The Fever Series - Book 2

Unlike the Inheritance Cycle books, the Fever Series books are quick, easy reads, so I will be posting a little more frequently now.  I just finished the second book entitled, Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning.  I have read another of Moning's book series (The Highlander Series) and am a little disappointed with her writing in this new series.  It seems somewhat childish compared to the other series' books.  This might  be because the character that is telling the story is a little immature and Moning is trying to portray that through her writing - at least I hope that is the reason and I hope that "Mac" grows up a bit soon!

Anyways, Bloodfever, book 2...this one starts out with Inspector O'Duffy coming to Mac at the book store with more questions, but this time they are about the "Dark Zones" that he has found on past maps.  Mac acts as if she doesn't know anything more than he is telling her and eventually he leaves.  Unfortunately for Inspector O'Duffy, he is found dead a couple of days later.

That night Mac wakes up knowing something is wrong.  She finds that all of the lights in the bookstore have been turned off and a window has been left open so that the Shades can get in - someone is trying to kill her!  She manages to turn on most of the lights with the help of a lot of flashlights, but as she gets to the main floor she trips and falls, loosing most of her flashlights in the process.  Luckily, V'lane (a Fae Prince) comes to her rescue and turns on the rest of the lights, but she must agree to spend one human hour with him at the time of his choosing as payment for his help.

Mac is troubled by another investigator when O'Duffy is found dead, this one is Inspector Jayne.  He brings Mac into the police station where he questions her for hours about O'Duffy's meeting with her on the day of his death and eventually has to let Mac go, since he has no real evidence against her, but warns her that he is going to be watching her.

A few days later, Mac meets another sidhe-seer named Dani who tells her that there is a sidhe-seer Council right there in Dublin who are trained to kill the Fae.  Mac discovers who their leader is and where their headquarters is located.  She goes to visit them and learns a little about their past, but is also asked to join them which she refuses to do until she knows more about them and the other people around her.

V'lane appears to Mac not long after this and tells her that it is time for their hour together.  He brings her to Fairy where he creates an illusion of her sister that she is able to spend the day with.  Unfortunately, when V'lane brings Mac back to Dublin she discovers that she was actually gone for an entire month because time passes differently in Fairy.  Barrons has been worried about her because he couldn't figure out where she was or if she was alive.

Throughout this book Mac keeps seeing a specter who basically looks like the Grim Reaper.  At the end of the book she is cornered by a bunch of Hunters and Unseelie when the specter shows up again.  This time the specter is able to grab her and it takes her to an underground part of Ireland called The Burren.  She discovers that her specter is actually Malluce (the vampire) and the he has taken her to torture her until he dies.  It comes down to an extreme battle between the two of them and Malluce beats Mac until she is almost dead - this is when Barrons makes an appearance.  He feeds Unseelie meat to Mac and she is able to survive and they escape after killing Malluce (for real) this time.

The book ends with Mac going to meet a guy she had run into awhile back, Christian MacKeltar.  While walking to meet him, she senses the Sinsar Dubh is very near and collapses on the street, but unlike the last time she came close to it she doesn't pass out.  She figures out this is because she ate the Unseelie and that part of her has changed.

This was a pretty exciting book and I am looking forward to the rest of the series - there are a lot of questions that need to be answered!!

Inheritance Cycle - Complete!

So I have finally finished reading the Inheritance Cycle books!  They were so good and the author definitely saved the best for last.  The final book in the Cycle is called "Inheritance" (hence the series title) and was the longest of the four at 849 pages!!  I was really excited to read this book and find out how or if Eragon and Saphira were going to defeat the evil king Galbatorix.  Let me tell you, Christopher Paolini did not disappoint; this book had everything a fantasy reader could want.

Inheritance started out with Eragon and Saphira leading a battle to capture another of the cities in Alagaesia.  Things are looking bleak, but then the Werecats arrive and help the Varden conquer yet another city of the Empire along the way to Uru'baen and the king.

After this battle, Eragon continues to train his body and mind in hopes of defeating Galbatorix and Murtagh.  While this is going on, Roran is sent to Aroughs to help the Varden stationed there capture the city.  When he arrives, he finds a nearly impossible situation and must devise an extremely clever plan to get into the city, but it costs him a dear friend in the process.  Roran is victorious and is able to return to his wife unharmed where he is given the title, captain.

