The MacGregors by Nora Roberts

The MacGregor series by Nora Roberts are made up of 11 books and are each unique yet tangled to each other in different ways and family being the ultimate tie.

Playing the Odds
Tempting Fate
All the possibilities
One Man's Art
For now, forever
Rebellion
In from the cold
The MacGregor brides
Winning hand
The MacGregor grooms
Perfect neighbour

Now I have to admit that when I first read the synopsis for these books i was a little confused and to be honest not really wanting to read them. I danced around choosing the series despite loving all of her other ones.
Due to my need to read as any Nora books as i can i decided i had to read them and i happy to announce i was totally wrong and i absolutely love the books.
So far i have read the first three and am blogging about them first as i am not sure i can read all 11 and then blog. I wanted to remember everything and write about them when i have them fresh and real in my mind.
The books are about a fabulous family that you dont quite meet and understand until a little ways through the first book. The loveable Daniel MacGregor is a wonderful character and central to all of the books and he is a pleasure to read.

Playing the Odds

Serena MacGregor is the first member of the family who gets the intense and wonderfully interferring personality of Daniel MacGregor.
Serena is a very clever and beautiful woman, she has a wonderful family who she loves and a job working as a black jack dealer on a cruise liner. She is good at her job and the customers love her.
She is a beautiful woman and i really enjoyed getting to know her and form a picyure of her in my mind. Blonde and petite with violet eyes, she meets her match in the gorgeous and handsome gambler Justin.

He is everything she isnt looking for and yet she uncontrolably attracted. The sparring between the two is brilliant to read and very enjoyable. The immdiate passion and wanting in the two is lovely and as you get their stories you fall in love with them individually and asa  couple.

Daniel is her father and a meddling one at that, he believes he knows whats best for them and takes every opportunity in becoming involved!
He sets up Justin to take the cruise and knowing his daughter and justins personalities he knew they would meet, hoped they would be more than just friends.

Even after Serena and Justin found out that he had set the whole thing up they still couldnt saty mad at him. It was so funny and i just fell in love with Daniel, he is a fiery scotsman who i can totally relate to being half scottish! He is a powerful and exciting character to read. Serena has his fiery scottish temperment and every time she blows Justin falls a little bit more!

After finally coming to Justin in Atlantic city to run a casino hotel with him she eventually gives in and admits she loves him and him her. But there is no happy ending just yet. As you feel the whole thing is coming to an end Nora adds in the little twist of Serena being Kidnapped by someone from Justins past and you finally see the real and emotional love that is oozing from Justin. My heart was aching for him and i found myself totally in depth with the family like i was one of them!

Meeting the brothers Caine and Alan and their mother Anna in this first book and seeing a family with a lot of love and passion its easy to want to read the rest of the books.
Totally and utterly in love with the series so far but that could change as the stories unfold!

Tempting Fate

Caine MacGregor is a highly sucessful lawyer and one that every person knows of and in the court room is afraid of and every woman knows of in the bedroom.
He has a reputation for being smooth with the women and never has had any trouble getting one or dealing with them.
In walks Diana the beautiful and mysterious younger sister of Justin, she comes to visit her brother and meets Caine and immediately there is a spark and powerful and lusty spark. Caine is a little un-nerved by it and Diana is a little cofused and totally attracted.

Finding out most of her life is a lie and not really having a true family that loved her she decides to start all over again.
There is a great deal of respect for this character and i believe that she has grown up to believe that she is something she really isnt. Caine touches on her passion and her ability to love which is so lovely to read. The eternal ladies man falls in love and helps her build herself back up.
I like to think his family and the love he has for them makes his connection to Diana and wanting to help and protect her that much more powerful.

Of course there is resistance from her and arguments and passionate kisses ensue but it all comes good in the end! Daniels meddling in his children's life is amusing and he doesnt disappoint in this book either, he brings Diana's feelings for Caine to the surface and deal with it. The emotional outbursts i think are wonderful and you feel really angry or upset right along with them.
When they are scared you feel it and when they are passionate you also feel it. I couldnt put these books down and read them in 2 days flat! My husband wasnt very happy with being neglected!

I went straight onto the third installment and the final of the three siblings eager to get the last siblings story.

All the possibilities

Alan MacGregor is a politician, senator to be precise and a damn good one at that. Well liked and known and a shoe in for the presdental election in a decade.
His life of society parties and living amongst other politicians can be a little tiring however its the life he chose.
Shelby Campbell is a beautiful half Scottish potter who is living her life exactly how she chooses to and not afraid to do it. She is accustomed to the society life as her father was a senator who was assasinated on the run up to presidental elections when she was 6 years old.
Her mother still runs in those circles and she still has friends in high places.

