Chaos

December 13, 2024

The ragtag crew of the Calamity continue to court disaster and mayhem in this third entry in the "Uncharted Hearts" series, after Fiasco. Ace hacker Caro Ogunyemi gets suckered into a mission to rescue two of her crewmates, an assignment that doesn't really go wrong until they have to rescue her. Caro has blown her cover to smithereens by her need to save the handsome, brainwashed subject of the mistake she's been running from for a decade. It takes an epically destructive and disastrous prison break for Caro to figure out where she went wrong--and where things might finally be going right, if she can just stop glitching everything she touches, including her own heart. The crew of the Calamity are all magnets for chaos, and Caro might be the most magnetic of them all. The novel's rescues, recaptures, and catastrophes come one after the other; each time, Caro manages to avert one disaster while she's causing another. VERDICT The space opera's mercantile empire setting creates plenty of rapacious villains and provides endless backdrops for the never-ending chaos, while the madcap romance is perfect for readers of Valerie Valdes, K.B. Wagers, Rachel Bach, or Cat Rambo, this time with elements of Martha Wells's "Murderbot Diaries" series.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2025
A tech genius falls for a man who was turned into a genetically enhanced supersoldier against his will. Caro Ogunyemi works as an engineer aboard the spaceshipCalamity, and there isn't a piece of tech she can't operate, repair, or hack. While her crew is on leave, she accepts a job to infiltrate Shikigami, a luxury prison planet for wealthy criminals operated by the Pierce family. Her mission is to find evidence that Carmichael Pierce has a secret lab at the prison where he's using stolen tech to build supersoldiers out of unwilling test subjects. Caro's shameful secret is that she worked for Pierce a decade ago, and she suspects some code she developed and attempted to destroy might be part of the supersoldier protocol. Once on planet, Caro learns that most of Pierce's attempts to create supersoldiers have failed, with the exception of a terrifying specimen they call Leviathan--and her bungled attempt to infiltrate the prison puts her into a face-off with him. During the life-or-death fight, Caro discovers that her touch deactivates Leviathan's chip, which allows him to reason and think for himself as long as she can keep her hands on him. Caro feels instantly attracted to Levi as his real self, and he feels a similar pull, calling her "angel" and begging her not to abandon him. Caro is charmed by the man behind the programming and vows to save him. With the help of two undercover friends, Caro makes a plan to destroy all of Pierce's records and extract Levi. Everything that can go wrong does, leading to a series of high-stakes and at times hilarious adventures. Caro is a robust, interesting character, and her sweet romance with Levi allows her to forgive herself for past mistakes. The gang's adventures on the prison planet are a rollicking good time, with complex, fast-paced plotting and intricately choreographed action sequences. A wildly entertaining space adventure explores the nature of love and humanity.

COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.