Iced

Fever, Book 6

By: Karen Marie Moning

Narrated by: Phil Gigante, Natalie Ross

Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

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 few 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.

©2012 Karen Marie Moning (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

great listen on break

Loved all of it. I didn't realize that there were more after the last one.

Story is amazing but the reader is awful

Is there anything you would change about this book?

No, I love this series.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dani O'Malley

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Her attempt at an Irish accent is absolutely awful, it varies between English, Australian and Southern. I couldn't concentrate on the story and her inflection while reading is very odd and hard to listen to. I will avoid other books by this narrator.

Any additional comments?

I recommend this book as a story or to someone who has time to actually read but honestly I would tell someone to skip listening to it if that's their only option.

What a Megaverse!

Would you listen to Iced again? Why?

Most definitely! I really love Dani's character and was thrilled when she got her own book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dani and all her quirkiness. Such a confident individual. She's in no hurry to grow up and 14 is the perfect age to be. She pays attention to everthing but misses some of the blatantly obvious "adult" things going on around her. She's jaded and inocent at the same time.

What about Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross ’s performance did you like?

I think I love Phil. Natalie is great too, but I haven't listened to anything yet that Phil has done that I just haven't been in awe of his talent.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Dani lost it in Ryoden's office. I was right there with her every emotion. I ain't crying!

Any additional comments?

Fantastic series. Only days away from Burned being released!
Looking forward to Phil being JZB!!!!

I'm telling you it just doesn't get any better!

this author! these narrators!!!!! this series will absolutely blow you away. especially if you like me and you like a long slow burn. and the narrators make it that much hotter. best series ever!

Oh, KMM, you weave a MEAN tale! I <3 it!

So many of you have already dived in, and have read ICED ~ I've actually listened to it TWICE already, lol. Once by myself, and once during my commute w/ my nephew, who I've totally got hooked on the Fever series, too.

I've mulled over how I feel about it, where I want it to go, dadadadadada...

and here it is ~


At first, I wasn't warming up to Dani ~ I actually think I was still pissed at her on Mac's behalf. (If you haven't read the series, let me tell you this is one you really DO need to read in order, and all of them.) Once I could see my way past that, I see Dani has already done quite a bit of growing up ~ but she's still so full of herself that at times I just wanted to choke her, lol. But come on! She's 14, she basically IS a super hero, and look who her role models ARE!

So I've concluded that she's coming along pretty darn good ~ in this book we see her going to work for Ryodan, who we of course sort of got to know in the Fever series. You'll get to know him better in this book ~ and from the set up, a WHOLE lot better in coming books. He's litterally bribed and forced Dani into working for him to help him figure out what is freezing up certain parts of Dublin to the point that it is killing everything that exsists at that point and time ~ and he's been a sneaky bastard to do it.

But gah, I love this sexy, sneaky, bastard. I can't HELP it!


Then we have Christian MacKeltar ~ remember him? Well, he's turned almost ALL Fae Prince now, and he's decided that Dani is his one true love. But she's too young yet, so he's willing to wait...at a VERY close distance, w/ one eye on Ryodan the whole time.


Then we have, of course, Dancer. Dani has been friends w/ Dancer since the walls fell ~ we heard about him in the Fever series, but we really get to know him in this book, and I like the kid! And even just being human, his smarts DO make him a super hero, as Dani says, and make Ryodan & Christian and the others take note of what he says. And again, while he doesn't seem to be IN love with Dani, he certainly watches over her, and is concerned over her well being.


So...we see Dani grow up & mature quite a bit just during this book. She comes to some hard realizations about herself, and others she's surrounded herself with. There is of course the mystery of the ICE, but we also have the mystery of WHO will be Dani's hero...and while ALL these boys are quite a fews years her senior (OK, in Ryodan's case, millenium) I truly wasn't squicked out by it. Thought I would be ~ wasn't. I guess, with the immortality, and the simple fact that since the first page KMM introduced Dani, she's never really come across as a CHILD to me. The world as we know doesn't exsist any longer in this fictional world ~ and Dani has had to scrabble for every day of her exsistence. So yeah, I buy it. She's smarter, harder, faster & more mature than most adults, never mind teens.


I'm anxious and curious to see what is going to happen between Dani and Mac ~ I feel like Dani can't move much further along w/ her life until she faces that demon down. And what about the We Care? Gah, was pissed that was left hanging, but isn't that how each of the Fever books kept us hooked from book to book?


I'll tell you a secret ~ I really, REALLY want Dani to end up w/ Ryodan in my heart of hearts. I think they belong together ~ and yup, maybe that makes me one sick puppy, but I think they do!


So this was the Audio version ~ And WOW, Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross ROCKED it! FABULOUS doesn't even begin to describe how good it was ~ OMG, Ryodan's voice was uber sexy, and rowr for Lore (man, I hope we one day get his book!) and Dani's voice was perfect ~ and made me laugh when she got on one of her little feckin' tears. There wasn't a single thing about the audio version I didn't like ~ it played through my head like I was watching a movie!

Excellent!

What did you love best about Iced?

As entertaining as the Fever series, just as hot. Lots of fun, constantly keeps you on your toes. Well written. Great story that is extremely good.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Iced?

So many, yet the ending... Finally coming face to face with Mac.

