half want to use me to find the deadly, coveted Sinsar Dubh.
I could run home, I suppose.  Try to forget.  Try to hide.
Then I think of Alina, and how she died.

Mac finally has a face and a name to whom she believed killed her sister.  Retribution has to be hers!  Well, that is once she heals.  After barely surviving a battle with the Lord Master and his minions, Mac is recuperating back at the bookstore.  And she has Barrons to thank for saving her life. With the target in mind, Mac is even more determined to acquire the Sinsur Debar and finish what her sister had tried to start!

I wanted to stab every one of them with my spear as I walked by, but I refrained.  I’m not in this for the little battles.  I’m here for the war.

After being put through an endless supply of trials and tribulations, Mac is officially kick-ass in my eyes!  I love her!  She threatens others who try to destroy her, she puts up phenomenal fights, and she’s not afraid to take calculated risks.  It is almost as though she has slowly been gathering all of Barrons good qualities and making them her own!  Barrons and good qualities in the same sentence together?  I know, shoot me now, but I kind of like him.

For a moment there he hadn’t looked dark, forbidding, and cold, but dark, forbidding, and …. warm.  In fact, when he’d laughed he’d looked … well … kind of hot. I grimaced.  Obviously I’d eaten something bad for lunch.

I feel guilty for liking Barrons!  Is he controlling?  Yes!  Is he manipulative?  Yes!  Does he keep Mac in the dark and still use her as his personal OOP sniffer?  Yes again.  But we seem to be getting some glimpses beneath that exterior of his, and not only is he hot, but he does have a heart after all!  Who would have thought?!  The tenderness he displayed to Mac for 2.2 seconds at the end of Darkfever could not be forgotten.  He cares for Mac.  He values her safety and life.  Or maybe I’m just reading into it too much?  I don’t know and I don’t care because I need to have a little bit of romance and stolen touches and moments here and there in my books.  It’s a weakness.  But I think there may just be a future for Mac and Barrons in the upcoming books!  Fingers crossed!

He brushed a curl from my forehead and I shivered.  Barrons had strong hands with long, beautiful fingers, and I think he carries some kind of electrical charge because every time he touches me it shoots an unwelcome thrill through my body, I took the keys from his hand, being careful not to make contact with skin.  If he noticed, he let it pass unremarked.

Bloodfever was a fun and fast paced read!  I love who Mac and Barrons are turning into and the direction the story is taking.  I love how my questions are slowly being answered……although not the main ones I’m desperately seeking answers for!  And I’m looking forward to following Mac’s adventure and slowly taking on the world with her one puzzle piece at a time!

Reading Order & Links: Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
Darkfever #1 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Bloodfever #2 Reviews:	Faefever #3 Reviews: Jen Anna
Dreamfever #4 Reviews: Jen Anna	Shadowfever #5 Reviews: Jen Chelsea Anna	Iced #6
Burned #7	Feverborn #8

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Synopsis:

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….

Review:

There is a good chance that I may become slightly obsessed with this series. Why? Because of our protagonist, Mac, and the intricate story that unfolds. Mac has this way of slowly reeling you into caring for her. Before I knew it, I was right alongside her feeling every bit as anxious and confused while the craziness swam around us. Because what started out as a trip to discover who murdered Mac’s sister, turned into a story that was filled with rich history and mysteries at every turn. Be careful, because before you know it, Darkfever’s suspenseful, sarcastic, page-turning story could suck you right in too!

Before, I thought I knew everything. I thought I knew who I was, where I fit, and exactly what my future would bring. Before, I thought I knew I had a future. After, I began to discover that I’d never really known anything at all.

The story starts out with Mac receiving a call that her sister has been murdered while studying abroad in Ireland. Upon facing the horrors of having to identify her mutilated body, Mac is convinced that she has to set matters right. She will go to Irelend and push the police to solve her sisters murder. But upon arrival, “things” keep interfering with her ability to move ahead. She starts to see evil, disgusting creatures that were just human a second ago, she hears words she doesn’t understand, she finally discovers a horrifying message from her sister on her phone, and she meets a man that pulls her deeper into the twisted world of the Fae. Or as I like to put it….the story becomes more and more addicting as we discover random pieces of the puzzle.

“I tend bar. I like music. My sister was murdered recently. I seem to have gone insane since then,” I added this last almost conversationally.

