Review - Shadowfever

Title: Shadowfever
Author: Karen Marie Moning
Publishing Date: January 2011
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: A-
Sensuality: Warm
Book Disclosure: I downloaded an ebook from Barnes & Noble to my Nook.

Shadowfever is the long awaited conclusion to Karen Marie Moning's Fever Series. MacKayla Lane AKA Mac, after the huge cliffhanger in the last installment Dreamfever, is about to finally get answers to all her questions. What did happen to her sister, who is Jerrecho Barrons and more importantly just who is MacKayla Lane and how is she supposed to save the world?

I have been enthusiastically awaiting the release of Shadowfever ever since Dreamfever's release. I am happy to say that the book was able to live up to my lofty expectations. I was a little worried n the beginning when things looked bleak for Mac. I couldn't imagine how Ms. Moning was going to fix the situation in which Mac had found herself. Once things turned around the book really took off for me. It was one revelation after another that kept blowing me away. This book had more twists and turns than the Indy 500. I loved every minute of it.

While I did feel that Mac and Barron's relationship finally came to the place readers have long waited for it to get to, I also was surprised at the way it happened. I thought Barron's would do the taking, but that was not the case. I will refrain from saying more because I do not want to give away anything. Suffice it to say, you will just have to read it yourself.

Shadowfever was a great conclusion to a fantastic series. Ms. Moning left a few questions unanswered and hinted at other books. I am so excited that she has more stories to tell because I definitely am looking forward for more of her Fae magic!

Shadowfever Excerpt and it's a Doozie!!

Oh man. This latest excerpt from Karen Marie Moning's upcoming January release of her final book in the Fever series, Shadowfever is very revealing. At least I think so! What do you think?

“I heard Cruce hated the king, wanted his concubine, and cursed the Silvers to keep the king away from her, that he planned to take the king’s woman, and all the worlds inside the Silvers for himself,” I said.

V’lane shook his head, golden hair shimmering in the sun. “It was not so simple. Things rarely are. To use a human word, Cruce loved the king, first and above all. The creator of the Unseelie is a being of unbearable perfection. If he is indeed Fae, he is from the most ancient, most pure line that ever existed. Some say he is The Father of All. Some say he had outlived hundreds of queens before the time of the queen he slew. Many of the forms he can take are beyond even Fae ability to absorb. He has been described as having enormous black wings that can enfold the entire Unseelie Court.”

I shivered. I’d seen the hint of those wings in the White Mansion. I’d felt the concubine’s awareness of them, had empathically shared her fascination with their feathery touch on her naked skin. “I thought the queen was the most powerful of your race.”

“The queen is heir to the magic of our people. It is a different thing. That magic has never accepted a male of The True Race, although…”

“Although what?”

He gave me a sideways look from beneath his lids. “I tell you too many things.” He sighed. “And enjoy it too much. It has been a long time since I knew another worthy of confidences. There is an ancient myth that should all the contenders for the matriarchal throne be no more, the magic would likely gravitate toward the most dominant male of our race. Some say our rulers are your Janus head, your yin and yang: the king is the strength of our people, the queen is wisdom. Strength draws from brute force, wisdom draws from true power. In harmony, the king and queen lead a united court. Opposed, we war. We have been opposed since the day the king killed the queen.”

“But other queens came along. Couldn’t the king make peace?”

“He did not try. Again, he abandoned his children. Upon finding his concubine dead,
through his act of atonement, he did what he had sworn never to do. By pouring all his dark knowledge into the pages of an ensorcelled tome, he inadvertently created his most powerful “child” yet. Then he vanished. It is rumored among Seelie and Unseelie alike that he has been trying to—as you humans would say about a lame horse—put it down ever since. The Hunter you saw the other night was allegedly the kings’ own for hundreds of thousands of years. It carried him from world to world, hunting his nemesis. The king, like any Fae, loves nothing so much as his own existence. As long as the Book is free, he knows no peace. I suspect if his Hunter is here in your city, the king is, too.”

I gasped. “In Dublin?”

V’lane nodded.

“In human form?”

“Who could say? There is no predicting one such as he.”

Shadowfever Excerpt #4

I have another excerpt to share with you from Karen Marie Moning's upcoming release Shadowfever. This book will be the last book in her fantastic fever series. The book is to be released January 18, 2011 and comes in at a whopping 728 pages.

Enjoy!