Have you listened to any of Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Just as good.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Iced

Any additional comments?

Extremely entertaining, very hot. Pure Karen Marie Moning for those that know her.

FREAKIN' LOVED IT!

Would you consider the audio edition of Iced to be better than the print version?

Yes the voices were fantastic! I love the dual male and female narrators it was perfect!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Definately Dani, you can tell she's an arrogate teenagers and its awesome and funny.

What does Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

They really bring the characters to life with their awesome accented voices....I couldn't imagine voices that good.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When the great Dani O'Malley "Mega" teenage super hero brakes down and cries. Dani grows up just a little bit when she feels responsible for other peoples lives and shows regrets for her past actions.

Any additional comments?

This book isn't big on romance, but its not lacking in action and it definately keeps your attention. I am greatly looking forward to the next book in the series.

So So

I have read her other series, but found this book hard to stay with. My attention kept drifting. It's not bad, just so-so.

Narration was tough to listen to

This is the first book in the Dani O’Malley series which takes place after the last book in Moning’s Fever series. The second book in this trilogy, Burned, is scheduled for a Jan 2014 release. The third and final book, Flayed, is scheduled to release in 2015. I think that you could read this book without reading the original Fever series; there is a ton of recapping. Still if you really want to know what is going on here, you probably want to read the Fever books first.

I listened to this on audiobook and I wouldn’t recommend it. The audiobook had two different narrators, one who does the female voices and one who does the male voices. As a result the female voices are very high in sound and the male voices are very low. When you turn up the sound to hear the very low and deep male voice, the female voice comes across as shrill. It made the book hard to listen to. I was either straining to try and hear the male voices or wincing at the shrill female voices.

Dani O’Malley was a side character in the Fever series and this is the start of her story. Dani is a superhero of sorts, she is super fast and super tough and she has one of the only weapons that can actually kill Fey. When Ryoden’s club gets frozen solid (patrons and all) he forces Dani into a contract. He wants Dani to work with him to solve this mystery before more people and Fey are killed. Now Dani is facing off with something that might be more dangerous and evil than anything she’s ever faced before.

The book is told from many POVs, not just Dani’s. This didn’t add a lot to the story but just drew it out and fractured it.

Dani is incredibly obnoxious. She basically bitches and complains throughout the whole book. She yells at people and is mean to them, then is indignant when they won’t help her out. If you cut out all of Dani’s complaining the book would be a third shorter. Dani is also supposed to be a superhero of sorts, but she spends the vast amount of time either passed out or being rescued by the harem of men that lusts after her. I am not even going to go into how weird it is that she has all these older men lusting after her when she is only fourteen.

So, yeah, in a nutshell I thought Dani was an incredibly immature and obnoxious character and really didn’t enjoy her. I suppose that gives her a lot of room to grow in future books, but I am not sure I want to read more about Dani.

Next let’s talk about the men. You have Ryoden who is super sexy and super dangerous and has trapped Dani into working for him. He is creepy but strangely seems to care about Dani in a very uh...sexual way. Then you have Christian who is slowly turning into a Fey Prince, he is incredibly unstable, sex crazy, and has decided that him and Dani will be getting married. Seriously we hear about how hard Christian is a lot throughout the book, and it is just yucky.

The last man in Dani’s life is Dancer, and he is the only one who deserves his own paragraph. Dancer has been Dani’s friend for a long time, they kind of look out for each other with no strings attached. He is actually Dani’s age, but as the story goes on you realize he must have some pretty deep and dark secrets of his own. He was my absolute favorite character in this book; he is smart, supportive, and stands up to anyone (human or Other) who tries to harm Dani in anyway. I liked him. In a world of crazy he was something interesting and intriguing.

The world is completely insane. Basically this is after the war was lost and the Fey invaded Dublin (Earth?). Apparently realities can shift at will and you never know what will be around the corner. There is a lot of talk about people waking up in different realities and about horrible creepy crawlies...but honestly we don’t see much of that in the story. Most of the story is spent with Dani complaining and trying to manage her harem of testosterone driven men.

By the end of this book I just wanted it to be over. I loved the idea of this world, but the characters were obnoxious and overdone. Dani gets so distracted from the story by these crazy older man that want her, then there was the strange addition of the Crimson Hag. The Crimson Hag was kind of a cool enemy but her addition to the story seemed so last minute and contrived that I just kind of rolled my eyes at this part. Ugh, the whole thing was a bit of a mess.

Overall definitely not my favorite urban fantasy book. There is just too much in here that bugged me. I love the world and some of the characters are intriguing. But Dani is an absolute flop as a character for me, she is annoying and obnoxious and not someone I ever want to read about again. Even though the book features a fourteen year old girl it is definitely an adult read. Having all these older guys jonesing after Dani was super creepy too, I just didn’t enjoy reading about it. The story took too many detours from the actual main plot and all of the POVs throughout just served to draw things out. I will not be reading more books in this series and don’t recommend this new addition to the Fever series. Stick with other urban fantasy reads like Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series, Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniels series, or Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series.

Exciting

What did you love best about Iced?

I loved every bit of the book

What was one of the most memorable moments of Iced?

There are many memorable moments but my fav would be the part when the boys are trying save Dani and they are or almost naked.

What about Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross ’s performance did you like?

Great!! This was my first audiobook and I actually liked it.