The nitty-gritty: Humor, action and romance combine in this latest entry in Constance Fay's absurdly fun sci-fi series.

This is the third book in Constance Fay’s Uncharted Hearts series, and Chaos is another adrenaline-fueled story with lovable characters and plenty of humor. I did have a few issues with pacing and logistics this time, although Fay’s brand of humor is on point. Although you could read this as a standalone, I suggest reading the series in order, otherwise you’ll miss lots of character and plot development.

After the events in the last book, the crew of the Calamity is taking a well deserved break. It’s during this time that ship’s engineer Caro Ogunyemi gets a call from her old friend Ven, asking her if she’d be interested in helping him with a retrieval job. Unfortunately, the job involves infiltrating a luxury prison called Shikigami and extracting two soldiers who were sent there to rescue a prisoner. Victor and Victory, the brother/sister team who were tasked with the rescue mission, have gone radio silent, and Ven is worried about them.

Caro isn’t too keen on going to Shikigami because it’s run by Carmichael Pierce, head of the diabolical Pierce family. She did some work for them years ago but things turned sour, and now the Pierces are trying to find her. What better way to break into the prison that turn herself over to them? But once inside, Caro discovers what the prison is really doing. An intriguing prisoner named Leviathan has been augmented with a control chip that turns him into a mindless super soldier, part of Pierce’s Project Titan initiative. Caro is drawn to him, but Levi just wants to kill her. Now it’s up to Caro to rescue him, figure out how to disable his chip, and get them both to safety—along with Victor and Victory—before Carmichael Pierce can stop them.

“Chaos” is the perfect title for this book, because it’s literally chaos from start to finish. Not only that, but Caro herself is a bit on the chaotic side and sort of a mess, which is one reason I loved her so much. Most of the story is told from Caro’s first person point of view, although we do get a few chapters from Victory’s perspective too. These confused me at first, but I came to really enjoy her chapters. Caro is brash, messy, outspoken and doesn’t always think before she speaks. She’s also a brilliant engineer and hacker and can fix any kind of tech. She thinks on her feet, and in this story she has to because trying to escape a prison isn’t all that easy, turns out.

Something happens to Caro in the first pages of the story that is important when she gets to Shikigami, and I thought it was a very cool idea. It adds some complications to the plot and also helps with the brewing romance between the two main characters. And speaking of, I thought the romance was pretty well done, although there’s nothing slow burn about their attraction! The romance is fairly tame in this series, so readers looking for extra spicy scenes might be disappointed—but don’t worry, there are plenty of other elements in the story to love. We do get a hint of which couple might be the focus in the next book, and I hope I’m right because the story between these two was a lot of fun.

Fay’s dialog is still as funny as ever, and the humor in this series is one of the best things about it. The danger and action are off the charts, and there’s rarely any downtime for anyone in the story. Her characters are lots of fun too. I loved getting to know Caro more, and Victor and Victory are great additions to the cast. One of my favorite new characters in this book is an android named GR81 (who Caro calls “great one” lol), and he and Caro bond since GR81 has become sentient and now wants to make friends. There are some harrowing scenes involving these two that brought quite a bit of emotion to the story.

There were a few things that didn’t quite work for me. For some reason, I found the scenes inside the prison to be confusing at times. Maybe I just couldn’t grasp the layout of the prison, but trying to imagine where the characters were at any point had me scratching my head. It seemed like the characters were going around in circles and not really making much progress, especially since Caro and Levi finally escape, only to decide they both need to go back inside the prison for different reasons.

But aside from this, I had so much fun with Chaos. One of the big mysteries in the story revolves around Levi and who he really is (since they put the chip in his head he’s forgotten a lot about his previous life), and I like the way the answers are slowly revealed. I haven’t seen an announcement yet about the next book, but I’m hoping it’s on the horizon! I can tell Constance Fay still has lots of stories to tell about the crew of the Calamity.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

This series is very fun, and I love a space adventure! As always, the characters are a huge highlight, and I enjoyed Caro's story, and the romance! I also really enjoyed the friendships, and getting a glimpse of the characters from past installments. There is a lot of action, and for me personally, I maybe would have oddly liked a wee bit more downtime? But that is a personal preference and one that most people probably don't agree with. Anyway, this was very fun and very readable. Love the banter and the humor, as always. Idk if there will be more in this world, but I will gladly read them if so!

Bottom Line: Another fun installment with space shenanigans and very enjoyable characters.

Thank you to the publishers for the opportunity to read the next book by the great Constance Fay!
I have loved each one of the worlds she created for her characters. Each and every one of her books while centering on a new couple still features a new and exciting world. If I where a new reader to this genre, I would start with her series!! Four solid stars!

