Tully is the last book Jane’s Irish mafia series, and as it goes, I think it works really well. It ties everything up in a nice way, but not in an overly neat way, and I think that there is enough room so that Jane could still stick in some updates in there, if she wanted. And it’s not like I would complain if she did. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading her world.
So, we have Tully. We’ve seen him in other books. He’s screwed up in the past, but now he’s one of the trusted inner circle of the McCarthy Clan. (I wasn’t sure of the elapsed time of the series, but there’s a decade between the first book and now.) The Clan has been through a lot, and Tully has been there supporting his clan and his brothers through that. Now, he’s still doing everything he is supposed to, but he’s also fascinated with McKenna.
McKenna is a teacher at the Clan’s school, teaching world history. Her mother was married to a member of the Clan before he died. Now McKenna and Tully have an on again and off again relationship. They are combustible when they are put together, and when I say combustible, they might as well nickname them Nitro and Glycerin. McKenna has a temper, and she’s really independent, and doesn’t want to be owned by any man, so while she really likes Tully’s dominance, it does cause them to have arguments.
They are heading into an on again right now, as McKenna meets Tully at the Craic. They start their encounter, and then Tully leaves the room. He plans to come back, as it’s part of the fun between the two of them, but when he gets back to the room, she’s gone. Of course, being a man of the Clan, Tully is worried that she’s been taken, so there are all kinds of people looking for her. What really happened is that McKenna snuck out and was planning on getting into a cab and showing up at Tully’s house. What she didn’t plan was Tully bribing the cabbie and basically kidnapping her and having his way with her. But, while he was having his wicked way, other, more dire, things were happening to the Clan.
I really like McKenna, most of the time. I understand wanting to be independent, because, well, that’s me to a T. But there are times when being independent isn’t a good thing. Or at least, not so headstrongly independent. I think that there are times when her independent streak hurt her, and may have made McKenna more naive and blind than she might otherwise have been. She was so steadfast on doing what she wanted, she didn’t pay attention to anything else or she just disregarded how her actions would affect others. See above shenanigan for example. She likes Tully and what he does for her, but she doesn’t always like his highhandedness, or what she sees as that.
Tully is a good man. He isn’t just a good man by Clan standards, which he is that, but he’s also just a good man. He’s concerned about his family and friends, about his community, and he will do what he needs to do to keep everything safe. And he consideres McKenna his. The one problem with that is that McKenna doesn’t always agree with him. He is, I think, a smidge more dominating than some of the other brothers, and I think that he’s also a bit domineering at times, and yes, I think there’s a difference.
OK, that’s all for this one. Nothing below the pic today. Go check it out! Happy reading!
In Between the Pages 