“You killed my sister!” The dark lake in my head begins to boil. I hear rustles behind me, leathery wet sounds and I whirl. The freaks that killed my sister are taking advantage of the distraction and trying to leave.

Not a chance in hell. This is what I’ve been living for. This moment. My revenge. First the ones that killed her. Then the one who delivered her to them.

I lunge for them, screaming my sister’s name.

I slice and rip and tear.

I begin with my spear and end with my bare hands.

I fall on them like the beast-form of Barrons. My sister died in an alley with these monsters working on her and now I know it wasn’t fast. I can see her, white-lipped with pain, knowing she’s going to die, scratching a clue into the pavement. Hoping I’ll come, afraid I’ll come. Believing I could succeed where she failed. God, I miss her! Hatred consumes me. I devolve into vengeance, I embrace it, I become it.

When I finish there are no pieces larger than my fist.

I’m shaking, gasping, covered with bits of flesh and gray matter from smashing their skulls.

I double over and hit the pavement, puking. I puke until I dry-heave then I dry-heave until my ears ring and my eyes are stinging.

I don’t have to look behind me to know the street is empty. My sister’s murderer is gone.

I finally got what I came to Dublin for.

I know who killed my sister.

I curl in a tight ball on the cold pavement and cry.

New Shadowfever Exerpt!

Yay!! Karen Marie Moning has sent out a new excerpt for her upcoming release Shadowfever, the final installment and exciting conclusion to her Fever series. I am so very excited about this book. I was bummed out that the release date was pushed back to January 18, 2011, but the book is almost double in length of the previous books. Whoot! I am in store for some seriously good reading!!!

Here is the latest teaser:

My ghosts whisper to each other across me but I can’t hear them. There’s only one way I’ll ever be able to hear them again.

I turn my head for Darroc’s kiss.

As his lips close over mine, the duality inside me threatens to tear me in half, and if it succeeds, I will lose my best chance at accomplishing my mission.

I hurt.

I need punishment for my sins.

I bury my hands in his hair, and channel all those feelings into passion, pour it into my touch, kiss him hard, violently. I turn us both around and slam him up against the wall, kissing him like he’s all that ever existed, kissing him with a full measure of humanity. It’s a thing a Fae can never feel, no matter the form they wear—humanity. It’s why they crave us in bed.

He staggers for a moment, pulls back and stares down at me.

My eyes are wild. I feel something inside me that terrifies me, and I just hope I can hang on to the edge of this cliff I’m on. I make a sound of impatience, wet my lips and shove at him.

“More,” I demand.

When he kisses me again, the last part of me that could stand myself dies.

O.M.G!!! What is going on? January can't come fast enough, LOL!!!

Shadowfever Excerpt #2!!!

Whooo hooo!! Another Shadowfever teaser and this is a doozie!! In case you aren't aware Shadowfever is the final installment of Karen Marie Moning's urban fantasy series and doesn't release until December of this year. If you would like to learn more about this totally ADDICTING series, click here for my review of Faefever which goes on to explain what the series is about.

Enjoy!

Her pace quickens and she races down the corridor, passing soundlessly over obsidian floors, laughing with joy.

I know that sound. I love that sound. It means her lover is near.

He is coming. She feels his approach.

He is so powerful! It's what first drew her to him. She’d never encountered anyone like him.

She was awed that he chose her.

She is awed every day that he continues choosing her.

The stuff of him explodes through from his side in the Court of Shadows, telling her he comes, filling her home (prison) where she lives a fabulous life (a sentence not of her choosing) surrounded by everything she wants (illusions, she misses her world, so far away and all of them long dead) and waits for him with hope (ever growing despair.)

He will carry her to his big, dark bed and do things to her until his black wings open wide, so wide, eclipsing the world, and when he is inside her nothing else will matter but the moment, their dark, intense lust, the endless passion they share.

No matter what else he is—he is hers.

What is between them is without blame.

Love knows no right or wrong.

Love is. Only is.

Review - Dreamfever

Title: Dreamfever
Author: Karen Marie Moning
Publishing Date: August 2009
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: A
Sensuality: Hot

Dreamfever is the fourth book in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. This series is one story told over five books. There is one main protagonist MacKayla Lane or Mac as she refers to herself who narrates the story. This series absolutely must be read in order. That is the fun and charm of the series.

