firewhiskeyreader

If you haven’t heard of the Consortium Rebellion series by Jessie Mihalik, please allow me the opportunity to tell you about one of my favorite series. Technically, this series is a science fiction series published by Harper Voyager, but they’re really sci-fi romances about badass space princesses falling in love with super soldiers. The books begin with Polaris Rising, then book two is Aurora Blazing, and finally the series conclusion is Chaos Reigning, which is out today! (Thanks to Harper Voyager/Edelweiss for the opportunity to read and review early!) The series is now complete and I thought I would celebrate with this series review.

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So let’s get some basics out of the way: (1) Yes, I would recommend you read this series in order; (2) All three books are written solely from the heroine’s perspective; (3) The blend of sci-fi and romance is well balanced in my opinion, with the romance playing an increased role in the books as the series progress, in my opinion. Your mileage may vary here. I would say you are most likely to have success if you like both science fiction and romance by themselves, but tbh, I don’t ever read science fiction so clearly it works for me without that; (4) These books really are adventure novels so if you like romantic suspense in a contemporary setting, they may work especially well for you.

Polaris Rising follows Ada von Hasenberg who is on the run from her family (well, her dad) when she gets captured. She breaks out with the help of the most wanted man in the universe and they go on a lot of space adventures and fall in love. They also happen to meet a ragtag group of people and I loved every second I got in this world, so I was thrilled when Aurora Blazing came out and I discovered that Mihalik had somehow topped PR.

Bianca von Hasenberg is everything I have ever wanted in a heroine. My Goodreads review is literally just, “This book is sheer perfection.” Helpful, I know. But for real, Bianca survived a terrible marriage and now her brother has been kidnapped. When Bianca runs off to rescue him, her dad has a full blown meltdown and sends the head of security, Ian, after her. So this is kind of a bodyguard romance and Ian and Bianca are incredible together and their banter was AMAZING. I’m running out of adjectives to describe my love of this book to you.

And finally, Catarina is the youngest von Hasenberg sibling who takes advantage of her position to play the nice, friendly, charming woman who people underestimate, thereby allowing her to take full advantage. She lands access to a house party invite that Bianca thinks she needs additional protection to attend and so Bianca provides her with two bodyguards, but one is going to pose as her boyfriend. We meet Alex in Aurora Blazing and so I was already intrigued by him, but seeing him be intrigued by Catarina is very fun. These two have a fake dating/bodyguard romance so it’s a super fun combination of tropes. I was really uncertain where the plot would go in this book just because of where the last one ended, but wow, I really liked the twists and turns.

These books definitely build on one another and while I’m satisfied with the resolution of all of the plot threads in the series, there are many threads left open and I have a mighty need for books about Hannah, Benedict, and Ferdinand. Like… I NEED THEM. So, um, dear Universe (aka Harper Voyager and Jessie Mihalik), PLEASE GIVE ME MORE BOOKS.

I also want to talk about how each of these books has such a great theme of our heroines really leveraging their strengths and learning their strengths and achieving things beyond what they knew they could do. That shines the most in Chaos Reigning because Catarina’s so used to downplaying her talents, but I really think we get to see each of our heroines really come into their own. Truly one of the best trilogies I’ve read and I’m excited for what Mihalik comes next, even if I apparently have to wait until 2022.

Have you read the series? If so, which one is your favorite? Mine is Aurora Blazing in case my Goodreads review didn’t give that away.

xx