It’s easy to walk away from lies. Power is another thing.

MacKayla Lane would do anything to save the home she loves. A gifted sidhe-seer, she’s already fought and defeated the deadly Sinsar Dubh—an ancient book of terrible evil—yet its hold on her has never been stronger.

When the wall that protected humans from the seductive, insatiable Fae was destroyed on Halloween, long-imprisoned immortals ravaged the planet. Now Dublin is a war zone with factions battling for control. As the city heats up and the ice left by the Hoar Frost King melts, tempers flare, passions run red-hot, and dangerous lines get crossed.

Seelie and Unseelie vie for power against nine ancient immortals who have governed Dublin for millennia; a rival band of sidhe-seers invades the city, determined to claim it for their own; Mac’s former protégé and best friend, Dani “Mega” O’Malley, is now her fierce enemy; and even more urgent, Highland druid Christian MacKeltar has been captured by the Crimson Hag and is being driven deeper into Unseelie madness with each passing day. The only one Mac can depend on is the powerful, dangerous immortal Jericho Barrons, but even their fiery bond is tested by betrayal.

It’s a world where staying alive is a constant struggle, the line between good and evil gets blurred, and every alliance comes at a price. In an epic battle against dark forces, Mac must decide who she can trust, and what her survival is ultimately worth.

Book Type:

Urban Fantasy

Review: Burned

Fever fans, get ready. Karen Marie Moning is back, delivering the kind of spellbinding, addictive, twisted tale we love to devour. Magic and madness, intrigue and illusion, passion and power, sexual tension and more sexual tension —  Burned represents everything I love about the series. Mac, Barrons, Ryodan, Christian, Dani, Lor, Kat and so many others weave this story together, picking up where Iced left off, with Dani and Mac at a much-anticipated impasse. In an instant, Moning propels the story in an unexpected direction, which is both scary and exciting. She also explores the complicated dynamic of past relationships and the ever-shifting landscape of Dublin, as the powerful battle for dominion.

“Fire purifies and distills … Fire transforms. You must remember that when the time comes it seems only to ravage and destroy.”

One of the aspects I love about Burned is that we see more Barrons and Mac together … more of their mega-intense, superhot, set-the-world-ablaze kind of dynamic. They are always so attuned to each other, despite their constant antagonism. It’s an undeniable, fever-inducing connection that many times burns beneath the surface, between the beast that Barrons is and his “rainbow girl,” Ms. Lane.

“She’s chiffon and satin ribbons. I’m raw meat and razor blades.”

Despite the destruction of the Sinsar Dubh, its hold on Mac intensifies. Mac is the primary narrator in the book (although we also have seven other POVs), and we experience her struggles as new demons chase her and insecurities haunt her. The city she loves is under siege, and she needs to step up and fight once more. She needs to overcome the turmoil in her head and heart if she’s to again become the fierce sidhe-seer we’ve come to know and love.

“… when you fight evil every day, stare it in the face, engage it, learn to think like it, you face a choice: Be defeated by the limits of your own morality, or summon a beast in yourself that obeys none.”

In addition, in the terrible aftermath of the Hoar Frost King, there are new mysteries to unravel and solve before the world is sucked into darkness. Villains who made me shudder with their sheer brutality and creepiness. And past evildoers who return to fuel widening unrest. All of this, of course, while battles for power escalate and new characters emerge to threaten the already volatile faction of badasses.

And yes, yes, yes, oh yes, we get some more of that thrilling, rousing sexual tension for which Moning is renowned — you’ll have to read it to see exactly what and whom I refer to!

“Two wolves stand in this room, with a complicated past and an uncertain future, their lips a breath apart, and I’m not sure if they’ll kiss or kill each other.”

All in all, Burned is a book that shouldn’t be missed. Thrilling, suspenseful, sexy — it has all the right stuff to delight the most ardent of Fever fans.