Sarah's Reviews > Feverborn

2 stars for like the first 2/3s of the book. 5 stars for the last third. Prepare for rambling ranting. This one was painful to read. It may be that it's just been too long since I started the series. It may be because I skipped Iced. I skipped that one because my understanding was that Dani was the focus and I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of following a fourteen year old girl around who was into comics and swearing and called herself Mega. I know some Fever fans love Dani- and that's cool, I just wasn't one of them.

I picked up Burned and read through that and admittedly- some of the magic of the first five books had faded. Too many plot twists, too many characters, too much happening. I just can't appreciate those types of plots. I spend more time going- Who? What? When? Ohhh yeah! Yes she included an appendix. I don't want to read it. I might go back and read the entire series beginning to end and see if it makes a difference, I might not.

So onto the review I suppose. As I stated above, the first 2/3s were incredibly painful to read. It's never taken me this long to finish a Fever book. It seemed like one big pissing contest almost all the time:
Ryodan: I'll rip your throat out Mac.
Mac: Try me.
Barrons: *growling*
Jada: I'll piss on all of you because I'm a badass in the slipstream, and ya'll can't touch this.

A little would have been okay. There was too much of it in the last book though and it should have ended there. We get it. You're all beasts with your own special powers and before we know it you'll be sparkling in the goddam sunlight. It just felt like they were trying too hard.

This goes double for Jada- pining to be like Ryodan, thinking she's got it and realizing he's two steps ahead. I didn't like Dani as Dani and I really hate her as Jada. Dani was 14 and had an excuse. Jada's just annoying.

Barrons was annoying. Ryodan was annoying. Mac was annoying. Dancer and his big fat brain were annoying. Christian the newest Unseelie prince was the only one I actually liked and there wasn't nearly enough of him to outweigh the ridiculousness of the first 300 pages. Did I mention Barrons was annoying? Barrons was annoying. I love Barrons. I love him in that fictional fantasy sort of way where if he existed I wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole, because let's face it, he's an ass, but he's damn fun to read. Only now he's stupid and whiny and 'my woman' this and 'over my dead body' that.

I've always felt cheated by the way Mac and Barrons got together. Mac was turned Pri-ya, Barrons screwed it out of her. I waited three or four books for that. Anxiously waiting, tracking dates of release, biding time with the highlander series. I waited four books and all I got was: "Oh yeah, we'll screw because Mac needs it to get better." I don't expect some acknowledgement of undying love from Barrons. It didn't need to be some you-complete-me scene. It could have been anything else, wild "I thought you were dead and I'm so glad you're not" sex, angry sex, "I hate to love you" sex. Literally anything would have been more satisfying then "Well I guess we have to now." I haven't forgiven Moning for it yet. I'm reminded how I was cheated out of it every time she writes a new sex scene for them. I'm tired of reading about how Mac loves Barrons balls, or how mind-blowing she is in bed. I'm especially tired of being reminded how she was turned Pri-ya and they had sex for four months straight. It's pitiful. It's sad. It wasn't sexy. I'm over it. The moment is gone. Let it go.

I do keep reading because the characters used to be enough to stand on their own. The story was enough. In this book it felt like she knew the story and the characters were old and tired so she threw in sexy time. It didn't work.

Aside from all that- I mentioned above, too many plot twists annoy me. The last book (spoiler ahead if you haven't read Burned) ended with Dageus MacKeltar becoming one of the Nine (Ten?). The author touches on it here for all of five freaking seconds moves onto V'lane plotting his escape from the abbey with the Roach God and the other Powers That Be trying to figure out how to fix the black holes, Mac fighting with her book, and oh yeah, Alina's back. Could we just tie up ONE of these things?! Just one so I can acknowledge it, move on and try to solve the next problem? JUST ONE!

After reading all that you're probably wondering how this managed even three stars, and I'll tell you. It was the ending. The ending was all unadulterated Fever and everything I fell in love with in the first five books. The pissing contest finally seemed to end. Everyone was on the same page. Mac found her fucking balls again, and Jada quit pretending to be some over analytic black is black and white is white and "I don't react emotionally" super bitch.

It was worth trudging through the three hundred pages of crap to get to that ending. Yeah it ended on a cliff hanger, they always do, but I'll probably buy the next one. Here's to hoping it's a 100% triumphant return to the Fever world.