Maverik’s Ashes by Sandra R. Neeley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maverik’s broken. His entire world came crashing down around him without warning, stolen from him brutally in the night by the one female he entrusted his soul to. His Wolf is all he’s got left, both are bitter, wary, untrusting and dangerous. They hide behind a wall of snarky, biting humor erected to keep the rest of the world at bay as they try desperately to cling to survival each and every day. He’s managed to find shelter in a clan of shifters. They have given him the support he needs to nurse his wounds in his solitary, self-imposed emotional isolation. It’s barely an existence but it works for him, only now it’s getting harder. His clan is growing; they’re finding their Mates, their One. They‘re having babies, loving, laughing – living. And he’s not. He’s feeling more and more isolated. And the fact that he’s stumbled across another female that gives every indication that she’s his Mate is not helping. The last one almost destroyed him; there is no way in hell he will allow another female, any female, an opportunity to complete the job. 
Valerie’s a Lion shifter. She’s independent, strong, loving and kind. She’s got more curves than a country backroad and gave up the struggle to be model perfect years ago. She’s learned to love who she is and knows exactly what she’s got to offer the right male. Her Lioness has dreamed all her life of finding the One male who’s meant for her, the one who will love her unconditionally and be proud to call her “Mine.” Unfortunately for her; the wild, tatted, mohawked and oh so sexy Wolf shifter who joins the local clan that frequents her brothers bar is the male that her Lioness decides is hers. And the bastard won’t even acknowledge her existence! His repeated rebuffs of her attempts to just have a conversation with him end in her blazing hatred for him. If he can’t see past the curves that adorn her body to the amazing female underneath, it’s his loss, not hers. Why then, is it his face she sees each time she closes her eyes at night, each time her new fiance’ kisses her? 
Maverik’s had enough. The little Lioness calls to him in a way that he can no longer ignore. He wants her; forever. But before he can do anything about it, he’s got to deal with the ashes of his past. He’s got to go back, lay it all to rest and try to salvage some semblance of who he once was, of the honorable male that died that night. Maybe then he’ll be enough. Maybe then she’ll see him as the male he once was proud to be. Will he be able to man up, to make peace with his past before her hatred of him becomes so intense that she’ll never be able to see around it? He certainly hopes so, because without her, he’ll never survive.

Maverik’s Ashes

The best one yet in this series!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 🩵🖤❤️💚💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍
Character development: ☹️☺️😍😄🥰

The Hero: Maverik – he was in the military and served time overseas, he saw a lot of things while there and he once had a mate who betrayed him and nearly broke him. He promised himself back then that he would never take a mate and never trust another woman with his heart. He was alone for years, but now is part of a pack of different shifters and living in the Louisiana Bayou. They are a family and many of them have been finding their mates. Maverik is happy for them but hadn’t seen that for himself for a long time. He has been restless at night, rarely sleeping and spending the nights wandering in his wolf form, checking the pack’s defenses, and making sure they are always safe.

The heroine: Valerie – she is a lion shifter, who works part time at an insurance agency and part time at the local bar owned by her brother Vince, who is a friend of the clan of mismatched shifters who live nearby. When Valerie first crossed paths with Maverik, she knew immediately that her lioness wanted him for a mate, she could tell he felt something as well, though he ignored it and her for years. He pretended she doesn’t exist and makes it so obvious that she has started to hate him, even going so far as to tell him that to his face.

The Story: Maverik has seen some of his clan mates becoming happy as they have gotten mates, and now with Daisy, there is even a young one in their clan. When he sees Valerie holding Daisy, he decides that he does want that for himself as well. He did not think he could ever trust a woman again, but he has seen the mates of his friends and how trustworthy and special they are and has been so lonely, but before he can go to Valerie and tell her what he wants, he must make peace with his past. So Maverik up and leaves his clan to go stir up the ashes of his past.

I have really liked this whole series so far, but this one wowed me from the start. I knew Maverik had been betrayed by the woman he had loved, but I never even came close to what had really happened, and it moved me to find out what he had gone through, not only in war, but with his own family before he joined the military. I loved how this one played out for Mav, who had been quite broken through the previous books, but always put up a good front.

Another thing I really love about this series is the way that the clan is such a family, it reminds me of Suzanne Wright’s Phoenix and Mercury Pack series and T.M. Frazier’s King series, even Guilia Lagomarsino’s Reed Security series. How a bunch of different guys form their own family out of a brotherhood bond, then keep adding to that family with every book. And like those other series, even though each new book focuses on a different couple, the rest of the guys and their mates play a big part in every book, their stories continually developing as well.

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