Ariana Golde may be known for breaking and entering but she's no thief, she’ s a returner. She retrieves stolen objects and gives them back to their rightful owners. Her latest job: retrieving a statue from the Medveds. But Ari is having an off night, and she's caught red-handed by the three brothers, who don't just get mad—they turn into bears.
Maksim Medved is outraged—the statue belongs to his parents. But Ari's returner magick doesn't lie: the heirloom has a new rightful owner. Ari is drawn to the surly, handsome Maks—maybe because he possesses the same chaos magick she does. But while Ariana enjoys a touch of chaos, Maks hates its destructive power.
When Ari and Maks team up to find her mystery client, their chaos magicks ignite even faster than their attraction. Can Maks learn to love a little chaos, or will the havoc they cause among the faebled creatures drive him away for good?
Maksim Medved is outraged—the statue belongs to his parents. But Ari's returner magick doesn't lie: the heirloom has a new rightful owner. Ari is drawn to the surly, handsome Maks—maybe because he possesses the same chaos magick she does. But while Ariana enjoys a touch of chaos, Maks hates its destructive power.
When Ari and Maks team up to find her mystery client, their chaos magicks ignite even faster than their attraction. Can Maks learn to love a little chaos, or will the havoc they cause among the faebled creatures drive him away for good?
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I have to give major props to Shirin Dubbin because she has created a wonderfully cute story in only about 100 pages. I consider that a very hard thing to do because setting up a whole new world and giving me two new main characters to care about usually requires more pages.
Chaos Tryst is a very multicultural story; Ariana is half West Africa and Japanese, which gives her light brown skin and blonde dreadlocks - different for sure but it totally works. Miks is the 'surly' one from Russian descent who, when he gets too upset, shifts into a bear. They both live in the world of Faebles that is populated with Goblins and Oni (Japanese word for demon), pixies, faeries, gods, and more. It's a veritable smorgasbord of mythological characters and Ariana and Miks meet most of them (and change a lot of their lives) over the course of their adventures together.
In case you worried, let me assure you that readers get plenty of Ariana and Miks. This tale is a romance and while there aren't any smexy times in the story itself I didn't feel like anything was lacking. The two of them already have this history together, even if neither of them want to be reminded of it, and when they finally come together it's all sparks and smart dialogue. And when they do arrive at their HEA you've been rooting for them for some long that it's a lot of fun to see how the universe contrived to get them there.
The last thing I want to mention about Chaos Tryst is the language. I loved how Dubbin used unique phrases and larger words in this story. I don't think you get enough of that really, using the more antiquated words in romances, because it usually doesn't fit in the dialogue or the feel of a contemporary story. But as this takes place in an alternate reality type of place the author doesn't have to stay true to anything but herself and her characters, which makes for a particularly unique and diverse story.
Overall Feeling - Thumbs up.
Series - None.
**Title requested from NetGalley for review**
