BOOK REVIEW: HIGH VOLTAGE by KAREN MARIE MONING - FEVER WORLD # 10 - DELACORTE PRESS - URBAN FANTASY

By: Karen Marie Moning

Published By: Delacorte Press

Released: Available Now

Details: Hardback from the library, 480 Pages

RATING: 6 STARS! ALL THE STARDUST STARS

Blurb: Goodreads

There is no action without consequence…

Dani O’Malley was nine years old when the delusional, sadistic Rowena transformed her into a ruthless killer. Years later, she’s tough, hardened, yet achingly vulnerable and fiercely compassionate, living alone by her own exacting code. Despite the scars on her body, driven by deeper ones carved into her soul, no one is more committed to protecting Dublin. By day, she ensures the safety of those she rescues, by night she hunts evil, dispensing justice swiftly and without mercy, determined to give those she cares for the peace she has never known.

There is no power without price…

When the Faerie Queen used the dangerously powerful Song of Making to heal the world from the damage done by the Hoar Frost King, catastrophic magic seeped deep into the earth, giving rise to horrifying, unforeseen consequences–and now deadly enemies plot in the darkness, preparing to enslave the human race and unleash an ancient reign of hell on Earth.

There is no future without sacrifice…

With the lethal, immortal Ryodan at her side, armed with the epic Sword of Light, Dani once again battles to save the world but her past comes back to haunt her with a vengeance, demanding an unspeakable price for the power she needs to save the human race and no one—not even Ryodan who’d move the very stars for her—can save her this time…



BOOK REVIEW:

“Keep the light shining in your heart; death is a hungry darkness. 

It wants to swallow us. 

You’re different and will always be misunderstood

— never let that touch you. 

You’re a terribly real thing in a terribly false world.”

Be still my heart.

This book was ALL the stars for me and then some.

Just lay on your back under a clear sky and look up, and that is how many stars.

Ryodan and Dani… I love them.

I've loved them so hard since Iced.

I got so upset when Burned wasn’t about Ryodan and Dani—but, I got over it. I didn’t realize until I was heavily into the book and my dynamic duo were hidden under Mac and Barrons.

This book was everything.

The emotions.


I kissed him with the rainbow-colored shattered hopes and dreams of a child betrayed in ways too damaging and numerous to count, and I kissed him with the yearning to be the one making joy blaze from his eyes.



The deeper layers.



“Ah, Dani,” he said tightly, “you beat me. You tell me what to do. I seem to have forgotten which of us is the man. Perhaps you need a reminder.”



Finally, Ryodan and Dani.



The second thing baffles me. I often feel like crying. I’ve wept on his flawless, crisp shirts more times than I care to remember.

“Because I understand,” he murmured, staring down at me with those glittering silver eyes. “And I can take it. I wasn’t sure about the happiness, though. Nice of you to clear that up.”

“What part of ‘stay out of my head’ didn’t you understand?”

“Your face, Dani. Everything you feel is on it. I rarely need to delve deeper.”


“Ah, Dani.” Ryodan touched my cheek, brushing a stray curl back and tucking it behind my ear. “Men can be bloody bastards. But not all of them. Don’t let it shut you down. Be fearless. Don’t be afraid to fall. Taste it all.”



Dani has so much heart to give. I adore reading her. I loved her fourteen-year-old self in Iced, and I loved her more in High Voltage.

So cool finding out Ryodan’s full name. Totally suits him.

Christian. So glad to see you again. I can see more storyline opening up from what we are shown in this book.


"Scotland is enchanting. And now I know why angels have wings. It's their reward."


Dancer, and his Mega. *sniffles*

I was faltering a little with my enthusiasm for this series since Burned, probably because I felt burned by Dani and Ryodan disappearing after Iced and being replaced again by Mac storyline. This book made up for it. The writing is superb. The ‘feels’ will stab at your heart.



“Never. Tell. Me. I. Don’t. Care. You can fling any insult you want at me, but not that one. Never that one.”



A quote that hit my heart deep.


“Prolonged grief is self-mutilation; a blade you turn on yourself. It doesn’t bring them back and only keeps you trapped in misery.”



Very hard to find that off switch.

I need more Dani and Ryodan. There are so many secrets to discover within High Voltage, and they will make your heart hurt and fly.

I highly recommend this book. Simply amazing storyline.

