Contracting a Case of Faefever

Can I just begin by saying that I never expected the turn this book would take? Faefever, the third book in the “Fever” series, has left me not knowing whether I should be excited or cautious to read the next book in the series… note that Karen Marie Moning does not pull any punches in this book! I didn’t think it was going to be possible to up the ante on the second book. I should have known better.

The story grows more sordid as the plans of the forces of evil begin to knot together to form a dark tapestry over the city of Dublin.  The future bodes ill for our heroine Mac (a sidhe-seer, someone who can see and sense the otherworldly beings known as the Fae).

One thing that intrigued me from the beginning was the relationship—strained and untenable—between Mac and Jericho Barrons(her mysterious employer). By the end of this book, I am really not sure I understand why he continues to help her, and I am even more mystified why it seems that everyone is obsessed with getting in her pants. Not that I am not left cringing and worrying about Mac by the end of the book, because at this point, I am thinking the end must be near, right? I don’t know, and I hate not knowing.

What I do know is that somehow, when Mac is under a dark influence, she is ever more attracted to Jericho. Mac continues to persist in forming some sort of bond with Jericho in the hopes that it will mean she will know more about him. But the harder she tries, the harder he pushes her away.

I was really hopeful at the end of the second book that they had reached a sort of breaking point, and things were going to begin to make sense. He helps her in her effort to improve her skills and be better at defending herself, and it seems that it draws them closer. Just when I think they have reached the threshold to take it to the next level, he literally shoves her against a wall, or pins her down and gets angry with her.

It seems that Jericho is committed to keeping Mac at an arm’s length.  Perhaps he is attempting to protect her by pushing her away so as to prevent what his nature desires? There is evidence that had she been a different person, and not a great OOP (objects of power—Fae relics) detector, they would have already done the deed. What I also know is that somehow, V’lane, the death-by-sex Fae, is interested in pleasing her and winning her trust.

We get to know more about additional characters and more background info on the murderer responsible for her sister’s death.  Sex in the Fevered world is a source of power and control; it somehow bonds Fae and Humans, but with way too many side effects and with a lot of consequences, none of them good.

I will say that I am somewhat disappointed at where the book left off in the story as the turn of events, though possibly inevitable, were of the sort I was hoping her association with Barrons and or V’lane would be able to prevent for Mac indefinitely. Nothing is as unpleasant as the knowledge that she was overwhelmed by the Fae presence of the Unseelie (evil Fae) variety and being turned into the thing she was most repulsed by. I will be interested to see how Moning takes this and spins it into the next book in the series.