I debated over what kind of review to write. Would it be possible for me to review this book without giving away spoilers? Karen Marie Moning has been very diligent in making sure that no spoilers are leaked prior to the release of a book. I happen to HATE spoilers and feel that they take away the fun and enjoyment of reading a book. So with that in mind this review will be SPOILER FREE!

Boy, saying I wouldn't give any spoilers leads me to a real challenge on how to sum up the plot of this book without giving away anything that happened in the previous books. MacKayla Lane is a 22 year old from Southern Georgia. Her life flips upside down when her sister is murdered while at College in Dublin, Ireland. Mac unsatisfied with the way her sister's murder is being investigated flies to Dublin to get some answers. When she gets there she discovers that she is from a special line of women who can see the Fae. While there she meets Jarricho Barrons who is an enigma and Mac is sure not quite human. Barrons needs Mac's help in to locate a very important book. Mac needs Barron's help to stay alive and find out what really happened to her sister.

Dreamfever is the fourth book so we are in the later stages of the story. Mac is finally getting some answers. In the last book she hit rock bottom by getting herself into a very bad situation. She has to recover and pick herself back up and it is not going to be easy. Barrons helps to bring Mac back to herself. He helps her recover. Barrons is still mysterious in this book and Mac still doesn't know exactly what he is. But Mac is persistent and she discovers some new powers and is given small glimpses into who Barrons is. The pull between Barrons and Mac is unwanted by each of them, but they can't seem to help themselves. The tension between the two just leaps off the pages and in certain moments is very bittersweet and poignant.

Mac has had a lot of growing up to do. When she first comes to Dublin she is a naive girl. She has her whole world flipped upside down and just when she thinks things couldn't get any worse, they do. Mac becomes faster, smarter and harder, yet at the core of her is still a woman who maintains a deep hope. This series has been a fabulous ride. Moning had a vision and it shows. Her plot and world building are tight. Dreamfever leaves the reader at a HUGE cliffhanger. Fans will be DYING for the conclusion of Shadowfever. Moning couldn't write it fast enough to suit me. In the meantime, I suppose I will have to satisfy myself with re-reading my favorite passages.

Here is what others had to say:

Jessica's Book Blog and Other Stuff

This book can be purchased in hardcover or kindle format from Amazon.

Dreamfever release in less than 30 days!

Yes, yes, yes!!!!! We are in the home stretch people. Dreamfever will be released in less than 30 days. I know the book I have posted for Nath's Re-read Challenge is Outlander (one of my absolute favorite books), but with Dreamfever coming out next month, I feel the need to re-read Faefever. I realized in my excitement about the excerpt for Dreamfever in RT Magazine, I forgot to post the excerpt from Karen's newsletter. According to Karen it will be the last one too. Maybe this will tie you over in the mean time.

I kicked the table at him. It crashed into his shins. I picked up a lamp from the end table. Flung it straight at his head. He ducked again. I grabbed a book. It thumped off his chest.

He laughed, dark eyes glittering with exhilaration.

I launched myself at him, slammed a fist into his face. I heard a satisfying crunch and felt something in his nose give.

He didn't try to hit me back or push me away. Merely wrapped his arms around me and crushed me tight to his body, trapping my arms against his chest.

Then when I thought he might just squeeze me to death, he dropped his head forward, into the hollow where my shoulder met my neck.

"Do you miss fucking me, Ms. Lane?" he purred against my ear. Voice resonated in my skull, pressuring a reply.

Dreamfever Excerpt 4

It has been a few months since we lucky fans of Karen Marie Moning's Fever Series have had an excerpt from Dreamfever. First, I just want to update everyone that the book will be released next month August 18th!!!! Whoot, the date was moved up! Karen did an interview for RT Magazine about her Fever Series and there was an excerpt from Dreamfever in it. The interview was very informative and fans of Moning will definitely want to check it out. I can not wait for Dreamfever. Without further ado, here is your excerpt!

Hey, it's me - Dani. I'm gonna be taking over for a while. Fecking good thing, too, 'cause Mac's in serious trouble. We all are. Everything's changed. End of the world stuff. Uh-huh, that bad. Fae and Human worlds collided with the biggest bang since Creation and everything's a mess.

Fecking shades loose in the fecking abbey. Ro through the roof with it, screaming that Mac betrayed us. Ordered us to hunt her. Bring her in dead or alive. Shut her up, or shut her down, she said. Keep her away from the enemy because she's too powerful a weapon to be used against us. She's the only one that can track the Sinsar Dubh. No way we can let her fall into the wrong hands, and Ro says any hands but hers are the wrong ones.

