Darkfever

I am mind-boggled that, at the time of this review, this book has over a 4 star rating. This was one of the worst books I’ve read in a while, and the lead characters were incredibly shallow and unlikeable.

Our heroine Mackayla “Mac” Lane is a vapid, 22-year-old bartender whose main concerns in life are her hair, her wardrobe, her fingernail polish, her tanned legs, and the color pink. That is, until her sister is killed in Dublin. Then her main concerns in life are her hair, her wardrobe, her fingernail polish, her tanned legs, the color pink, and her sister’s death. Her vanity and concern about her appearance are endless. At one point Mac even mentions after trying to disguise herself, “I might never manage ugly, but at least I bordered on invisible.” Really. When describing why she likes museums, Mac tells us, “I should probably pretend it’s because I’m so erudite and scholarly and love to learn, but the truth is I just love shiny, pretty things.” If this honesty was supposed to be endearing, it failed miserably.

The dialogue throughout the book is painful with Mac sounding like a snarky, immature 14-year-old the entire story. I would get totally thrown when the death-by-sex Fae would show up and there would be some weird sex scene like Mac masturbating in broad daylight in the middle of the street or being naked on all fours in a crowded museum because I would forget how old she was.

Barrons isn’t much better. He starts out as an arrogant douche and pretty much stays that way throughout. Maybe his smoldering glances at Mac’s boobs were supposed to make him more likeable, and he does save Mac in the end, but that just made me question his judgement because I wanted to kill her halfway through the book and that feeling never really went away.

Mac is soon staying in Barrons Books and Baubles, a cavernous bookstore Mac likens to the library in Beauty and the Beast. She also mentions that Beast gifted Beauty the library on their wedding day which is incorrect, but lets just skip that. I thought that was a ridiculous way to describe the place, but it briefly raised my hopes that there might at least be a little book talk. Wrong. Mac tells us she loves books, but they’re not really mentioned again, except for the magic book they’re seeking and to let us know Mac thinks Fleur Delacour was miscast in the Harry Potter movie. Later in the book she even forgets shes living in an enormous bookstore and purchases maps of the city at a gift shop. She remembers the next day an easy detail to forget no doubt.

The monsters are monsters, the cops are inept, blah blah blah. And the pop culture references (Green Day, Harry Potter, Rolling Stones, Addams Family, etc.) pulled me repeatedly out of the story and gave me the impression the author wanted me to think Mac was cool due to some of the things she likes. Hey, I love Green Day, but Mac was not cool.

Some of the passages in the book were so bad they were memorable:

“I was going to hurt for my sister until the day I died. If you don’t know what I mean or you think I’m being melodramatic, then you’ve never really loved anyone.”
– and –
If youve lost someone, then you know what kind of things go through your head and need no reminder from me.

Umm, this just seems like a lazy-ass way for the author to skate by on not having to actually describe emotions. She’ll just let the reader figure out what she means by letting them rely on a similar experience.

I wasnt sure if I should be relieved or appalled by how shallow I was.

Allow me to help be appalled.

I wont bore you with the details of the monsters that came through the doorway that day.

Hmmm, are you just tired of writing at this point or not creative enough to come up with some more monsters? You havent seemed to mind boring me throughout the rest of the book, so why stop now?

In the final battle featuring Mac and Barrons versus the monsters, Mac turns out to have amazing instincts and kicks ass. I know this, because without any training and very little experience, she tells me how amazing she is. I mean she even italicizes amazing so she must be pretty good, right? In fact, shes able to work like the missile-targeting system of a stealth bomber, locating and locking onto anything Fae once it was within a few feet

It predictably (and thankfully) ends with Mac and Barrons escaping, the two of them starting to discover their feelings for each other, and with the author setting the reader up to buy the next book in the series. Count me out.

I kept putting this book down, but finally forced myself to finish it. This author had been mentioned in other reviews of books I liked as being a good author, the price was right, so I bought it. Well, I should have saved my time and money. The characterizations of everyone except Mac, the h, were very thin – we knew a lot (and I mean LOT) of stupid trivial things about Mac, but knew nothing much about anyone else. It lacked a narrative arc – this book spent a lot of time worldbuilding, but not much really happened, and the stuff that did happen was not understandable fully to the reader because the reveals will come in future books. The author had an annoying writing style where the heroine was interfering with the narrative flow (if I had known that day what would happen next, I would have….). The only thing to recommend it was the overall concept seemed strong, but the execution really killed it for me. I read the reviews of the next few books in the series, and the critical reviews essentially say the next several books are wash, rinse, repeat. I am not reading any further.

“Darkfever” is almost an object lesson in how NOT to insert detailed character descriptions into a story. The many rambling digressions into the main character’s preferences regarding, drinking water, music, accessories, apparel, makeup, etc., don’t so much bring the character to life but rather feel like you’re being forced to listen to someone endlessly talking about herself.

