Reviews

Feversong

- mackenzie Leave a comment

AHHHHH I can’t believe I finished the series!

Okay, okay. I know there’s technically more books in the series, but I know at the very least that the next one does not deal with Mac and Jericho as the main characters (at least I think it doesn’t). I think a lot of people consider this one the end of the series.

If not, feel free to correct me in the comments. I could be persuaded to continue them.

Either way, I’m so excited yet so sad that the series is done. Sometimes it took me awhile to get through each book, and sometimes I zipped right through one and on to the next. Feversong is one of the latter ones for me. I even bookmarked a scene to keep for later, which I NEVER do.

Spoilers.

More spoilers.

Don’t be spoiled.

There are really only a couple of things I have to talk about with this one. FIRST OFF. The ending. I still don’t even know what to think about the ending. It kind of sort of wrapped it up nicely but also….wutttttttt. Jericho is the Unseelie King and Mac has been the Concubine the entire time??? Am I getting that right?? I like the idea but I also didn’t. For some reason I feel like making Jericho the Unseelie King erases the mystery and allure around him. I also have some other questions – like who was the concubine they saved then (was she the real Seelie Queen who just had her mind erased?) – that I’m still pondering. I almost guarantee if I read the last book again I’d probably answer most of my own questions.

I also likely could just do a good ol’ Google search. Which I might.

Second, I’m glad Shazaam was a real being. Just saying. I’m glad Dani didn’t make him up.

Third. The scene I bookmarked is the one where Jericho tells Mac he wouldn’t have minded if she ran into his arms. This scene got me right in the heart. It was just so cute. He tells her that he understands that she’s pulled away because she’s alpha and doesn’t like involving other people when she’s trying to figure her messed up shit out and finishes it by saying he would have liked it if she’d leaped into her arms when she’d hesitated at the White Mansion because she thought he  wasn’t that type of man. My heart.

I honestly think this was my favourite of the entire series.

Alright, that’s it! That’s my somewhat binge of the Fever series. It was great while it lasted!

Feverborn

- mackenzie Leave a comment

I don’t remember much of Feverborn, and that’s not because it was bad, but because it was such a build up to what was coming that I wanted to get to the end to figure out what it all meant. The fact that I was able to rush through it without getting bored is a testament to how good it was.

I think this was actually the first book in the entire series where I didn’t mind Mac at all. She became a fully realized character to me. Her decisions made sense, her attitude made sense, it all fit for me finally. Only took me until the end of the series. I got a better sense of Jada too, and wasn’t as thrown off by the whole Dani fiasco.

I liked that you were being fed a decent chunk of backstory while also building up some action. It’s definitely a middle book, but it’s a good one. I could feel that the end of the series was coming in this book, but I was excited to see how it played out.

I know this isn’t much, but I didn’t really have much to say about it, honestly. Decent overall!

Happier Thinking

- mackenzie Leave a comment

When Happier Thinking came in the mail, I was a little skeptical. I thought, “It’s a tiny book, how could this possibly be that useful.”

If you go into this book thinking you’re going to have loads and loads of information tossed at you so you can immediately change your life, you’ll be disappointed. The beauty of this book isn’t in the fact that it’s offering you tons of ways to help you think happier, but that it’s offering you concrete ways to do so. It almost made me feel like someone was giving me little reminders on good habits to adopt.

The thing with it being so short, too, is that the information is easily digestible. You can choose to read it all in one sitting, like I did, or to break it up by chapter and start with each piece of information. It makes the process of “change” a little less overwhelming, which I greatly appreciated. Sometimes self-help books are so gigantic I can’t even take them off the shelf for fear of failing.

If you like quick reads chalk full of quirky humour, a funny friend jumping off the page to offer you sage advice, and a fast pick-me-up when you’re feeling down, Happier Thinking is it. I find myself flipping through it randomly when I’m feeling down, just to bring a smile to my face for a minute or two. And it works.

Burned

- mackenzie Leave a comment

Burned is book #7 in the Fever series. It’s taken me a bit, but I’m slowly making my way towards the end. I’m happy and sad for this series to end.

Happy because I’d like to find out how it all ends. Also happy because I can move on to some of my other books taking up precious space on my shelves.

Sad because I’ve been in this world so long and I’ll be sad to see it go.

Burned was a decent filler book. And by filler, I don’t mean a lot isn’t happening. There is. It’s just that I know it’s all a build up for the books that are to come. And that’s okay. Some books are meant to be middle books. It was still very entertaining, especially since there was a little more…levity to this one than the most recent (Iced was humorous because of Dani, but still felt dark). I mean, Mac accidentally goes invisible and uses this time to spy on those around her. How could that not be funny.

All in all, a decent book. It’s made me excited for Feverborn.

Now there will be spoilers ahead.

Spoilers I tell you.

Spoilers.

