DarkFever - Karen Marie Moning

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning was released in 2006 and unlike her previous Highlander novels, is both first person and not a romance. Instead this novel is a mix of paranormal and suspense.

When her sister is murdered far from home in Ireland, Mackayla Lane drops everything to find a way to get to the bottom of just what destroyed her sister and left her body in such a disgusting state. In the course of her early investigation Mac quickly learns that all is not as it seems. There are things moving just out of the corner of her eye. People only she and a handful of others can see, and monsters stalking through the streets.

Mac is a Sidhe Seer, one of those rare people who is capable of seeing the Fae, both light and dark, despite the glamour they can use to hide themselves. But people like her have been hunted by the Sidhe, and with the barrier coming down more and more of the Unseelie, the dark Sidhe, are making their way into her world, feeding on the life of humanity.

It isn't real.

It can't be happening.

But that doesn't prevent Mac from being thrown directly into the middle of it all. And when she stumbles on a message left by her sister, a plea to find a book, she quickly finds herself working with a man who infuriates her beyond belief, Barrons. A man also looking for the book and a man she knows, in her gut, isn't entirely human.

Darkfever is unlike anything else I've read by Ms. Moning. I went in half expecting the paranormal romance I had come to love from her, and ended delighted with a paranormal thriller with not even a trace of a romantic subplot. Mac is an innocent at the start of all of this. She has no knowledge of this other world around her, and being thrust head first into it her reaction is believable and understandable. She's not a superwoman with a power of the month club, she's a down to earth young woman who expected to spend the rest of her life simply enjoying the world.

This remarkable novel is a must read for paranormal fans. It's not as blood thirsty as the original Blake novels, but the darkness in it certainly lives up to expectations for those searching for something dark and dangerous to curl up with for a night.