I was ask to only take a picture of this book and not read it. However the synopsis sounds so good and Goodreads gives it a 4.58 average rating.

FATAL CHAOS is a really fitting title for this installment of the series because, except for a brief respite at the beginning, the entire story is one of fast moving, thrilling action and drama. The fallout from the events of the previous book continues unabated, with things heating up on Capitol Hill and the President mired in scandal, Sam facing potential legal jeopardy but even worse are the drive-by shootings which have left D.C. paralyzed with terror.

Sam does what she's best at: protecting her city, but she also has to deal with the potential changes that could happen in her personal and family life at the same time. Will Nick be ready and willing to step to the task of leading the country, if needed? Will Sam have to leave her job because of the changes that could happen in her life?

This book is as exciting as the previous ones in the series and Sam and Nick are still in love and as adorable as ever. Sam's harder edges have mellowed out and her personal circle is growing as her team becomes more like family, but she's still herself when it comes to the job, kicking ass and taking names.

I also enjoyed that many of the secondary characters got more page time, keeping us up to date on the happenings in their life and I look forward to more in this series.

Favorite Quotes:

I think you can only get an annulment before the marriage is consummated. Since we’ve consummated ours about six thousand times, I’d say you’re screwed in more ways than one.

There’s my nonfelon wife. I’m so glad I’m not going to have to visit you in prison, although I bet the conjugal visits would’ve been hot.

“She should’ve been spanked more as a child,” Celia said, teasing. Sam laughed. “They couldn’t catch me to spank me.

“Mom! Language!” “I’ll put fifty in the swear jar.” “That swear jar is going to put me through college… Better make it a hundred bucks… I have a feeling this is gonna be a long day.”

“Stop making excuses for them,” Scotty said. “They’re unseemly. And yes, that’s one of our vocabulary words this week. My parents are unseemly. See? I can even use it in a sentence.” Sam and Nick rocked with laughter… Scotty folded his arms and shook his head. “You guys suck at this.” To Celia, he said, “Is there a class or something they can take before they totally mess me up?”

My Review:

Fatal Chaos was my perfect read with a good cross-section of suspense, sizzle, clever humor, a sexy and supportive loving couple, compelling and likable characters, a well-crafted and unpredictable storyline, and excellent writing. It was superb from start to finish, even if one of the main characters was a politician – but this is how you know you are reading fiction since he wasn’t a self-serving and egotistical weasel. I adored the snappy dialogue, and highly amusing verbal sparring and irreverent bickering Sam engaged in with her husband, partner, son, and father. They each held their own and gave as good as they got. There were multiple storylines going at once, all were actively engaging, busy, and highly interesting. The random and vexing crime spree was heartbreaking yet realistic, relevant, and one I could not have solved. I love when that happens!

Samantha Holland, homicide lieutenant, her husband, Vice-President Nick Cappuano, and their son Scotty may have escaped the pressure cooker of Washington, D.C. for a vacation at the beach with their extended family during the last days of summer, but as soon as they return, the pressure escalates. As rumors circulate about the president’s son’s murderous plan to end Nick’s political career (Fatal Threat) and speculation rises concerning whether Congressional hearings will end in the president’s impeachment or resignation, the media relentlessly pushes Nick and Sam to comment on the possibility of Nick’s ascension to the highest office in the land. Sam has not yet officially returned to work when she gets a call that a teenager has been killed in a drive-by shooting. His death is the first in a series of apparently random attacks that terrorize the city. Sam and her team work endless hours and follow every lead as they try to find and stop the killer.

Sam and Nick try to avoid thinking about the changes that will occur in their lives if Nick should become president. The detective Sam hired to replace A. J. Arnold, who was killed in the line of duty, joins the crew, and the change is an emotional one for Sam and her colleagues, particularly Gonzo, Arnold’s partner. Sam is still dealing with old enemies. On the lighter side, Scotty is bummed about going back to school. Everyone looks forward to the upcoming wedding of Sam’s partner and his long-time girlfriend, and Sam does a bit of matchmaking between her White House assistant and one of Nick’s oldest friends.

