FEVER SERIES #5: SHADOWFEVER
Karen Marie Moning
Performed by: Natalie Ross and Phil Gigante
ISBN: 978-0385341677 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0440244417 (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1455828739 (Audio)
ASIN: B003EY7IRC (Kindle)
January 2011 (Hardcover)
August 30, 2011 (Mass Market Paperback)
August 30, 2011 (Audio)
January 2011 (Kindle)
Delacorte Press / Dell Reprint / Brilliance Audio /Dell / Delacorte
Urban Fantasy

MacKayla Lane was just a child when she and her sister, Alina, were given up for adoption and her adoptive parents told to keep them from ever returning to Ireland.  However, twenty years went by and with a chance to study at Trinity College in Ireland Alina jumped at the chance.  Now Alina is dead and Mac has returned to Ireland to hunt her sister’s murderer. After discovering that she descends from a bloodline both gifted and cursed, Mac is plunged into a world where secret history and an ancient conflict has existed between humans and immortals who have lived concealed among us for thousands of years. Devastating events and consequences, happen on a daily basis as Mac struggles to cope with grief while continuing her mission to acquire and control the Sinsar Dubh — a book of dark, forbidden magic scribed by the mythical Unseelie King.   Mac is caught inbetween  confused and bewildered in trying to decide friend from foe and mourning those she loved and lost and the possibility of losing more.  Hoever the more Mac learns about herself the more questions remain – who and what is she???  Mac’s journey will ultimately force her to face the truth of her exile, and to make a choice that will either save the world… or destroy it.

****   I didn’t read SHADOWFEVER when it first came out.  I had read all the others in this series and was anxious to read the conclusion – but – I was afraid to discover that a character I LOVED had been killed.  Being an emotional reader when I finally did start to read SHADOWFEVER, I must have shed as many tears as Mac did when the truth of what had happened began to materialize for both of us!! Call me weird but this entire series had captured me heart and soul.   So that being said, I let myself go and plunged in to read this fifth book of Karen Marie Moning’s  Fever series.

What followed was an amazing story molded and formed by Ms. Moning that ran the whole gamut of  monsters, mayhem, fairies (good & bad) otherwise known as seelie and unseelie as well as many things that could not be named.  And for good measure, seriously, who and what was Mac?

Throughout this entire final book, the author introduced new characters (beings) and brought us up to date on old friends and enemies alike, of which there were many!   It would be impossible to list them all but for those of you who haven’t read the series yet – and I do highly suggest you start at the beginning as this story only gets better and better as it progresses – you will find recurring main characters like Mac, Barrons, Dani, Rowena, the Lord and Master, the Dreamy Eyed Guy, and  V’Lane and see how they all fit together while learning some happy and unhappy truths.

Bottom Line:  Yes, this is supposed to be the final book to the series, but I wish it wasn’t so because I want to see what happens next -  I want to see Dani grow up – I want to see more reconcilliations, and new births and although KMM seemed to wrap all the ends up nicely – I just hated to see this end.   This is one of the BEST and MOST ENGROSSING series I have ever read – and let me say I’ve been reading books for a very, very, long time.  And may I also add that I listened to this on audio and the performances of Natalie Ross and Phil Gigante were superb!!!

Marilyn Rondeau, for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com

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I started reviewing books many years ago - but my love of reading began as soon as I could read and that’s a long time! From my very first library card, I would spend my summers at the local library rather than outside playing. My tastes ran from every horse book I could find, to dog books, then gothic romances, and now historical romances with the Regency period having a very close spot in my heart. [Many of my friends, who really know me, say I was born in the wrong era - they’re probably right.] Now that I am retired, and busier than ever, I read almost all genres with the exception of hard core erotica, horror and anything involving more than one sex partner! I am loyal to my tried and true favorite auto-buy authors but love discovering the newer authors as well. I was once a very impatient person, but now retired, and with a book, an audio, or my Kindle by my side - I am the epitome of infinite patience to sit and wait for whatever comes next be it for the light to change, a doctor’s appointment, or a commercial break on the television!

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