Rating: 4⭐️
Stir Crazy is book 6 is Maya’s Blog, one of my all time favorite series.
Lara McKenzie has taken her main character on a tremendous personal journey of self discovery and growth. She’s gone from someone who fled a strict religious home environment that was destroying her sense of self and wellbeing to finding a new place where she slowly became a woman who through a new life, barista job and found family of paranormals, who she is today.
Someone who has undergone an enormous transformation into a paranormal herself, found a mate in a battle demon, and now has a family, that includes a demon merchild, Sabine, and a ghost mantis shrimp, Genevieve. And a blog of millions of followers.
It’s been a great journey.And it’s not over yet.
After Little Bean, the birth of her baby, the battle with the Project Purity people who threatened their lives, now comes the fallout.
And how she, Scorpion (her husband and mate) , Sabine the baby, and the rest of the household are doing after the fighting is over and the ramifications is setting in.
Not well. Especially for Scorpion as Dax, his best friend and co-hort in the field, left for the Rift over his own actions. And nothing has been the same. Tension is high and effecting everyone around him. Leaving Maya to try and figure things out.
I thought this was a good book but not the strongest one in the series. Several things I found works against it for me.
Genevieve, the ghost mantis shrimp, is a unique character and voice. But here McKenzie makes the decision to give Genevieve a larger audience and role in Maya’s blog. Which is the book’s format. So we get Maya’s perspective and her story about what she’s going through with trying to fix the torn dynamic between Scorpion and Dax.
Then it’s switched to Genevieve and her new sidekick Myrtle the Turtle, and her new PI business she’s setting up. Then the cases she and Myrtle actually take.
Then we start to see alternating blogs for Maya and Genevieve, which I found a less interesting and enjoyable format. Genevieve is fine in small doses but doesn’t work for me here in a larger capacity. Unlike Charlotte who got her own story, and it was outstanding.
There’s a few things left open, like the sentient car who left Maya because she felt unappreciated/unheard. This was another element that I found underwhelming. It came out of nowhere.
Maya was quick to blame herself for not listening but the prior circumstances, a desperate battle, constant fighting and threats, a demolition of her home, none of which seemed to be taken into account by the car. Was no one else around her who could have intervened (friends/family) or even the car talking to someone about it? To say an intervention was needed? To a mother overwhelmed with her current circumstances?
Seems like a bit unfair to me. That Maya is the only one able to hold everything together. New mom to a child whose very vocal cords can shatter buildings who’s starting preschool ? And a husband who is having trouble with his rage and frustration that he’s scaring people? And a ghost shrimp who wants to start a business and bring in a turtle? So let’s add an unhappy car to that.
So yes, I found that Stir Crazy was good but not fantastic. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Absolutely don’t miss out on Charlotte’s book Kiss My Ash, it’s incredible.
I listed them all below.,
The series is highly recommended!
Maya’s Blogs (6 book series):
Espresso Yourself #1
Brew Diligence #2
Uncharted Grounds #3
Flat White Flag #4
Little Bean #5
Stir Crazy #6
Kiss My Ash: An Umbrafore Standalone Novel
Buy link
Blurb
After Scorpion and Dax’s devastating fallout over Project Purity, Maya finds herself walking on eggshells around the shadow demon she loves. The bond between them is strained, and Ashvale Nocturn is feeling less like a sanctuary and more like a pressure cooker.
Meanwhile, Dax is carrying secrets, guilt, and enough emotional damage to destabilise the realms, while Genevieve launches Claw & Order into full investigative chaos with ghost shrimp professionalism and no ethical restraint.
Packed with brutal honesty, dark humor, and the messy reality of forgiveness, Stir Crazy is the sixth instalment in the Maya’s Blogs series about love, loyalty, rebuilding trust, and what happens when emotionally repressed warlords finally start talking.
May 29, 2026
Language
English
Print length
327 pages
Book 6 of 6
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 