I will admit I have not read the first two books of this series and it may have been a little confusing for me!! But I trucked along and actually quite enjoyed this. I loved the female characters in this book!! Such strong women!

I will definitely be picking up the first 2!

🌟: 4.5

This one was so much fun (and I expected nothing less from the author of Calamity and Fiasco).

I loved the dynamic between Caro and Levi. Their connection is instant and their chemistry is SO good (when he [REDACTED] and says “I remember how to do that too”??!!? I died). Caro’s ability to shut down Levi’s mind control is well established, and it also gives the story a sense of urgency, with the clock ticking to find a permanent solution.

The dynamic between all the characters was so fun. I was worried at first that Victor would annoy me, but I ended up loving him and his antics. GR81 was a legend, and I LOVED the occasional shift into Victory’s POV, because her banter with Donovan was so fun.

Overall this was a high action, high stakes, space romance romp, and I cannot recommend this series enough!

My only question now is… when can I expect Victory and Donovan’s book?😁 (Please, I am BEGGING)

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Bramble, and Ms. Fay for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

I like Chaos better than Fiasco, although still not as much as Calamity - it's frequently hard to top book #1 of a series, IMHO. But I REALLY liked Chaos and I agree with another reviewer about the Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier vibes. The reader is required to suspend a certain amount of disbelief in Caro's competency and wild (read: impulsive and risky, at times) decisions paying off every time rather than crashing and burning, but therein lies A LOT of the fun. Caro is a really engaging character and it is so SO easy to root for her. *love* GR81 too; he's no ART (IYKYK!!!!) but he's in the neighborhood <3

I really hope there are more "uncharted hearts" in line for this series. I'll be lining up to read them as fast as Ms. Fay writes them. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

💫 Chaos ARC Review 💫

Thank you so much to Constance Fay and Tor Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Chaos is a sci-fi romance and book three in the Uncharted Hearts series. Caro is an engineer who loves order and control in every situation. When she takes on a solo mission to infiltrate a prison planet, she sees this as an opportunity to prove herself to her crew. But the unexpected happens in her mission when she meets Leviathan…will they be able to survive long enough to figure out their attraction to each other?

This was such a fun read! I really enjoyed Caro - she was a strong, intelligent character and I liked her growth in this book. Leviathan was such a complex character and I enjoyed learning his story as well. Their story was a little insta-love, but it made sense for these characters. This is such a fun world and I loved the cameos of characters from previous books

Overall this was a five star read! I really liked the characters and the story! I can’t wait for more books in this world! This book definitely has some triggering moments, so please check if you’re sensitive. This book was a bit of a slow burn, but had some fun spicy moments once it got there, so overall two flames for spice

If you’re a fan of sci-fi romance with strong characters, unique world building and fun banter, then absolutely pick up this series! Even though this can technically be read as a standalone, I’d recommend reading the first two books prior so you get the most out of the series.

Book three of the Uncharted Hearts series, Chaos, follows Caro Ogunyemi, engineer of the Calamity. Caro takes on a solo mission to break into a prison for the ultra wealthy and rescue a mysterious prisoner. Once inside she teams up with shipmates Victor and Victory who have gone undercover as prison guards and Chaos ensues. Caro plans to use her sophisticated tech skills to find Victor and Victory, free the handsome mystery man, and break out. Caro is a planner, but it never occurs to her that anything might go wrong.

I was looking forward to this installment, but I have to say it has been the weakest in the series for me. It is action packed, has dynamic characters and interesting world building, yet I found myself bored. I was more invested in the side romance than with Caro and Levi’s story. The only thing that kept me going were GR81, a sassy AI droid and the side romance between Victory and Donovan.

3.5 - ⭐⭐⭐ 💫

“I think I’ve made it clear. I don’t think you’re a monster. You’re an angel, fearsome and powerful and sacred.”

Chaos is the third instalment in the adult sci-fi romance series, Uncharted Hearts. Each novel is an interconnected standalone so they follow separate couples. Written in dual third person POV, we follow Caro, a brilliant engineer sent on a rescue mission and Leviathan, a powerful super soldier forced into compliance by a brain altering chip. When these two meet during Caro's undercover mission, they realize something...her touch renders his chip inert and the connection between them in palpable. Together these two find themselves working together to uncover the machinations happening in this prison...and a way to save Leviathan. Even with enemies all around them, love may be worth fighting for.

I loved the dynamic of Leviathan and Caro in this book!

