BOOK REVIEW - ICED by KAREN MARIE MONING - DANI O'MALLEY # 1 - DELACORTE PRESS - 5 ROCK MY FACE OFF STARS!!

By: Karen Marie Moning
Published By: Delacorte Press
Released: Available Now
Details: Hardback, 495 Pages

RATING: 5 ROCK MY FACE OFF STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning comes the first book in her hotly anticipated new urban paranormal trilogy, set in the world of her blockbuster Fever series.

The year is 1 AWC—After the Wall Crash. The Fae are free and hunting us. It’s a war zone out there, and no two days are alike. I’m Dani O’Malley, the chaos-filled streets of Dublin are my home, and there’s no place I’d rather be.

Dani “Mega” O’Malley plays by her own set of rules—and in a world overrun by Dark Fae, her biggest rule is: Do what it takes to survive. Possessing rare talents and the all-powerful Sword of Light, Dani is more than equipped for the task. In fact, she’s one of the rare humans who can defend themselves against the Unseelie. But now, amid the pandemonium, her greatest gifts have turned into serious liabilities.

Dani’s ex–best friend, MacKayla Lane, wants her dead, the terrifying Unseelie princes have put a price on her head, and Inspector Jayne, the head of the police force, is after her sword and will stop at nothing to get it. What’s more, people are being mysteriously frozen to death all over the city, encased on the spot in sub-zero, icy tableaux.

When Dublin’s most seductive nightclub gets blanketed in hoarfrost, Dani finds herself at the mercy of Ryodan, the club’s ruthless, immortal owner. He needs her quick wit and exceptional skill to figure out what’s freezing Fae and humans dead in their tracks—and Ryodan will do anything to ensure her compliance.

Dodging bullets, fangs, and fists, Dani must strike treacherous bargains and make desperate alliances to save her beloved Dublin—before everything and everyone in it gets iced.

BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

“There’s nothing stupid about me. I am fast and strong, though.“ I preen. “Best of the best. Dani Mega O’Malley. That’s what they call me. The Mega. Nobody’s got nothing on me.”

“Sure they do. Wisdom. Common sense. The ability to differentiate between a battle worth fighting and the posturing of adolescent hormones.”

Feckin A this was brilliant fun. So entertaining. I almost recommend reading this book twice. The first time round it is a fast paced high. Dani, the MEGA, is this fearless, energetic little warrior. I adore Dani. Everything virtually, that comes out of Dani’s mouth is a quote.

She WILL NOT be controlled. Ryodan has to resort to blackmail to get her to submit.

I LOVED Dani was kept a 14yr old. This book is in line with Shadowfever finishing. The MEGA has her Dani Daily , reporting the news to Dublin, hot off the press. She is dodging Mac. She is dodging Ryodan and his boys and she is getting herself into all sorts of smackdowns, literally.


“Sloppy, Mega,” I mutter. I still can’t see. I wipe my bloody nose on my sleeve and reach out to feel what I hit.

“That’s my dick,” Ryodan says.

I snatch my hand away. “Gah!” I choke out. I can feel my face again - because , like, it’s going up in flames. What kind of universe makes me reach out at exactly that fecking level to feel what I think is a wall and puts my hand on a penis?

Then I remember this is Ryodan and scowl. “You did that on purpose!" I accuse. “You saw my hand go out and you stepped right into it!”

“I’d do that why, kid?”


Cruce is secured in a block of ice under the Abbey...or is he?

Dancer is the new mysterious guy on my radar. He is this good looking geeky kid who can give the boys on Big Bang Theory a run for their scientific knowledge. I personally can’t see him as being fully human. But then Ryodan seems to be able to look at you and know your life, your past, what you are almost thinking in the moment and he seems to peg him for a human. He has this amazing ‘stay alive free card’ with Ryodan. The kid manages to command Ryodan and Christian and get away with it.


“I’ll do whatever I need to do to save her life. You. Bloody. Idiots,” the kid says.



“You both talk too much,” the kid says. “Shut up. Don’t make me tell you again.”

We shut up, which I find hysterically funny.


Lor is my big hunk of humor. When he calls Dani, ‘honey’, I melt.


He says, “Kid, you need to grow your ass up in a hurry.”

“Funny, I think everybody else needs to grow their ass down.”

“Like a horse, honey, somebody’s going to break you.”

“Never. Going. To. Happen.”

Dani , for a kid who didn’t go to school ,she sure can pull out the words that made me hit google up for dictionary meanings.

Barrons and Mac, I know this is not their spinoff, they have had their five books...for the moment. 

But!!!! But!!! But!

