Epeolatry Book Review: Chaos, Uncharted Hearts Book 3 by Constance Fay
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Title: Chaos: Uncharted Hearts, Book 3
Author: Constance Fay
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Publisher: Bramble
Publication date: 11th March 2025
Synopsis: Lore Olympus meets Winter’s Orbit in this pulse-pounding romance between a space mercenary and a super soldier whose mind-control breaks when she touches him.
He’s a mind controlled killing machine, until her touch frees him
Engineer Caro Ogunyemi thinks she has everything in control. Sure, she has a dark secret in her past and aim so bad that she can’t shoot the side of a spaceship when she’s right in front of it, but those are minor details in the life of a space mercenary. When Caro embarks on a solo mission infiltrating a prison planet that is run by the deadly Pierce family, she embraces the opportunity to prove she’s a hero.
It’s there that Caro meets Leviathan, a super soldier with a chip in his head that turns him into a mindless killer. He’s drop dead gorgeous with an emphasis on drop dead, until she touches him and renders his chip inert. The danger begins when she lets him go.
In the heart of enemy territory, where love is at stake, life is treacherous and time is short, Caro and Leviathan must figure out how to recover his agency, protect her crew from Pierce’s sinister machinations, and stage a prison-break before Leviathan is lost to her—and himself—forever.
From Constance Fay comes the third book in the Uncharted Hearts series, Chaos. For those wondering, you don’t have to have read the first two books to enjoy this one. While there are references to the first two throughout Chaos, Fay does a great job of bringing the reader up to speed from the perspective of the main character.
Caro, the engineer for the ship Calamity, is front and center this time around. She’s been lurking as a supporting character in the last two novels but now we get her full personality. Caro is calculating and logical which makes her different from the rest of the Calamity’s crew. While not a gunslinger herself, she always finds clever ways to get out of tough situations. It will be her brain that helps tamp down the brawn of the love interest, Leviathan.
Victor and Victory, a pair of mercenaries, make for some of the best comic reliefs in the series. Victory takes over the point of view in a few chapters and has several scenes that are laugh-out-loud funny. Victor has his moments as his “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality gets him into some awkward situations.
Carmichael Pierce is back as the big bad of the novel. Caro uses her history with Pierce to infiltrate one of the most secure prisons in charted space. While Pierce serves as Caro’s biggest antagonist, he is not her only one. Kaori, fellow prisoner and member of the Nakatomi Family, sets out to put Caro in her place early.
The universe building is ever impressive. There is even more growth and detail in the politics and governing bodies within the universe which makes Uncharted Hearts so engaging. The interconnected web that links the Five families has become even more complex and the reader is introduced to the lesser organizations in the same way as the secondary families. Even within the prison, disowned or abandoned members of the families still play the system to their advantage
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this will likely not be the last book in the series. From the memorable characters to the great comedic lines, this series continues to produce captivating novels. I look forward to the next book just as I always do.
Chaos is an action-packed adventure and one of the best Sci-Fi prison-break novels in recent publication. Chock full of Fay’s signature character development, witty banter, and spicy romance, this novel will not disappoint, and I highly recommend it.
/5
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Joseph Pietris is a member of the United States Coast Guard by day and heavily involved in the horror community by night. His work has appeared in several anthologies. When not writing, he’s produced reviews and interviews preferring those works generally lost in the cracks. As an associate editor, Joseph has weeding through the submission piles of horror podcasts.
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