Synopsis
After a few weeks trapped on board a spaceship with Ada (and, oh look, there’s only one bed), Rian has to admit that maybe Ada’s rebels have a point. The nanobots poised to be unleashed on Earth are infected with malware that will ultimately leave the residents of Earth in a worse position than they’re in now. But is it too late?
Ada and Rian arrive on Earth with little time to spare. Together, they have to break into a high-security facility and infect the nanobots with a counter-virus before they’re released in order to give Earth a fighting chance. And if Ada happens to notice some great tech laying around in this high-security facility she shouldn’t have access to and then happens to steal a bunch of it when Rian’s not looking? Well, he knew who she was before he teamed up with her. And if he wants it back, he’s going to have to catch her first.
With countless twists and turns, this enemies-to-lovers slow-burn and high-tension romance plays on a Sherlock and Moriarty character dynamic rooted in science fiction with a heavy romance and mystery angle.
Review
Welcome back to my weekly review of steamy, sexy, scifi novellas from Beth Revis!
To read my review of the first book in the Chaotic Orbits series, Full Speed to a Crash Landing, click HERE.
To read my review of the second book in the Chaotic Orbits series, How to Steal a Galaxy, click HERE.
Today I’m looking at the third book in Beth Revis’ Chaotic Orbits series, Last Chance to Save the World.
Or:
Space Heist Meet Cute Part 3 – Let’s Do Some Fun, Sexy Ecoterrorism, or How Rian Met My Mother.
This entire series can be summed up by the phrase Chaotic Orbits, as Ada’s chaotic and messy life carreens off everyone she encounters, most notably Rian White, the somewhat stuffy government agent she keeps coming back to in the first two installments. In this book (SPOILERS MAY ABOUND FOR THE PREVIOUS TWO BOOKS), Rian is still with Ada after she kidnapped him at the tail end of How to Steal a Galaxy. Of course, the entire heist of the second book was all about stealing him. Rian, as one of the key government officials working with Strom Fetor to dump advanced nanobots into Earth’s Oceans to clean the environment, is crucial for the success to change the nanobot programming.
Of course, at the end of the second book, we learn that Fetor owns the technology that may be able to clean the oceans and help save Earth, but there’s no “goodness of his heart” here as the nanobots have a programmed expiration date when they will stop cleaning unless Fetor presumably gets paid by the Earth’s governments to keep it up. Ada can change the programming, she just needs to get inside, and that’s where Rian comes in.
Throughout the entire process, of course, is that sexual tension and energy that Revis’ infuses the story with. It’s a fun part of the story, and at times feels like it IS the story, but then we get back to business with Ada and Rian trying to save the planet.
Back on Earth, Ada and Rian are invited to spend the evening with Ada’s mother. The “meeting of the mother” is played well, but just like many instances throughout the first two novellas, its clear that there is something else going on, but in typical heist fashion, we don’t really see all the threads of the tapestry until the end of the story.
I’m not someone who needs a lot of spice in my romance stories, so this worked well for me. The tension is definitely there, ramped all the way up at times, but the spice level is very low. But that’s also what may turn off some readers. For a sci-fi heist novella series, the ending worked for me, but for those coming for the romance and the spicy-ness, there is a lack of conclusion at the end of Last Chance to Save the World. It makes me wonder if Beth Revis has plans for Ada and RIan in the future and makes a choice to leave their future more open-ended.
Overall, I had a really great time with all three novellas in Beth Revis’ Chaotic Orbits series and enjoyed all the heist-y twists and turns, along with the playful sexual banter from Ada and her straight-man Rian. If Revis does keep the characters going in the future, I’d definitely be there for it.
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