Alan and Shelby are completely different in so many ways and that is what makes this my favourite book out of these three. I was initially not very feeling about Alan, in the other books i didnt really get a fell for him and found i didnt really mind. However needing to finish the series i went on to read it and enjoyed it very much.
Alan's character is tidy and logical and sensible but love never is so you get to see a rougher side to him. The more sensual and passionate side that sweeps Shelby off her feet. She doesnt want a man like Alan and haas vowed never to fall in love with someone in his job.

Shelby's character is quirky and fun and very aware of herself, she is a joy to read and i thought she would be the more dominant in the relationship but Alan just swoops in and gives her everything she wanted. The amazingly passionate sex and kisses that left her weak in the knees and he just got her without really getting to know her.

The relationship is reallt powerful and i think its the most passionate out of the three, the urgency and need for each other is really well dialogued in this book and i felt i was in that relationship. Being a Campbell her clan and the MacGregors are enemies throughout history and so when Daniel wants to meet her she is eager to match him insult for insult.
She really stands up for herself and she stands her ground with him to which he adores and she seems to slot into the family very easily.

Reading all of the family together, Daniel and Anna so clearly perfect and in love, Serena heavily pregnant and Justin, Caine and Diana, Alan and Shelby. At last Daniel see his children happy and in love, grand children being born and his heritage becoming a reality.
I felt like a member of the family and was connected to them beyond belief, it was truely a lovely read and i am eager to continue into the next books.

One Mans Art

This book is a spin off to the first three books. Although its a spin off it still has that strong connection to the MacGregors.
This book focuses on Grant Campbell who we met briefly in Shelbys and Alan's story, he is her brother and a social recluse and utterly gorgeous.
Genvieve Grandeau is a beautiful artist looking to enjoy a month painting the beautiful town and she has her sights set on Grants lighthouse to paint.

Grant is still living with his fathers assassination when he was a teenager and Gennie is dealing with her sisters death. This book is a lovely story about battling demons and dealing with the things that hurt you the most. Gennie is a strong woman and possibly the only one who has ever got to Grant.
Grant felt it the moment he saw her and she did too. Their firey relationship is a wonderful read and although the story was a spin off it was linked very well.

Grant knows the MacGregors through his sister and being at their wedding. Gennie is related to Justin and Diana from their french side of the family. Amazingly there is the link and once again Daniel is able to have a little fun helping a romantic out!
All together they are at the MacGregors home and becoming a family, Diana now pregnant and Alan and Shelby home from their honeymoon and Rena giving birth to the first of the grandchildren,

Its a good story and a lovely way to keep the interest in the MacGregors.

For Now, Forever

This book is a favourite of mine. It gives you the back story of Daniel and Anna. Its a wonderfully written book and its done from the point of view of Daniel dreaming. It starts with Daniel being hurt really badly in a car accident and the whole family waiting at the hospital. While waiting for him to come around Anna sits with him and he dreams about how he and Anna first met and fell in love.
Its a beautiful story and one i have not too much to say about.

Anna is a headstrong and independent and falls wildly in love with Daniel and his arogant and totally sexy manish attitude. He knows what he wants and that is Anna.
It was really lovely reading the way he and Anna met and why he is the way he is. The end of the book is seeing him wake to all his family around him, Serena and Justin and their baby and pregnant, Alan and Shelby and new baby boy Daniel, Caine and Diana and their daughter, Grant and Gennie heavily pregnant. He has everything he ever wanted around him and so much love.

Its lovely to see his and Anna's love and friendship and how that came about, totally brilliant book.

Rebellion

This book i found a little hard to get into, i found the jump to 1735/45 really difficult and found it really hard to imagine myself there. Dont get me wwrong it was very well written and like all of her novels the story was of romance and pain and survival but with the series starting with the children then going back in time to thier parents then jumoing all the way back again to eventually going forward and leaping way ahead to Daniel and Anna's granschildren.

Once i got into the story it was really good and i understood the rebellion at the time and the hatred for the English and certain clans of Scotland. The fire and passion of the Scottish and their need ot fight for what they believe in is evident and you can feel what they are feeling.

I did enjoy the story and once i was used to the tie difference it was a nice story to read. Seeing where the MacGregor passion and stubborness comes from and the brilliant red hair too. Serena MacGregor is a very fiery character and with lots of paaion and needs. Falling in love with an Englishman is not what she wanted or expected but never the less it was meant to be.
Brigham was a lord and very wealthy and fell in love with Serena and her fiery ways. He believed in what the Scottish did and being of the same heritage they were. He would fight along side the Scottish and almost died for them.

