After being introduced to the Fae shattered Dublin streets in the Fever series universe by my better blogging half I couldn’t get through the 5 books fast enough… I was riveted, terrified, in love, entertained and finally despairing once I reached the end of the (series) road. Wtf! It was over and I still wanted to read so much more about this world! So what was next? This is where Dani ‘Mega’ O’Malley steps in… As a character introduced near the last of the Fever books I could take her or leave her. She was 14, kind of annoying and totally not the top of my list of characters that I was turning my kindle on every chance I could to read about (ahem, helloooooo Jerricho Barrons!) So I was hesitant to begin Iced. Iced is the start of a series featuring Dani, still set in the same reality as fever. Picking back up where Shadowfever left off, 1 AWC (After the wall crash) Would 14 year old Dani be able to have me as addicted to a fae riddled world as 22 year old Mac did? Almost not.
Imagine a world that doesn’t know its own rules. No cell phones. No internet. No stock market. No money. No legal system. A third of the world’s population wiped out in a single night and the count rising by the million every day. The human race is an endangered species.
Firstly, my life issues with this book.
A 14 year old girl amidst a world fractured with Faery. She’s braver than I’d be! But here’s my biggest issue…. She’s 14. If she had even aged a couple of years i wouldn’t have found some of the interactions so almost icky (for lack of a better word!). I get you have to distort your view of the world in these books, I mean people are being fed on like McDonalds by all kinds of creepy Fae characters (like the things that gave me the heebies at night, shades) But a 14 year old is a 14 year old. That is inescapable. The people…ha! Beings obsessed with said 14 year old…. Creepy ex highlander – almost Unseelie Fae Prince stalker….erm, ok then… Some kind of never-ending powerful creature man who seems to have an agenda…yes indeed…..and the only character that should probably have a thing for the young heroine, another teenager, a genius one at that. Didn’t see that piece of normal coming did you!
No matter how much I love reading KMMs description and stories of this world I just can’t get away from the fact the main character is basically just out of her tweens, with men blatantly attracted to her. The creepy meter gets ridiculous in instances when the almost Unseelie Fae Prince announces ‘shes worth waiting for’ blegh!!! He makes numerous similar statements and none of them give you a warm fuzzy feeling. It doesn’t escape me that this is probably intended. But how far is too far when you are talking a young girl and her sexuality (or more aptly a sexuality that’s being pushed on her from others) I kept thinking KMM would skip forward in time and we’d be seeing an older version of Dani. Nope, no such luck in this book. But there are more on the way so here’s hoping before this young girl/2 older men thing becomes any creepier, the age gap is closed to something my stomach can deal with.
Another thing on my issue list… Ryoden and Dani. Why does this feel like a mirror of the relationship that Mac and Barrons had in the fever series. Cut through the superficial stuff and its still a female character clueless about the subtle back and forth between them, a big bad powerful guy watching out for her, winding her up, being driven ‘bugfuck’ by her, cramping her style (according to her), being secretive and immortal. Same same same!!! Too much the same in my opinion! Is it just what these guys do? It’s like its part of their description. Tall, dark, ruggedly handsome, powerful, wild animal tendencies, secretive, hard to kill and drawn to unstable much younger gifted girls but wont communicate openly to state such facts because remember…they are secretive…
Now aside from all of that, here’s the good stuff.
I did get totally lost in and enjoyed different parts the story. I loved how once in a while chapters were from other characters perspectives, such as Christian (ex highlander, currently transforming into an Unseelie Fae prince) and Kat the tormented interim Grand mistress of side-seers. It gave the story variety and allowed the book to cover more ground surrounding the goings on than if it had just been written solely from Danis POV.
I still loved reading about planet earth and faery combined into the twisted deadly world it now is. The care taken to build up the descriptions of the world, layer more detail on top of what I already knew from the Fever books, what it looked like and felt like. From the freezing temperatures, destitute humans and serious lack of food, the beautiful white mansion in Faery, the depths and levels of Chesters, right to the tethered IFP blazing with heat outside the abbey. The new monsters (shout out to papa roach and his liposuction abilities and the truly horrific Crimson hag… Ugh. I. Just. Cannot.) I thought the story coming through of Danis childhood helped pad her character out. Suddenly some of her quirks had reason… and last but not least, my inner fan-girl needs to come out and DIE over the fact that Barrons, Ryoden, Lor and the rest of that group of mysterious men/not men are still just so friggen awesome/Unexpectedly funny/scary it hurts! There’s no food to be found but here’s a casual steak, mashed potato and milk. Pretty much describes those guys right there.
So we know that I’m a Fever fan. But am I a Dani O’Malley fan as well? Get her to grow up a lot age wise and maybe a bit maturity wise and I could be. Until then I’m on the fence. If you’re a fever fan then there is no harm in reading this book. It’ll take no time at all and at the least there are a couple of appearances from Mac and Barrons (Including one VERY bloody one and what I hope is some story building for more substantial appearances from them in the future) and a good general easy to read story line that keeps layering on the already diverse world in which its set. At the worst you’ll feel like me and still won’t love the main character…but if you are like me and love to get lost amongst the Seelie, Unseelie and humans, then knowing this won’t put you off, you’ll grit your teeth, deal with it, shut your wardrobe, turn on all of your lights and read anyway.
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