I know stuff about Mac that she'd kill me for, if she knew I knew. Good thing she doesn't know. I never want to fight Mac.

Review - Spell of the Highlander

Title: Spell of the Highlander
Author: Karen Marie Moning
Publishing Date: 2005
Genre: Time Travel
Rating: A
Sensuality: Hot

Spell of the Highlander, to date, is last book in Karen Marie Moning's highlander series and it just happens to also be my favorite. Jessie St. James is a grad student studying to get her doctorate in archeology in Chicago. She has been asked to accept a package for her professor in his absence. So off she goes to sign for a package. Well, this package happens to be an antique mirror. But, it isn't just any mirror. It is an old UnSeelie relic and it has been cursed. Cian McKeltar has been trapped in this mirror for 1,133 years. Now, Jessie must help Cian keep the mirror out of Lucian Trevan's hands before Samhain in order to break the curse and set Cian free.

There are many reasons why I love this book. First, it has an approachable girly heroine, who is smart and funny. Jessie, is by no means "kick ass", but she can definitely hold it together when things take a turn for the worst. Luckily for her she has an awesome hero Cian, who is a Man with a capital M. His philosophy is if he can't take care of his woman's needs, then he can't call himself a man. He might be a man of few words, but when he does talk he really packs a punch.

This leads to my next favorite reason why I love this book; great dialogue. Cian and Jessie have a great rapport together and their relationship flows seamlessly along. This then leads to great pacing. This book is off and running right from the beginning and doesn't let up until the end. There is plenty of action and drama to keep the story moving. And the wonderful thing about it is that I am completely sucked into the story. As unbelievable as the whole premise is, somehow Ms. Moning makes it all work. This book is the ultimate escape and I love everything about it.

This is just such a great book and I don't even think I am beginning to do it justice. I think what we need here is a good quote so you can experience the book for yourselves. This scene takes place after Jessie releases Cian from the mirror and he realizes he can't use Voice on Jessie. That is a great scene in of itself, but too long, so I opted for the following scene.

God, he was arrogant. She marveled at the sheer, unmitigated cockiness of the man. Had all ninth-century men been that way?
In retrospect, it occurred to her that she should have seen it coming.
She was, after all, a fan of history, a studier of mankind, a ponderer of ancient civilizations. She knew what life had been like a thousand years ago for woman.
Men had been Men.
And women had been Property.
And somehow, she still managed to be utterly unprepared when he ducked that sexy, dark head of his and charged her.
"Oomph!" Jessi grunted, as his shoulder made contact with her stomach.
Her feet left the ground, her world tilted precariously, and the next thing she new, she was hanging upside down over his shoulder.
One of his muscle-bound arms banded her waist, pinning her to his shoulder. The other hand splayed firmly on her bottom.
She parted her lips and was just about to let loose a screech that would do a banshee proud, when his hand moved.
Possessively. Intimately. Dipping right between her legs.

How is that for a teaser to get you wanting more? Yep, that's right, you know you want to read it now!




This book was part of Nath's re-read challenge. Head on over to Nath's to view a list of other participants.

Dreamfever Excerpt 3

I am a little late posting this months Dreamfever excerpt. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused! Unfortunately for fans, it's a short one.

Our sex is fierce. We will both be bruised.

"I want it to always be like this," I tell him.

"Try holding onto that thought."

"I do not need to try. I will never feel differently."

His laughter is as dark and cold as the place of which I dream, "One day you will wonder if it's possible to hate me more."

Hmmmmm..... what can this mean?!

Dreamfever Excerpt 2

For those of you who have been coming to my blog awhile already know this. For those of you who are new, I am here to tell you I am a HUGE fan of Karen Marie Moning. I don't know what it is about her writing, but it just sings to me. Maybe it's just some sort of adolescent fantasy that I had from way back when that she appeals to on some level ( - that I don't even want to think about). Scary, I know. Your thinking, "Too much information." Right? Nah, humor me!

What I was trying to lead up to before I got side tracked, was that I subscribe to Karen's monthly newsletter. What is so nice about that newsletter is that fans get a little sneak peak at her upcoming novel with a juicy excerpt each time. The next book coming up is Dreamfever and it is number four in a five book series. This is an awesome series. Many of you have already heard me going on and on about this series, so I'll just get on with it. Without further ado, Excerpt number 2: (And it's a good one!)