Coming back for Serena and taking her to America giving her the life he wanted for her along with some of her family.

In from the Cold

This story is all about Ian MacGregor who was born to Serena's brother in the end of Rebellion. He is now a grown man and still fighting the war. He gets injured and collapses in a barn. Alanna a beautiful widow comes upon him and her family nurse him back to health.

They are too firery with each other and soon love comes over them, she is anxious because war took her brother away, she lost her mother to grief adn her husband soon after. She never wanted that life for herself adn had no intention of falling in love with a man who embodied all she didnt want.

After a lot of heart ache and sufferring and a heartfelt intervention for Serena the couple go on to marry and have a baby the night the MacGregor name is cleared.
I did enjoy these stories but it was hard to put myself there like i do with all books i read. It wasnt the best of the books and i found i really didnt feel the need or want to know the history to be honest. I was quite happy reading the books in chronological order.

The MacGreggor Brides

This book is made up of three stories. It focuses on 3 of Daniel's grand daughters. Laura, Julia and Gwendolyn.
It starts with Laura MacGreggor the daughter of Caine and Diana. She is a tough new lawyer and works with her parents. She lives with her two cousins and has done for years.
She is strong and confident and of course as all the women in these books, she is stunning. She has no trouble with men but then Royce Cameron wasn't standing infront of her. He is an ex cop who has his own security business and hired by Daniel MacGreggor to check his grand daughters security at their home. He purposely puts Royce infront of her.
They start and have a wonderfully passionate love affair leading to what neither if them expected. He had been married before and wasn't sure he wanted it again but he didn't expect to love Laura.
A lovely short story with the infamous Daniel MacGreggor getting his way!!
Next up for his meddling ways was Gwendolyn, a beautiful doctor and daughter of Serena and Justin. She has no time for a man. In walks Branson Maguire a novelist and very successful. He is researching a book with a doctor as the main character. Daniel asks her to help him out so she obliges as she loves her grandfather.
What she didn't expect was to fall in love and risk everything.
Feeling the love and romance between them and her innocence is so beautifully written.
Nora is able to make you feel those feelings and bring it to the surface. I live reading her and cannot put the book down.
Gwen and Brandon so perfect and Daniel MacGreggor once again pulls it out the bag!
My favourite part in this story is the 12 days of Christmas he gives her and how the emotion is clear as he does. I just loved it!
Last but by no means least is Julia and my favourite out of the three. She is the daughter of Alan and Shelby and a super super business woman. Buying houses and doing them up she is the best at what she does. Her regular builder is unable to work the new house she has so hi son who she hates is doing it.
Funny though because Daniel and the father of cullum plotted it together, naughty naughty! I love the conspiracy and naughtyness of it all!
She is a feisty woman and knows what she wants and that is not cullum but he keeps popping up! They fight and argue so much and it's so fun to read. And you can feel the passion oozing and building up and as your reading you are waiting for that moment when the passion explodes and they don't let you down. It's heat and fire and without realising it falling in love.
The whole Cilla Black of Daniel MacGreggor and his mischievous ways just makes me smile. Thoroughly enjoyed these three little stories and am looking forward to reading the next installment of the great MacGreggor and his clan!

The Winning Hand

I absolutely love love love this book! Darcey is a very pretty innocent young woman who ran away from her terrible life and a man who frightened her.
She ran all the way to Vegas and was dazzled by the bright lights. She strolls into The Commanche and right up to the slots and putting her last 10 dollars in the machine she hit big! A little under 2 million dollars.
She looks like a homeless person with only a bag to her name but when she wins and a crowd builds she faints and wakes up with a gorgeous man watching her. Daniel 'Mac' MacGreggor the eldest of the grandchildren and son to Serena and Justin. He runs the Vegas casino and proceeds to help Darcey and her winnings.
Eventually they become entagled and love becomes an issue. He falls hard and she is smitten. Daniel plays his part in this novel, although he doesnt set up the meeting he however does fly to vegas and meddle a little. As does Serena becoming a little like her meddling father!
I really enjoyed the book and found myself feeling excited by the buzz of vegas just as i had with Serena and Justin and their casino story.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book and am finding it very hard to think the series is nearly finished!
on to the next i believe!!

