Before I go immediately into why I didn't finish SHADOWFEVER, let me give you a little background.

I have been a fan of Karen Marie Moning since she published her first book back in 1999. I had just left the military and had moved to the Atlanta area. Karen Marie Moning's Agent Deidre Knight lived in the Atlanta area and at the time there was a lot of buzz about Karen and her work. Out of curiosity, I brought her first release and loved it. You must remember this was pre-Twilight and even pre-Harry Potter. I think at the time only the first Harry Potter book had been published. Of course, there were other authors who wrote paranormal, but what Ms. Moning had done at the time (a historical, paranormal romance) was unique and I loved her books. You also must remember that during this time publishers were culling their authors from publication rolls, so a lot of mid list historical romance authors were being cut by their publishers, leaving the rumor in romanceland that historical romance was dead. At the time romanceland was freaking out about that and I remember a lot of authors had to adjust their thinking to stay afloat in the business. A lot of authors switched genres to keep their careers afloat. And around all this drama, Karen released her first novel and it was a success.

I also think that it's important for some of her newer readers to understand that Ms. Moning was a New York Times Bestselling Author with a very extensive fan base long before the FaeFever series was released, and I was one of those readers who had read her stuff from her first book, and went to the bookstore on release day to buy her books. Even when she first went to hard cover, I still ran to the store to buy her latest release.

Since Karen Marie Moning was one of my favorite romance authors, I was a frequent visitor to her web-site. Prior to the release of Darkfever she had warned her readers that this series was going to be totally different from what she had been writing in the past. Yet, when Darkfever was released, I remember seeing how many people were disappointed that it wasn't a traditional romance. I myself, even though I didn't have a blog and didn't review at the time, went on Amazon where people were giving Darkfever bad reviews and blasted those people for being annoyed that Darkfever wasn't what they had been expecting. I mean come on, didn't they pay attention to her endless warning telling them that this was different? While I was disappointed in that first book didn't have a resolution and a complete lack of romance (I thought Barrons was an ass from the moment he appeared on the page, and I still don't get you guys fascination with him), I was such a fan of Karen's that I was willing to trust her to take me on the journey.

I must admit that I got bored with that journey after the second book and nothing looked like it was going to be resolved any time soon. Karen Marie Moning went from becoming a must buy author to me, to an author whose books I picked up at my local library. While I liked where she was going with the world building, I am a romance reader at heart and I read romance for the . . . romance. So at that time I decided to read her books because I was curious about Mac's journey and because in the back of my mind I was hoping that the Kelter's would make a prominent appearance.

Of course, during this timeframe, Harry Potter saved Hogwarts and Bella gave birth to the exorcist baby so a lot of those adult readers transitioned over to the romance genre, (This is me waving . . . welcome!) and began devouring paranormal and urban fantasy romance. However, you come with a lot of baggage. You are so used to seeing your heroes behave like abusive pricks (cough, cough Edward Cullen) that you don't seem to mind that Barron's is a complete and total bonehead (but he's sexy . . . I can hear you guys screaming in my ear). This is me rolling my eyes.




Umm, sorry about that, I totally couldn't resist throwing that in there. My bad. Back to my post.

So now, SHADOWFEVER has released. I'm on twitter seeing all the tweets, people have called off from work to read the book. They are all gaga and excited. It's the best thing ever. And I'm thinking, well I'm glad their happy. Meanwhile, I see that my library actually has SHADOWFEVER and since I was the first to put a hold on it, it's actually waiting for me at the library on release day. So I go to the library, pick it up, and sit it on my dining room table and think, 'am I really in the mood to read this right now?' Not really.

SHADOWFEVER sits on that table for a couple days. I pick it up Friday after work and start reading through it. And I'm like, really. I keep reading. I'm not interested. I keep reading. I see my kids playing around. Hmm. I'm so not interested in this book. Before when Barrons always got on my nerves, I still liked Mac, but now, Mac is getting on my nerves and does Karen have to waste so many pages with Mac's never ending whiny, boring, internal dialogue? Umm, I'm thinking when I'm reading when is something going to happen. This is boring, I think. I just don't want to be inside Mac's head anymore. I get on Twitter, and say really guys, you've been saying this is the best book ever? You didn't mind the endless internal monologue? The response I get is, well, I kinda skimmed through those parts. But, I say, you gave this book the highest reviews? How can you give a book such a high review when you skimmed the pages? To me a high review is that you were riveted by each word on the page, that you were transported, that you wanted to ignore your kids running around the house playing because you couldn't take your eyes away from the book? So, how can you give a book a high review that you skimmed over? Really? The response I get is, Lynette, you're so funny! Okay, I guess, I'm funny like that. So, I get off Twitter, I put down the book, and play with my kids. And I haven't picked the book back up and I have absolutely no interest in doing so. So, SHADOWFEVER is going back to the library unfinished.

And that's my SHADOWFEVER story.