CHAOS REIGNING by Jessie Mihalik – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Chaos Reigning by Jessie Mihalik
Series: Consortium Rebellion #3
Published by Harper Voyager on May 19 2020
Genres: Adult, Science fiction, Romance
Pages: 416
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: An exciting and satisfying conclusion to the series, Chaos Reigning was a ton of fun.

I’ve had so much fun with the Consortium Rebellion, and I’m actually sorry that it’s over. Chaos Reigning follows the same format as the first two books in the series but changes up the characters and the plot to keep things interesting. Each book focuses on a different House von Hasenberg daughter, and this time it’s Catarina von Hasenberg’s turn.

Mihalik’s series is set in a world called the Consortium and takes place on the last occupied city on Earth, Serenity. In the political arena, three High Houses rule the universe, and the von Hasenbergs are one of those houses. When the story opens, twenty-one-year-old Lady Catarina von Hasenberg has wrangled an invitation to an exclusive summer retreat hosted by rival House James, and she’s thrilled that she’ll get the chance to snoop around and try to find proof that someone in House James was responsible for trying to kill her brother. But Cat’s sister Bianca has an unwelcome surprise. Because of the danger surrounding the retreat, Bianca insists on sending two highly trained soldiers with Cat. Aiofe Delaney will attend as Cat’s bodyguard, and the hunky Alex Sterling will be her “plus one.” Cat is horrified and wants nothing to do with either one of them, but Bianca insists, and so Cat reluctantly agrees to the arrangement.

When they arrive at the James estate on the planet of Honorius, Cat immediately sets out to covertly gather information about the suspected attempt on her brother’s life. But when all the High Houses on Earth are viciously attacked, Cat knows the entire Consortium is in terrible danger. Now Cat, Alex and Aiofe, along with Cat’s close friend Ying, must race home and join in the fight, before a common enemy can bring them down.

Jessie Mihalik does a great job of blending action, romance, political intrigue and family dynamics in just the right amounts, so the story feels balanced without one element taking over. I did feel like the romance in Chaos Reigning was more subdued than in the other two books, and honestly, that didn’t bother me at all. I loved the burgeoning relationship between Cat and Alex, which is of the slow burn variety. Cat and Alex are forced to pretend that they are lovers in public, and it was fun watching them try to be convincing about it, while at the same time they are actually falling for each other. And boy does the author love to tease! There’s a whole lot of foreplay and not a lot of real action until the very end, but it worked for the story. Also, Cat and her friends are so damn busy trying to save the universe that there wasn’t much time for sex, lol.

Cat is definitely the focus of this story, and I loved how different she is from her sisters Bianca and Ada, whose stories were told in the first two books. Cat is the youngest von Hasenberg and she has a reputation as a vapid party girl who is only interested in clothes and gossip. She’s cultivated that reputation for good reasons, to keep everyone off guard so she can gain intel about the rival Houses to use in the coming conflicts. So she pretends to be a silly, worthless member of the family and even her siblings don’t see her as a powerhouse player, but in reality she’s quite smart and extremely strong. She wears her “mask,” as she calls it, to keep up appearances but then sneaks around when no one’s looking. She is a little down on herself, and I would have liked her to be more confident in her abilities, but over the course of the book she gains that confidence and it was fun to see how she changed.

Alex plays the unfortunate (or maybe fortunate, depending on how you look at it!) role of eye candy in the story, so we don’t get a lot of depth from his character. He’s a “super soldier” as a result of some secret, shady DNA experimentation, and he’s actually quite sweet to Cat and her sisters. I did love their slow burn relationship which doesn’t overshadow the action, and the romance was just enough for me and made sense within the framework of all the action. I also really loved some of the side characters, especially Cat’s friend Ying Yamado, who is desperate to rule her house. Ying and Cat are friends despite the rivalry between their houses, and I loved the way they continue to trust each other, even when others are trying to drive a wedge between them. I also loved the brief interactions with the characters from the previous books, particularly Cat’s sister Bianca, and it was fun to see that the romantic relationships in Polaris Rising and Aurora Blazing are still going strong.

And if you love battle scenes in space and on the ground, then you’ll have a blast with this story. There’s plenty of action on Cat’s ship Chaos, as she, Alex, and Aiofe zip from planet to planet. Mihalik’s world is quite vast, and during the series we get a good overall view of the different planets and the way the characters get from place to place. The last quarter of the story is relentless as Cat and her friends get into all kinds of scrapes and life threatening danger, before we thankfully get an ending that not only wraps everything up, but ends on a happy note. Mihalik even sheds some light on a few elements from the previous books that I was wondering about, which was pretty cool.

I was thrilled to find out that the author has a new sci-fi series coming out in 2022, and the first book, Hunted, is already up on Goodreads! If you love exciting, fast paced science fiction with strong female characters, lots of political intrigue, and satisfying romantic relationships and family dynamics, then I highly recommend this series.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.