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A review by amym84
Chaos Reigning by Jessie Mihalik
4.0
As the youngest of House von Hasenberg Catarina has carefully cultivated a public persona based upon frivolities and superficiality. No one expects her to be sharp and cunning, but that's what she's going for. Being underestimated means that she's not scrutinized by High House rivals especially now after the kidnapping of her eldest brother - and House Heir. The von Hasenberg siblings are still looking for the link, the person behind the scenes and their ultimate goal. Cat's plan is to do what she does best, attend a party. Not just any party. A house party hosted by one of the Lower Houses that may have a link to everything that's been going wrong in the Consortium lately. But Cat can't go in alone, so enters Alex Sterling who will pose as Cat's companion for the duration of the party.
While trying to keep their attraction in check to get through with the plan, Cat is attacked and nearly killed. When they learn that the rest of the House heirs have been encountering the same situation, and that the Consortium is in utter chaos, they know that whoever is behind the scenes of the recent turmoil has upped their timeline. They need to act fast as everything they know and love is caught in the cross-hairs.
I've really enjoyed the surge in sci-fi romance and I feel like Jesse Mihalik's Consortium Rebellion series is one of the standouts.
So here we are at the end of the trilogy and I absolutely loved how everything has been crafted over the course of the three books. I love how Jesse Mihalik has built up the unrest within the Consortium sort of on the sly. Like, I didn't really expect it to go this direction when I had first started Polaris Rising. I especially found that I loved learning about how everything was twisted together. Who was deceiving whom and their ultimate goal. So I enjoyed the subterfuge that Cat has to undertake early on in the book, I could have gone more in-depth with those scenes. I also loved seeing Cat take charge and begin to believe in herself because while the way she's presented herself to the public has been a fabrication, she's played the part for so long that she's started to believe it herself. Couple that with the fact that she's the youngest of her protective siblings and their meddling in her plan only makes her feel as though they too find her incompetent. For a character that we're only now getting the full scope of their story, I thought that Jesse Mihalik did a great job of making sure that these aspects of Cat's character came through loud and clear.
Unfortunately, the romance was a bit too one dimensional for me. While we too saw Alex in the previous book so we were at least aware of him, there's really not much more built onto his character that we can't guess or we have already learned by proxy from the previous stories' heroes. I just wish there was more to his character, that there was more build up to their relationship. When Cat initially mentions seeing this mysterious someone around various places, my interest was piqued and I just wish that momentum could have been kept going for a bit throughout. That the clear tension that was there was played with just a bit before they fell into each other. I think it's because the story is only told from Cat's point of view. Had it switched I think Alex's character could have jumped off the page more like Cat's does.
Despite this, and overall, I really did enjoy this read and I've really enjoyed this series. As mentioned above it's a great example of the sci fi romance genre. I cannot wait to see what Jesse Mihalik does next. She's an autoread for me at this point.
While trying to keep their attraction in check to get through with the plan, Cat is attacked and nearly killed. When they learn that the rest of the House heirs have been encountering the same situation, and that the Consortium is in utter chaos, they know that whoever is behind the scenes of the recent turmoil has upped their timeline. They need to act fast as everything they know and love is caught in the cross-hairs.
I've really enjoyed the surge in sci-fi romance and I feel like Jesse Mihalik's Consortium Rebellion series is one of the standouts.
So here we are at the end of the trilogy and I absolutely loved how everything has been crafted over the course of the three books. I love how Jesse Mihalik has built up the unrest within the Consortium sort of on the sly. Like, I didn't really expect it to go this direction when I had first started Polaris Rising. I especially found that I loved learning about how everything was twisted together. Who was deceiving whom and their ultimate goal. So I enjoyed the subterfuge that Cat has to undertake early on in the book, I could have gone more in-depth with those scenes. I also loved seeing Cat take charge and begin to believe in herself because while the way she's presented herself to the public has been a fabrication, she's played the part for so long that she's started to believe it herself. Couple that with the fact that she's the youngest of her protective siblings and their meddling in her plan only makes her feel as though they too find her incompetent. For a character that we're only now getting the full scope of their story, I thought that Jesse Mihalik did a great job of making sure that these aspects of Cat's character came through loud and clear.
Unfortunately, the romance was a bit too one dimensional for me. While we too saw Alex in the previous book so we were at least aware of him, there's really not much more built onto his character that we can't guess or we have already learned by proxy from the previous stories' heroes. I just wish there was more to his character, that there was more build up to their relationship. When Cat initially mentions seeing this mysterious someone around various places, my interest was piqued and I just wish that momentum could have been kept going for a bit throughout. That the clear tension that was there was played with just a bit before they fell into each other. I think it's because the story is only told from Cat's point of view. Had it switched I think Alex's character could have jumped off the page more like Cat's does.
Despite this, and overall, I really did enjoy this read and I've really enjoyed this series. As mentioned above it's a great example of the sci fi romance genre. I cannot wait to see what Jesse Mihalik does next. She's an autoread for me at this point.