I closed my hand around Barrons' forearm. He could not have looked more pleased if I'd just gazed up at him with doe eyes and told him he was my world.

I locked my hand down, dug my nails into his flesh, and held on.

His eyes narrowed then flared, then I was no longer seeing him at all because I'd pushed, pushed, pushed violently, stabbed myself brutally deep into his mind with my special sidhe-seer talent.

I wanted answers. I wanted to know why the animosity between him and V'lane. I wanted to know who to trust, who was--not the better man--but at least the slightly-less-worse one.

I pushed, seeking any breach I could exploit and suddenly I was--

In Faery!

It had to be. The scenery was impossibly lush, the colors too rich, vivid, so full of tone that they had texture, like that first beach V'lane had taken me to months ago, where I'd played volleyball with Alina, when he'd given me the gift of seeing her again, if only an illusion, but this was no beach, this was the Fae court!

Brilliantly colored silk chaises were scattered around a dais. Trees sprouted leaves and flowers of incomprehensible color and dimension. The breeze smelled of jasmine and sandalwood and some other scent that I imagined heaven--if such a place existed--would smell like.

I wanted to look around. I wanted to see the queen on her dais, but I couldn't turn my/our gaze toward it because I was a passenger in his head, and I was--

inside Barrons body.

I was strong.

I was cold.

I was mighty and they didn't even know just how mighty I was.

They didn't recognize me, the fools.

I was danger.

I was everything they should fear but they'd lived so long that they'd forgotten fear. I would teach them.

I would remind them.

Dreamfever News!

Yes, that's right folks. I have news about Dreamfever, the fourth installment in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. It now has a release date of August 25th of this year! So mark you calendars. You can even pre-order it at Amazon if you so choose. I love this series and I am dying of anticipation for my next fix.

Ms. Moning was even kind enough to leave us with a brief taste of what's to come in Dreamfever. Thank you Karen. Rabid fan girls everywhere are squeeeeing!

I was mad as hell.
I had so many grievances, I didn't even know where to
begin listing them.
I was pissed-off walking. Or rather pissed-off sitting,
tangled in crimson silk sheets that smelled like somebody'd been having a
Sexathon.
That would be me.
And that made me even madder.

Review - Faefever (Actually, it's more of a Tribute)

*Note* I want to state up front that there are absolutely NO spoilers in this review.

Title: Faefever
Author: Karen Marie Moning
Publishing Date: September 2008
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality: Warm
Rating: A

Can I just say, wow? Wow! This book is amazing! I have been anxiously counting down the days ever since last fall when I read Bloodfever, the second book in the Fever series, and I am so happy to say that it did not disappoint! It was freaking fabulous!!!!

Let me start at the beginning for those of you who are not familiar with the series. The fever books are narrated by Ms. MacKayla Lane, aka Mac. She is a young, 22 year old southern girl who worships the sun, lives with her parents, takes classes at the local college and bartends at night. She loves her life. It’s simple and fun and that is just how she wants it. Then one day her world came crashing down around her when she learns that her sister Alina was brutally murdered in Dublin Ireland, where her sister was attending college. The police said that Alina was hanging around a bad crowd and that she had stopped going to classes. Mac can’t believe that. It doesn’t sound anything like how Alina would behave.

Overwhelmed by her grief, and against her parent’s wishes, Mac flies to Ireland to do her own investigating into Alina’s death. What she finds when she arrives in Dublin changes everything she ever knew about her world and her life. Mac realizes that there are things that go bump in the night; things that can’t be explained by any reasonable explanation. She also learns that she has a special power. One that allows her to see those unexplainable things that go bump in the night. This fever series is about Mac’s journey in discovering what really happened to Alina. This is a finite series constructed of five books. Faefever is the third book. The first two are Darkfever and Bloodfever.

Moning has out done herself with crafting this world. She slowly over the course of the series reveals the world to Mac and the readers making it a puzzle that we have to fit the pieces together. Moning has done a wonderful job of keeping the reader on edge with giving us answers to some questions and yet somehow still creating the need for more answers to new questions. Moning is able to keep the story feeling believable even though what is happening in the story is truly unbelievable.

Mac herself is the best of heroines. She is completely out of her element. She is a normal girl and one that didn’t have any aspirations other than finding a nice southern gentleman and providing her parents with grandbabies and accessorizing her sunny outfits. But when it comes to finding her in impossible situations, she sucks it up and toughs it out. The reader can’t help but like her and feel compassion for her. The reader is right there with her through her journey and it’s a tough road she has to travel. Her growth and transformation over the story is amazing and one of the best aspects of the series.

