Review: Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning
Released Date: January 18, 2011
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

From Goodreads: "MacKayla Lane was just a child when she and her sister, Alina, were given up for adoption and banished from Ireland forever.

Twenty years later, Alina is dead and Mac has returned to the country that expelled them to hunt her sister's murderer. But after discovering that she descends from a bloodline both gifted and cursed, Mac is plunged into a secret history: an ancient conflict between humans and immortals who have lived concealed among us for thousands of years.

What follows is a shocking chain of events with devastating consequences, and now 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, containing the power to create and destroy worlds.

In an epic battle between humans and Fae, the hunter becomes the hunted when the Sinsar Dubh turn on Mac and begins mowing a deadly path through those she loves.

Who can she turn to? Who can she trust? Who is the woman haunting her dreams? More important, who is Mac herself and what is the destiny she glimpses in the black and crimson designs of an ancient tarot card?

From the luxury of the Lord Master's penthouse to the sordid depths of an Unseelie nightclub, from the erotic bed of her lover to the terrifying bed of the Unseelie King, Mac's journey will force her to face the truth of her exile, and to make a choice that will either save the world...or destroy it."

     Well, it took 5 books but I finally got the majority of my questions answered. And boy, it was one hell of a ride. I was right up to the last 10% of the book and I was still worried about what was happening and what the outcome was going to be. Not every questions was answered, but the ending was open to all sort of possibilitiies that left the reader, at least me, satisfied and in giving each character their own ending.

     Now, I like to maintain a spoiler-free zone in this blog so I won't say anything that will give too much away (but I will later on) but HOLY CRAP I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT. You know, that part towards the end? In the abbey? Yea. HOLY CRAP. I was so surprised, heck I'm still surprised and I finished the book over a week ago. But yes. WOW.

     I wanted to bookmark some of the passages from the novel on my Nook that I really enjoyed and to share it with you guys but I basically ended up highlighting and bookmarking the whole book. Ok, that a slight exaggeration (a little).

*So for those who wish not to be spoiled, beware. Spoilers ahead*

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     V'lane/Cruce?! Dani?! Rowena?! Well, not so much Rowena, I never trusted her or liked her since the beginning. But V'lane and Dani? Never saw it coming. V'lane had me like Mac: vying back forth between him and Jericho Barrons. I mean, hello:

"When his Fae name eased gently into my mouth, teasing, offering, waiting for me to invite it to settle, I breathed into his kiss and he breathed back....He took his time giving me his name, letting the impossible syllables work tenderly, slowly, into me, until at last they settled and I exploded, shuddering against him."

~B&S~

"What's with the belly chain?" He seemed to have a fondness for them.

"When I have sex with you from behind, I will use it to pull you closer, push in deeper. And now whenever you see the gold of it glinting in the sun, you will think about fucking me." 

     Yea...I was swooning for him. But not cheering him on. Good thing too.

"V'lane was Cruce. V'lane was War."

~B&S~

"V'lane didn't kill Cruce the day the king and queen fought. You switched places with V'lane."

Dani? I'm heartbroken and angry and betrayed and shocked and everything Mac was when she found out what Dani did.

"I'd told her we were like sisters. And sisters, I'd told her, forgive each other everything. I'd caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror after I'd said it, when she hadn't known I was looking. Her expression had been bleak, and now I understood why. Because she'd been thinking, Yeah, right. Mac's gonna kill me if she ever finds out. Yet she'd still kept coming. When I thought about it, I was astonished she hadn't hunted down and killed those Unseelie, removing the damning evidence from the face of the earth. 

But quite honestly, I was over Dani by the beginning of this book. Her character's voice really annoyed me and I just dreaded when she was speaking.

     It took Mac and Barrons this long for them to finally get it together and I'm really happy how it happened. Those two had me going crazy during the whole series that it made sense waiting for them to finally get together almost right at the end. I believe I'll finally demonstrating why this blog is called Books and Swoons. I swooned over Barrons, that's for sure. 

"Being around Barrons has always made me fire all pistons, and it didn't even seem to matter but that I knew this Barrons was a mirage. Some people bring out the worst in you, others bring out the best, and then there are those remarkably rare, addictive ones who just bring out the most. Of everything."

~B&S~

"I am not insane. I was sane enough to piss circles around you. I killed food for you. I picked up your things. Who else do you know that would have done that? V'lane doesn't have dick enough to piss with. Your little MacKelter doesn't have the balls to own his actions. He certainly isn't capable of doing what it takes to own a woman!"

~B&S~

He had no idea the thing that had broken me most completely was my belief that Barrons was dead.

~B&S~

His tongue in my mouth, his hands on my skins. The burn of his body against mine. He hissed. "Fucking fairy in your mouth. You have me in your mouth, you don't get anybody else. Or you don't get me." He sucked on my tongue, hard, and I could feel V'lane's name unraveling from the center of it.

~B&S~

He'd seen it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. He never ask me any questions, unless he thought I needed to figure out the answers. He never decked me out in convenient lables and tried to stuff me in a box. Even when there were plenty of labels to stick me. I was what I was at that moment and he liked it, and that was all that mattered to him. 

~B&S~

"I watched you die. I need to fuck you, Mac."

~B&S~

"I'm not the hero, Mac. Never have been. Never will be. Let us be perfectly clear: I'm not the antihero, either, so quit wanting to discover my hidden potential. There's nothing to redeem me."

~B&S~

"I'm the one who will always watch over you. Always be there to fuck you back to your senses when you need it, the one who will never let you die." 

Yea. I swooned and flailed a lot in this book. Jericho Barrons has me wrapped around him...err...around his finger. 

I love the open ending and how it left some questions unanswered, left to your own imagination. Normally I don't like that, but I think it definitely worked for this series. There just wasn't no real way of wrapping up everything and making it somewhat realistic.