Review ~ Iced by Karen Marie Moning

Title: Iced: A Dani O'Malley Novel

Length: 512 pages (kindle)

Released: October 30th 2012 by Delacorte Press

"I make a discovery that totally blows...dying is the easy part.
It's coming back to life that sucks."

The year is 1 AWC—After the Wall Crash. The Fae are free and hunting us. It’s a war zone out there, and no two days are alike. I’m Dani O’Malley, the chaos-filled streets of Dublin are my home, and there’s no place I’d rather be.

Dani “Mega” O’Malley plays by her own set of rules—and in a world overrun by Dark Fae, her biggest rule is: Do what it takes to survive. Possessing rare talents and the all-powerful Sword of Light, Dani is more than equipped for the task. In fact, she’s one of the rare humans who can defend themselves against the Unseelie. But now, amid the pandemonium, her greatest gifts have turned into serious liabilities.

Dani’s ex–best friend, MacKayla Lane, wants her dead, the terrifying Unseelie princes have put a price on her head, and Inspector Jayne, the head of the police force, is after her sword and will stop at nothing to get it. What’s more, people are being mysteriously frozen to death all over the city, encased on the spot in sub-zero, icy tableaux.

When Dublin’s most seductive nightclub gets blanketed in hoarfrost, Dani finds herself at the mercy of Ryodan, the club’s ruthless, immortal owner. He needs her quick wit and exceptional skill to figure out what’s freezing Fae and humans dead in their tracks—and Ryodan will do anything to ensure her compliance.

Dodging bullets, fangs, and fists, Dani must strike treacherous bargains and make desperate alliances to save her beloved Dublin—before everything and everyone in it gets iced.

My Thoughts:

Warning: MEGA crazy fan ramblings ahead!!

I hate this woman! I fecking do!! But I also LOVE her so much!! Karen is the Shit as Dani would say. But Dude! This is pure torture, ending the books the way she does is just 150% E-V-I-L!!
I swear she's a fecking fae and enjoys torturing us, mere mortals.

But, if you ever had any doubts about Iced... Drop it, crash it, forget it!
because Karen totally nailed it! I've got the ICED fever (yeah, I love the irony of that too)!

Iced. Is. A-fecking-mazing.

Take it from a fan who never liked Dani... until now!!

Iced has one of the best prologues I've ever read! It was so captivating, so dark, so amazingly written that I actually read it twice. I's one page but it completely and permanently sucks you in. And just to be clear...

Iced is definitely NOT YA!

It’s a minefield outside that door. Walk lightly. Your parents’ rules don’t apply. Do be afraid of the dark. And if you’re thinking there might be a monster under your bed or in your closet, there probably is. Get up and check.
Welcome to Planet Earth.
This is our world now—one that doesn’t know its own rules.
(...)
I’m Dani “Mega” O’Malley.
I’m fourteen.
It’s a war zone out there. No two days are alike.
And there’s no place else I’d rather be.

The blurb tells you everything you have to know about the plot. I admit, I had my doubts, because I didn't really like Dani in the previous books, in fact I found her pretty annoying.

Frankly, I don't know what changed, I think it's because ICED is darker than Mac's books were and Dani's voice, style fits just perfectly into this world. She really cracks me up with her style. Also she's one of the few most inspiring heroines out there. In spite of her young age, her views of life are really food for thought.

"Procrastinating is number three on my Stupid List. You still end up exactly where you didn’t want to be, doing exactly what you didn’t want to do, with the only difference being that you lost all that time in between, during which you could have been doing something fun. Even worse, you probably stayed in a stressed-out, crappy mood the whole time you were avoiding it. If you know something is inevitable, do it and get it over with. Move on. Life is short."

Like I said she cracks me up. Her mania of being a superhero and the best of the best very entertaining.

“And I’m going to go in there why?” I can’t see a single reason to take such a risk. I like living. I like it a lot.
“Kid, Batman needs Robin.”
Dude. I go all soft and melty inside and swallow a dreamy sigh. Robin to his Batman! Superhero partners. There are lots of versions where Robin gets way stronger. He could have had me at hello if he’d said that first. “You don’t want me to work for you. You want a superhero partner. That’s a whole different story. Why didn’t you just say so?”

Dani is kick-ass, everybody knows how tough and fierce she is. Seeing a good dose of her life makes the reader love her more. She had to grow up fast and that wasn't easy. Now she does her best to protect HER city and her people from the Fae. And she CAN carry the book on her own. Even if there weren't Ryo or Christian or any of the nine or any man, her book would be still fine!

I wouldn't say this is an action packed book, but that 495 pages do contain a pretty good amount of action. Still it's exciting from the beginning, because the mystery is always there. The mystery about certain characters and the main mystery to solve. What the bloody hell is that freezing Fae and humans dead and why and how can they kill it. If they can kill it. I loved the whole story. It's captivating, interesting and definitely kept me reading. It will have readers too, trying to figure out who or what is behind the freezing and same for the "why" and the "how to kill it" part.

