Shadowfever (Fever, #5) in Crazy Challenge Connection

May 05, 2011 D.G. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: awesome-narration, audiobook, reviewed, urban-fantasy

**3 stars for parts I & II/ 5 stars for parts III-V**

Great end to the series, full of great twists and surprises. My only complaint is that I wish it had had tighter editing, especially in parts I and II.

Now, I understand that drowning the reader with information is Ms. Moning’s special style of red herrings (very 21st century.) Like a good mystery writer, she gave enough clues about the important questions that (theoretically) we could have figured it out on our own. But by making expert use of **3 stars for parts I & II/ 5 stars for parts III-V**

Great end to the series, full of great twists and surprises. My only complaint is that I wish it had had tighter editing, especially in parts I and II.

Now, I understand that drowning the reader with information is Ms. Moning’s special style of red herrings (very 21st century.) Like a good mystery writer, she gave enough clues about the important questions that (theoretically) we could have figured it out on our own. But by making expert use of the first person narrative, the author lulled us into believing that we were completely in Mac’s head, showed us significant details but then had Mac dismiss them and fed us so much other stuff that our attention was constantly diverted and at least in my case, answers to most of the questions came as a surprise. The dénouement was built on layers of revelations, and like a woman in the cusp of multiple orgasms, I kept wondering in awe There’s more?!? I tip my hat to you, Ms. Moning…very well done.

But I think that at least in the first two parts, this information overload was taken to excessive levels so it’s no wonder that it took me 5 days to finish this one when I listened to Dreamfever in less than 36 hours. I got tired of Mac’s constant reminiscences of her life in Georgia and endless descriptions of men. In the previous books, we only had to contend with Mac’s panting over Barrons, V’Lane and (sometimes) Christian and the Lord Master. But in this book we had the McKeltars, Barron’s Band of Grumpy Men, the Seelie Court plus the usual suspects. Was it really necessary to give detailed descriptions of over 15 men? At some point, I couldn’t keep track of who looked like what.

Something else that bothered me was the back and forth regarding Mac’s identity. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had turned out to be the long lost daughter of Santa Claus and Chewbacca. IMO, this is one of the important things in the plot that wasn’t handled as skillfully as who killed Alina or why did Barrons want the book.

Going back to the things I liked, I definitely enjoyed the musings about the nature of good and evil and the ties between creation and destruction. I completely understood the Mastermind (the guy who was behind all this) and thought he had a point. The Unseelie were created imperfectly by a being that thought nothing of them and then left to rot for eternity. In a sense, they got my biggest sympathies, even though they weren’t good for humanity.

The narration was simply outstanding. Although for obvious reasons I was more enamored of Phil Gigante’s voice (Barron’s was just perfect), I also give kudos to Natalie Ross. I don’t think I would have hated Mac as much in previous books if she had been the narrator from the beginning.

~~It was obvious from the ending that there will be more books set in this world so I’m definitely looking forward to more.~~

Update: As you can see from the last line in this review, I fully intended to continue the series. However, after reading reviews of books 6-9, I realized it's a better idea to pretend the series ended here. I know I'd be disgusted with #6 and it seems the rest of the books have been disjointed and not as well planned as the first 5 books.

If you finished this book and are tempted to continue, I'll ask you to reconsider. Most of my friends who have, regretted the decision. ...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Shan ~A~ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-featuring-books, age-gap, audio, family, in-series-or-trilogy, mystery, romance, millionaire-billionaire, paranormal, urban-fantasy

*Reread 05/28/2023
As always, every single time I've done a reread of this series I find something new (or maybe I'm just reminded of things I've forgotten).

This book is the ending of one phase and the beginning of what's to come. We get a lot of answers, but we are also left with enough questions to want to know more. It's actually done in such a way that I don't feel like I have to continue, but I HAVE TO CONTINUE.

This book is all about the revelations. There were so many and even though I kn ...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Melissa Wehunt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, action-adventure, fantasy-faeries, fantasy-fae, urban-fantasy, unseelie

Loved it! It was a brilliant end. And no matter what many people said about 'open ends,' I didn't feel there were any. Everything wrapped up in two beautiful book covers! Great read...perfect ending! ...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Jamie ~ Bad Boy Inspector rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-urban-fantasy, subject-pn-fae, subject-pn-other-par-creatures, read-2011

Mac & Barrons you will be missed!!!!

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Jul 12, 2023 Marla rated it really liked it

Shelves: with-reservations, adventure, series, demons, adult, dystopia, fantasy, romance, paranormal, girl-power

3.5 stars. This feels like the end of the series. Mac and friends and allies band together to hunt the Sinsar Dubh. We learn many things that have been mysterious or unknown until now. I wish that all this info had been spread out in the last few books instead of cramming everything into this one book.

I am a bit torn over whether I will continue to listen to this series. I am not thrilled with Mac, though it was intense to see Mac and Barrons together. And Dani was an interesting character but ...more

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