Fatal Chaos is the twelfth book in Force’s popular series that is a mix of politics, police procedural, and romance. I fell in love with this series with Fatal Affair, the first book, back in 2010. From the beginning, I was fascinated with Sam and Nick—their relationship, their families, and their friends. Force’s books typically have a higher sizzle factor than most of my favorites, but I am so invested in these characters that I keep reading this series regardless.

Although these books are not conventional romances, Sam and Nick’s relationship is their heart, and theirs is a complicated, passionate love story that never gets stale. Sam is a strong, independent woman and a dedicated professional. Nick is an alpha-beta mix who understands that his need to protect Sam has to be balanced with her need for independence, especially in issues related to her job.

Fatal Chaos has all the elements that have made the other books in the series keepers—a central romantic relationship that continues to be dynamic and meaningful, intriguing bits of national politics and power struggles, a mystery that keeps me turning pages, and a complex of secondary characters whose stories, personal and professional, are interwoven with the main plot. If you enjoy contemporary romance with a high sensuality level, if you like romance mixed with action, or if you are a fan of mysteries in which continuing relationships are as important as the plot, I recommend Fatal Chaos. It can be read as a standalone, but readers who are familiar with the series will more fully appreciate all the familial, collegial, and friendship ties that are part of the book’s appeal. I suggest reading at least Fatal Threat, the book that immediately preceded this one, if the political threat interests you. I’m already looking forward to Fatal Invasion, a November 27 release.

Reviewed by Janga for The Romance Dish

As a foul mouthed police woman who gets into conflict with her coworkers, Sam is utterly believable, especially when she gets decked for investigating one of her own as the suspected sniper behind a wave of murders. But it gets a little harder to visualize this same hard-as-nails cop in her other roles as second lady, wife to Nick, the Vice President of the United States, mama bear to teenage son Scotty and match maker to all her friends. In a previous installment in the Fatal series, Sam's ex-husband was killed, presumably in a crime masterminded by the President's son. Now, the Commander-in-Chief may be being impeached and Sam's husband, Nick, seems poised to become President, a job neither of them is ready to have take their lives over. After a quick vacation, Sam is jolted back to work when a sniper starts picking off random victims in the streets of DC and she and her team count six bodies before they finally get a lead in the case. Over the course of 400 pages, readers are treated to an overwhelming number of romantic scenes between Sam and Nick, barely disguised workplace violence  and more references to Sam's irresistibility than we can count.
While there was an active crime investigation woven through the bulk of the book, it wasn't the political crime that was described in the book blurb. In fact, after the opening chapter, there was very little mention of the  situation that threatened to unseat the president. As a political crime novel, Fatal Chaos isn't it. However, as an example of women's fiction, Fatal Chaos fulfills its role and does it effortlessly. The story moves quickly from one episode of the couple's romantic scene to another, with Nick safe in his role as not just supporter to the President but also as supporter of his crime fighting wife. Some of the subplots proved to be way more engaging than others and my only criticism was at a hinted love triangle / obsession that seemed misplaced in a book that had dedicated so much time to playing up said marriage.
The eventual resolution to the sniper case turned out to be a little anticlimactic but overall, this was a fast paced novel where the main romance was between a happily married couple who wanted to share what they had with anyone who would listen to how in love they were. It worked quite well as a standalone novel and while plot lines from previous books were mentioned, it didn't feel like the reader needed to be familiar with the series to grasp or appreciate the memories.

I read the first two books in this series (Fatal Affair and Fatal Justice) a couple of years ago. I always intended to go back, but couldn’t seem to get a round tuit. So when Fatal Chaos came up on my radar, in spite of it coming ten books after my first foray in this series, I decided to see if I could pick this Washington DC power couple back up where I left off, without reading the intervening books in the series.

