Darkfever

Darkfever: Karen Marie Moning



I'm a little late to the Darkfever party. It's been out for awhile and I just figure better late than never, right? I love the Sookie Stackhouse novels and it mildly reminded of it, sort of. Ok mostly because the main character was a bartender and just content with her life as it was, you know like Sookie except she was a waitress.


So, Mackayla Lane ("Mac") is our main character. She gets a voicemail message from her sister on her phone saying she has to find this book, but the phone call is pretty incoherent. This is the last she ever hears from her sister because her sister turns up dead in a Dublin alleyway. So obviously she travels to Ireland looking for who .. or what murdered her sister. She gets there and finds out she is a sideseer or can see the Fae, and most of the ones she sees are evil and ugly. But what she also finds out is that she can sense this magical book that she believes she has to find in order to avenge her sister's death.

Mac was kind of immature and annoying in the beginning. She wore a lot of pastel and refused to say curse words. She also seemed to take a lot of shit from bookstore owner/ Fae expert, Jericho Barrons. He basically used her for his personal Fae-object hunter throughout the first book. I feel like he could be her potential love interest in coming books, but there was not much romance in this novel. Hopefully the next book will have some romance… and more about V'lane. V'lane is this Fae royal who can make women take their clothing off just by being in their presence. Mac refers to him as "Death-by-Sex-Fae". Hot, right?

This book made me want to go to Ireland, immediately. Even though I've been to a few countries in Europe, I've never had any interest in Ireland before. The world building was spectacular, I feel like I've been right along side Mac on her journey to Ireland. I can't wait to read the rest of the series, why haven't I read of it till recently?? I give it 5 stars!

The 5th Wave

This book is kind of an alien Armageddon. Aliens come to earth and do all of these things to kill off humans. They do it in waves, so everyone isn't killed at one time. The first wave shuts down all electronics, even cars. The second wave was just this huge hurricane/tidal wave type thing that took out the entire Eastern seaboard and other water surrounding lands. The third wave was basically Ebola engineered to be airborne. I especially liked that one because I'm a biology major in college & I've done a lot of projects on Ebola. The 4th wave are these "silencers" who are alien (sort of) snipers that just gun down anyone they see - usually with a bullet to the head. I'm not going to say what the 5th wave is because I don't want to spoil it.

The main character is Cassie Sullivan. She survived the hurricanes, she was immune to the newly engineered Ebola & now she is on the run from the silencers. The trouble with the silencers is that they look, talk, and act just like humans. You can't tell them apart. Cassie is looking for her brother who was taken to a military base. So that's what the book is about.

I loved this book. The first alien book I ever read was I Am Number Four like YEARS ago but I don't even remember because the 2nd book was sorta bad. I loved the main character, Cassie. She sacrifices so much for her brother. The 5th Wave is told from multiple points of view & it really works for this story. It comes from her, her brother, & her high school crush (Ben Parish). I was kind of hoping the book would end on a cliff-hanger, but it didn't. If you didn't know, the book is being made into a movie and I'm really excited for it. Chloe Grace Moretz is playing Cassie. I think that is such great casting because she's a really fantastic actress. The 5th wave is currently filming in Georgia, and is set to come out next January. I'm excited to read the next book in the series (The Infinite Sea), even though I've heard the point of view changes and the main character kind of changes. Which I REALLY don't want the main character to change because I love Cassie so much. So, I'm kind of hesitant.

Red Queen

 So... the whole plot of this story is this girl Mare Barrow who is a red (poor worker) somehow has these abilities but doesn't have silver (essentially royal) blood. I thought the book was good!! I loved the powers that the silvers possess, I thought they were so unique and different. I LOVED the main character, people were comparing her to Katniss but I think she is sassier. Also, it's a lot different because nobody in the Hunger Games has magic powers. I also really liked how she came to find out she has the abilities. It was one of if not my favorite part of the whole book. 

My only complaint through the whole book was the love … rectangle? I thought she sort of liked 3 guys at one time without really LIKING any of them she was just indifferent about all of them I guess. That was the only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars.

 I feel like it was very hyped. You know what I mean? Everyone was talking about it who had ARCs of it, saying there was this huge plot twist, saying there was betrayal. So, the entire book I was thinking of every single circumstance where someone can betray someone else and what the plot twist could be at the end. With that being said - I called it. If I didn't hear from everyone else "OMG YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENS", I probably never would have guessed what happened at the end. But - I still give the book 4 stars.

Anticipated February Releases

I'm so excited for the month of February and the books that are being released. There are a lot of promising new stand-alone books, new series', and trilogy continuations. I've ordered them by release date. Are you going to be purchasing any of these books?


Bet Your Life: Jane Casey
Release Date: 2/03/15

Jess Tennant has now been living in a tiny town on the English seaside for three months, and is just beginning to relax and think of it as home after the traumatic events of last summer. But in the small hours of Halloween night, a teenage boy is left for dead by the side of the road. Seb Dawson has a serious head injury and may not survive. Jess might not have liked Seb much, but surely he didn’t deserve this. The police don’t seem to be taking the attack very seriously, but Jess can’t just let it go, and she takes matters into her own hands.

As she investigates, Jess discovers that Seb was involved in some very dangerous games. A secret predator around girls, he would do whatever it took to abuse them, from lying and blackmail to spiking drinks. Could a group of vengeful victims be behind his attack? Or is there someone else with a grudge against Seb, who will stop at nothing to silence him?

Invaded: Melissa Landers
Release Date: 2/03/15

Cara always knew life on planet L'eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L'eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.

Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L'eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L'eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L'eihr relations. Humans don't know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx's people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists' multiple attempts on Aelyx's life. The Way clearly needs humans' help but with what? And what will they ask for in return?

The Glass Arrow: Kristen Simmons
Release Date: 2/10/15

Once there was a time when men and women lived as equals, when girl babies were valued, and women could belong only to themselves. But that was ten generations ago. Now women are property, to be sold and owned and bred, while a strict census keeps their numbers manageable and under control. The best any girl can hope for is to end up as some man’s forever wife, but most are simply sold and resold until they’re all used up.

Only in the wilderness, away from the city, can true freedom be found. Aya has spent her whole life in the mountains, looking out for her family and hiding from the world, until the day the Trackers finally catch her.

Stolen from her home, and being groomed for auction, Aya is desperate to escape her fate and return to her family, but her only allies are a loyal wolf she’s raised from a pup and a strange mute boy who may be her best hope for freedom . . . if she can truly trust him.

My Heart and Other Black Holes: Jasmine Warga
Release Date: 2/10/15

Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.

There's only one problem: she's not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel's convinced she's found her solution—Roman, a teenage boy who's haunted by a family tragedy, is looking for a partner. Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other's broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together.

Red Queen: Victoria Aveyard
Release Date: 2/10/15

Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion—even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

The Sin Eater's Daughter: Melinda Salisbury
Release Date: 2/24/15

Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she's engaged to the prince, Twylla isn't exactly a member of the court.

She's the executioner.

As the Goddess embodied, Twylla instantly kills anyone she touches. Each month, she's taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love a girl with murder in her veins. Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to Twylla's fatal touch, avoids her company.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose easy smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he's able to look past Twylla's executioner robes and see the girl, not the Goddess. Yet Twylla's been promised to the prince, and knows what happens to people who cross the  queen.  

However, a treasonous secret is the least of Twylla's problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies, a plan that requires a stomach-churning, unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?