Review: Chaos

Book three of the Guards of the Shadowlands trilogy
By Sarah Fine
Available now from
Review copy
Read more at my Sarah Fine tag

I really enjoyed FRACTURED and SANCTUM, the first two books in the Guards of the Shadowlands trilogy.  I picked up CHAOS eagerly, wanting to know how the Mazikin would be defeated forever and Malachai and Lela would find a way to be together again.  (Plus, there was that whole cliffhanger ending to SANCTUM.)  CHAOS satisfied those questions, although it took a bit longer to do so than I would've liked.

The main problem with CHAOS is that the meat of the plot ends about halfway through the book, and multiple twists are required to sustain the rest.  Plus, as wonderful as Malachai and Lela are, I got tired of them sacrificing themselves to save each other.  At some point heroic death comes cheap.  By the third time, it's definitely cheap.

I absolutely love the series as a whole.  Sarah Fine is a great writer, and the Guards of the Shadowland series is filled with both dynamic action and convincing romance.  There's also an exploration of different kinds of love; mother-daughter relationships are particularly important in CHAOS.  The afterworld Fine invented is clever, compelling, and unlike most anything else I've read.

In fact, I think I'm only complaining about CHAOS because the first two books in this series were so strong.  It had a tough act to follow.  I think it would've made it with one or two less extraneous subplots.  At the same time, it's much better than many books I've read lately.

If you're looking for a series with a fierce and determined Latin-American heroine, a romance that spans life and death (several times), a desperate fight against body snatchers, and battles against impossible odds, give Guards of the Shadowlands a try.  It's terrific fun.