Book Review: Dreamfever (Fever #4), by Karen Marie Moning

Dreamfever
Karen Marie Moning

Let me start by saying this:

What the hell did I just read?

I think I know what I read. I mean, I know what *happened*, I just don't know to *whom*...though my gut is leading me down a dark path of enlightenment, without a flashlight, or a candle, or even a match...and I don't like what my gut is telling me. This was the mudda of all cliff-hanging endings. Thankfully Marie's already written the next installment. Thankfully I already have it.

But I don't know if I want to know what happens next. OMG!

OK, I usually don't start with the ending, but obviously, this ending got to me. Sort of like eating desert before dinner, which people do. I've seen it. I've partaken in that delightful bizarro world of dining.

Anyway, I digress.

We start with Barrons bringing Mac back from the brink of insanity, because she was physically, emotionally and mentally brutalized at the end of Book 3. I didn't think it could be done...I thought at the end of Book 3 it was the end of Mac. I thought Marie was going to have to switch to someone's elses point of view because there was *no way* Mac could continue the story. Silly me. Barrons is the Shit, and he got the job done. His technique was rather, er, shall we say, unorthodox, but hey, Mac is Back.

In Book 4, we still had a tight, gripping read. Not a fast-paced grip like Book 3 (which I preferred, actually), but a slow-paced grip. Marie does a foine job of drawing her characters. One of my faves is Dani, a 13-year- old spunk of a gal, fast as a whip, loyal to the core, and the courage of a lion. She has a distinctive voice...you don't even need a tag line with Dani...you know who she is.

No one annoys me more than Rowena. I like how Mac calls her "old woman" instead of by her name. I don't know if Rowena is dense, evil, or just plain selfish. I. Don't. Like. Her.

There's a lot of maneuvering in this book, and we see glimpses of the old selfish Mac. The Me! Me! Me! Mac. I'm not sure I like that Mac. I didn't like her in Book 1, and she was annoying me in Book 4. But maybe that's how all leaders are born...arrogant and selfish.

But damn, by the end, I felt sorry for the girl. She's lost it all. She's alone. She's raw.

I have to see what happens next! I can't wait to see what happens next!