Kingdom of Shadow and Light

Written by Karen Marie Moning

Narrated by Amanda Leigh Cobb and Aiden Snow

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • MacKayla Lane faces the ultimate threat when war breaks out between the kingdoms of shadow and light, as the Fever series races to an explosive revelation.

From the moment MacKayla Lane arrived in Dublin to hunt her sister’s murderer, she’s had to fight one dangerous battle after the next: to survive, to secure power, to keep her city safe, to protect the people she loves.

The matter of who’s good and who’s evil can be decided by the answer to a single question: Whose side are you on?

Now, as High Queen of the Fae, Mac faces her greatest challenge yet: ruling the very race she was born to hunt and kill—a race that wants her dead yesterday, so they can put a pure-blooded Fae queen on the throne.

But challenges with her subjects are the least of her concerns when an ancient, deadly foe resurfaces, changing not only the rules of the game but the very game itself, initiating a catastrophic sequence of events that have devastating consequences and leave Mac questioning everything she’s ever learned and everyone she’s ever loved. Now begins an epic battle between Mortal and Fae, Seelie and Unseelie, would-be kings and would-be queens, with possession of the Unseelie King’s virtually unlimited power and the fate of humanity at stake.

From the exquisite, deadly gardens of the High Queen’s court, to long-forgotten truths found in the Sacred Grove of Creation, from the erotic bed of her enigmatic, powerful lover to the darkest, seductive reaches of the Unseelie kingdom, Mac’s final journey takes her places no human has been before, and only one human could possibly survive . . .

One who's willing to sacrifice everything.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Feb 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781511373586

Karen Marie Moning

Karen Marie Moning is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fever series, featuring MacKayla Lane, and the award-winning Highlander series. She has a bachelor’s degree in society and law from Purdue University.

Reviews for Kingdom of Shadow and Light

[autumnesf · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ok, the space stuff is out there, but I still love this series.

[library_breeder · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not going to get into a long review here, but I will say that it was an ok book. It took a lot of turns and had red-herrings, an ungodly amount of over prosaic non-sense that could be skipped, and no sex. Mac and Barrons were there, but Mac wasn't the only narrator.

I guess I can't really get into the story but to say that everything ends "the way it should", but didn't feel like it was a Fever series book. It felt like another author came in and wrote the book. It also left out a lot of character interaction, and could easily lead to other books that follow the Danny/Shazzam/Ryoden characters, as well as Christian and the other secondary characters. There really isn’t anything left with Mac and Barrons unless you want to read about some new challenge. Their love was strong, but there was no love scenes. Actually, Barrons took an unusual backseat to all of Mac’s dealings. It came off as he was a protector and not her partner. Mac got a bit imperious in this book.

If you have read the series, you can truly skip this because you aren't going to get anything from it that you didn't already get from the previous books. The things that happened in this book happened and was solved in this book, so there were no loose ends from previous books that got tied up here. Yeah, you see Mac be the “Queen”, but it wasn’t a revelation or anything. She never really changed. Yeah, the Unseelie King’s Magic found someone and it wasn’t who we expected, and yeah there were a couple of characters who finally settled into their skins and moved forward in their lives and relationships, but if you really don’t have it in you to read the book, don’t. Also, we learn what Cruce/V’lane was up to all this time because he had his own storyline of trying to create his own court and eventually get Mac to be his Queen/Consort by any means necessary.

I can’t give this a glowing review because it wasn’t a book the grabbed me and drew me in. It meandered all over the place and never felt like a “Fever” series book.

Now I have to mention that the problems with the story and with the publication date was cleared up in the final Acknowledgements when KMM wrote that she was battling a major health problem that affected her mental abilities (she suffered from unknown Carbon Monoxide poisoning from 2015 to 2017) , so this explains why the book’s release date kept getting pushed, and why it might not read like a Fever book that we might have expected. I bought the book, and the audiobook, but I think that I might now read it again. I think I am done with this series. I don’t think there are many re-reads left.

[ombwarrior47 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think Moning was tired of the storyline…What a let down.I was honestly disappointed in this book. Moning has always written these books to be full of detail and sophisticated characters, but this book felt way more plot based. And the plot was a flop. A lot of jumping from scene to scene just to get to the ending, which was also very anti climatic. Not very much action happened. Four characters abducted and then suddenly in two pages they’re reunited like nothing happened. If she was trying to make a point, it was lost. The ending was just a calamity. Even the bad guy lacked depth and he’s been in the series since nearly the beginning. A lot of the characters were also not present in this book. Would have loved to see more of the nine, especially Lor who was an integral character in previous books. Also, Barron’s character seemed drastically different in this one compared to others. Instead of being cool and moody he was chattier. It just seemed odd and out of place compared to all the other Fever books. It honestly feels like Moning was tired of this series and just wanted to be done with it and it was such a letdown. Even her writing style was lacking. It also felt like she was trying to hard to include all the couples but didn’t have enough time or a creative storyline for them to come together for. I wish the ending had a redo. Like she needs to write one more book to fix this one.

[shayes1-936363 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you like the Moning series, this will be a great addition.

[theyodamom · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have enjoyed the hell out of this series since 2006. I have loved Barrons, Ryoden, Mac, and I've hated many more nasty characters, (sniff) I will miss them all. I love the world this author created, there was never a dull moment or location. My favorite scene was when the "beast" was circling around the tree Mac was in marking. I know weird but for some reason that one sticks out most. Thank you Ms. Moning. I can't wait to read your next adventure