So why isn't this book YA? Because it's dark, means folks are constatnly dying, usually really painfully, some scenes contain sexual content (mostly because of Cruce - yes! He's back...sort of.) and/or false language... I mean Ryodan IS in the book for feck's sake!

Speaking of Ryodan... I love him! I was always a V'lane fan, and maybe just a little Barrons fan, but Ryo basically is now head-to-head with V'lane! I wasn't really interested in him before, but boy, he changed it! I love his coldness, his (sick)humour, and that he actually cares for Dani, but it doesn't change him. Anyway, Ryodan and Dani together is PRICELESS!!

"Half your face is a bruise and the other half is recovering from one. Have you looked in a mirror lately?”
“That ain’t because I’m a sloppy freeze-framer. It’s because of stupid jerk-ass Ryodan.”
“Stupid jerk-ass Ryodan is going to break both your legs if you take one more step,” Ryodan says right behind us.
I whirl on him. “Why are you always stalking me?”
“You’re always making me.”

Other recurrent characters are Christian, Kate, Dancer, Jo, Lore and Cruce. Barrons and Mac are present, only for a brief moment and have one or two lines, like “I’m going to kill the kid,”. But to be honest, I didn't really miss them. I was totally fine with the "new" crew.

There are point of view changes in this book. We're usually in Dani's head, but sometime we get a glimpse of Kate's life along with what's happening with the sidhe-seers, and we also can see what's up with Christian.

I loved Christian's pov, he's kinda like a mix between Ryodan, V'lane and the Christian we got to know in the previous books. He's really protective of Dani... maybe a bit too much, we could say he's obsessed with her... Possible love story for the future books, maybe? ;)

But Kate's pov was a bit boring to me. I don't have any problem with her character, and knowing what's going on with Cruce and the sidhe-seers isn't bad either, but still, those parts didn't really hold my interest. Usually, that was the part where I had to take a break. And she was driving me nuts by saying "My Sean" every fecking time she mentioned her soulmate!!

Dancer isn't a new character either. Dani mentioned him in one the early books, but he is a good one, too. The kid is a genius! I want a BFF like him. The boy deserves credit for not being a coward that's for sue!!

“Difficult though you all might find it to believe,” Dancer says, “we’ve got bigger problems than your egos. Listen up. We need to talk. Let’s go inside. It’s bloody cold out here.”
Ryodan looks at him hard a sec and I can tell by the look on his face he doesn’t like what he’s seeing with his weird X-ray vision. “Whatever you have to say can be said here. Now.”
“You’re such an asshole,” Dancer says. “Periodically I suffer the brief delusion you might wise up. Brief.”
Jo and Christian look at Dancer like they think he must have a death wish.

This book is full of infos and I bet full of hints which we can't see and put together until we didn't read the next books. Because that's how Ms. Monning's mind works. I love puzzles!!

Why I give the book only 4,5 stars instead of 5, besides my problem with the parts of Kate's pov, is because Dani and Dancer were fecking smart, but there's a part when they're figure out what's the killing-icy thing is after and why it's freezing specific places/folks, and Dani basically says the answer out loud but no one seems to put it together, until a few minutes later she switches to her other personality - a much darker, colder one - to run through the facts and solve the mystery AGAIN. Then she switches back and whoala, she says it again with different words and everybody gets it! I, for one, understood it for the first time too. I guess this was just for us, readers to see she has this "other" personality. But Karen could have done it in other way... Anyway, I couldn't have figure out myself what's the thing is after. I thought about everything, but that one. Nice one, Ms. Moning!

The ending was a cliffhanger. Surprised? I wasn't. It's a Moning book, dammit! But I think if you remember the end of Shadowfever, then it's not really a cliffhanger, because I'm pretty sure about what will NOT happen.

Overall: All I want to say is that, even if you had serious doubts for whatever reason, like Dani, or Ryo, or anything... Don't let it hold you back. If you're a fan of the Fever series, then ICED is a MUST READ. Personally, I think Iced was BETTER than any of the other Fever books so far. If I had the permission, I would have quote the whole book! And don't forget, this is NOT YA!

P.S.: Forget BB&B! I want the Unseelie King's library!!!

P.S.II: The book cover killed me!! What a piece of awesomeness!! Wish I had the book in Hardcover :(

Favourite character(s): Dani & Ryodan

Favourite scene(s): Every scene with Dani and Ryo! But there was a part when Dani, Ryo, Christian and Lore were arguing about MUSIC -yeah, it's fecking nearly end of the world, and they're arguing about music...- which was hella funny. I literally laughed out loud at it. Also the scene from which I choose my favorite quote...

Favorite quote(s): The entire book, but I think this one (it's not the whole qoute, but i don't want to give too much away)