Mac is, ha, well, Mac is someone you would not expect. She is a 22 year old girl who loves her pink fingernail and toenail polish, dressing stylish and keeping herself bronzed and beautiful. YET the internal Mac is the polar opposite. She is sarcastic. She is witty. And most importantly she is determined! As each chapter progressed and the more I learned about Mac, I shockingly went from meh to I-love-this-girl! It also helped that she tries her damnedest to stand up to Barrons. Because she was 100% correct when she said he was a dickhead!

He just didn’t look like the kind of creep that would messily murder a woman in her hotel room; he looked like the kind of creep that would line her up in the sights of his assassin’s rifle without a shred of emotion.

Jericho Barrons, aka Barrons, is an ass. He is not what I wanted for the main male, but shoot me now…..I like trying to hate him! I know, so, so, so wrong! As I was saying, he is an ass, his proper talk is annoying as hell, his lack of compassion makes me want to cause him physical harm and I loath how he calls Mac Ms. Lane. Yet……and I hate this yet……..he is perfect for this book. I liked that he tries to help Mac find her sister’s murderer, despite his screwed up ways and selfish reasons. I loved how Barrons is a huge mystery since we don’t really know who and what he is. I have three guesses, but it’s driving me crazy that I can’t solidify any one of my theories!

You want to believe in black and white, good and evil, heroes that are truly heroic, and villains that are just plain bad, but I’ve learned in the past year that things are rarely so simple. The good guys can do some truly awful things, and the bad guys can sometimes surprise the heck out of you.

Although I was a little slow to warm up to Darkfever, I can’t wait to fly through the rest of this series. I’m hoping that an element that is introduced to us in the first book continues! Mac talks to us and she would point out something that would affect her later on, or explain how she was oblivious to the current situation. I loved how that read and how that pulled me into the story even more! But I I do have one small issue with this book and that is in regards to V’lane, an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction to human women, and the scenes that contain him and Mac. They rubbed me the wrong way View Spoiler »I’m not a fan of sex manipulation. Trying to manipulate someones thoughts and feelings into having sex with you? I don’t see it as sexy at all. I see it as rape. « Hide Spoiler and I’m hoping that will somehow become resolved in future books or my mind.

Reading Order & Links: Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
Darkfever #1 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Bloodfever #2 Reviews:	Faefever #3 Reviews: Jen Anna
Dreamfever #4 Reviews: Jen Anna	Shadowfever #5 Reviews: Jen Chelsea Anna	Iced #6
Burned #7	Feverborn #8

I think this is one of those reviews where less is more. There was so much going on at all times in this book and we had so much we had to learn and take in. I still don’t quite understand everything I was told, which will come more easily, I’m sure, in the next installments.

I think the basic thing I need to address is the likability of the story and the characters. As a story, I did find myself inexplicably drawn to everything that was happening. I would put the book down and then feel myself reaching for it after only five minutes of it’s absence, despite the fact that I had no clue what was going on.

No, it wasn’t a favorite of mine, but it was on the cusp of being something very….special. The ending not only surprised me, but made me want to forget that I wanted to read something else after it-I ended up going straight through to book two. I think that says something about the story.

Or maybe it’s the magnetism of the characters. Despite what I’ve heard (and read) of Mac’s vapid tendencies and inner monologue, I found I still enjoyed being inside her head. She was funny and determined, not to be so easily deterred by the brooding Jericho Barrons. Speaking of Jericho…frankly, he is the reason I am so drawn to the story. I don’t know what his deal is, but I have to find out. The whole time I just wanted him and her to kiss, to release the sexual tension that subtlety built between them. It drove me crazy-so here I am halfway through book two already-Just because I want more Barrons.

So, there isn’t much to say aside from the fact that I was pulled in and bought the story enough to move forward with the series. There is just something about mysterious characters in a faraway land (or so it seems…Ireland?? Pretty far away!) where you don’t find out enough about each person, but just have to know more. I am both excited and anxious to see where this series will go.

Reading Order & Links: Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
Darkfever #1 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Bloodfever #2 Reviews:	Faefever #3 Reviews: Jen Anna
Dreamfever #4 Reviews: Jen Anna	Shadowfever #5 Reviews: Jen Chelsea Anna	Iced #6
Burned #7	Feverborn #8