Faefever by Karen Marie Moning is the third of five in Moning’s Fever series. I read the first two books earlier this year (both of them over a single weekend, so yes I like the series) and then had to wait for Faefever, the next in the series to be released and make it to my local library. I’m of two minds on this series. I love the story, but I have a love/hate relationship with the way each books ends (more on this later).

The Fever series is the story of Mac, short for MacKayla, Lane. She was your typical early twenties girl, hanging out at mom and dad’s where life is easy and working a series of crap jobs. The highlight of her week, other than clothes shopping and partying, was talking to her older sister who had gone to study in Dublin. Then her sister was murdered.

Not satisfied with the official explanation of a mugging, Mac goes to Dublin to find her sister’s murderer with revenge on her mind. Strange things start happening when she gets there. Turns out Mac and her sister are sidhe-seers, they can see the Fae (isn’t that something you want to find out wandering down the street in Dublin). Oh, and did I mention that the Unseelie, the worst of the Fae are escaping their prison intent on destroying our world? And her sister had a secret life tied up in it all. Avenging her sister will have to take a backseat to saving the world.

That’s the plot for Darkfever, the first in the series, which sets the stage for the next four books that cover the saving the world part (keep reading to find out how to check out Darkfever for free). It’s difficult to evaluate a single book in the series, since it is really a single story that has been chopped up into five books. I find the series very absorbing and Moning always manages to take it up a notch and throw in a twist whenever you think you have things figured out.

Because the books are released at least a year apart, it’s easy to forget where the last one left off. Moning does a good job of presenting a recap in the prologue if you need it, though if you read the books in quick succession you’ll want to skip it and get straight to the story. There are several maps included as well to help you orient yourself to the world if you need to.

If you’ve read Moning’s other books, the Fever series is a different direction for Moning. While all of her books take place in the same universe (a fact that only becomes apparent in Faefever, but to say more would be to enter spoiler territory), her Highlander books are focused on the romance between the main characters. The Fever series is more action and little romance (although the word orgasm appears on page 6 of Faefever, so sex does come up in the Fever series from time to time). I find the Fever series much more spellbinding than the Highlander series, which is a relief because when an author changes direction there’s always the chance that it won’t work.

If there’s one thing that frustrates me about this series, it’s the way that each book ends. Instead of leaving the characters at a lull in the story, Moning ends each book in the middle of a crisis, like someone ripped out the end of the book. It’s brilliant from a marketing standpoint, but the books are coming out a year apart which is a bit too much time between books when you’re using this tactic. The urgency is gone by the time the next book comes out and then it’s a hard shove into the middle of a crisis that’s gone all hazy in the readers mind.

It’s difficult to both recap a series and build up the urgency in a prologue as the series progresses and there is more to recap, which is the job Moning sets for herself at the beginning of each successive book. She does about as good of a job as you can do, but I found it difficult to get into Faefever after an 11-month hiatus since I read Darkfever and Bloodfever back in January. I stuck with it, because I knew from experience that it would be a good ride, but I would have enjoyed Faefever more if I could remember more from the earlier books. This will be a fantastic series to read in one go. If you pick it up now, be prepared to face frustration waiting for the next book.

If you’d like to try out Moning’s Fever series for free, she has made a podiobook of Darkfever, the first in the series, available at podiobooks.com. If you’re not familiar with podiobooks.com, it’s full of audiobooks released as free serial downloads.

I’ve decided to share my finds and the excellent reviews of my fellow book bloggers each Monday. Leave a comment with a link to your post or a trackback if you decide to play along.

The seventh book to catch my eye in my book blog browsing was The Hob’s Bargain by Patricia Briggs reviewed by Lynn over at Paperback Writer.

What caught my attention?

When I’m not reading book blogs, I’m reading author blogs. Lynn Viehl has written 40 books. Think about that for a minute: 40 books. So when she had this to say about The Hob’s Bargain, I was curious:

The Hob’s Bargain was a quiet landmark in my writing life. Just as I was really being trampled by the indifferent hooves of publishing’s herd and hoopla, it reminded me that this is what writing books should be about: creating great stories to delight the unsuspecting reader. It was also the first book I put on what would become my writer’s writers shelf.

There are books that inspire us, and then there are books that save us. This one did both for me.

I have a collection of books that I keep to inspire me to write. Some of them I keep because they are very, very bad (there’s hope for me) and some of them I keep because they are very, very good (I want to write like these people). I prefer to add to the second pile. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to live in a parallel universe like Lynn does:

If you’d told me in 2001 that someday a quote from me would appear on the cover, I’d have laughed myself into the hiccups. In what parallel universe could something like that ever happen?

Go read the whole story of what this book means to Lynn as both a reader and a writer.

The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu is a supernatural thriller that follows demon hunter Hunter Kiss, Earth’s last protector against the demons escaping their prison and invading the human realm. She is accompanied by a cadre of protectors, demons themselves, who live as tatoos on her body by day and come to life at night. When she bears a child, the demons will attach themselves to her daughter and Hunter Kiss will be defenceless against her enemies, but it’s not time for that yet. For now she’s trying to keep the demons at bay, maintain a relationship with a zombie charmer, and save the world from things far worse.

I picked up The Iron Hunt intending only to read a few pages to see what I had gotten myself into. Before I knew it I was a third of the way through the book. I blame this reading frenzy on the opening line:

When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw (p. 1)

How could I possibly stop after reading that? I was intrigued. Before I was ready, I was finished the book.

A couple things stood out to me about Marjorie M. Liu’s writing. Lynn Viehl has already mentioned her lyrical prose, which is what got me interested in the book so I send you over to Lynn for that review. I like the way that Liu handles description, sprinkling it in as she writes rather than in large chunks. She manages to build her world very quickly without overwhelming the reader with description (this is so much harder to do than it sounds).

The protector demons are always in the scene, even if it’s just a sentence or two, so that you don’t forget about them. Liu’s humour comes out in many of these passages, providing a little comic relief amid the chaos of Earth-saving and demon-slaying. The protector demons, “the boys,” snack on teddy bears (as a protector of teddy bears myself, I was a little appalled at this, but it fits). One of my favourite comic relief passages is this one:

Zee and the others were in the bedroom. Their teddy bears were out, amputated limbs leaking trails of white cottom stuffing. The boys started humming “Living on a Prayer” when I walked in, voices high like some demonic version of Alvin and the Chipmunks; but it was a mournful version, and when they started throwing scissors, they only halfheartedly aimed for each other’s eyes. (pp. 112-113)

What more is there to say? The Iron Hunt is a fast read set in an interesting world with a strong heroine. If you enjoy this genre and haven’t read Marjorie M. Liu, give her books a try. I know I’ll be looking for the next one.

Thanks to Lynn Viehl at Paperback Writer for bringing Marjorie M. Liu to my attention, and for holding the contest that led to me getting my hands on The Iron Hunt.