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A review by katyanaish
Chaos Reigning by Jessie Mihalik
5.0
Holy cow, this was so good. So good that I totally slacked off at work today between meetings to keep sneaking in reading time - I just couldn't put it down.
All the threads from previous books pulled together here and became a really compelling finale to the series. Plus, unlike in the last book, the lead couple was pretty great - Cat was great (though she could use a dose of self-confidence ... but I understand why struggles) and Alex was everything you'd want in a book boyfriend.
As with all the books in the series, the love happens pretty fast, but I buy it - the heightened emotions of life or death situations, blah blah. To be honest, I think that any kind of romance where the couple meets in the beginning and is in love by the end feels fast to me unless there's been a lot of time-jumping happening over the course of the book. So YMMV there, but for me, they felt solid as partners and as in love as pretty much any couple in a single book imo. I think it is the solid partnership that really sells it - that's the foundation they have to have if I'm going to believe they can go the distance by the end of a single book, and these two have it.
I'm sad the series is ending with just this trilogy, because there are so many more stories I want to hear in this world.
Show me Riccardo Silva in a body bag, and the rest of the Syndicate utterly crushed. I mean, there's a whole war that's gotta happen there. (Also, Bianca and Ian suck even more for not killing Riccardo like brainless jelly donuts - he seemed to be the main orchstrator of these events along with Hitoshi, and FFS most of it wouldn't have happened, or would have been at least scrambling, had they killed him like anyone with a brain would have done. I was pissed about it in the last book because it was dumb to leave a murderous mob boss who kidnapped and maimed - and as far as they knew at the time, killed - your brother the heir alive behind you to organize his revenge. So fucking stupid.)
And show me this family finally being comfortable enough to reveal their secrets to each other. They so completely love each other, but don't want to burden each other, which is dumb. This last book made it clear that they can utterly rely on each other, and be a stronger team if they know each other's secrets to utilize them effectively. There's no reason for Cat to chafe at her family sheltering her - let them know just how strong your shitty father's experiments made you, so they worry less for you. There's no reason for Bianca to hide her abilities, or her need to get shelter to escape them sometimes. And I suspect the others have secrets too, that they've kept buried like a wounded animal so that their father didn't use it against them. Be done with that, please.
I hope Mihalik revisits it somewhere down the road.
All the threads from previous books pulled together here and became a really compelling finale to the series. Plus, unlike in the last book, the lead couple was pretty great - Cat was great (though she could use a dose of self-confidence ... but I understand why struggles) and Alex was everything you'd want in a book boyfriend.
As with all the books in the series, the love happens pretty fast, but I buy it - the heightened emotions of life or death situations, blah blah. To be honest, I think that any kind of romance where the couple meets in the beginning and is in love by the end feels fast to me unless there's been a lot of time-jumping happening over the course of the book. So YMMV there, but for me, they felt solid as partners and as in love as pretty much any couple in a single book imo. I think it is the solid partnership that really sells it - that's the foundation they have to have if I'm going to believe they can go the distance by the end of a single book, and these two have it.
I'm sad the series is ending with just this trilogy, because there are so many more stories I want to hear in this world.
Spoiler
Like, show me Ferdinand and Evelyn, and how such a tremendously complicated relationship can unfold. Show me what happens with Hitoshi. Show me Veronica revealing that she had Hitoshi's son (and was held prisoner by him for years) - she deserves a connection with the good members of the family (Ying and Tae seem wonderful), and her son deserves it too. I want to see Benedict find a partner. I want to see Hannah recover and find her happiness, whether that's married or living her own life. I want to see Richard Rockhurst get punched in the face for not just what he did to Ada, but also for what he did on Fornax that created the situation with Loch and the rest of the Genesis Project survivors.Show me Riccardo Silva in a body bag, and the rest of the Syndicate utterly crushed. I mean, there's a whole war that's gotta happen there. (Also, Bianca and Ian suck even more for not killing Riccardo like brainless jelly donuts - he seemed to be the main orchstrator of these events along with Hitoshi, and FFS most of it wouldn't have happened, or would have been at least scrambling, had they killed him like anyone with a brain would have done. I was pissed about it in the last book because it was dumb to leave a murderous mob boss who kidnapped and maimed - and as far as they knew at the time, killed - your brother the heir alive behind you to organize his revenge. So fucking stupid.)
And show me this family finally being comfortable enough to reveal their secrets to each other. They so completely love each other, but don't want to burden each other, which is dumb. This last book made it clear that they can utterly rely on each other, and be a stronger team if they know each other's secrets to utilize them effectively. There's no reason for Cat to chafe at her family sheltering her - let them know just how strong your shitty father's experiments made you, so they worry less for you. There's no reason for Bianca to hide her abilities, or her need to get shelter to escape them sometimes. And I suspect the others have secrets too, that they've kept buried like a wounded animal so that their father didn't use it against them. Be done with that, please.
I hope Mihalik revisits it somewhere down the road.