An explosive secret and red-hot passion propel #1 New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh’s Nauti series to its thrilling conclusion.Angel Calloway is no saint. But when the rough and reckless mercenary shows up in Somerset, she makes a lasting impression on the young Mackay girls, especially Bliss. Their mother Chaya, on the other hand, plans on keeping a suspicious eye on Angel. As the … eye on Angel. As the wife of the notorious Natches Mackay, she can tell when her family is being played.
Former Army investigator Reece “Duke” Duquaine can’t help but be curious about the mysterious and sexy new woman in town, and he’s determined to uncover Angel’s secrets. And though his desire for her threatens to consume him, when Duke has the truth about Angel in his sights, he’ll have to take his shot…
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This book had the potential of being really good but the dialogue was really cliched and the relationship between Angel and Chaya was a bit far fetched. The heat factor was pretty normal for a Lora Leigh book.
Audiobook review
I have been a huge fan of Lora Leigh for years and remember reading and enjoying the original Nauti books quite awhile ago so when I saw this book available in the Audible Romance Package, I had snapped it up. I thought the narrator, Manxie Hardy did a great job with all the different characters. I felt all the emotions.
Right from the very beginning, your heart is torn in two. What Angel/Beth endured at the age of three was gut wrenching but she survived. She was adopted by mercenaries who taught her to be the bada$$ she is now. It is now 20 years later and she is facing her past and all the hurt she had been carrying. As painful as it is for her, she confronts the mother who she thought abandoned her, but she is determined to protect her sister and that is all that matters to her. The hero in this story is Duke Mackay, one of the younger cousins of the original Nauti boys. He has been shadowing Angel for quite awhile and knows her secrets. When those secrets are revealed to all, he is there to shoulder her pain and is determined to be by her side, I absolutely loved this about him.
As much as I enjoyed this story, I did feel a bit lost at times. I want to say this is a standalone, but there is a relationship that had already developed between Duke and Angel and I must not have read those books. But the connection and chemistry is strong and I was so happy to see Angel finding some peace.
Being the huge fan of Lora Leigh that I am, it is usually the love story between the main characters that I love the most, but in this one, I think what really resonated and really got me in the feels was the relationship between Angel and Chaya. Listening to this audio during my commute to work and then continuing on at home, I had tears running down my face throughout this book. There was so much hurt and anger Angel had towards Chaya and what she believed had happened. And then to get Chaya’s side was so heart-breaking. I did have a hard time on how cold Chaya was towards Angel, even if her heart was breaking too. There was not enough communication between these two. Then to see the love that Chaya and Natches still have for each other was wonderful.
Overall, another great story by Lora Leigh, I really need to dig up my paperbacks of the first books in the Nauti series and do a re-read now.
I liked the story but felt like there was a lot more to be said in order to truly wrap this up. Character development was weak, which was disappointing since I have read so many of Ms. Leigh’s books and loved them. The ending left a lot of space for a follow up,, but that is not usually this author ‘s style. I was a bit let down on this one.
Love, love love her books! She does such a great job with getting you to love the characters and everything. When I get done reading her books, I’m usually bummed until I can find another one with her.
She will keep you tuned to the book and you’ll be staying up late reading it! She is awesome – read all her books, you’ll love them!!!
loved it
Two mercenaries known for butting heads finally given in to temptation. New York Times bestselling author and one of my favorites, Lora Leigh wraps her Nauti series up beautifully with Nauti Angel, and the long awaited, at least for me, story of Angel and Duke.
Angel Calloway is rude. She curses like a sailor and is just downright mean at times. Raised by and around mercenaries her whole life, she fits in perfectly. She doesn’t need anyone. That is until she finds the mother she thought abandoned her. Chaya Mackay and her husband Natches don’t blindly accept that Angel is who she says she is. She must work to prove herself while trying to maintain the attitude that she doesn’t care one way or another. Of course, any association with the Mackays, whether proven or not, puts a huge target on her back and earns her a babysitter in the form of the bada** Duke.
Reece “Duke” Duquaine is a former army investigator who has been curious about Angel from the moment her met her. He wants to uncover her secrets, but most of all he wants to protect her, from outside threats and herself. She doesn’t make it easy on him. She was raised to be ruthless and the fact that ruthlessness also runs in her blood makes her a hundred times more dangerous than anyone gives her credit. He’s lucky she didn’t shoot him when she had the chance because he may be the only one that can save her from this latest threat.
