Monday, Feb 9, 2009

Book Review: FaeFever

 Author:      Karen Marie Moning

Publisher:  Delacorte Press Book

                 Bantam Dell/Random House

Website:    www.karenmoning.com

ISBN #:    978-0-385-34163-9

Type:        Fiction:Magic/Mystery

Pages:     327 Hardback

  

The Review

My friend, Danielle, got me started on the DarkFever/BloodFever/FaeFeverseries by Karen Marie Moning.  When I first started reading DarkFever, I didn’t think that these were “my type” of books.  But, after I devoured her first two books in less than a week, I figured out that Danielle had lent me some really cool “escape” books.  

I never thought of myself as the kind of reader who would enjoy a “mystery” or “mystical” kind of fiction.  But, I guess I am.  Not only did I enjoy reading DarkFever and BloodFever, I also really liked Season of the Witch by Natasha Mostert (new book coming very soon) and The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson.  So, naturally, I pre-ordered FaeFever before its release.  But, the poor, beautifully purple, book sat on my TBR pile for the longest time.  I got so involved in writing my blog and reading ARC’s, that I just kept ignoring poor FaeFever.  Then, Danielle read it.  I couldn’t wait to get her opinion.  She gave it sort of a “fair” review.  She didn’t like it as much as the first two in the series.  But, you know how it is with a series…

So… do I agree with Danielle?

Yes.  And, no.

Yes, the book was off to a really slow start.  Perhaps it is because she was refreshing the readers’ mind on what happened in the first two books.  It was helpful to get the refresher and it did jar my memory into the two books that I had read last year.  I was appreciative of it.  However, after the refresher, the book somewhat crept along for me.  I wanted more of the new characters and V’Lane and less of what I got. 

But, and… there’s always a “but” with me, I loved the end of this book.  Karen Marie Moning did a spectacular job of ensuring that I read her next book in the series.  Damn her!  The ending leaves me wanting to find out what the heck happens to Mac next. 

With all of that being said… I would have preferred if Moning would have shortened the storyline to get the reader to the end of where we actually leave off in FaeFever, thus getting the reader to this point in the story mid-book.  THEN… spend the second half of this book focusing on Mac in the dark side.  Yes, that would have been a home run.  This makes me sad.  Is this about the business of selling books or writing for your readers?  I feel bad about actually saying that because she has VERY LOYAL readers and fans.  They may egg my blog after this review.  But, I feel that she could have condensed this book and really grabbed me.  Chances are, I still would have purchased the next sequel. 

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”

I am not sad that I read it.  I’m not even highly disappointed.  I just felt “not much” about it.  Except for the ending.  Now that’s the juice I loved in the first two books!  Scary stuff, page turning, sexy goodness… I only got a little bit in this book and too much Rhinoceros Boy Meat in little jars (ick).  For the genre Fiction:Magic/Mystery, I’m afraid that I am going to have to give this book a 6 out of 10.   Curious about how I’d rate the first two books? Somewhere in the 8-9 range. 

GREAT CLIPS:

This video gives you a very quick synopsis on the overall story: 

3 Comments