Caro is not someone known for fighting but she has plenty of other skills to help by. She is brilliant but holds some guilt about how her work before contributed to all this.

Leviathan is really only just starting to learn himself in this book. I felt so much for his loss of control but I admired his confidence in the choices he makes going forward. He refuses to be weakened by what he has been through but he fears the extent of what he can do. He has a way with words when it comes to romance but he does play into a martyr complex just a bit though.

We also have an additional POV, Victory, who is a friend of Caro's that is working undercover at the prison she is sneaking into. She is kickbutt and knows her way around. I feel like her story is what we will be seeing next and it has me INTRIGUED.

This book does contain spice. I would place it at 2 spicy peppers out of 5 spicy peppers. There are two spice scenes throughout this book, with both being in the second half. While there is an immediate connection felt by the characters it takes them a while to find safety to feel safe enough to engage in spice. I really enjoyed this element of "does Leviathan remember how to engage in spice?" (don't worry, he remembers QUICK). I found it was passionate and spicy.

In terms of the story I was admittedly lost for quite a bit of it. This story is less dialogue and more focused on escape and navigating paths forward. The sequencing as the move throughout the complex and did this was not something I could visualize and thus I was getting lost. There was enough dialogue that I felt good about the relationships of the characters and where they were going but I don't have a strong grasp of the overarching story. I adored the GR81 and how much personality was infused within him. I loved Caro and Leviathan's dynamic, and I had fun with all the characters. I felt these relationships are what kept me reading as I wanted to see things go through. There is risk, action, fighting, and more. The ending had such a good nod to a character and we see old characters from the series. I do wish we had more time of Caro and Leviathan being together at the end (I am a sucker for an extended epilogue).

Overall, I had fun!

Thank you Bramble for this arc!

Chaos is action packed and chaotic the entire way through! This is the third book in the Uncharted Hearts series and follows Caro’s adventure to the inside of a prison lab. Being that Caro’s form of planning tends to be more towards improvising and luck than having an actual plan, many unexpected things occurred. It’s a fun read!

I absolutely adore this series. The Unchained Heart series is sci-fi romance with a perfect amount of found family helping each other through action and adventure! I really vibe with Constance Fay’s writing style. I find her to be incredibly witty and self-aware. I enjoy a series where each of the characters eventually gets a chance to be the lead because don’t we all wanna be the lead in our own life story! Which is also a subplot of this book! Once again, I am invested in this series and the overarching plot. I hope it continues and would definitely recommend this sci-fi romance to everyone!


Thank you #NetGalley and #Tor for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Another fun entry in this series! Book 3 in the Uncharted Hearts series follows Calamity's engineer Caro Ogunyemi as she takes off on a rescue mission to infiltrate a luxury prison, help her two friends Victory and Victory steal some powerful technology, and rescue a man (Leviathan) who is being subject to mind control experiments. This has the signature wit and humor from Fay's first two books, full of witty banter and science innuendos. The plot has fun heist-style vibes and it's fun to meet Victor and Victory. (We even get a few chapters from Victory's point of view, which I enjoyed reading, but also felt like they somewhat detracted from Caro's story arc.) The science fiction part of this was full of fun adventures and done well, but I do feel like that came somewhat at the expense of the romance. I don't feel like Caro and Leviathan/Levi got enough page space to really develop their relationship the way we're suppose to believe they have by the end of the book. That being said, I was still thoroughly entertained by the book, and especially enjoyed GR81, the android character who appears about halfway through.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Chaos: Uncharted Hearts, Book 3 by Constance Fay is a thrilling romance that follows the intense relationship between a space mercenary and a super soldier. Their connection becomes even more electrifying when her mind-control abilities are shattered by a simple touch. From the very first page, I was captivated by this gripping tale and found myself unable to set it aside.

I love a good heist/prison break story, so this sounded right up my alley. I had a really enjoyable time reading this and easily related to Caro’s inner monologue. Honestly her inner monologue was one of my favorite aspects of this story. The other thing I really loved was the android, GR81. There were so many great scenes involving GR81 and epic lines. I also found the heist/prison break plot to be well paced between amped up action scenes and slower scenes to take in and analyzer information. I do want to mention, though, that I felt this was heist/prison break first with the romance being a smaller subplot. If you’re going in expecting this to be romance forward, you’ll be disappointed. It’s also worth noting that you do not need to read the first two in the series in order to read this installment. With how much I enjoyed this, I plan to go back to the first two, but I wasn’t lost by any means reading this. I also really hope there are future books in the works featuring Victory/Dominic and Victor/Kaori. They had some great chemistry in the scenes they were in together.