BOOK REVIEW - FEVERSONG by KAREN MARIE MONING - FEVER # 9 - URBAN FANTASY - DELACORTE PRESS

By: Karen Marie Moning
Published By: Delacorte Press
Released: Available Now
Details : Hardback from library, 500 Pages

RATING: 5 OUTSTANDING LAYERED, EMOTIONAL STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

#1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning returns with the epic conclusion to her pulse-pounding Fever series, where a world thrown into chaos grows more treacherous at every turn. As Mac, Barrons, Ryodan, and Jada struggle to restore control, enemies become allies, right and wrong cease to exist, and the lines between life and death, lust and love, disappear completely.

Black holes loom menacingly over Dublin, threatening to destroy the Earth. Yet the greatest danger is the one MacKayla Lane has unleashed from within: the Sinsar Dubh—a sentient book of unthinkable evil—has possessed her body and will stop at nothing in its insatiable quest for power.

The fate of Man and Fae rests on destroying the book and recovering the long-lost Song of Making, the sole magic that can repair the fragile fabric of the Earth. But to achieve these aims, sidhe-seers, the Nine, Seelie, and Unseelie must form unlikely alliances and make heart-wrenching choices. For Barrons and Jada, this means finding the Seelie Queen who alone can wield the mysterious song, negotiating with a lethal Unseelie prince hell-bent on ruling the Fae courts, and figuring out how to destroy the Sinsar Dubh while keeping Mac alive.

This time, there’s no gain without sacrifice, no pursuit without risk, no victory without irrevocable loss. In the battle for Mac’s soul, every decision exacts a tremendous price.


BOOK REVIEW:

Grief was a silenced wail that had no beginning or end,

 just a long, agonizing middle.

I had to sit on my thoughts for a few days before writing my review. Not because of anything bad—I simply had to process.

I really enjoyed this book. Mac came with so much more than I think I have felt for her in the past.

Dani/Jada, man—you are killing me KMM. I know what I wanted, but I know you will give me more in 2018. I know why you played it the way you did and I loved it. I loved how everybody in the vicinity of Dani’s heart, took it.

I knew the child. I know the woman. She’ll never be satisfied with a single lover. Dani craves experience, challenge, change, tempering, growth. She needs to taste it all. I understand that.

The Big R has my heart...he's always had my heart since Iced.

So much going on in this Fever installment.

Always well written.

He laughed and the sound was a symphony of dark crystals chiming.

Always layered. Such wonderful imagination KMM uses in this series. So much thought has gone into the plot and how she was gonna tackle certain characters.

I took my time reading this one over a good ten days. I simply didn’t want to rush it in a couple days. I wanted to absorb the words properly.

Many emotions.

The character with the most growth in this book was Mac, easily. KMM put her through a lot. I loved how she wrote certain things for the reader to really get inside and understand. Clever and dramatic.

Barrons has faded a bit into the background, compared to the initial Fever series, I don't 'feel' him the way he made me purrrr in the initial series, but that is ok. I still get lovely visuals.

He’s wearing black leather pants and a white shirt, cuffs rolled up, revealing strong forearms and a thick silver Celtic cuff. His beautiful face is inscrutable as ever. I use the word “beautiful” but to the rest of the world he’s not. The casual observer finds him disturbingly carnal, animal, unsettlingly predatory. The genetic stamp of Jericho Barrons’s face was tossed in the gene pool trashcan eons ago. His bone structure is sharp, primal, his brow prominent, and he can seem downright feral if you catch a glimpse of him when he thinks he’s unobserved. His eyes are so dark they’re nearly black, and when he’s angry, crimson sparks glitter within. His hair is midnight, slicked back. He has one of the most symmetrical faces I’ve ever seen. His body…well, I see the lithe grace and power the beast in him even in his human form.

Lor was one of the characters I felt there were places left open for more words in the future.  I always wanted to know more of the Nine intimately…I wonder if we will? They are there, but they aren’t really participating in this series that much.

Kat is another character I felt was hinted at in a past book with being one of the only females to be trained. Another reason I feel there is more…much more.

I am so over the moon Dani is getting a book in a different time to the ending of Feversong. Ryodan needs his Dani. I need to see him get her.

“How many fucking people do you think I’ve watched die?” His silver eyes flashed crimson. “Over and over. That’s what you do. You love them while you have them and when they’re gone, you grieve. That’s life. At least you had them for a while.” 