And it turns out that I could. And that they remind me even more of an early 21st century Dallas and Roarke than they did upon earlier reading. And that’s still marvelous company to be solving crimes in.

(And yes, I realize that’s an awful lot of ANDS.)

There’s enough backstory to get new or new-ish readers right into the action. Sam Hollands is a Detective Lieutenant with the slightly fictional DC Metro Police Department. Her husband, Nick Cappuano, who was a senator’s chief of staff when first we met our heroes, has moved up in the world, mostly reluctantly. Nick is now Vice-President, after a series of deaths and scandals not dissimilar to the way he became Senator in the first place.

Nick is VP the same way that Gerald Ford was, or perhaps the way that Nelson Rockefeller was, albeit a whole lot better looking than either. He was appointed by the President after the office was vacated mid-term. I think I remember that the President who appointed Nick was also appointed rather than elected, hence the reference to Nelson Rockefeller, the appointed VP of an appointed P.

Come to think of it, this series also begins with a scandalous crime at the Watergate. Hmmm.

But as seems to always be the case with this series, Nick and Sam are under a lot of pressure, both separately and together. The President is in big trouble over the events in Fatal Threat. His son was on a murderous campaign to get Nick and Sam out of the way. Even though said son was well into adulthood, the press and the Democratic Party are having a difficult time believing that he knew nothing of what his son was up to. Impeachment is on the horizon, something that Nick and Sam dread possibly even more than the President does.

Nick isn’t sure he wants to ever be President, and he’s dead certain he doesn’t want to be President right now. Sam is absolutely sure that she doesn’t want to be First Lady, which will require her to have a Secret Service detail and force her to give up her career as a homicide detective.

Speaking of homicide, the case that Sam and her department are desperate to solve involves what initially appear to be a series of random drive-by shootings. However, those shootings are so accurate that the squad can only locate one person capable of committing the crime – a retired Metro PD sharpshooter who has been missing during the entire crime spree.

So Sam has to do what Sam does best – see just how many of her brothers and sisters in blue she can royally piss off before she catches the killers. All while burying her head in the sand over all the other threats to her life and happiness that loom on the horizon.

Escape Rating B+: When I read the first two books in this series, I said then that they were reading crack, and I’ll stand by that description. They are excellent reading crack. I finished this one in an evening, because I couldn’t put it down.

Sam and Nick are marvelous protagonists. They have found true love in the midst of extreme chaos, are not the least bit shy about showing it, and absolutely refuse to let it go, no matter what.

But there are an awful lot of those “whats” in their life together.

The big elephant in the room is the possibility that Nick might become President, with all of the changes that will cause in their life. Sam, like Eve Dallas in the In Death series, was made to be a cop. While there is a possibility that some day she might be willing to give up being a homicide detective, she is relatively young and that day is definitely not yet. It’s pretty obvious that it will kill an important part of her if she has to stop. So the threat to their happiness is very real, and hangs over most of the story.

The immediate problem is Sam’s case. Someone is killing at random, including children. Nothing seems to link the victims. But the method of the crime begins to narrow down the possibilities, and that’s where Sam gets herself in trouble. Again.

There’s a long history of some of Sam’s colleagues resenting her for her relatively quick rise through the ranks. And an unfortunate history of those same resentful colleagues exhibiting the kind of behavior that gets them thrown off them force, usually after Sam discovers what they’ve been up to. She’s already dealing with two different past incidents during this book, and at least two more crop up. Sam’s a busy woman, and does not let anything stand in her way when she’s on a case, not even the demands of her own body to get some rest after more than 24 hours on duty.

She’s certainly not about to let a philandering detective or an overly cautious commander protecting an old friend get in her way – not that she won’t pay for both of those incidents later, in another book.

And a big part of what makes this book and series so good, and also deepens the resemblance to the In Death series, is the way that Sam’s squad has developed into a terrific unit of friends as well as colleagues, and the way that they always have each other’s backs, especially hers.

While Sam may be the star, in the end it’s the team and their teamwork that solve the case. And that’s awesome.