This series is fantastic. If you like urban fantasy or even paranormal romance, I highly recommend it. If you don't like the first person point of view, but are intrigued by my review, I welcome you to just jump in and read this book. You will not be lost not having read the first two books. Everything is briefly explained in the prologue. It’s a quick read and highly addicting. Mac’s voice will suck you in and not let go and after reading this book I vow you will want to go back read the others. Ms. Moning, congratulations on a job well done. This book is everything I could ask for in a great read.

Faefever teaser #6!

Yay!!! Ms. Moning has given readers another brief glimpse into her third book in the Fever series, Faefever. Fans have less than 50 days until the book's release on September 16th! I have to admit I was worried we wouldn't get a teaser this month since Ms. Moning was at the RWA conference in San Francisco. She was at the literacy signing event and I would have loved to have met her. Without further ado here you go!

"Such naked pain," he whispered.

I turned my face into his palm and closed my eyes. His fingers threaded into my hair, cupped my head, and brushed the brand. It heated at his touch. His hand tightened at the base of my skull and squeezed, and he raised me slowly to my tiptoes. I opened my eyes and it was my turn to inhale sharply. Not human. Oh, no, not this man.

"Never show it to me again." His face was cold, hard, his voice colder.

"Why? What will you do?"

"What it is in my nature to do. Get inside, Ms. Lane. It's time for your lesson."

Faefever Teaser #4!

Okay folks, good news! Feafever's release just got moved up to September 16th instead of September 29th! I am so excited about this release (as you can see)! Karen has also kindly provided us with another excerpt! Enjoy!!!

(Scene setting: Mac and Barrons are in a fight. He's on his back on the floor. She's sitting on top of him.)

"How dare you saunter in here and force me to give you answers when you've never given me a single one?" I hissed. I punched him in the stomach, hard. He didn't even wince. I punched him again. Nothing.

"You stand there all tan and glowing and wonder why I use force on you?" he bellowed. "Where the hell do you get off? You've been with V'lane again. How many slaps in the face do you think I'm going to take, Ms. Lane?" He grabbed my fist and held it when I tried to punch him again. I swung at him with the other. He caught that one, too. "I warned you not to play us against each other."

"I'm not playing you! I'm trying to survive. And I don't slap you when I go off with V'lane!" I tried to yank my fists from his hands. They might as well have been stuck in concrete. "It doesn't have anything to do with you. I'm trying to get answers and since you won't give me any, you can't blame me for going somewhere else."

"So the man who doesn't get laid at home has the right to go off and cheat?"

"Huh?"

"Which word didn't you understand?" he snarled.

"You're the one who's crippled by illogic. This isn't home, it never will be and nobody's getting laid!" I practically shouted. "You think I don't know that?" He shifted his body beneath me, making me painfully aware of something. Two somethings, in fact, one of which was how far up my short skirt had gotten shoved in our tussle. The other wasn't my problem. I wriggled, hoping to shimmy my hem down, since my hands were stuck, but his expression killed the thought. When Barrons looks at me like that, it rattles me. Lust, in those ancient, obsidian eyes, offers no trace of humanity. Doesn't even bother trying. Savage Mac wants to invite it to come out and play. I think she's nuts. Nuts, I tell you.

Faefever Teaser #3!!!

Just in! I have received another excerpt from Karen Marie Moning through her newsletter. Enjoy!!!

"I wasn't kissing him," I said, dabbing at Barron's lapel.

He knocked my hand away. "Then why was his tongue in your mouth? Was he conducting a clinical test of your gag reflex?" He smiled, but not nicely. "How is your gag reflex, Ms. Lane? Are you a hair trigger?"

Barrons likes to use sexual innuendo to try to shut me up. I think he expects the well-raised southern belle in me to think eew and back off. Sometimes I do think eew, but I don't back off. "I'm a spitter, if that's what you're asking." I flashed him a too-sweet smile.

"Didn't look that way to me. I think you're a swallower. His tongue was halfway to China and you were still taking it."

"Jealous?"

"Implies emotional investment. The only investment I have in you, Ms. Lane, is my time and I'm expecting a big payoff. Tell me about the Sinsar Dubh."

(Note from Karen, I was going to end it there but I thought I'd give you a little more....)

