Karen Marie Moning
When MacKayla’s sister was murdered, she left a single clue to her death – a cryptic message on Mac’s cel phone. Journeying to Ireland in search of answers, Mac is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to master a power she had no idea she possessed – a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae…
As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysteriou Jericho…while at the same time, the ruthless V’lane – an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women – closes in on her. As the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: to find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book – because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control both worlds in their hands….
After hearing a lot of awesomeness about this novel, I was really excited to finally pick this up. The plot sounds really intriguing. I love UF mysteries. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to connect with the cast and ended up dropping the book a quarter into the novel.
This is such a frustrating novel. The beginning is pretty vague with things progressing quickly soon after Mac learns of her sister Alina’s death. A bit too quickly and impulsively. Though Alina was murdered, Mac wants to go to Dublin and try and get the investigators to reopen the case. I can accept that she believes that the Irish authorities aren’t very invested in the case of the death of a foreigner. But I still don’t really get why she even wants to investigate her sister’s murder on her own. I know that she’s deep in grief and not thinking clearly, but did it ever cross her mind that going to Dublin could put her life in danger? Especially after listening to Alina’s last message on her voicemail.
I do like how Mac likes dressing up, loves books, and doesn’t let people step all over her. However, she’s of a rather set mindset and doesn’t take even well-meaning advice well. In fact, Jericho’s rather aggressive warnings to her serves to fuel her desire to investigate Alina’s death instead of scaring her away, and she continues to ignore all the—rather apparent—danger signs and keeps bulldozing deeper and deeper into this dark business. She seems to have this sense of invulnerability and believes nothing can hurt her. This personality trait of hers is a recipe for a trainwreck.
Jericho isn’t particularly compelling at this point of the novel. With the story told from the first-person narrative of Mac’s perspective, all I see of him is a big brute. He seems to mean well for Mac, but all he’s doing is provoking her to keep hacking away at this mystery (she’s not being very subtle about it) and putting her life in graver danger. I’m sure he has a reason why he’s acting the way he does, but right now he’s really like a mercenery character as Mac points out. All steel and no heart for the walking victims, as he aptly describes Mac.
To be fair, I barely made it into a quarter of the novel before giving up on this book, and the novel has barely begun to touch on the mystery surrounding Alina’s death. However, this is also why I’m stopping here. It’s been such a trainwreck with Mac so far. I don’t want to see when she finally, truly, opens her eyes realizes what’s really going on. Sure, I expect her to grow up and finally begin to work together with Jericho (albeit only after a lot of resentment on both sides and with a lot of arguing, which may lead to hot, steamy scenes afterwards…), but after all the vexation I went through in the first quarter of the novel, I’m not very keen to continue on this journey with Mac at this time.
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Author: Crystal
A story girl at heart, Crystal is a bibliophile who can easily spend the day immersed in a good read. She writes under the name Kristy Wang. You can follow her writing adventures on X and Instagram @_kristywang.
Amber Elise says
I really don't blame you for DNF'ing this one. I only got through it because I PUSHED myself (and there aren't even any hot and steamy scenes to make up for it, boo!)
Amber Elise @ Du Livre
Crystal says
Daww… I'm sorry to hear that. It sounds like the later books will get more action in, but I really couldn't get through Darkfever!
Christina Fiorelli says
Too bad you didn't love this one.
The world and mystery sounds like it should be something you'd love, but too bad about the characters.
Lovely review 🙂
Crystal says
Thanks, Christina!
Brandi says
Aw, sorry to hear that this one didn't work for you. I have heard many great things about it to and thought about reading one of these days.
Crystal says
I can see why this would work for some people. It just wasn't for me. I hope you enjoy it if you decide to pick it up 🙂