Chaos had an intriguing premise—a space mercenary and a mind-controlled super soldier whose lethal programming is disrupted by her touch—but unfortunately, it lost me almost immediately. Engineer Caro Ogunyemi embarks on a daring mission to infiltrate a prison planet run by the ruthless Pierce family, where she encounters Leviathan, a genetically enhanced soldier turned into a mindless killer. The moment she touches him, his control chip malfunctions, and while this should set the stage for an action-packed, high-stakes romance, the setup at the beginning of the book turned me off of this story instantaneously.

I DNF’ed this book barely into the second chapter. The moment Caro watched a two-second video of Leviathan in a prison cell and immediately reduced him to an object of desire, I knew this wasn’t for me. While I understand attraction plays a role in romance, the overt sexualization of the love interest so early on felt so hollow. My skepticism was already high after my disappointment with the second book in this series, and sadly, this installment reinforced my concerns.

Beyond the surface-level attraction, Caro is introduced as a "genius," yet everything about her characterization suggested she would make reckless, frustrating decisions throughout the book. I have no patience for another protagonist constantly praised for intelligence while consistently making illogical choices.

If you're looking for a sci-fi romance that leans heavily on attraction and objectification, this might work for you, but personally, I prefer characters with more depth and a romance that doesn’t feel so one-dimensional from the start.

Thank you the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I didn't realize "her touch heals him" was a trope on my bucket list, but consider my mind changed. I love being back with the crew. This Uncharted Hearts series keeps introducing us to new members of the crew and I'm here for it! Chaos forces Caro out of her depths. Not only is she roped into this heist meets rescue mission, a new development means she's without her technology. As a maybe genius, being robbed of her abilities forces Caro to figure out what her skills are. Chaos has plenty of high action scenes from prison breaks to chase scenes but it's balanced with plenty of humor (and some spice!).

Caro Ogunyemi is an engineer on Calamity. She's on an away mission off ship to infiltrate a luxury prison. She meets supersoldier Leviathan, a gorgeous, strong man with a manufactured chip in his head unleashing his potential. The race is on to extract Leviathan and get off the prison planet.

Oof. While I liked book 1 (Calamity) and really enjoyed book 2 (Fiasco), Chaos didn't work for me. The challenge is that this series is written in first person present tense, and that means that if you don't enjoy being in the main character's head, it doesn't work. (I find this to be much more of a personal choice, to like or not like the POV character than when you are in third person.) We get two perspectives: Caro and mercenary teammate Victory. While this gives us unique perspective on the action, it gives us little additional perspective on the romance. Which leads me to argue that this isn't a romance novel. There is a romantic arc with an HEA, but it never feels like the central plot. Caro and Leviathan exchange a couple dozen words before they hook up, and without Levi's internal monologue I felt left in the dark about him being anything other than gorgeous, good at fighting, and good in bed. Lust, I believe, love, I didn't.

While this book wasn't for me, I think readers who enjoy first person POV and plot driven novels will! For the invested reader it will move quickly.

I enjoyed the first two books in this sci-fi romance series as nonstop action plots with fun, sexy romances and fun, dubiously scientific elements. This one was my least favorite of the series, unfortunately.

Caro is a tech genius who decides after one brief meeting with a smarmy former boss that she needs to infiltrate a luxury prison to save a sexy, genetically modified prisoner/experiment subject. (Said former boss provided Caro with a "grainy video" of the sexy prisoner, and she basically fell in lust from a few frames of his tortured face...) She somehow manages to rescue him and expose the unethical experiments by the end of the book, despite her absolute ineptitude at basically every task, including the tech stuff she's supposed to be a genius at.

I found that the story really lagged, as we spend chapter after chapter in Caro's POV as she somehow justifies her too-stupid-to-live actions. This book highlighted for me that these books really, really need that nonstop action plot, because without it I found it difficult to be interested in what was happening in Caro's head. The romance also felt very surface level to me. Sooooo, this one was kind of a miss, and one I was pretty disappointed in since I'd enjoyed the other books in the series.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

I think this is my favorite in the series. It was such a fun read. Caro and leviathan or two characters that I loved getting to know better. They are both such a mixture of toughness and vulnerability. This has such a mixture of serious issues (human experimentation) and humor. Constance Fay does such a good job at moving from one to the other. I laughed so many times in this book. I was also finding myself nervous because I couldn't figure out how they were getting out of some of the situations that they ended up in. That is good writing! The romance was also so sweet to watch. I highly recommend this book!

There needs to be more sci-fi romance out there, this was so much fun to read! I loved the MC, and the romance elements in this one. Highly recommended!