There’s a short lecture about why books are better than movies that left mea reader of a bookfeeling like I was getting an unnecessary lecture. She even takes time to throws shade at a Harry Potter adaptation without any specific criticism of how exactly the movie got Fleur Delacour wrong. But why is it even there to make me wonder?

Being as the plot barely advances in this storyI’m guessing that it’s mostly set up for the subsequent books?mostly this book is about setting the style and characters, and it does so very poorly.

One of the biggest flaws is that the characters’ speech patterns are all uniform, with the same wiseacre sarcasm. A centuries-old supernatural being tends to speak with the same style as a 20-something from Georgia.

The story is mostly set in Dublin, but from reading the book, one begins to wonder whether the author has actually been in Dublin, or even anywhere outside the United States. The descriptions just don’t feel genuine, especially when the author seems to confuse Irish and Scottish cultural features, such as the word “haver.”

I came up with a drinking game. Drink every time:

1. The main character mentions her iPod and how wonderful it is. Wow, what a cool gadget! It’s so …. dating. Or other outdated terms like “camera phone” or “Ask Jeeves”
2. The main character remarks on her own hotness … yes, she sure is hot. She actually says at one point “I might never manage ugly …”
3. The main character admires her own breasts, or someone else’s breasts, or mentions breasts. … BREASTS, BREASTS, BREASTS!!! Sure, I love breasts, but, come on
4. Speaking of which, a female character views female bodies through seemingly male eyes, like a detail like this: “I love to eat. Fortunately, it doesn’t show. I’m healthy through the bust and bottom, but slim through the waist and thighs.”
5. There’s some kind of cultural knowledge error, like referring to Louis Armstrong on a playlist of “one-hit wonders.” Or writing dialogue that sound like an American failing to pretend to be Irish, or thinking that the “paranormal craze” began with Harry Potter (and then mentioning Lestatso you know there was at least one paranormal craze before Harry Potter, right?)
6. Cliched locutions, such as “from (soup) to (nuts),” “but that’s neither here nor there,” “drop-dead gorgeous,” “worth his salt”
7. “Sedan” come on, who says “sedan” in conversation except a car salesman? Especially “late-model sedan”
8. Unnecessary detail regarding the make and model of a fancy vehicle, or other unnecessary references to brand names, like a Juicy purse
9. Strange references to ethnicity, and weirdly racist sounding references to different kinds of white people. A character is a “darkly exotic half-Basque, half-Pict.” How is that exotic, exactly? Isn’t that just a white guy? And how is that noticeably different from anyone else in Ireland? “Spanish or Melungeon blood” Drink to weirdly outdated racism!
10. Unnecessary character detail at odd points, such as how exactly the character prefers to eat her french-fried potatoes when she’s about to see a supernatural creature for the first time
11. Just strange phrases, as if they are commonly used, like the “rear conversation area” of a bookstore (several references), or the “rear index” of a book. You mean the index? Who calls it a “rear index”
12. A fixation on sex without actually being sexy, and a woman’s value is in her physical beauty as a prize for a man
13. An unnecessary digressive lecture, such as about the “entitlement generation” or about Southern ladies and gentlemen

I’m writing this review for books 1-3. I thought this was supposed to be romance!!!!!! This series has dragged on, filled with misery and defeat and endless boring filler and NO ROMANCE until the end of book three- where she finally gets some affection- in the form of GANG RAPE!!!!
I’m so annoyed at everyone saying this was such a great series- how could they possibly say that?! This has been dreary and tedious for two books now, and the end of book three is vomit inducing disgusting. The characters are all awful and uninspiring. I kept reading it, hoping it would get better… but as of book four, It’s safe to say I HATE this series. What a shame…. I used to love this author.

Despite the description, I had very much expected this to be your bog standard paranormal romance. Not that Im complaining, as you all know I eat those up! But this is very much a paranormal mystery and exceptionally well written it is too.

After her sister is brutally murdered and the police close the case unsolved, Mac ups sticks and travels to Dublin to find out for herself what happened. What she discovers opens up a whole new world for her, one with fae and magic, where good and evil are more than just words.

She reluctantly accepts help from Jericho Barrons, a sexy bookshop owner who seems to know the ins and outs of the world she has stumbled into, and has his own vested interest in helping her. Their banter is hilarious and adds a lighter touch to some of the more serious moments through the book. If Im honest, Im really kind of hoping for some hot and steamy action between these to in future books in the series!

Theres a fae prince Vlane who has his eye on Mac in more than one way, he is a fae who can control womens sexual fantasies and there are some hilarious encounters between the two. There are also some pretty grotesque fae, and seeing Mac learn to recognise and combat them is really interesting and sometimes, well, gross.

Overall, this is a solid start to the series, there isnt much of a conclusion to the book, its clear this has been written to lead you into the next book and I will read that as soon as I can!

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