I had trouble with Barrons not being in some authority role in this book. My understanding is, Ryodan is Barrons right hand man. Barrons is the shiz with being in charge of the Nine. Ryodan seemed to own Dublin, own everything that was happening. I just could not grasp the fact that Barrons and Mac were bobbling about in the background. Sure there was a kind of funny Barrons and Ryodan scene, only because I had learnt from Fever series that my boys would be ok. It was a kind of funny send off.

But!!!!

Barrons not appearing to be helping with this whole ICED situation that was threatening humans, Fae and anything in its selective path...I just didn’t buy it. Now if I had been told they were on a super dooper secret project , getting info from the Druids in Scotland or something...then ok. I am in on the deal. Speaking of Druids. Their nephew is going all UP on them and where are they???? My darling Christian MacKeltar is wigging out Unseelie Prince style, thanks to Mac trying to be uber helpful back when, and the Druids are nowhere to be seen. These are the only two things that I questioned, they didn’t really bother me as I was having such a feckin bull crikey awesome time reading this book. 

Not being picky. It was just this I am the Boss vibe I got off Ryodan , when I thought Barrons was the most holy than thou of these Nine.

Moving on...

We get 3 Pov’s in this book. Christian, Kat and Dani. I LOVED this. Who knew Kat was worthy of a pov?

Dani’s body hormones are kind of getting a nudge here and there , but she is mostly naive to these men surrounding her. She popped in for a peek pay view on Level 4, but her response was more ‘ewwww.’ She still has her innocence about her but she is not stupid.

I had two fave scenes that played through my mind visually very well. The Kings Library was very imaginative and the Ipod scene with Lor, Ryodan, Dancer, Christian, Dani, Kat and everybody chatting about music, casually. They were all putting down each other’s music choices,very humorous scene.

In a non weirdo way, my heart was a bit squished with Ryodan and Jo. Now, I know Barrons had Fiona, and that ended well...not!

I find myself going through that whole ...what is Ryodan? Now I’m throwing part Incubus out there cause the dude does a lot of ‘nodding’and I am listening to things Lor says. But that is a theory I am throwing out there. Kat is an empath and she sees ‘nothing’ with Ryodan. Little seeds are being dropped and I am catching them all and doing that brain gymnastics thing...again. Incubus is my premature theory.

Christian! Christian ! Christian! My sweet boy from Fever series is now buggin’ out on me and going all UP. Christian’s innocence is being absorbed and lost amongst the UP side of him that is sex and more sex. He weirded me out listening to his rather obsessed thoughts for Dani, his UP hormones are making Christian think differently. I get that his nature is becoming like V’Lane’s.

But, she is only 14!!

“I don’t fetch for humans!”

But I’d cut the fucking moon out of the sky for her.


“You let her die,” I say to the kid, “I’ll kill you every way a human can get killed, bring you back and do it all over again.”


I love the way he calls Ryodan , ‘dickhead.’ Christian and Ryodan have some very funny verbal slanging matches.

Ryodan’s dick is as big as mine. “Why the bloody hell don’t you wear underwear?” To an Unseelie prince, an exposed male dick is a call to battle.

“They chafe. Too small and confining.”

“Fuck you,” I say.

“Dudes . Get over yourselves,” the kid says.


Dani is this pocket rocket who manages to fight Ryodan all the way. She is brave, fearless and will not allow herself to be caged. I think to a certain extent, Ryodan allows her her freedom even though he can give her a smackdown that will rattle your teeth.

Ryodan has this enormous amount of patience with Dani, but he doesn’t want anyone to see it. He almost in an odd way has respect for her. He can chain her up, he can blackmail her, he can smack her down... she does not flinch. She will not allow her wall to come down.

“You might be able to thrash your way out of a spiderweb, but thrashing in quicksand doesn’t work. The harder you fight, the more ground you lose. Struggling merely expedites your inevitable defeat.”

“Never been defeated. Never will be.”

“Rowena was a spiderweb.” He touches my cheek with the hand holding the knife. The silver glints an inch from my eye.

“Do you know what I am.”

“A great big pain in the ass.”

“Quicksand. And you’re dancing on it.”



I can’t help but ask. “Why me?”

“Because you see everything. You aren’t afraid to do what it takes and not breathe a word of it to anyone.”



“Kid, you might just annoy me into killing you.”

“Right back at you, boss.”



Dani is a teenager with no parental boundaries. She is her own boss of time and residence. When she eats, where she goes, what she wears, how she spends her time. All her choices.

Until... Ryodan.

He tries to get her to ask for help, say what she wants from him. She is a wild child who trusts virtually no one but Dancer.

