The Music of Chaos, by P. Kirby
The Music of Chaos
by P. Kirby
reviewed by Susanashlea
Regan O’Connell has a PhD and a good job as a project manager with a consulting company. Unbeknownst to her human co-workers, she’s 130 years old, and has a magical pedigree that includes vampires and elven royalty.
Immature by the standards of immortals, she has little control over the magic that simmers in her blood. For more than a century, she has worked as a secret operative for the vampire syndicate the Grey Brethren. For just as long, she has hidden her magical disability, struggling with one paranormal misadventure after another. Tired of her shenanigans, the Grey Brethren station her in Albuquerque, far out-of-the-way by paranormal standards.
The arrival of a mysterious user of chaotic magic—a world destroying power—spells the end of Regan’s trouble-free existence. Soon after, her vampire employers issue an ultimatum: catch the chaotic magic user or find a new job. Meanwhile, she has inadvertently started a war and developed a surprising attraction to a human. Sorting the mess out will require a little help from her friends, some growing up, and acceptance that she will never be a practitioner of conventional magic.
The Music of Chaos is different than any vampire book I’ve read to date, but to be honest I’m just not sure how to review it. The book is good. Very good, in fact. All of the necessary elements are there: feisty woman, forbidden love, hot vampires, etc. It’s all there, packed tightly into a nice 265 page package (this is the page count on my Nook). The book wastes no time in getting going, but for whatever reason it never really grabbed me.
What I really did enjoy about this book was Regan. She’s an awesome female character and I can’t help but love her. I also enjoyed her best friend Talis, her fairy friend Lex, who goes through human men like most people go through water, and Breas. Mmm, Breas. Talk about a dish.
Basically, Regan is a reluctant member of the Grey Brethren and she goes on a blind date with a guy who turns out to be a Holder. Holders are kind of the arch nemesis of the Brethren, so the last thing Regan wants to do is let Jason find out who and what she is. In the meantime, she is looking for Lesser Vampires to get rid of them when she stumbles upon the fact that someone out there is using Chaotic Magic. Which is, apparently, very very bad.
The plot of the story is awesome. The Vampire Mythos is awesome. Regan is awesome. Breas is REALLY awesome. So, why I just couldn’t sink my teeth into this one is beyond me. I admit to being quite confused for a good duration of the book, which could also be due to the fact that I was just recently diagnosed with Adult ADHD…so I read half of the book pre-medication and the other half post-medication.
I was confused by the various minor characters, and also confused about the whole innate magic/chaotic magic/harmonic magic/innate magic. Not that the author didn’t explain it, because she did, very intricately in fact; I just didn’t “get it”, it never fell into place for me. As a result, I didn’t find the excitement out of those scenes that I should have.
Another thing that fell short for me was the percieved romance between Jason Lake (the Holder) and Regan. I never really felt the chemistry between them. Sure, he was hot and all-American and what not, but their scenes together never really sizzled for me. HOWEVER, anytime Breas and Regan were together I felt the urge to pour ice-cold water over my head. Those two characters had so much chemistry, it almost shorted out my Nook. Lex and Talis were two other characters I would like to have seen more of as well. And Kyle? He could take a long walk off a short pier as far as I was concerned.
I don’t feel comfortable giving this book a rating. Like I said, all of the pieces were in place for the book to be phenomenal, I just can’t help but feel that my personal situations while reading the book kind of kept me from really absorbing it. So, to try and rate it wouldn’t be fair to the author who did a knock-out job writing this book. I can only rate the technical aspect, of which I’d give a 4 out of 5 fangs. The rest, I can’t make a fair assessment of.
I apologize for such a wishy-washy review, and I hope that other’s pick this up because I think there is a ton of enjoyment to be had from The Music of Chaos!
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