Shantel Tessier is known for some of the darkest, most taboo romance novels out there. Chaotic, her latest book, is part of a universe surrounding the depraved and degrading secret society known as the Lords. The last book in the universe, Madness, failed to overcome its flaws, but I simply couldn’t help my curiosity and decided to continue with the series anyway.
Everett Sinclair was born into hell, tortured, and sold into a whole new kind of nightmare. Now she’s out in the world, determined to get revenge by killing any Lord who thinks they can get away with hurting women like her.
Kashton Pierce is a special kind of Lord. He’s a Spade brother, and he and his brothers are the ones the other Lords fear. They exist to keep the others in line and to exact punishment on those who deserve it.
Six years ago, Kashton saw a woman at a party, terrified and in need of a rescue. He never forgot her, and never stopped wanting her. When he finally sees her again and learns who she is, he’s even more determined to make Eve his.
He’s obsessed, and no amount of stalking is too much to guarantee that Eve never slips away from him again. But secrets and buried sins try to keep her from him. When bodies of murdered women start showing up, impossible questions face the Spade brothers, and it’s all connected to one mysterious, traumatized woman. Eve Sinclair.
Be warned, this is marketed as a standalone, but readers who haven’t read at least the last book in the universe will face moments of confusion. A great deal of character interactions in this book reference events of previous books, and while you could probably muddle through, it will be a much easier read with context.
Chaotic is unapologetically fucked up from the jump, and it only gets more graphic and disturbing from there. It’s in keeping with the tone of the universe, but this is the most emotionally heartwrenching book thus far. What these characters have been through is nothing short of the worst hell imaginable. Whatever you are thinking, it’s all that and more.
Not only is this book seriously emotionally intense, but it is also 822 pages long. This is a commitment to horrors that I suspect not a lot of readers are going to want to make. This book is way too long. So much could have been edited out. It’s also a slow start, running over events of previous books that felt unnecessary.
Kash and Eve are a very different kind of main character from Tessier’s usual brand, at least in this universe. Kash is slightly gentler than his peers, and he displays actual feeling and emotion that the others lack until the very ends of their respective books. He might have actually been a decent guy if it weren’t for the Lords.
Eve fights back. She does not submit easily, and she can take care of herself. Despite her heinous traumas, she remains a bad bitch with her head held high. Chaotic was hard to read, but Eve is my favorite heroine in the universe.
As you might have guessed, the spice in this book is off-the-charts and at times, quite deranged. This is Shantel Tessier, so this is to be expected. It goes far beyond BDSM and into something much darker. Somehow, though, Chaotic is still slightly less spicy than Madness. I think. It’s all a bit of a depraved haze, to be completely honest with you.
There were things I loved and things I hated about Chaotic, but it is an improvement upon Madness. This is a book for a very specific kind of reader, and that specific kind of reader will probably enjoy this book if they have enough time to kill. This would be a very different review if this book weren’t so excessively lengthy. There is only so much time a person can spend mired in pages that describe the darkest imaginable parts of humanity and raunchy sex. I beg of this author to edit things down in the next book.
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