Chaos: Uncharted Hearts book 3 by Constance Fay (book review)
Once upon a time, the go-to books for romance were Mills & Boon or, if you preferred an historical setting, the novels of Georgette Heyer. In all cases, the romance was passionate but chaste. Then, as women had more freedom to choose the way they organised their lives, many wanted a different kind of reading matter. Where there is sexual freedom in real life, literature need to live up to or surpass the ordinary. The rise of the vampire novel and similar among the readership, largely female, allowed more explicit sexual encounters to hit the shelves and where these are an important focal point or plot strand they have gained themselves a sub-genre: romantasy.
While most books in this sub-genre are Earth-based, mainly contemporary and involve supernatural beings, Constance Fay has gone in a different direction, into space. ‘Chaos’ is the third book in the ‘Uncharted Hearts’ series set in the far future. Because it is also fantasy, little inconveniences like how they can travel vast interstellar distances fast and, in short time periods, have to be taken as fact, in much the same way as most of us don’t need to know how a TV works to appreciate it.
In this sector of space, territory is controlled by five ruling families. One of those is the Pierce family who are ruthless is so many respects. The crew of the Calamity have frequent run-ins with them. In the first two books of the series, ‘Calamity’ and ‘Fiasco’, the captain, Temper, and the medical officer, Micah, both found their life partners who have become part of the crew. This time the focus is on engineer Caro.
Novels that start with action or an event that doesn’t necessarily connect with the rest of the novel and is not labelled prologue has two purposes. It introduces the characters and their place in the universe and allows the author to put in place something that the plot relies on later. The crew of Calamity make most of their income from surveying planets. In this one, Caro is checking out an anomaly when she is attacked and stung by a swarm of alien bugs. Shortly, after this incident, the team have downtime.
Ven, the previous owner of the Calamity, coerces Caro into taking a side job. She agrees, partly because she is bored and partly because Ven persuades her that two of her friends, twins Victor and Victory, are in trouble. He had sent them to Shikigami, a Pierce run prison, to rescue an innocent imprisoned there. The twins had gone in as security guards and Ven hadn’t had contact with them for too long. Now he wants Caro to rescue them. It isn’t just the thought of her friends on trouble that persuades her to agree, but a clip of video that suggests that the Pierces have a laboratory there and are experimenting on people there.
As Caro has a history with Carmichael Pierce, she hopes she can persuade him that she has seen the error of her ways and will let her work in the labs. Pierce is trying to create super-soldiers by implanting electronic chips in their brains. So far, only one has worked and a signal turns a passive man into a berserker. In her miscalculations, Caro finds herself pitted against him. The unexpected coincidence is that the bugs that bit her earlier have left her with a residual electrical effect that means that when she holds her hands against the warrior’s head he reverts to his normal, pre-chipped state.
The scene is set for an action adventure with Caro falling in love with her chipped warrior, Leviathan, who only recognises her when her hands are touching his head. Along with Victor and Victory, she has to thwart Pierce’s illegal venture.
This is an enjoyable romp for those who want the traditional deep space, far future Science Fiction adventure without worrying about the scientific details and who also want a steamy romance.
Pauline Morgan
February 2026
(pub: Bramble/TOR, 2025. 338 page paperback. Price: $19.99 (US), $26.99 (CAN), £14.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-250-33043-7)
check out website: https://torpublishinggroup.com/chaos/?isbn=9781250330437&format=trade