I stared at him, realizing that, just like Dancer saw only part of me, I saw Ryodan through a filter, too. And right now I was seeing him in a way I never had before. He’d loved. Many times. Deeply. And he’d lost countless times. And that was why he fought so hard to keep his men together. He was intensely controlled because at the heart of it all, he cared intensely, and even though he was immortal, he’d never turned off emotion.

This series has been running for around ten years. I can see more books in the future. I will feel kinda nekid without one. Here's hoping there are spinoffs and we get in deep with some of the Nine.

Iced, was the book for me ( after Shadowfever ) I simply couldn't get enough of Ryodan and Dani and the humor between them. I've missed it.

He’d said, Holy Psychotic PCs, Robin, we’ve a murderous MacBook on the loose!

The Mega had my heart again in this installment.

She’d once crushed on Jericho Barrons violently. Before she realized he and Mac belonged together like earth and sky, night and day, fire and ice.

He kissed me like I was the empire he was sworn to protect and would die a thousand deaths to keep secure. He kissed me like I was a woman with a deep dark wildness that needed to be fed and he knew just how to do it. He kissed me like he was dying and this was the last kiss he would ever taste. Then his kiss changed and his tongue was velvet and silk as he kissed me like I was fine bone china that needed exacting care and gentleness. Then the storm built in both of us and I ground myself against him, and he was searching with his kiss and his hands sliding down to my ass for the part of me that was a savage animal and so was he and we were going to forget the world and become two primal, uncomplicated beasts fucking as if the universe depended on our passion to fuel it.

“You. Aren’t. Everyone else.” He paused, then said in a rough voice, “And you’re not pretty. Goddamn it, Dani. You’re beautiful.”

Bravo KMM for bringing Barrons, Mac, Cruce, Ryodan, The Mega, Dancer and the list goes on, into our lives and your amazing storytelling.

“Jericho,” I whispered against his ear, “thank you. For everything.” I drew back and laughed, feeling inexpressibly light.

 “It’s been one hell of a ride.”

BOOK REVIEW - FEVERBORN by KAREN MARIE MONING - FEVER SERIES # 8 - URBAN FANTASY - DELACORTE PRESS

By: Karen Marie Moning

Published By: Delacorte Press

Released: Available Now

Details: Hardcover from library ( will order my copy soon ) , 490 Pages

RATING: 4.75 BARRONS & RYODAN & LOR STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

In Karen Marie Moning’s latest installment of the epic #1 New York Times bestselling Fever series, the stakes have never been higher and the chemistry has never been hotter. Hurtling us into a realm of labyrinthine intrigue and consummate seduction, FEVERBORN is a riveting tale of ancient evil, lust, betrayal, forgiveness and the redemptive power of love.

When the immortal race of the Fae destroyed the ancient wall dividing the worlds of Man and Faery, the very fabric of the universe was damaged and now Earth is vanishing bit by bit. Only the long-lost Song of Making—a haunting, dangerous melody that is the source of all life itself—can save the planet.

But those who seek the mythic Song—Mac, Barrons, Ryodan and Jada—must contend with old wounds and new enemies, passions that burn hot and hunger for vengeance that runs deep. The challenges are many: The Keltar at war with nine immortals who’ve secretly ruled Dublin for eons, Mac and Jada hunted by the masses, the Seelie queen nowhere to be found, and the most powerful Unseelie prince in all creation determined to rule both Fae and Man. Now the task of solving the ancient riddle of the Song of Making falls to a band of deadly warriors divided among—and within—themselves.

Once a normal city possessing a touch of ancient magic, Dublin is now a treacherously magical city with only a touch of normal. And in those war-torn streets, Mac will come face to face with her most savage enemy yet: herself.

BOOK REVIEW:

I am very addicted to this series, have been for many a year. When I started reading, the latest book released was Faefever, so I have had to sit patiently waiting for every book since.

Now, in saying that, I am gonna admit Burned is the only book I haven’t done a review on, because…well I got a little shock at the time and a little confused when it didn’t follow in the vein of Iced as part of Dani’s trilogy.

I liked Burned but it was my least favorite. I have finally been able to say that out loud. I stay away from any reviews, blurbs or teasers when I read in this series, so I had no clue Burned was going to get flipped on me and reverting back to Mac and Barrons.

These things happen.

I am so pleased I got more Dani/Jada and Ryodan and the ever lovable, Lor in Feverborn.