Reading this was bittersweet. I absolutely love this series and the characters, I do not want to let them go. I thought it was the end once before, and I will forever hold out hope that somehow this series or a spin-off will continue with the Mackays that I love. Hell, I’ll take a few novellas here and there. Their extended family and friends need stories too, and all those kids have to grow up sometime. Hint, hint. Take a page from the Elite Ops series, please. BTW I am super excited to read Rory’s story.
Okay, let me get back on track. If you love this series or any of Leigh’s writing, then you will not be disappointed if you pick this one up. This book is told in true Leigh fashion. That is to say that it is filled with sexual tension, has an intensely suspenseful plot and beyond steamy love scenes. I love the Mackays and I will miss them, but I cannot wait to read whatever Leigh gives me next. FIVE Nauti til the end stars!
3.75 stars–NAUTI ANGEL is the fifth instalment in Lora Leigh’s contemporary, adult NAUTI GIRLS, and the ninth instalment in the author’s NAUTI erotic, romance series focusing on the Mackay family of Somerset, Kentucky. The Nauti Girls is a spin-off/companion series to Lora’s NAUTI series focusing on the next generation of the Mackay cousins and siblings. This is mercenaries for hire Angel Calloway, and Reese ‘Duke’ Duquaine Mackay’s story line. Angel Calloway is the missing and presumed dead daughter of Chaya Mackay (Natches’ wife); Duke is Rowdy, Dawg and Natches’ cousin. NAUTI ANGEL can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary but if you are interested in Natches and Chaya’s back story, and the events leading to the loss of Angel ‘aka Beth’, their story begins in Nauti Dreams (book 3 of the NAUTI series.
SOME BACKGROUND: Approximately twenty years earlier government agent, interrogator and profiler Chaya Dane, while on assignment in Iraq, had been captured and tortured by the Iraqi army. Hours later Marine sniper Natches Mackay would rescue the woman with whom he would fall in love but not before discovering that Chaya’s daughter Bethany had been brought to Iraq by her ex in a botched attempt to destroy his wife. An explosion at the local hotel would kill Chaya’s three year old daughter leaving Chaya a shell of her former self.
Told from several third person perspectives including Angel and Duke NAUTI ANGEL follows several paths including the building romance between Angel Calloway and Duke Mackay, and the acrimonious reunion between twenty three year old Angel Calloway aka Beth Dane, and her mother Chaya Mackay-a reunion that finds our heroine struggling to acknowledge the truth about the woman she believes abandoned her own daughter twenty years earlier. Angel, along with her mercenary partners Duke Mackay and his brother Ethan Duquaine, and Angel’s foster brothers Tracker and Chance, have found themselves guardian and protectors of Natches’ daughter Bliss, a young fifteen year old girl who recognizes a kindred spirit in our story line heroine. What ensues is the battle to protect Bliss Mackay from an unknown threat; the growing but tumultuous rekindling relationship between mother and daughter; and the building love between Angel and Duke-a relationship forged through battle and blood.
Angel Calloway aka Bethany Dane knew hardship from an early age: surviving a hotel bombing, gun shots, stabbings and an attempted rape, Angel, along with her foster brothers and the family that found her amongst the bombed out ruin of an Iraqi hotel, would become well paid mercenaries for hire, something Angel has trained for all of her life. Meeting her biological mother, a woman Angel believes to have abandoned her eldest daughter and left her to die, finds our heroine struggling to be accepted by the family her mother has chosen to love.
NAUTI ANGEL reunites a large number of the original NAUTI series characters and couples including Rowdy, Dawg and Natches Mackay, their spouse, wives and growing families, as well as Rowdy’s father Raymond Mackay, and chief of police Alex Jansen.
The world building continues to focus on the Mackay family dynamics; the close knit group of extended cousins and siblings, their connections to Somerset, Kentucky, and the on going struggle to protect one another against outside forces.
NAUTI ANGEL has all the feels of a welcome back hug; the familiarity of the Mackay cousins, their over active sexual desires; and their awe-inspiring and intimidating heroics as they contemplate, calculate and set into action a series of plans designed to take down, and take out the evil penetrating the safe guards of the Mackay family lands. The premise is heart breaking as one woman struggles with issues of abandonment, and the inability to trust beyond her inner circle-falling in love is something new when she loses her heart and her soul to Duke Mackay; the characters are familiar, colorful and charismatic; the romance is passionate, erotic and intense. NAUTI ANGEL is an energetic and touching story of family, friendship and love.