'Blood Rites' (#6 of the Dresden Series) by Jim Butcher

Dresden lives in a spot on my heart right next to the Southern Vampire Mysteries. It is in this way that my reviews for both series are terribly skewed. That said, 'Blood Rites', by Jim Butcher, the sixth in a long chain of tales, is my favorite.

For fear of giving away too much - because that's so easy to do with these - this one has Dresden finding a puppy, getting himself hired to solve a mystery surrounding a porn set, all while working to try and defeat a new Black Court vampire nest.  In true Dresden style, he stumbles his way through it all, cracking jokes, making deals (that may, or may not end up working in his favor), and taking names. 

Seriously though, if you've never picked up a book in the series I urge you, (once again), to get out there and get cracking! This series is too good to miss. And if you're a Dresden fan already... well, you probably read this one years ago, but if you haven't gotten to it yet, this one is absolutely worth the read.

'The Fever Series', 5 Books by Karen Marie Moning

Before starting this review I feel like I need to make an admission: I needed to force myself to write it. 

When I started writing these reviews a few months ago I promised myself (and the lovely ladies of B4R who will take away my book privileges if I don’t post a review for the monthly reads *gasp!*) that I’d review every title, in any genre, no matter what my opinion of the read. But after nearly a month of typing something out, deleting everything, starting over (with a disappointed little huff), and letting this review discourage me from getting on with my reading, my reviewing and my life, I realized that sometimes you just gotta plow ahead. Write what comes to mind and readers be damned (not you of course – just saying).

Not that I haven’t had trouble getting my opinion coherently expressed in a post before, but for whatever reason ‘The Fever Series’ by KarenMarie Moning was both tough to read through and equally as difficult to write about, but here’s the true conundrum folks: these books weren’t poorly written. They weren’t filled with plot holes. The characters were colorful and even the unlikeable ones were well developed. The idea unique and the world was new. 

So what was the problem? Well – it’s the little things that nag at me. Take the protagonist for instance. MacKayla Lane is cut from the same cloth, heck, she’s cut from the same exact fabric pattern, as Sookie Stackhouse. Now I know what you’re thinking. “But you love the Southern Vampire Novels!”

Yes. Yes I do. 

But Mac just feels wrong. I don’t know how else to put it. She takes all the snotty, stuck-up, self-centered and truly unremarkable pieces of Sookie and leaves most of the character growth and warmth behind. However, having an unlikeable pink princess for a lead isn’t the only piece of ‘Fever’ that left me scratching my head.

Ireland felt wrong too. It truly felt like the only places in the whole of Dublin were Temple Bar and not Temple Bar. None of the characters really spoke like the Irish – that is to say the author didn’t use any real modern Irish lingo to color their heritage appropriately. Instead, the dialogue would reflect a strange twang that seemed more uneducated than accent. 

Lastly, there’s the character of Barrons. Oh Barrons – a beast of a man that MacKayla can’t get her barring on. I could probably dissect the relationship here in detail but I’ll save you the long form and just say this: On some level Barrons reminded me of Christian Grey. Not because he had some kinky, distorted, bondage fascination, but because he possessed that same odd need to control everything about Mac.

And that’s it everyone. Overall, the five books in that make up the ‘Fever’ series are good enough to recommend to people who enjoy the fantasy, young adult genre. My personal feelings of the two main characters aside, it was well done and the ending was a clever surprise, but I won’t be rereading them anytime soon.