“That’s what this is all about? You’re punishing me because I was late?”

“Bright girl. Stop tapping that pen. You’re driving me bug-fuck.”

I tap faster. He’s driving me bugfuck, too. “So, like if I’m on time next time, I won’t have to sit here and watch you do stupid stuff I can’t believe you even do?”



As I storm out I hear him say, “You wasted my time, Dani. I wasted yours.”

I whirl on him, fists at my waist. “That’s bullshit! It wasn’t even proportionate!”

“It rarely will be.”

“Thirty little fecking minutes cost me nine and a half hours?”

“The way you treat me is the way I will treat you. Since I’m bigger and older, I imagine it will always be worse.”

“Oh, now you get all proportionate. If you’re going to be as much of a dickhead as you are big and old, dude, that’s some serious dickheadedness.”

... "I can be anything I want.”


“You could ask me to teach you.”

“Huh?”This night is getting weird in a hurry. “Teach me like you’re teaching a class or something? What are you going to call it. ‘You Too Can Be a Sociopath 101’?”



Ryodan has a similar thing with Dani that Barrons had with Mac and that Miss Lane talk. Dani is ‘kid’ the whole time until somebody is pushing Dani around and then he calls her Dani or if she is hurt. I think he has to remind himself she is a kid. So if he calls her ‘kid’, then he is reminding himself as much as reminding the reader that she is infact a kid. Due to her fearless nature , her warrior nature, we can forget her age, too.


“One day, kid, you’ll be willing to mortgage your fucking soul for somebody.”


He gives me a look I’ve seen men do before, especially to women: chin down, looking up from beneath his brows, with a faintly mocking smile. There’s something in that look I don’t get but the challenge is unmistakable. “Come here,” he says. “I’ll heal you.” He’s sitting behind his desk, watching me. Still, so still. It’s like he’s not even breathing.

... “I can make you feel better than you’ve ever felt in your life.”

“How?”

“There are some secrets, Dani O’Malley, that you learn only by participating.”

I consider that. “So . You got any ice?”

He laughs and presses a button on his desk. “Fade. Ice. Now.”


"Turn it off," Ryodan says without even looking at me.  "You're distressing Dani. No one distresses Dani but me."



Dani relies on no one. Dancer is her closest confidant and they have a healthy respect for each other’s space. They are both thinkers and know how to survive.

I explode into a Dani-grenade, all fists and teeth, and ten kinds of you-don’t-want-to-hold-me-when-the-pin-is-out.



“Are you giving me an ultimatum? Because that is so not cool.” I don’t emote disdain. I become disdain. I flash him number seventeen of my thirty-five Looks of Death. Grown-ups!


Good luck with that," Ryodan says.  "She doesn't beg to speak, or do anything else. You can lock her up, down, and sideways and it's never going to happen."

I beam at him. I had no idea he thought so highly of me.


I adored what KMM did with Dani in this book. She is kept 14 yrs old, she is a character that has such a stand out voice, the way she swears in her own vocab . Her heart is set in gold and she has a past that will hurt your heart . I wouldn't be surprised, as this is a trilogy, that she makes us wait until the Barron's and Mac books for Dani to get older. 

Nothing like some reader frustration. Much.

   I smack myself in the forehead. "Holy priceless collection of Etruscan snoods, they're not moving!" I exclaim.
   There's a choking noise over my head somewhere. "Etruscan snoods?"
   I glow quietly inside. Some accomplishments mean more than others. I am officially the Shit. Now and forever. "Dude, watch your question marks. I just pried one out of you."
   "I have no idea what you're talking about."
   "Admit it, you lost your eternal fecking composure."
   "You have an obsession with a delusion about how I end my sentences. What the fuck are Etruscan snoods?"
   "Dunno. It's just another of Robin's sayings. Like, 'Holy strawberries , Batman, we're in a jam!'" 
   "Strawberries."
   "Or, 'Holy Kleenex, Batman, it was right under our nose and we blew it! '".

I understand this Dani, so much better than the Dani in Fever series. Ryodan lets us see more of why Dani will not be man handled or caged.

Jayne is still bobbing about, doing his thing towards the good of mankind. Not sure how productive he is compared to Dani and her Sword of Light.

He is a survivor.

I went all super nerd alert when it came to the lyric chapter titles. I love music and how authors express their characters and stories using it. KMM had me putting on my super nerd glasses and spending ages googling the lyrics to match the song and reading the rest of the words in that song, listening to the song. Then I cross referenced it to what was going on in the chapter.

Yeah...NERD ALERT!!

Some of those songs fitted in brilliantly with what the chapter was telling the reader.