At the end of Iced, Mac chased Dani into the silvers. When Dani comes back out to Dublin, it’s been five odd years for her, whereas it’s been a couple of weeks in human land. Although you don’t know this in the beginning. Dani is lost, Mac can’t go after her, everyone’s looking for her, and then there’s this new badass in town named Jada. You know where I’m going with this. We find out that Jada is Dani, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Because I know that there was an uproar over Dani being so young and lusted after in Iced, I feel like this was an easy way to grow Dani up fast, but it still felt really weird. I still have a huge issue with the whole Dani/Mac fight thing, so that also might be colouring my view of the scenario a little. I technically understand the backstory on why Dani turns into Jada, I just wish it could have been done a little better.

The only other issue I have here is with the scene that is used as a foreword for the book. It’s the scene where Jericho first visited Mac in the room she was staying in when she first came to Dublin. In the original scene we read in Darkfever, they argue a bit and then he leaves. In this “real” scene, we find out that Mac and Jericho actually had hot steamy sex, but Mac wasn’t ready for it so Jericho suppressed the memory so she wouldn’t hate him. There’s this entire build up to her finding out that he did this at the beginning of the book, then she finds out at the worst possible moment, is obviously pissed, then when he explains his reasoning, she basically just accepts it. Like, okay fine, you understand why he did what he did. But the build up to this was completely unnecessary if it was just going to be accepted. Was it to show how strong she’s gotten? How their relationship has changed? Both of those points have been proven through other means in the books.

Anyway, spoilers over. That’s all I have to say about Burned!

Iced

- mackenzie Leave a comment

I have to say, I completely ate my words when I read Iced. I was SO nervous about reading it because I haven’t liked Dani up until this point and I knew the entire book was from her POV. Although the dudes and the fecks got reeeeaalll annoying, I was able to look past it.

I enjoyed the plot. It was interesting and kept me guessing the entire time. I was never sure how it was going to pan out, which was nice.

The characters gave me a bit of an issue, although not the same issues some people have. I know a LOT of people have an issue with the guys being inappropriate towards Dani, and maybe I’m sick and twisted, but I don’t see the problem (mostly) that everyone seemed to have. Yes, Dani is a 14 year old girl. Yes, Ryodan is, like, a million years old and Christian is in his 20s. But I think a lot of people missed some points here:

  1. Dani isn’t a typical 14 year old, she’s been through a lot of shit, so of course the guys are going to treat her like an adult.
  2. Christian is turning into a death-by-sex fae so of COURSE he’s going to have messed up thoughts. Although his character I liked the least in this, I still understood what was going on.
  3. NO ONE HAS SEX.

I liked Ryodan throughout this, but his character was a little hard to get a read on. Maybe it’s just me, but I felt like he was a lot…warmer? nicer?… in the other books. He’s a tough guy, I get that, but I didn’t think he was THAT big of a dick, and he was a pretty big one here. Some of it was necessary, like when Dani threatens his authority in his club, but some of it just felt out of character for him.

And I didn’t really like Jo before Iced anyway, but Jebus H. Christian, she’s an idiot. The man keeps you prisoner more or less to keep Dani in line, then starts sleeping with you, and you DON’T assume there’s a hidden agenda there?! I am sorry, but if she gets taken out by someone, I won’t be mad.

Oh, and I hope Dancer sticks around for a bit. I want to know more about him. He seems like a good match for Dani.

I’m curious to see where the series goes now, because I know KMM had some backlash over this book and the rest aren’t Dani-oriented.

 

Shadowfever

- mackenzie Leave a comment

I was so mixed about Shadowfever when I started reading it. I almost put the book down in the beginning because I was just SO fed up with Mac and her attitude. She went off the freaking deep end and it didn’t make sense to me. The context made sense, but it seemed very condensed, like what happened in the beginning of the book could have been an entire other book to show us the transition in how she was thinking, but it was crammed into a couple of pages instead so it didn’t feel real.

But after we got over that small hurdle, I really liked the plot. This was my favourite book in the series thus far. It was intriguing, I wanted to know what happened, there was sexual tension, there was regular tension, it was fantastic. I couldn’t put it down.

I’m a little sad that the series continues, because I think this would have been the perfect ending to it. It wouldn’t have been cleanly wrapped up, but it would have made sense within the tone of the series. I’m also kind of not looking forward to reading Iced because Dani is not even close to one of my favourite characters. I find the way she talks very annoying, although that might just be because I’m old and grouchy now.

Hopefully the series continues to get better now that I think I’ve found my stride. *fingers crossed*

Dreamfever

- mackenzie Leave a comment

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I think this might be my favourite so far in the Fever series.

Spoils. Spoils, spoils, spoils, spoils, spoils.

I know a lot of people have an issue with the beginning of Dreamfever. A lot? Some. Some people have an issue with it. I only read a couple of other reviews briefly. Most of the issue stems from the fact that Barrons essentially uses rape to “cure” Mac from being a pri-ya (human addicted to fae sex). Those that are upset argue that, given Moning is the author, she could have chosen anything to cure Mac, and this is the way she chose. But I think it was alright. It wasn’t just tossed into the story, it had a purpose for furthering the story.

