Faefever by Karen Marie Moning

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Pages: 327

Copyright: 2008

If you head on over to the graffiti wall on the Fever Series website, the same messages are digitally scrawled over and over and over by crazy fans like myself:

What is Barrons?

Unfortunately, excruciatingly, the answer does not lie in the pages of Faefever.

Karen Marie Moning is just a big tease a very clever writer. She's laced this novel with clues that will cause your imagination to run away with itself but she doesn't really answer any of the questions for you. Smart writing? Definitely. I know I'll be buying and loving the next book. But just because it's effective plotting doesn't mean it's not driving me absolutely dementedly insane not knowing the answers!

Instead of answers what you will find in the pages of Faefever is the darker side of Mac's journey into the Faeworld. Without giving away any plot, this book pretty much focuses mainly on MacKayla (and less on her relationship with Barrons). During the course of this novel, Mac pulls some pretty gutsy moves and they lead her to a very vulnerable situation at the end of the novel. My heart was in my throat when I was reading the last chapter and I think it could possibly stay lodged there until the series is finished. I just wish I had some sort of assurance at the end of the novel, something to put my little heart at rest for the next 3 months while I wait for Dreamfever. I just can't stand to leave Mac that way! I needed her to stand up or I needed to know that Barrons is coming for her. Please tell me he's riding in on his white horse!

Karen Marie Moning had this to say about the journey she took Mac on with the writing of Faefever:

"She's a fighter, she's a dreamer, she's a romantic. She wants her happily ever after, and I desperately want her to have it—which made writing Faefever one of the hardest things I've ever done. I knew where this installment was taking Mac, and it nearly killed us both.

So, when you read Faefever, dear reader, rest assured that Mac's dawn is just around the corner. I'm a fighter and a dreamer and a romantic myself, and a big believer in happy endings. But the story in the Fever series must be told exactly as it is, precisely as it came to me, and when you get to the end of the series, you'll see that all of it had a purpose and a reason, and that, like all of our lives, Mac's story is stamped at the heart by the grand design of something divine."

Faefever is an essential book in the Fever series and although I don't think it will ever be my favourite, I still found it immensely enjoyable. The only reason I've chosen to mark it down half a crown is because I felt that it took longer than normal for the plot to get going. It really was a fantastic book. My only suggestion to anyone considering reading Faefever is to consider holding off (if you can) for another 3 months - it's the cheat's way to avoid the awful after-effects of a really good cliff-hanger.

To read my reviews of the first two novels in this series, click on the covers below:

If you'd like to read the first 3 chapters of Faefever, click here.

Did you know? You can listen to the entire first novel in the Fever series with the widget on our left-hand sidebar. It's free and endorsed by the author.

The fourth novel in this series, Dreamfever, is due for release in the US on 18th August 2009.