Effortlessly Reading

My Rating: 3.0 I've heard tons of good things about Karen Marie Moning's books, specifically about her Fever series. I've heard that it's addicting, fun, and the best urban fantasy series people have ever read. After hearing of all those things, what other choice did I have but to try out Darkfever, the first book in the Fever series, for myself? Darkfever started off fairly slow as we get to learn about Mac. Mac is girly, cares about her looks, and doesn't believe the unbelievable. I've heard that Mac annoyed most people when they first read Darkfever because she cared more about her looks than any other things, but Mac didn't really annoy me because I get her. People don't change easily. It's not easy to be girly-girl one day, obsessing over matching outfits and your long blond hair, only to find out that you have to give all that up the next day in order to survive. However, I am expecting Mac to slowly change in order to survive though. Barrons, on the other hand, is complicated. I'll be blunt: I do not trust, nor do I like Barrons. He is abusive to Mac when she firsts meets him and any guy who uses force to get what he wants is plain awful in my book. Not to mention, Barrons doesn't tell Mac most things and follows her around (even though he saved her life following her around once without her nothing it, it still makes him untrustworthy). Barrons reminds me of Reyes Farrow from Darynda Jones' Charley Davidson series since they both are abusive, manipulative, and secretive in a way, but can't help but care for the ones they love. Hopefully Barrons will be a better person in the next book. The world-building in Darkfever is absolutely brilliant. Everything is explained and there are no plot holes in the world-building so far, although I have a feeling we're not done learning about the world of the Fae yet. I've read several books about fairies already, and surprisingly, Karen Marie Moning has her own unique take on them that I've never read about in other books before: her version of the Fae consists of each and every Fae belonging in a part of a castle system. Each castle system consists of a different group of Fae, with their own unique powers (sucking beauty, using sex to kill, etc.) and looks (some Fae are downright beautiful while others can make you vomit for days). Like Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series, the Fae uses glamour and cannot be trusted. One issue I personally had with Darkfever is that there was a lot of obvious foreshadowing in the book, simply because Mac is telling us readers about the events she went through after they happened. I don't mind when authors use a lot of foreshadowing in their books, but what I do mind is how Karen Marie Moning makes it so obvious, saying something along the lines of oh, if I only knew what was going to happen next, I wouldn't done blah blah blah. It just annoyed me because it took the fun and suspense out of the book because I now know something awful is going to happen. After reading Darkfever, I can safely say that I'll definitely continue reading the Fever series for two main reasons: 1)I heard the series gets better with each book and 2) I want to know who or what Barrons is. Hopefully Bloodfever will not disappoint. Effortlessly Reading: Darkfever