The MacGreggor Grooms

OMG i am totally falling in love with these books. The MacGreggors have become a part of my life for the past month and i have been living in their world. I have thought about them constantly and needing to read the next is always on my mind. The phrase "i just couldnt put it down" is so true in every sense of the word. I really have not been able to put them down!
These next stories in one book are about three of Daniel MacGreggors grandsons, DC MacGreggor, Duncan Blade and Ian MacGreggor. And i have to say i am totally in love with all of the men as well!!

DC MacGreggor is the son of Alan and Shelby and a very good artist. He is a little bit of a recluse like his uncle and just as brilliant. He loves his family with passion and after living in the white house for 8 years likes his peace and quiet.
Layna is a beautiful young woman who is the god daughter of Myra (Anna's best friend in Daniel and Anna's story). DC is also Myra's god child and she sees fit to help Daniel in his meddling ways!
Layna has taken over her fathers department store and has recently moved to the area. Daniel get DC to help her and from then on a love blossoms. She is not his type (or so Daniel tells him) therefore DC finds it amusing to start a romance with her and it ending with them both head over heels (just as Daniel and Myra planned!).
I loved this story and laughed at some of the lines, Nora does put comedy into her books but only enough to make you smile or have a little laugh and then the romance and pure passion ooze out of the books.

Duncan Blade is the son of Serena and Justin and runs the riverboat casino and is a known playboy nad all around lady's man. And why not he is gorgeous and young.
Cat Farrell is a beautiful singer on the rise and is hired for the entertainment on the boat, By recommendation of his brother Mac who advised of her via Daniel of course!!
Cat is a rising star with the voice to match and she is aware that nothing can stand in her way so when Duncan decides he wants her she tries so hard to not be interested but how long can she stay away from him when she is slowly falling in love with him.
She tries hard not to care and even after e helps her career by contacting a record label she cant hel but fall head over heels.
I loved Cat's character and she is a very sexy and exciting woman, you can see what Duncan sees in her. The love and passionate scenes in the books are as always amazing and you feel the tingles and makes you wish you were the woman on the recieving end of it!!!

Ian MacGreggor is a lawyer and the son of Caine and Diana. He works at the family lae firm with his parents and sister Laura. He loves his job and he is heading for politics as his father did and possibly presidency as his uncle did but for that to happen he needs to settle down and he is ready.
Ian is a little bit of a scamp with the women and can easily get one but he meets Naomi and everything shifts.
She is a quiet woman with a very differnet life to Ian, she used to be fat and not that attractive. She shied away from people and lived a very sad and quiet life. When her father passed the bookstore to her she grabbed hold and decided to change her life.
She got a makeover and lost weight and now a successful business woman she runs the store. Ian is tasked to deal with the deal of partnership between her and her father, organising the contracts and then for reasons unknown to him he falls in love with her.
She is innocent and had never even been kissed by a man. She was having all her firsts with Ian and he was totally unaware of that. When she told him he was shocked but loved her more.
After some heart ache (of course) and some emotional realisations for both they come back together.
A great story and i really enjoyed each of the stories but after each one finished i wanted more!
onto the last one now.....:0(

The Perfect Neighbour

I loved this story. That is it really.
This story is about an artist Cybil the daughter of Genvieve and Grant Campbell. They are honorary family to the MacGreggors and that doesnt deter the lovely Daniel from meddling in her love life!
Preston is a play write and a very good one at that, a little solitary like her father and when her sunny and happy nature infect him he has no hope!!
She becomes part of his life and despite not wanting it he finds himself needing her and he becomes totally infatuated with her.
he has a past that is affecting his present and she realises that it may not work out as she wants it to.
After again much heart ache and emotional arguments they finally get together and admit how they feel. Daniel is not innocent in the match as well because he owns the building that Cybil lives in and offers the apartment to Preston while his house is being rennovated. Placing him directly in her path and hoping the rest will just develop. He had never got it wrong up to now and even in his 90's he still has it!
This is the last book in the MacGreggor series and a good one at that! Meeting Gennie and Grant again and their relationship that has impacted on Cybil.
Preston had no chance!!!

When i finished the book i was left feeling a little sad and deflated that it was all over, the MacGreggors have been a part of my life for over a month now and i am upset that it has ended however am pleased i can go on and read more of Nora's brilliant stories.
The MacGreggor's will always have a solid place in my heart and i will be happy to go back and read them in the future reminding myself of the wonderful family.
Daniel and Anna's love and commitment carries through all of the books and in the lives of all of the children and grand children, influencing them and making them feel and want the love they still have even after 60 years.

A huge well done to Nora for this collection, it must have been a joy to write them and develop them over the years she wrote.
A very well deserved 10/10 for me!!!