MacRieve
3.5 Stars

Warning: This review contains mild spoilers.

Following his capture and torture by the Order, Uilleam MacRieve is on the verge of self-destructing until he finds his pre-destined mate, a fierce and courageous human who brings him back from the abyss. The course of true love never did run smooth, however, and Chloe Todd is something more than even she knows, a creature from the Lore who has the power to destroy MacRieve’s sanity. Can these two unlikely lovers find peace together or will their mating be the end of them both?

As a secondary character for most of the IAD series, MacRieve has never really evoked any intense emotion on my part. As such, the announcement of his book, while interesting, did not come across as exceptionally exciting. As it turns out, this was for the best because after reading MacRieve my predominant thought is: What a complete A-HOLE!

Yes, MacRieve has suffered and Cole deals with the nature of his past experiences with incredible sensitivity. Nevertheless, this does not in any way excuse his callous attitude and offensive behavior, which do nothing but undermine the romance. Moreover, the ultimate resolution to his issues with Chloe’s true identity is too Deus Ex Machina, and his regret and reparation are far too contrived to completely redeem him.

Thankfully, the rest of the cast manage to compensate for MacRieve's faults. Chloe is a sexy and sassy heroine while Munro is everything his twin is not - compassionate, considerate and honorable. There are also some laugh-out-loud moments with Nix the Ever Knowing and Malkolm Sleine, the yummy vemon from Demon from the Dark, makes a guest appearance.

The book ends with a cliffhanger of sorts, which only whets my appetite all the more for Munro’s book, although it should be noted that Thronos and Lanthe’s story is next and this one I am really looking forward to. Hope it lives up to expectations. ( )

5 Stars

Ingeniously well written.
Both characters, MacReive and Chloe, are skillfully well defined.
Their personalities, emotions, styles and spirits are profoundly perceived. A MUST READ!

And of course there are super steamy adult sex scenes. ( )

Book thirteen and this series is still going strong! I adored Chloe and MacRieve both. Lots of angst and healing. Can't wait for Munro's book! (4.5 stars) ( )

Uilleam MacRieve, a Lykae, was molested by an evil Succubus named Ruelle as a child from the time he was 9 years old to the age of 13 when his mother and father discovered it. Ruelle had made Uilleam believe she was his mate but said it had to be a secret because Lykae hated Succubae and would want to kill her. He was too young to realize this was the tactic of a predator. When Uilleam’s parents discovered this awful secret, they ran off into the woods to find Ruelle. His mother reached the cottage first and was beheaded by a young vampire who Ruelle was also molesting. His father killed both Ruelle and the vampire but could not live without his mate so he killed himself the very next night, leaving Uilleam and his twin brother, Munro, orphaned.

They have hated Succubae ever since.

We have briefly met Uilleam and Munro in previous books. The creatures of the Lore call them “Hot and Hotter” and we knew that Uilleam had been imprisoned along with a lot of other characters of the series in a facility run by a human run secret organization called The Order run by a human named Commander Webb. A lot of the books in this series have been focused around this facility and timeline. Most of the books run concurrently so we, the reader, see some of the same scenes from different points of view and we know things that the main characters do not know. In previous books, we read that Uilleam was captured and vivisected. We also read about a scene where he was being chased by five Succubae when the prison started falling apart due to an evil sorceress.

In this book, we learn that Uilleam was set up to be captured by The Order by Nix, the soothsayer who seems to be manipulating everything to fall in place for the Vertas (the good guys of the Lore) to win the Accession. The Accession is a war between the Vertas and the Pravus that occurs every five to six hundred years in the Lore. Nix has been known to say, “Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.” Right before The Order nabbed Uilleam, Nix told him, “You need to rebreak that bone. It didn’t set right.” She was referring to what happened with Ruelle and how he had dealt with things since then. He hated Succubae, wouldn’t have sex with any female more than once and when he did have sex, he could only do it if he let his beast take over.

Every creature in the Lore seems to be motivated by either sex or power. The characters in this book are no different, in fact, one of their lives depends on sex.

