Iced by Karen Marie Moning

Fever, #6

URBAN FANTASY/PNR

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.

“Who and what we surround ourselves with is who and what we become. In the midst of good people, it is easy to be good. in the midst of bad people, it is easy to be bad.”

I’ve put off reading this book forever for two reasons – one, I’ve heard so many downer reviews about it, and second, I was never a Dani fan other than small doses. I can tolerate the kid’s overexcited cuteness depending on what’s going on, and I dug her loyalty to Mac and issues with authority, but sometimes her dialogue got on my nerves, especially the stupid word “feck” she’s always touting. Since I loved the first five books told singular point of view through Mac, that’s what I’ve been used to up to this point.

My first concern was that this would be an irritating book because of Dani getting on my nerves – imagine my surprise when it was almost everyone else who drove me up the wall instead. Besides overdoing on “dude” and sometimes getting too try-hard on the humor, it was everyone else I despised.

Ryodan is especially an ass. Who needs sex every night with random women? I’m not a prude but seriously, after thousands of years it would get old without an emotional bond. Does the author think this makes a man more attractive because he’s such a sexual being? If anything the lack of emotion and animalistic view on it was a turn-off. I was especially mad about the Jo thing. How cruel to do to Dani. Not because I’m into some pedo-bond or am excited about them being together in the future when she’s legal, but because it’s her friend who was only there to protect her, so it seems predatory to prey on her. He calling her “Kid” grew so irritating. Overdone.

And why wouldn’t Ryodan care about the sword and Jayne treating her so badly? How many times will Ryodan threaten her and be such a douche?

Why is Christian suddenly an insane man so obsessed with Dani? I get he’s changing, but his hatred toward humans doesn’t make sense. V’Lane and the other fae learned disdain over time because of their immortality compared to humans, but Christian developing this disdain isn’t realistic. Besides this, why this attraction to Dani – besides being disturbing (yech) doesn’t make any sense. The series has never done soul mates, it’s just weird. Plus he’s now an ass. I liked him before and was interested in what would happen with him, but this book kind of killed that, so…

Jayne is SO obnoxious, what a creep. Even Mac’s mother’s one scene was so annoying. She refused to listen to Dani try to explain anything, kept interrupting her, refuses to see Ryodan in a bad light – how is that possible? Nothing wrong with disagreeing, but don't be rude and dismissive about it for manner's sake. I think with the author wanting him as a love interest for Dani later she’s trying to change the stuff he did earlier (like kidnapping and threats) to try to make him be a mixture of a good guy and a bad, but it’s not working for me.

And the shifting points of view are just weird --- don't do first person point of view when you don't have a solely first person novel because it's just awkward. The invented story of the ice thing is decently interesting, and I loved her friend Dancer, but otherwise....twilight zone stuff. I don't like how Dani has to feel so involved because she's so trapped --- made ME start feeling trapped after awhile. And of course a small cliffhanger, grrr.

And if Cruce can so easily communicate with the sidhe-seers, he clearly wasn't anchored down strong in the first place. With the confusion of the door not being sealable, makes me suspicious that the King kind of wants him to get free --- otherwise why is it so easy?

I wanted to read this one in case I missed anything important before continuing the other Mac books, but really there is little here other than asshole characters, their unsettling attraction to 14-year old Dani, weird writing that seems downhill, and frustration. Still, there were some good parts – more Fever series, seriously funny stuff with the music selection during the battle, the intro of the disturbing Night Hag, some decently done fight scenes. Lor was particularly amusing later on.