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I enjoy a fun read as much as the next person, but the Fever series will not be taking that role in my life. Overall, not particularly impressed.

To start with, the language is most likely about a 10th grade reading level: "Now we turned down a long dim hallway that ended in an immense, square black door belted by bands of steel." Its very chick-lit as well, taking time to describe her outfits and nail polish: "What I had on was a luscious gauzy skirt of nearly every pastel hue on the color wheel that hugged my hips and kicked frothily at my ankles, a form-fitting rose sweater with silk trimmed cap sleeves and a plunging silk-edged neckline that made much of my bust, and dainty pink high heels that laced around my ankles." That's right; Moning took more time to describe the heroine's outfit than the approach to meeting her first vampire.

Not many reviews have mentioned it, but there's definitely not-so-concealed racism, describing the "primitive mix" of races in Barrons, and the background of one of the "Black Irish" bad guys. She blah blahs all the time how her home has nicer, kinder, more thoughtful people and comes across like a narrow-minded American prig. Perhaps that's Moning's point, that this is the growing-up period for our heroine, but frankly, I don't see any change during this book.

There isn't romantic interest so much as flat out sexualized scenes. Now that I think of it, I wonder if current authors are reacting against the over-explicitness of the Anita Blake generation, and are trying to find ways of more unique encounters. In the initial one, Mac basically has a self-sufficient encounter, and in the second one, after arousing her, the fae disappears, leaving her half-naked in front of a museum full of people. There wasn't really romantic tension between her and Barrons, her teacher, just an exchange of insults and orders. Perhaps that too is for another book.

Regardless, not sure I care. My TBR pile is so large I don't know how much time I want to waste.
There wasn't a specific moment that drove me batty; it was an accumulation of the writing emphasis and the shallow focus. Zala has a review that has a number of quotes and gives a much better sense of how it can wear on one: Zala's review