I glanced at my hand. It had come away from his lapel wet. I angled it in the light. Red looks black at night. I sniffed it. It smelled like old pennies. Gee, blood. No surprise there. "Have you been in a fight? No, let me guess, you saved a wounded dog again?" That was the excuse he'd used last time.

"I had a nosebleed."

"Nosebleed, my petunia."

"Petunia?"

"Ass, Barrons. As in you are one."

"The Book, Ms. Lane."

I looked into his eyes. Something very old looked back.

Man, I soooo can not wait for this book!!

New FaeFever Excerpt!

Okay, here is the latest teaser from Karen Marie Moning in her upcoming September 30th release Faefever, the third book in her Fever series. I cannot wait for this book!!! I will have to start a countdown. September 30th cannot come soon enough.

V'lane's knuckles grazed the base of my skull where Barrons had branded me, his eyes narrowed, and he inhaled sharply. "You think to allow his mark upon your body but refuse mine?" he hissed. He closed his mouth over mine.

The great, leathery winged, demonic Unseelie Hunters are especially terrifying to sidhe-seers because they know where we live inside our heads. They instinctively know exactly where to find the small, frightened child in us all and exploit it.

The Seelie princes know where we live, too, but it's the grown woman they're after. They hunt us in our own bodies, tracking us without mercy into the darkest corners of our libido. They seduce the Madonna; they celebrate the whore. They serve our sexual needs tirelessly, gorging on our passion, amplifying it, and slamming it back at us a thousand-fold. They are masters of all our desires. They know the limits of our fantasies, take us to the edge and leave us there, hanging by shredded fingernails, above a bottomless gorge, begging for more.

V'lane's tongue touched mine. Something hot and electric jolted through my mouth. It swelled inside me, filling me. I choked on it, and orgasmed instantly, as hot and electrifying as whatever he'd just done to my tongue. Pleasure ripped through me with such exquisite precision that my bones steamed and turned to water. I would have collapsed, but he took my weight, and I was in a dreamy, surreal place for a few moments, where his laughter was black velvet and his need was as vast as the night, then I was clear and me again.

Faefever update!!!!

 

I am a HUGE fan of Karen Marie Moning’s fever series. It’s funny because when I read Darkfever (the first book of the series) I thought it was just okay. I liked Mac fine. She has a fun personality that reads really well in the first person. I didn’t, however, like Jerricho Barrons. He is one intense, scary dude and I wasn’t sure if he was the hero of this story. The premise of this series is that one story will be told over five books. The first book did not have a conclusion and left me hanging. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Was this a cheap trick?

When Bloodfever was released I snatched it up from my local library. I was skeptical, but I had a lot of faith in Moning. I started reading it and COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN, PEOPLE!!! It was a real zippy read. I think I finished it in about five hours. Again, I was left hanging (Aaaughh). The good news is that there is more of a relationship starting to form between Mac and Barrons. Some of my questions were answered and new ones popped up. I was so excited about the book, that I continued to think about it for several days afterwards. I was not ready to leave Mac’s world. I found myself over at Moning’s website perusing her message boards looking for clues. Apparently, clues abound in her other highlander books. I have read them but I don’t remember any of these so-called clues. I decided to reread her highlander books. Then, I wasn’t done there, no siree. I had to go back and reread Darkfever. After that, I reread Bloodfever. Now what’s a girl to do? I had read everything.

Let me tell you Moning is a genius. Faefever, the next book in the series, doesn’t release until September 30, 2008. I have NEVER, NEVER been so anxious for a book in my entire life. I am hanging on to my sanity by a thread. Never-the-less, I must persevere. I receive an email from Moning once a month with updates on her fever series. Yesterday, I received her newsletter with an exerpt from Faefever. Here is the little morsel she left us with. Enjoy! (God, she is such a tease!)

excerpt from FAEFEVER:

And the sex, God, the sex! I never knew what sex was until him. It's not soft music and candlelight, a choice, a deliberate action.

It's as involuntary as breathing and as impossible not to do. It's slammed up against a wall in a dark alley, or flat on my back on cold concrete because I can't stand one more second without him. It's on my hands and knees, dry-mouthed, heart in my throat, waiting for the moment he touches me and I'm alive again. It's punishing and purifying, velvet and violent, and it makes everything else melt away until nothing matters but getting him inside me, and I wouldn't just die for him--I'd kill for him, too.