Entry tags:
books: Chaos Reigning by Jessie Mihalik
Jessie Mihalik's Consortium Rebellion trilogy is pretty much entirely made of Jaime catnip. Space opera romance packed with action! Heroines who refuse to sit on the sidelines! Heroes who have all the heart-eyes for them! Crunchy worldbuilding and great side characters! It's a trilogy for everyone who knows the original Star Wars trilogy is actually the Adventures of Princess Leia and wanted even more.
Chaos Reigning is the third and final book in the trilogy, though I won't be surprised if we see more stories in this universe down the line. The heroines of the trilogy have all been sisters who belong to a very powerful political family. This book belongs to Catarina, the youngest sister, the one who plays the socialite while hiding her strange physical powers. I loved Catarina, and how she grew up in a believable way over the course of the story without the narrative ever making her (or me) feel like she wasn't capable from the start. And Alex, the hero, is totally my catnip too - stoic and protective, filled with love and amazement over this woman who somehow goes from attending a frivolous house party to leading a party to take back Earth from usurpers without much of a hitch at all. The action never stopped, but yet I didn't get the feeling like I wanted the characters to slow down and have a moment. Mihalik does a great job of keeping the emotional arc going at the same time as the action.
If I have any minor complaint about this book, it's that I felt like Bianca - the heroine of the second book - was done a disservice in her appearance. After having an entire book dedicated to her struggle to be taken seriously and gain her own agency, the fact that she didn't make more of an effort to give her sister that same agency bothered me a bit. I feel like the plot would have been just as well served if Bianca had explained most of her reasoning to Catarina in advance, instead of how it actually played out.
But overall, two very enthusiastic thumbs up to this whole series. It's so, so nice to have more of the kind of romantic space opera stories my heart desperately wants. This is a series I'll reread when I need to escape into a good adventure.
Chaos Reigning is the third and final book in the trilogy, though I won't be surprised if we see more stories in this universe down the line. The heroines of the trilogy have all been sisters who belong to a very powerful political family. This book belongs to Catarina, the youngest sister, the one who plays the socialite while hiding her strange physical powers. I loved Catarina, and how she grew up in a believable way over the course of the story without the narrative ever making her (or me) feel like she wasn't capable from the start. And Alex, the hero, is totally my catnip too - stoic and protective, filled with love and amazement over this woman who somehow goes from attending a frivolous house party to leading a party to take back Earth from usurpers without much of a hitch at all. The action never stopped, but yet I didn't get the feeling like I wanted the characters to slow down and have a moment. Mihalik does a great job of keeping the emotional arc going at the same time as the action.
If I have any minor complaint about this book, it's that I felt like Bianca - the heroine of the second book - was done a disservice in her appearance. After having an entire book dedicated to her struggle to be taken seriously and gain her own agency, the fact that she didn't make more of an effort to give her sister that same agency bothered me a bit. I feel like the plot would have been just as well served if Bianca had explained most of her reasoning to Catarina in advance, instead of how it actually played out.
But overall, two very enthusiastic thumbs up to this whole series. It's so, so nice to have more of the kind of romantic space opera stories my heart desperately wants. This is a series I'll reread when I need to escape into a good adventure.