Mel's Review : 'Burned' by Karen Marie Moning

Title: Burned

Series: Fever #7

Author: Karen Marie Moning

Blurb:

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.

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Mel’s Review:

Burned is the seventh book in the Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning. This is an urban fantasy/dystopian series with a lot of adult themes and subject matter.  I dove into this book expecting to be just as wowed as I’d been by Iced. After all, why have an ENTIRE book devoted to a fabulous character and then just allow them to fade away into nothingness. WHO FREAKING KNOWS, BUT THAT’S WHAT SHE DID. I am rarely so unhappy with a book. Especially by an author I adore in a series I have enjoyed for the most part. But this book was a ginormous let down to me. I feel like I spent the entirety of this book just waiting endlessly for something exciting or interesting to happen. Anything. I would have taken anything.

Unfortunately, this might as well have been titled Mac’s Never-Ending Whine-Fest with tiny bits of other disjointed character arcs that felt tossed in and confusing. You get an all too fleeting glimpse at Dani at the beginning, and then Mac takes over. From then on out, it’s confusing snippets from the Unseelie King and his concubine, Christian, Lor and Kat. Mostly it’s Mac whining and being reckless and full of herself. Nothing exciting. Nothing new. It felt drawn out and unnecessary, honestly. Like a giant waste of time. This book does not complement  Iced in any way, shape or form. It was more like a slap in the face to anyone who enjoyed it. I don’t want to spoil, we don’t do that, but just suffice to say I’m not a happy girl.

Don’t get me wrong, the writing is flawless, as always. The glimpses of Lor and Ryodan and even the insight into Dani’s past from Ryodan were all appreciated and enjoyable. But overall, the feeling I was left with was ick. I loathed the ending, I loathed the beginning and most of the middle. I am seriously hoping it gets better. But from what I’ve read, it’s turned back into Mac’s story so I don’t know if I will read the rest of the series or not.  

My Rating:

 About the Author: 

“The only other calling I ever felt was an irrepressible desire to be Captain of my own Starship. I was born in the wrong century and it wasn’t possible, so I chose to explore the universe by writing fiction instead. Books are doors to endless adventure.” -KMM

Karen Marie Moning is the #1 NYT bestselling author of the Fever Series and Highlander novels.

An alum of the Immaculate Conception Academy, at seventeen she attended Purdue University where she completed a BA in Society & Law, with minors in Philosophy, Creative Writing and Theatre, while working full time as a bartender and computer consultant. She intended to go to law school but after an internship with a firm of Criminal Attorneys, decided against it. For the next decade, she worked in insurance, where she wrote intercompany arbitrations and directed commercial litigation. At the age of thirty, she decided it was time to get serious and do what she’d always wanted to do: write fiction novels.

Beyond the Highland Mist was published in 1999 and nominated for two RITA awards. She then published six more novels in her award-winning HIGHLANDER series, and received the RITA Award in 2001 for The Highlander’s Touch.

In 2004, she began writing the #1 New York Times bestselling FEVER series. The books have been optioned twice for potential franchise development by Twentieth Century Fox and DreamWorks Studios, but the rights are currently held by Moning who has expressed a desire to one day see it as a television series. Her novels have been published in over thirty countries. She divides her time between Ohio and Florida and is working on two future projects for Random House Publishing.    

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Website- http://karenmoning.com/