The Mackenzie Chronicles: A Guide to the Mackenzies / McBrides series

Mackenzies & McBrides

by Jennifer Ashley

Welcome to the Mackenzies / McBrides series! The Mackenzie Chronicles is a guide put together by Jennifer Ashley to the books in the world of the Mackenzies. In this guide, you’ll find character sketches of the main couple in each book, a brief synopsis of each story, an excerpt for that book, and Jennifer’s notes and thoughts about the story and the characters—challenges she faced as well as what she enjoyed most. The Chronicles includes a family tree, a series timeline and reading order, plus publication order and a guide on how to find the books. It all begins with The Madness of Lord Ian!

Genres: Romance, Historical, Historical Romance, Scotland

331 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2018

About the author

NY Times Bestselling author Jennifer Ashley writes historical, contemporary, and paranormal romance, historical mysteries, and urban fantasy as Jennifer Ashley, Allyson James, and Ashley Gardner.

Jennifer's novels have been translated into many different languages, and earned starred reviews from Booklist and Publisher's Weekly. More about her books at http://www.jenniferashley.com and http://gardnermysteries.com.

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth a read if you are tackling the long Mackenzies and McBrides series. Ashley introduces each book, including some of her personal comments at times, about the characters or the writing of the books. It also includes a synopsis of each book and a sample of each too.

It took me ages to finish this because I simply read each section as I started the relevant book. I wish other authors of long series would do a similar thing. It was interesting and helpful, and encouraged me to keep reading the series.

[Lover of Romance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well done guide to this series. So if you are interested in reading this series or would like a retoucher on it, I recommend it. I am planning on rereading this series soon as the later books in the series I never read but its been over ten years since I read the books I have read. For each book, it has a character background, blurb, teaser chapter and some unique facts about each book to prep you for it. I do wish more authors would do these guides.

[Jeannine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this very slowly, as I read the books in the Mackenzie series. I found Jennifer Ashley’s notes about the publication of each book especially interesting. She wrote early books as ebooks were becoming popular and the details of how Berkley and their digital imprint released these books (or didn’t towards the end) was enlightening.

You can’t help be admire the sheer quantity of writing Ashley is doing - while writing this series, she has has 3-5 others in process as well. It’s amazing.

[Angelique Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book and a great way to revisit the stories and characters that are some of my romance favs!

[Laura Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't help but love this whole family.

[Jaime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guide to go along with the series. I highly recommend!

[Lita · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this little book got me to go back and read all of the Mackenzie and McBride books again. It contains a brief explanation of each main character and a little history of each book - a sort of behind the scenes glimpse if you will, by the author as well as the opening chapter from each book. After reading the first one about Beth Ackerly and Lord Ian i had to go an read that book again. And so it went with each one resulting in me re-reading each of the books all over again in the order they were written. Sadly, it end with the title of Lord Will's book and refers the reader to Ms. Ashley's website to download a free copy of that chapter because his book hadn't been released as of the writing of this book. Amusing since this book just cam out and Lord Will's book has been released for some time. Such is the world of publishers.

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit surprised when this book popped up on my library's website. I like the series so I grabbed it without really knowing what it was. It's basically a bible of the series book by book, the main couple, the synopsis and a sneak peak. But what I really liked was the author's notes on each book. Nice to get some behind the scenes info. If you are a fan of this series this is a good book to check out.

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay. I regularly re-read The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie and The Duke's Perfect Wife. But I haven't re-read any of the McBride stories. So guess what I'm reading next?

I liked reading Jennifer's background inspiration for the stories. I have them all. They are an auto-buy read for me and I've never been disappointed. Well, Daniel's book was a wee bit disappointing but I think no one was going to be good enough for him in my mind and leaving him without a HEA would have been wrong.

[Erika · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was an odd book. It reads more like an advertisement for the Mackenzie clan books, but only those who had already read the books would read this one. Almost the entire book is just a synopsis & a (long) excerpt for each book. Since I’ve already read the books, this didn’t add anything.
The one new thing was thoughts from the author. But again, these thoughts didn’t add anything to the series.

[Γιώτα Παπαδημακοπούλου · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ένα οδηγός χαρακτήρων και καταστάσεων, που παρουσιάζει τα πιο σημαντικά στοιχεία των βιβλίων που έχουμε ήδη διαβάσει. Καλογραμμένο και με καλή δομή μεν, όχι κάτι το απαραίτητο για τη συλλογή σου δε, εκτός κι αν είσαι πραγματικά πολύ μεγάλος fan της σειράς.

[LeeAnn Woodall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I purchased this book primarily for the character sketches that were described as being included. Did I miss them somewhere? I am quite upset.