Chapter 6 title “I will break these chains that bind me” Today My life Begins by Bruno Mars. So I listen to it, read the rest of the words to the song, and I look back at the chapter and what is going on in it. It fit perfectly. I kind of loved Dani more, when I listened to the song, I got a lump in my throat. Team it with the chapter... * sniff*.

This was quite a powerful chapter.

A serious chapter.

An emotional chapter.

There are only two things to worry about in life: either you’re free or you’re not. If you’re free, there’s nothing to worry about. If you’re not, you kick the shit out of everything around you until you are.

“Funny, your speech is changing, kid. Getting all grown-up-like.”

“Dude,” I add.

“You’re going to be a tough one to crack.”

“Let me give you a clue: substitute the word ‘impossible’ for ‘tough.’”

He peels the wrapper back from the Snickers. Offers me a bite. I turn my head away. I won’t eat like a chained-up animal.

Ryodan is earning his stripes with me. He has such a smexi hard exterior. I think he has a kinship with Dani that we don't yet know about. I am watching/reading closely how KMM is serving up Ryodan to us in this first book. He has many faces. He can be uber polite , he can be a prick giving Dani a smack down to hold up his image, he can be caring...almost. He has his stalker on = protecting. I am looking forward to finding out more. I totally believe he is going to out do Barrons. 

Yeah, I went there!! 

There is something rather amazing about this man ?? who is going to wait for Dani. He has watched her for a few years. He will wait. 

She is worth it.

Christian be damned!

Dani on Ryodan 

Dani 14yrs old

Ryodan is like the ocean. He is what he is. And he’s not about to change. There’s no point in fighting the tide. It ebbs. It flows. You ride it. He’s got me by the short hairs and he’s not about to let go.

Ryodan on Dani 

Ryodan

“You’ll never be just anything. A tsunami can never be ‘just’ a wave.”

“Get off my chin.”

“I like that about you. Waves are banal. Tsunamis reshape the Earth. Under the right circumstances, even entire civilisations.”

I blink.

“You’re going to be one hell of a woman one day, Dani.”

The ' hell of a woman'  Dani

Christian on Dani 

Christian

“Nobody cares about me like you do.”

“Och, lass, you’ve no bloody idea,” he says in a whisper. “I see you from the inside.”

 Christian on Ryodan

With Barrons you expect to get fucked up royally. With Ryodan you don't see it coming.

They don't call him the master of manipulation for nothing. Barrons breaks heads. Ryodan turns them inside out. Barrons fucks you up. Ryodan makes you fuck yourself up. He pushes buttons and rearranges things according to his own private, coolly sociopathic plan.

Christian on Ryodan on Dani

He knows she's worth waiting for.

And when it's time, he intends to be the one. That's why he's keeping her close. To those of us who live forever, a few years isn't long to wait.

Not for something worth waiting for. Not for a once-in-a-lifetime girl.

He sees her like I do : Seventeen, twenty, thirty. Superimposed over the fourteen-year-old, he sees the woman she'll become.

And he's staking his claim.

Over my . Dead. Fucking. Body.

And I can't die.

Lor on Dani 

LOR

“It happens when I get really excited. The more excited I get, the more I vibrate.”

“Now there’s a thought,” Lor says.

“If you mean what I think you mean, you want to shut the fuck up and never think it again,” Ryodan says.

“Just saying , boss,” Lor says. “You can’t tell me you didn’t think it, too.”

Lor on Dani on Ryodan 

“Honey, you might just have saved your life with those tears. I thought you had too much ego and too little common sense to know when to turn on the waterworks. He can’t stand a woman crying. It fucks him up every time.”

I look at him . He winks at me.

I flash fire at him with my eyes because I ain’t allowed to use my tongue. They say: I ain’t a woman and I ain’t crying and I ain’t afraid of nothing.

“He can deal with not being able to control you as long as you let the world believe he does. He’s king here, honey. Kings can’t be challenged publicly.”

Nobody controls me. Ever , my eyes snarl. And I challenge whoever the feck I want wherever I fecking feel like doing it!

He grins. “I hear you, kid. Loud and clear. Just remember what I said.”

Dani on Dani 

Ain’t nobody knows what I need better than me. They’re probably all back there, still bickering, trying to decide how to control me and run my life.

I snicker. “Dudes. Never. Going. To. Happen.”

Ryodan on Dancer 

Dancer

"He wears glasses. I bet that works out real well for him in battle. No, wait, he doesn't battle. Never will. Too fragile. One poke with a sharp stick and his guts would spill all over the street. Sayonara, human."

Some of the chapters music.

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Just love this vid, everybody is just funking out and grooving in their own space.

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