Mostly it made Mac and Barrons deal with some feelings (or show some feelings) that they otherwise wouldn’t. Which was fun to watch up until Mac started denying the feelings and we went right back to pretending neither of them wanted to screw the other. Except when Barrons made smart-ass remarks to her about their time together. Which I feel was somewhat alright, but this actually upset me more than the rape itself. She had no control and yet he’s tossing it back in her face to embarrass her or get the upper hand. I’d have smacked the shit out of him.

Spoils over.

I did like how we got a lot more of the fae backstory in this one. I feel like we finally know, more or less, what is going on. Except with the book. But we’re starting to understand the history of why things are happening the way they are, which is great. Not a fan of Rowena and that whole ganging being a bigger part in this, but it is what it is.

I’m nervous to continue reading because I know some things that happen that I am not looking forward to. But we shall see.

Faefever

- mackenzie Leave a comment

I feel like this book is the line between pink Barbie Mac and black leather Mac. It definitely started to get darker in tone with Faefever, which is not a bad thing. I was getting annoyed by naive, pretending-stuff-isn’t-happening or not-listening-to-Barrons-even-though-he-knows-shit Mac.

The tension in this book was palatable. I’m still enjoying the plot, the writing, and the setting. Love me some good Ireland.

Barrons is still a conundrum for me. I STILL can’t picture him in my head, even after looking up character art. I don’t know what it is. Maybe that’s how he’s supposed to be. He has grown on me a bunch, though, and I do like him now. I wish he wasn’t such a stick-up-the-butt type of dude, but I know there’s reasons for that. Mostly because I accidentally spoiled it for myself. I’m only half mad about that.

Add to my annoyance list Dani. I don’t know why, but she isn’t doing it for me as a character. Which is not great since I spoiled myself and know she’s a bigger part in this series.

Also, I don’t know if I’ve just started to tune it out or I’ve gotten used to it, but the repetitiveness that I mentioned in my Bloodfever review is getting much better.

So better overall, mostly.

And hoh-boy, that ending. Immediately picked up Dreamfever.

 

Bloodfever

- mackenzie Leave a comment

I’m on a Fever series binge right now. I read this one right after Darkfever. And I’ve already bought the third and the fourth, although I’m not in love with the series. I’m still not sure on the characters, but I kind of love the plot and writing. So maybe it’ll be worth it for me to continue reading?

A bit spoilery ahead.

My biggest issue remains to be Mac. She’s just so dense. And I don’t know if it’s because she’s supposed to be this small town, naive girl, but it’s starting to get on my nerves. Like, you just find out that ALLLL these Fae exist, but when you see what you think is the Grim Reaper, you ASSUME you’ve gone bonkers and it’s not real. WHY??? I get that it needs to happen in order for the plot to make sense, but I feel like this is not a realistic reaction to seeing the GR. If I found out vampires existed and saw a troll, I’d for sure be talking to someone about it (especially if you know someone that can also see things) just to make sure. This was the single most irritating part of the book. And since it was happened throughout the book, I wasn’t exactly a happy camper.

Okay, I think you’re good for spoilers.

Jericho has gotten a bit better for me, although I still can’t really picture him in my head. His attitude is somewhat annoying, but I think that’s the point of him. And when he starts to show his feelings, man I melt. I’m super curious to find out more about him.

I’m also super excited to learn more about some characters that were introduced that I think will play a bigger part going forward.

And, as I said, I’m still loving the plot. Even if there isn’t much going on, it’s still moving ahead, which is nice.

Oh, the other thing I had an issue with was repetitiveness. Reading these back to back, there’s a lot of info that is repeated book to book. Saying that, if I was reading the series normally, I think it would be super helpful. Especially when Mac encounters characters for the first time in that book, but not the first time in the series, and she gives you a little recap of who they are and how they play into the story. But for me, it’s like having to watch a “last time on the show” recap while binging a show on Netflix.

Have you read the Fever series? What’d you think?

Darkfever

- mackenzie Leave a comment

This is my second time reading Darkfever and I’m intrigued but also annoyed.

I love the plot. Give me almost anything set in Ireland and I’m in. All of the history/geography seems to be really well researched, which adds SO much texture to the story. It’s one of those books where I felt like I was walking beside the main character the entire time, looking through her eyes.

The main issue I had was MacKayla herself. Her entire attitude is the self indulgent “I’m young but I know everything” attitude. Like, look. You flew to Ireland because your sister was MURDERED. You find out monsters exist. A man who knows WAY more about monsters than you do decides to save your ass. But do you listen to him? No. You think you can handle the world so you just continue almost getting killed. I know he’s an ass, but come on?! I spent most of the book wanting to punch Mac in the face, honestly.

The other issue I had was Jericho. Not with the character himself, per say. I just had a very hard time building a mental image of him. When my mind is trying to convert the story into a nice little movie, I don’t know quite how to picture him. I’m hoping this gets better for me as the books go.

As I said, the plot was great. I’ll definitely continue reading it just for that. Also because I already own the second.