The Vardens next move to try to capture the city of Dras-Leona, but find it well fortified and difficult to breach, mainly due to Thorn laying on the top of the city's walls.  After a week long stand-off one of Eragon's friends discovers a secret way into the city.  Eragon, Arya, Angela, and one of the Elves best spell-casters set off to break into the city.  Their way is paved with difficulties and some losses.  Eragon and Arya are captured by the priests of Helgrind and held captive to be the food of some newly hatched Ra'zac.  Thankfully, Angela and her werecat friend Solembum are able to help them escape and eventually the Varden are able to capture Dras-Leona, but with many lives lost.

A lot happens in this book, but I don't want to give away all of the exciting details!  I will say that an important person to the Varden is captured by Murtagh and Thorn and brought to Galbatorix; Eragon and Saphira travel to Vroengard (the island that was once home to all dragon and their riders) and discover something there that can possibly help them defeat the king; the Varden finally reach Uru'bean and Eragon and Saphira must battle Galbatorix, Shruikan, Murtagh, and Thorn.  I don't want to say any more about how it all ends, but I will say that I cried a couple of times and was left feeling a bit sad about the ending of the book.

Glad that I read this series and would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy series.  This one was well written with a ton of thought and detail in the plot.  Christopher Paolini definitely left the end of this book open for a continuation series and if he does eventually write it, I will be waiting to find out how life in Alagaesia goes on.

The Fever Series

While I was waiting to receive the last Inheritance Cycle book from Amazon, I decided to start reading another series I have been waiting on.  This series was recommended to me by a friend last year and I am glad that I am able to finally read it!  It is called The Fever Series, by Karen Marie Moning (who actually wrote another series I love!) and the first book in the series is Darkfever.

This book starts out in a small town in Georgia with a girl named Mac.  She is laying out by her pool enjoying a perfect summer day when her world turns upside-down.  She gets a call saying that her sister has been found dead in Dublin, Ireland where she has been attending school.  When Mac thinks that the Dublin police aren't doing a good enough job with her sister's murder investigation, she decides to empty her savings account and fly there herself to figure out what happened.  Before leaving, she finally checks her phone messages (her phone had been dropped in the pool) and hears one from her sister the day that she died.  Her sister tells Mac that she doesn't even know who she is and that Mac needs to find something before they get it - the Sinsar Dubh.  She also says that he was lying all along and isn't  who he said he was.  Very cryptic message, but from it Mac get a couple of ideas.

Once in Dublin, Mac meets Jericho Barrons owner of a book store she stumbles into during her search.  She asks him about the Sinsar Dubh and he helps her to find out what it is - a dark hallow belonging to the Unseelie King.  He also tells her that she is a sidhe-seer (she can see Fairies and those belonging to their race).  Once she finally believes him, they join forces and set out to find the Sinsar Dubh together.

Along the way they encounter many deadly opponents and on more than one account, barley escape with their lives.  While on one of their missions, Mac accidently touches one of the Unseelie and freezes it, simply by touching it with her hands - this leads to Mr. Barrons discovering that not only is Mac a sidhe-seer, she is also a Null (she can freeze any Fae by touching them).

Long story short, Mac discovers an address that leads her to her sister's former boy friends house and that is where all Hell breaks loose - literally!  She discovers the true identity of Alina's former boy friend (who calls himself the Lord Master) and somehow escapes a lot of Unseelie monsters (with the help of a timely Mr. Barrons).  While recovering from the fight, Mac senses the Sinsar Dubh as someone drives it past her place and realizes that the two of them are going to need help from other sidhe-seers if they have any chance of stopping the Lord Master.

Looking forward to the next book in this series - things are just getting exciting!!

New Books!

So I went out this weekend to Chapters to spend a gift card I got over Christmas!  I had a few books in mind that I wanted, but ended up getting some entirely different books because of high prices at Chapters.  I love Chapters, but I cannot rationalize spending $10 more on a book just because it's from their store and not Amazon.  Oh well!  I am very excited about my purchases though - I bought the following books:  Fallen and Torment by Lauren Kate, as well as Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.  I have been interested in these books for awhile now and my gift card was a great way to finally buy them!

Once I got home from Chapters though, I was still thinking about the books I had originally wanted to buy.  Conveniently enough, my sister had gotten me an Amazon gift card for Christmas as well!  With this card I purchased the two books I had originally wanted: Inheritance by Christopher Paolini (the last in the Inheritance Cycle books), and Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare.

Super excited to read these books!  I love new books (and their smell, haha)!!