Review: CHAOS (Kardia Chronicles #1) by Christine O'Neil

CHAOS

Author: Christine O’Neil

Series: Kardia Chronicles

Publisher/Source: Entangled Teen/Ember

Pages:

Genre: Young Adult

Release date: 19th August 2013

Amazon

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

My name is Maggie Raynard. After sixteen years being just plain me, suddenly, when I lose my temper, my fingers become weapons of mass destruction. Turns out I'm a semi-god, descended from Aphrodite. Sounds cool in theory, but when I accidentally put my ex-boyfriend in a coma, things go downhill pretty fast.

Now some new guy named Mac Finnegan has made it his mission in life to continually piss me off. I'm stuck learning how to use my new powers while also dealing with regular high school problems, and with this annoying—and super-hot—guy all up in my business, I'm about to flip out.

But it gets worse. I just learned there's this watchdog council of semis who keeps an eye out for any bad apples. They think I'm the baddest of the bunch and want to take me out before I do any more damage. My nemesis Mac might turn out to be my salvation, only he's got secrets of his own...and they may just kill us both.

Review: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

Chaos is the first book in the Kardia Chronicles by Christine O’Neil and was a nice start to the series.

Our protagonist is sixteen-year old Maggie Raynard who has the unusual ability to use her fingers as weapons of mass destruction when she is angry; she is a semi-god, a distant descendant from the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Maggie is clueless about her powers and how to control them but knows first-hand the damage she can cause after putting her ex-boyfriend in a coma.

Maggie was a character I liked but didn’t love, most of the time she was snarky, sassy, easy to anger and came across as spoilt but then she’d show a more compassionate and vulnerable side, especially when it came to her grandmother and friends which I really liked.

Maggie writes an advice column she signs She, when responses come from someone titled He she instantly knows its Mac Finnegan who has been a constant annoyance to her since his arrival at school.

Mac with his smexy Irish accent and arrogance baffled me; he knows what Maggie is and offers to help her control her powers; he didn’t do it easily and made her work for it but I never knew whether he could be trusted or not because of his hot and cold behaviour and also because he wasn’t overly forthcoming with information about what he was but as the book progressed I liked his personality changes and his protective side.

The romance definitely wasn’t at the forefront of the story, it was a slow build-up which I appreciated and a few hopeful moments between the MC’s but there was also a pretty big reveal at the end of the book so I’m curious to see where there relationship can possibly go. I quite liked the witty dialogue between them and their chemistry.

The secondary characters were interesting, I liked Maggie’s best friends Libby and Bink, Rafe was a nasty piece of work but also had me intrigued, Maggie’s mother could have been more helpful with giving her daughter information about what she was and I loved the way Maggie cared for Grandma.

I enjoyed Christine O’Neil’s entertaining writing and her take on the mythology which I found refreshingly unique but there was a lot of information I thought was lacking and left me wanting to know more, such as the council and the sisters who sit on it as well as the different types of semi-gods and the Gilded and Golems, the tidbits I read about this I found fascinating. The plot was also slow to progress but despite this I still found myself engrossed in the book.

Overall, Chaos is a great start to the series; a nice mix of mythology, high school and family drama and interesting characters. I am keen to see where the author will take us in the next book.

Thank-you kindly to Entangled Teen for the opportunity to read and review Chaos.

 

About the author: Christine O'Neil was born and raised in Connecticut, where she spent most of her childhood outdoors catching salamanders, frogs and colds. When she wasn't terrorizing Mother Nature, she was curled up under the covers with her nose in a book. As an adult, she's stopped stalking amphibians, but still loves books. When she isn't reading, she likes to spend her time people-watching. In fact, she's probably watching you RIGHT NOW O_O She's also pretty obsessed with writing YA books, but if she had to pick another profession she would be a ninja...or a Professor of the Dark Arts. Christine also writes adult romance under the pen name Christine Bell.