Lor.

The man was a beast. A primitive caveman who loved being what he was. Blunt, blatantly sexual, with a voracious appetite for rock and roll, brawls, and hot blondes, he was prone to proposition a woman by saying, “Hey, wanna fuck?” and scored a ridiculous amount of time with his Viking good looks and that hint of something dirty-kinky-raw just beneath the surface, locked, loaded, and ready to blast a woman’s inhibitions to dust.


Giddy up!

It was not enough, but I respect KMM has gone for whatever reason in this direction of Mac and Barrons again.

Her writing is always superb, Burned may not have been the continued story direction ( Dani O'Malley Trilogy ) I had hoped, as I so adore Dani and Ryodan ( in their own trilogy ), but eh, not my story to tell.

Feverborn I was very hesitant to pick up, hence why I'm only doing it now... because of Burned.

I am pleased to say, I personally enjoyed what KMM did with all the characters in this installment, even if not a lot of new stuff happened compared to the fast pace of the original series. I hung on tight to any Jada and Ryodan and soaked it up.

I did get a shock emotion where I got a bit girlie and had a little cry.

Nice one KMM.J

I got the mother of all endings.

Nice one KMM. J

I say this because Feversong is like a few days away if I understand correctly.

Nice one me.  #win

Barrons and Mac had a kinda off relationship going on in Feverborn, compared to how they behaved in other books. It was a little distant, I felt. There was in the moment sex a couple times, but Mac was clearly off doing her stuff for the reader to see.


He went motionless, swept my body with that dark, inscrutable gaze, and the shape of his mouth changed. "Ah, Ms. Lane, did you pull me out of there to fuck?”


I think I got a bit confuzzed with him calling her Ms. Lane again. Barrons did eventually give us an explanation.

Jada’s character I do adore, I miss Dani, and I think Mac does too, but Jada is here now. I do miss all those Batman quotes and banter between Ryodan and Dani.

Let's face it...I am kinda upset the trilogy got snuffed out. My readers heart got sad. 

Moving on.

This quote just made me put my hand over my heart…bless.

Silver eyes met hers and locked. “I didn’t like Dani.”

“At least you’re consistent,” she said coolly.

His silver eyes were ice. “I loved her.”

Well, day…um!

Oh... Christian. He’s such a great character. As the reader we have watched him evolve enormously over the series.


Christian glided down the hallway toward her, part muscled Highlander, part sleek, dark Faerie, majestic black-velvet wings trailing the gold floor, and despite having been trained to stand their ground, a few of her sidhe-seers peeled back.


Dancer really gets Dani and accepts Jada. I love how he makes things not complicated, where everybody else can’t see underneath like Dancer can.


“Laughter is power. One of the greatest weapons we have. It can slay dragons and it can heal. Jada doesn’t have it anymore. As long as she doesn’t, she’s more vulnerable than any of you seem to realize. Stop worrying about your idiotic ‘things’ and start worrying about her. Make her laugh, Mac. And remember how to do it yourself, while you’re at it…”

I adore how Lor always calls Dani/Jada, honey. I just melt. They have such a great friendship, he adores her, but knows she’s off limits.


“Aw, honey, keep dancing like that, you’re gonna get me killed,” Lor said close to her ear.


Mac and Barrons are that couple that simply stay with you once you have read them.

And this is one of the reasons why.

“Because, Ms. Lane, when the world goes to bloody hell,

 I will always be at your bloody side.”

The latter part of this book really got hopping and I am so excited to carry on shortly with Feversong... because that ending.

O.M.G!

“Uh, Barrons, we’re in a world of shit,” I muttered.

“Same page, Ms. Lane. Same bloody word.”

ADULT URBAN FANTASY/PARANORMAL - FEVER SERIES by KAREN MARIE MONING - SPOTLIGHT SATURDAY # 13 - DELL BOOKS, DELACORTE

SPOTLIGHT SATURDAY # 13

KAREN MARIE MONING

FEVER SERIES

Who hasn't heard of the Fever series?

Who hasn't heard of Jericho Barrons?

If the answer is yes, (* gasp *  shock horror ) you need to be reading this posting, then hit your library up or your Kindle.

They are all adult reads.

I was introduced to the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning by a friend and author, Lisa Sanchez back in 2010. I started reading in September 2010. I had the first three books ready to go, one after the other I read them like a bullet. I read the 4th one on Kindle as it was such a long wait to get the paperback. Sometimes with this series the publisher releases the hardback first, then like four months later you can get the paperback.