I suspect that for readers who have kept up with the entire series, there is a lot more depth in the scenes that focus on the team and their friends and loved ones, as there are clearly lots of looks back at previous books and previous couples who have found their HEAs within Sam and Nick’s orbit. But even without having that deep background, and in spite of all the curveballs and crises that life keeps throwing Sam and Nick’s way, this is still a terrific piece of romantic suspense.

I’m looking forward to going back for more.

Fatal Chaos is the 12th book in the "Fatal" series. But it is the first one that I have read. Normally, I wouldn't pick up a book so late in the series, but this one looked interesting. The down side of coming in so late is that you do miss some of the back story behind the characters. But, when an author does a good job of not making me feel lost, I am more inclined to finish the book. In this case, the author did a pretty good job of giving enough background to earlier events that I didn't feel like I was late to the party. I was able to settle right into the story and enjoy it.

The mystery was really good. I enjoyed solving the case with Sam and her partner. It was definitely a solid police procedural. I was curious to see how the fact that Sam is the Second Lady of the US while also being a homicide detective would be handled. I got a reasonable explanation that made sense, so it seemed plausible.

I enjoyed the relationship between Sam and Nick. They kind of reminded me of Eve and Roarke. It was actually refreshing to come into a book where the relationship was firmly established. It cut down on the angst. I liked them so much that I definitely want to go back to the beginning and read how they got together. The secondary characters were interesting and I want to know more about them as well. The next book comes out in November of this year. That gives me plenty of time to get caught up.

I've really enjoyed Marie Force's Fatal series, and in 2016 I eagerly read through books one through four before having to turn my attention elsewhere for the blog. Fatal Chaos is book number twelve, and I'm happy to report that this series is consistently fresh, full of suspense and romance, and also has a lot of humor in there to keep the dark crimes from being too oppressive. Focusing on Washington Metro Police Department Lieutenant Samantha Holland and her Vice President husband, I'm happy to see that their circle of friends and colleagues has widened and with that, there are a few more points of view sprinkled in to get glimpses into these secondary characters' heads. But more importantly, Sam and Nick's relationship is going strong no matter what life has thrown at them, and they were very enjoyable to read about amidst all of the chaos of the latest case--and the scandal surrounding the current president that may make Nick slide into the president's seat much earlier than he would like.

Sam is loyal, steadfast, a bit impulsive with her words, but most of all she's very compassionate and dedicated to her job. Twelve books in and she's still a police officer in the homicide division, but her job at lieutenant is threatened due to the time that she punched a fellow cop(who really deserved it). Her husband Nick is the opposite of Sam in so many ways. He's smart, content, and happy with his current position. They've adopted an older boy named Scotty since Sam has fertility issues, and he is a much needed and welcomed addition to their family.

After enjoying an end of summer vacation at the beach with their family and some friends, Sam and Nick are barely home before Sam is called into work to investigate a drive-by shooting. Little does she expect that this is the first murder of many to come, and it's one of the toughest cases that she's faced yet--both mentally and physically. Sam really takes a beating a few times in this book, and yet she still refuses to stop pursuing these criminals. With Sam's partner Freddie in tow, the rest of her division has their work cut out for them, and it gets very sticky and is full of the usual twists and turns that I expect from a Fatal series novel.

I give FATAL CHAOS a 4.5 out of 5. Things are tense on all fronts in this one and the danger closes in from a few sides at once. Sam's bonds with her family and friends are very tight, and she'll do anything to get to the bottom of these drive-by shootings. There was quite a bit of funny parts to this book since Sam and Freddie use humor to cope with the darkest parts of their jobs, and I really enjoyed their banter as usual. Even though I haven't read books five through eleven, I had no trouble figuring out things from past books with the excellent way that Marie Force does backstory without it being an info dump. I'd still recommend reading this excellent series in order, though, for maximum enjoyment and understanding. I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves crime thrillers, mysteries, and certainly romance.