Darkfever is a hugely enjoyable book with an engaging heroine, MacKayla Lane, who recounts the way in which her life changed irrevocably following a telephone call from Dublin to say that her sister had been murdered. Mac, as the narrator, is looking back to events which happened over a year ago, so we occasionally are told things that she didn't know at the time as we follow her traveling from her small town in Georgia to Dublin to try and find out more about Alina's death.
Mac's investigations seem hopeless, yet she perseveres.
Her attention is soon taken by some very strange events - an odd woman accosting her, a strange vision of a handsome man turning into an evil monster, and some unusual shadows. When Mac meets Jericho Barrons, rich owner of a bookstore right next to a strangely dark and empty part of the city, she is forced to face up to some unwelcome new truths: that Mac has skills as a Sidhe-seer, and that her life is in danger.
Mac and Barrons team up in order to search for an ancient book that Alina was pursuing in order to try to defeat the Unseelies who are flooding into Dublin. Mac is given little information with which to work, Barrons being master of cryptic conversation, and her own mission to find Alina's killer is still important to her.
The writing style of this book is excellent with Mac, as narrator, an amusing character whose take on the world can be great fun, even as she's facing evil and dark things worse than she's ever considered. Her descriptions of some of the Unseelie are
fun, yet her sense of fear as her world falls apart is also well-written. Although billed as a romance, there's almost no romance in this story; it is clearly the beginning of a series, and there are some hints as to the romantic direction into which it will go. The only real drawback of this book is that it doesn't reach any kind of a resolution.
It just sets the reader on the path of Darkfever's world and makes the next book obligatory reading. This book feels rather like scene-setting for the major battle, which one assumes will come in a future book. It is still, however, a really enjoyable read with some great characters, a light and fresh writing style, and an interesting setting in Dublin.