Goodreads for order of reading

For those of you who haven't started, or have not finished this series, you really do need to. I have put more readers than I can count, onto this series around the world. I love to preach about it. 

It is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! Oh the discussions that were flying about cyberspace before Shadowfever was released. I absolutely adore this series and my mixed lot of covers I have. I have some paperback and some hard back.

I love this cover gif for Shadowfever.

There are couple different sets of covers to this series, I just showed you the ones above. It is a highly popular urban fantasy/paranormal series. I really am a bit lost these days what is the difference between these two genres. I get Twilight was pure paranormal romance with Eddy being a vampire, but these days I do find it hard to separate these two genres sometimes. 

Dani O'Malley the Mega , went and got herself a spin off series and it is brilliant. Iced is available and Burned is coming January 2015. It's been a long wait, but it will be worth it.

I adored what KMM did with Dani in her spinoff book, Iced. She keeps her fourteen years old with Ryodan sitting back and waiting. I will admit my review for Iced took me four days to get right. I was consumed with this book. You can't jump to this spinoff series, you need to read Fever series first. 

My review, KMM actually posted it on her facebook page at the time. I have received over 3700 views of it.

Iced review HERE

There is a most brilliant smexi scene that KMM popped as a separate read on her web page  for the Fever series. Once you have read the first five books, read it, it will actually make you think of Jericho a little differently.

I will say no more. Goodreads JZB Sex Scene. You can read it online , I think over at Karen Marie Moning's web page. I think that is where I read it at the time. Not sure if it is still about, this scene. Holy mac and cheese it was worth a read, though.

You can catch KMM putting up lots of teasers and bits and pieces from all her books on her facebook page. I often lurk and stalk her page.

Jericho Barrons is a most brilliant male lead, then you have V'Lane who is... well, I can't say. This series is a most amazing page turner. 

Just think if you haven't started it, you can binge to your hearts content.

I love all the characters they are so well written and the plot is thick and rich. 

This is quite a good fan made trailer. It showcases Mac and Barrons, and V'Lane. 

I can not explain how much I recommend the Fever series and spinoff series. KMM is brilliant at deception with her writing. I really enjoyed Darkfever # 1, but I think she got better and better as she wrote the series. She has the best visuals as you read. I saw all the books like movies playing out on the streets of Dublin.

Pay attention to all the detail, it ALWAYS means something. That is my tip.

Michelle

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY # 10 - THE KING BY J.R.WARD & BURNED by KAREN MARIE MONING - FEVER # 7 - PIATKUS - DELACORTE - ADULT PARANORMAL ROMANCE

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY # 10

19TH MARCH 2014

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at:

Breaking The Spine

Spotlights upcoming releases.

THE KING

J.R. WARD

1ST APRIL 2014

J.R. Ward's # 1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood continues as a royal bloodline is compromised by a grave threat to the throne.

Aussie cover

Long live the King…

After turning his back on the throne for centuries, Wrath, son of Wrath, finally assumed his father’s mantle--with the help of his beloved mate. But the crown sets heavily on his head. As the war with the Lessening Society rages on, and the threat from the Band of Bastards truly hits home, he is forced to make choices that put everything--and everyone--at risk.

Beth Randall thought she knew what she was getting into when she mated the last pure blooded vampire on the planet: An easy ride was not it. But when she decides she wants a child, she’s unprepared for Wrath’s response--or the distance it creates between them.

The question is, will true love win out... or tortured legacy take over?

******

It is J.R. Ward so I am going to love it and it is just around the corner. Black Dagger Brotherhood is one of my favourite Paranormal Romance reads. Lover At Last had so many seeds dropped down for future books. I am so excited to read this one. I am quite a fan of the Aussie covers.

BURNED 

KAREN MARIE MONING

FEVER # 7

This has been pushed back to January 2015.

I am gonna have to read this book mega slow. 
Devour it and taste every page.
Note that pun I threw in.
Blurb still be coming.

MacKayla Lane and Dani “Mega” O’Malley are back with a vengeance in Burned, the seventh novel in the blockbuster Fever series from #1 New York Times bestselling sensation Karen Marie Moning.

MY REVIEW OF ICED

HAPPY READING!

Looking forward to seeing what everyone is WOWing over.

Michelle

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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