Lunatic (Necessary Evils #6) by Onley James


Lunatic is the 6th book in the series and focuses on Archer and Mac although as always, the rest of the family are featured as well.

From the 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 psychopath 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.


Reds Book Reads Review:

I loved this book. It was so great getting to see a different side of Archer than has been shown in the previous books and I really loved the hidden depths to him. Mac is awesome as well and I loved how he took everything in his stride and fit in so well with the rest of the family.

As always there is plenty of murder and mayhem with this family and the ending leads you in so nicely to book 7 which I really cannot wait for as I have been desperate for Aiden’s story!

A fantastic series and well worth a read!

Rating: 5 Stars


SNik's Review: 

Sixth in series (Necessary Evils), best if read in order due to shared backstory and continuing secondary characters. Frenemies to lovers. Dual POV. 

Archer’s cover as an alcoholic professional gambler helps hide his murderous activities and even his family doesn’t understand how he completes his vigilante assignments while falling down drunk. But Archer’s current hook up and new coworker at a secret training facility for young psychopaths sees through his fake personality and wants nothing more than to keep Archer for himself, and a little blood and torture doesn’t scare former soldier Mac Shepherd, after all his mother is called the psychopath whisperer and his brother is a sociopath. 

There are immediate steamy times and a push/pull dynamic between Archer and Mac, but not a lot of background for either man. Mac was introduced in the author’s series Elite Protection Services and there are quite a few references to characters from that series (particularly Captivating, book 2), which some readers may find hard to follow if they haven’t read that book. 

There is the expected action and violence for this series, and it is nice to see Archer finally find the crazy to match his crazy in Mac. 

The Mulvaney get togethers are chaotic and fun as usual in this series, there are several sweet interactions between Archer and Mac, and they communicate honestly and eventually get their HEA.

Rating: 4 Stars



Jacqueleen the Reading Queen's Review:

Starting out I was definitely excited for Archer's story, but I did not expect how I much I was going to absolutely love Mac. His never ending teasing and smiles for Archer just got me, and don't get me started on the mans dirty talk game. Whoa! 🔥🔥 It was so nice getting to know him after having already read his twins book so long ago. We even get a little bit of Shep in this one too.

Archer was not what I pictured him to be from what we've seen of him in previous books. I mean, we all found out at the end of Mad Man that his drunken gambler aesthetic was just a made up persona. In fact, Archer barely even drinks. After seeing the aftermath of what happens when he does imbibe in this book, I sort of don't blame him. Mac, of course, is even more adorable drunk but just as prone to impulsive decisions. It also surprised me that Archer seems to be the most stable, yet emotive of his psychopathic brethren. He was mature and articulate in a way the others aren't. He took time to think about the things Mac was causing him to feel and had other instances in his past where he seemed to care about a stranger. There was also his cute AF friendship with Noah. All of these things led me to see Archer as, for lack of a better term, less neurodivergent than the rest of the Mulvaneys.

We see a lot of the family in the second half of this book. While others may not have liked the distraction from the romance, I live for the banter in this family. Give me a team meeting scene any day of the week in the war room and I will be one happy laughing reader. I also loved how Archer attempted to warn Mac about the nosiness of his family. It was a good effort, but there is no way to prepare for a full on Mulvaney assault when it comes to gossip.

" They will be all up in your business. They will ask a million questions, get invovled in shit that doesn't concern them. They will press you to know every deep, dark secret you have then try to force you into therapy. You will never know a moment's peace."

And that's not even getting into the "Feelings Faction" side of the family. And can we all take a moment to just love on the name Archer has given the significant others? Well more specifically Noah, Zane, and Felix. It totally fits just saying. The ending of this one ends on a bit of a soft cliffhanger. It's finally time to figure out what prompted Thomas to adopt a bunch of psychopaths all those years ago and on top of that, it is certainly time for Aiden to bag his man once and for all.

Rating: 4 Stars


Lunatic is currently available as an e-book and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription

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