Chloe is all about soccer. She plays for a professional team in Seattle and has dreams of being in the Olympics but she has been experiencing odd things recently. She can hear things that she shouldn’t be able to hear and all her other senses are just as acute. She is playing in a championship game when she hears her father take a call from way up in the stands. She wonders what could be so important during her championship game that he has to take a call since he is a computer tech guy. Couldn’t it wait? But then she hears the strangest conversation ever which she knows she shouldn’t even be able to hear. She can hear the man on the other end of the phone call her father “Commander” and they are talking about capturing a Lykae. She thinks she is going crazy until later when she tells her dad about it and he doesn’t seem surprised. He tells her that he had hoped this wouldn’t happen to her but he would talk to her about it when he got back into town because he has to go out of town for a couple of weeks. He hands her a huge book and tells her to read it while he is gone.

The book is about something called the Lore and about all the creatures in it. There was a piece of paper in it with his handwritten notes about the creatures which he called “detrus” and how he needed to eliminate them from the world.

A couple weeks later, she hears a sound in her dad’s study. A horned demon stood there. She ran but fell into an abyss when she opened the front door of her house. Witches had caught her and were going to auction her off as the daughter of Commander Webb. She learned that the Lore was real and her father was infamous for capturing, torturing and killing them and everyone wanted revenge on him. Creatures were lining up to bid on Chloe because they thought that she would lead them to Webb.

Uilleam and Munro went to the auction and Uilleam’s instinct immediately told him that Chloe was his mate. Munro knew too. The Pravus pooled their resources together and won the bid but Uilleam turned into his beast and chased after them. He beat them and took her to the Lykae compound in Louisiana where a wall with mystical protection kept anyone else from entering.

He was sweet to Chloe and they got along wonderfully. He didn’t know how he would ever actually have sex with her since she was human and he had his weird sex hang up where he could only have rough sex in one position while his beast took over but he did manage to make out with her…orally…once. The second time, she reciprocated but he freaked out when he saw she had turned into a Succubus.

He almost threw her out to the Pravus creatures waiting outside the wall but his beast wouldn’t allow it. He told her that her kind were evil and preyed on men and children. When he took her on top of the wall, they saw two Succubae females who didn’t look evil to Chloe so she wanted to go with them to learn of her kind and to get away from Uilleam or MacRieve as he liked everyone else but Munro to call him. He wouldn’t allow her to go with them but didn’t want her either. Well, he did want her but he blamed it on her Succubus charms and tricks which she was not using. She didn’t even know how to use them.

I wanted to kick him in his huevos rancheros for the way he treated Chloe and the things he said to her. But I loved Chloe. She did not let him get to her. He thought she would turn into Ruelle who was all about her looks and tricks. Ruelle was weak and used it to get her way. Not Chloe! She borrowed some sports clothes from two of the younger clan members and decided to become their athletic director. When MacRieve would do something rude, she would call him a dick or asshole or ignore him. The clan seemed to adore her. Her motto when she got hurt was “rub some dirt on it”.

She tried to prove that she could still be human by eating food instead of having sex to get her energy but she started getting sick after a few days and not healing from injuries. Succubae have to have seed from male ejaculation to thrive. If they don’t, they start to starve and they start emitting something called strew which attracts unmated males to them and drives them crazy until they are fighting to have sex with her. MacRieve got worried about this so he had the witches make a talisman bracelet for her to hide her from the Lore and took her to Scotland to where he had grown up. He had the witches put in a little extra spell, a contraception spell without telling Chloe. He knew he had to have sex with her to help her live. He had to have her as his mate yet he treated her like crap.

How could these two ever live like this forever when one hated the other.

It was hard watching MacRieve’s hatred toward Chloe for something that wasn’t her fault and even though I had read this book before, I wasn’t sure how it would end between them. I have forgotten a lot about the individual couples in this series because it has been so long since I have read these books. I read each book as they come out but I also have read hundreds of other books too so details get lost in the chaos of my brain. I should point out, though, that this series is one of my favorites of all time and only the second series that I have ever wanted to re-read. Even though I forget some details, I remember the main plot of the series.

There wasn’t a lot of background plots going on in this book until the Epilogue but I can’t say anything more without spoiling it for anyone who wants to read this series.

This is one of those must-read series if you are into Paranormal Romance.

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