Title: ⟫ Lunatic (Necessary Evils #6) Author: ⟫ Onley James
Rating: ⟫ 5/5
Blurb: ⟫ Every psychopath in the Mulvaney family has a role to play.
Archer Mulvaney is the gambler, a drunken reprobate making his living as a high-stakes poker player. Very few people know the real Archer, not even his brothers. But there is one man who knows far too much.
Mackenzie Shepherd spends his days photographing endangered wildlife. He’s also the brother of a sociopath and son to the woman who literally wrote the book on raising one. When his mother asks him to head a secret government project, it seems like the perfect excuse to run away from his life.
But running from his past has Mac colliding straight into Archer. And that’s a problem. For this project to be successful, Mac and Archer have to agree on every decision, and the two see eye-to-eye on nothing.
Except, maybe the sex.
The sex is off the charts.
When Mac’s old life comes back to haunt him, Archer insists on putting their differences aside to help keep him safe. But Mac, like Archer, is used to solving things on his own. Can they finally stop fighting each other to find the truth, or is their relationship the next thing on the endangered species list?
Lunatic is a filthy hot, enemies to lovers, psychopath romance with an HEA and no cliffhangers. It features a sexy, roguish degenerate and a hunky bleeding heart ginger who love how much they hate each other. As always, there’s gratuitous violence, very dark humor, more blood than a slaughterhouse, and enough heat to melt your metaphorical undies.
This is book six in the Necessary Evils series. Each book follows a different couple.
Review: ⟫ As a member of Onley’s Patreon, I got to read this book as it was written. However, I tend to force myself to stop reading before the end simply so that when the book comes out, I can binge the whole thing, complete with the utter rush of excitement and action that is always present.
Lunatic was an exception in that I really struggled to stop myself from checking Onley’s page. I needed to know what was going to happen next with Archer and Mac, more so than almost any other couple in the Necessary Evils’ series.
There was just something about Archer, about how vulnerable he allowed himself to be, about the complicated man that Mac turned out to be when he was initially presented as very much what you see if what you get – I really wanted to see how their HEA played out.
There were moments during this book when I really needed Noah to share his Squishmallow – either with myself or Archer, or preferably both of us; there were also moments when I was laughing so hard I had to explain myself to my daughters!
One of those was in the strip club – when you read it, you’ll know!
My favourite characters this time: Grover the tapeworm; Molly fangirling and Archer. Archer captured my whole damned heart from the prologue where he was trying to be tough in the face of horrors, to his confessions to Mac, to their well-deserved HEA.
Some of this book was hard to read – the human trafficking, the language used for the people who were suffering – it was sickening. As usual, the warnings should be heeded.
This book was hot, like burning up the pages hot. The chemistry between Mac and Archer was scorching, made even more so by the fact that Mac understood Archer in a way that no one else ever had. And when he didn’t get it, or was unsure, he was prepared to ask for help to make sure he was giving Archer what he needed.
We got to spend time with all of the Mulvaneys (and their additions like Calliope and Cricket), and the relationship between Archer and Noah was so special to see, it really touched my heart. When they shared a moment of mutual understanding that only people who had suffered as they had could appreciate, I really and truly welled up in tears.
Every time I read one of the Necessary Evils books, I decide that this couple is my favourite and nothing will change that. And every time, the next book surpasses that. Mac and Archer are on my permanent re-read list because there are so many nuances that in this first reading of their full story, I picked up things that I had missed.
I loved the hints regarding Aiden and Thomas; Felix is an absolute demon and his game of tic-tac-toe with Mac may be one of my favourite moments; Archer and Noah bonding was absolutely amazing; the storyline was very well handled; Avi and Asa getting to play with new ways to murder people was excellent – I loved every single page!
It’s so difficult not to spoil things by revealing too much, so all I will say is that anyone looking forward to reading about the pirate Mulvaney will definitely not be disappointed.
A solid 5/5 from me and I look forward to the last in the series when it comes out.
I received an early-release ARC from the author.
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