Fake (Madison Kate #3) – Tate James

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31 August 2020 – Foxy Publishing

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“You’ll always be mine.”

The latest taunt from my stalker reminded me I was nothing more than a possession to my father, to the Reapers, to Archer D’Ath. Even to Kody and Steele. Princess Danvers—the prize.

His wife.

Archer D’Ath’s wife.

I hate them. They lied to me. Over and over again. I knew they were lying, and I hate myself for letting it happen. For believing in the fake relationships I want so desperately to be real.

Fake.

It’s all fucking fake. My stalker won’t let me go. None of them will. Archer and his boys think they control me. My stalker wants to possess me. I’m not an idiot, I know my newest allies are using me too.

That’s fine.

I’ll use all of them. I’ll use them to take back what’s mine.

My life. My freedom. My name.

No one owns Madison Kate Danvers.

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It’s been a while since I last reviewed a reverse harem book on here, but this is one series I particularly enjoy. You can find my reviews for the first two books in the series here and here.

I’d give this 3.5 stars, as usual rounded up to 4… I’m starting to sense a pattern here.

After the bombshell dropped at the end of the last book, MK moves out to get away from the boys and into an apartment paid for by Zane, Archer’s estranged older brother. Cue a bunch more gang bullshit, an escalation of the situation with MK’s deranged stalker/murderer, and Archer finally getting on board with the RH plan.

Okay, I can’t be bothered to divide up these points into pros and cons like I usually do, so I’m just going to give them all to you in one go and you can decide how you feel about everything.

➽ I’m very satisfied with how apologetic all the guys are for keeping secrets from MK. This was getting infuriating in the last couple of books, especially her poor ‘revenges’ against them. In this one, she doesn’t really take revenge, but she does something that’s arguably just as good: lets them basically fall at her feet like adoring puppies, declaring everlasting love, without giving very much in return. I’m happy with how the relationship progressed and I don’t think there are any scores left that need to be evened.

➽ Goddamn, but this series gets even more crazy unrealistic with each passing book. Before, it was just OTT entertaining, but now it’s getting annoying. Steele, Kody, and Archer are revealed to be mega-gangsters, the most powerful and wealthy people in the city at the age of like 22, they have people literally wetting themselves in fear and running away from them because of their vicious, murderous natures, every policeman is in their pocket, they have people in their 50s giving them obsequious respect, we see them torture and kill multiple people with immunity… I don’t know, man. I just feel like this book took a very dark turn very quickly and it doesn’t quite ring true to me.

➽ I’ve said before I appreciate how smart MK is, but in this book she seems to have lost several brain cells. Frequently she took many decisions for no other reason than plain stupidity which I KNEW would come back to bite her in the arse. And they did. I’m disappointed with how she dropped several IQ points.

➽ She also verged heavily on Mary Sue territory here. Out of the 8 major guys in this instalment, 3 are currently involved with her, 2 desperately want to be, and 1 used to be. This is getting a bit ridiculous, especially as there’s no other female in the series except Bree to balance it out. I absolutely rolled my eyes when a totally random man, who does not even KNOW MK, warned her guys all seriously to ‘treat her like she’s precious’ and ‘take damn good care of her’ and they solemnly agreed. Major cringe, that scene.

➽ I’m starting to feel like Archer is a more important guy in the harem than the others, and this is never a good feeling to have. For one, he’s the only guy whose first-person POV we get. Second, he’s the only one whose family background we know. I don’t understand how, 3 books into a 4-book series, MK has shown not a smidgen of interest in Max and Kody’s personal lives. Like, where are their parents? How did they meet each other? Kody especially feels very deprived of attention and I don’t like it.

➽ I found Bree a little more tolerable in this book – she was slightly more fleshed out and less like a random sex-obsessed cardboard cut-out.

Overall, this gets rounded up to 4 stars because it was satisfyingly long and it’s kind of like crack – bad for me but highly addictive. I genuinely like these characters and I’m looking forward to the sequel. I just hope Tate James gives us a slightly more intelligent heroine. More sex scenes wouldn’t go amiss, either…