BOOK REVIEW for "Balance of Mayhem (Mayhem Wave, #4)" by Edward Aubry

****(5) out of 5 Stars!

SUMMARY:

For five years, Dorothy O’Neill has had someone else living in her brain. Strontium, the witch who sacrificed herself to save Dorothy and the two children in her care, saved her own consciousness by fleeing into Dorothy’s mind, a tactic she thought would be temporary. Despite the best efforts of the Council of Mages to regenerate Strontium’s body and restore her to it, that state of affairs is starting to look permanent. So, when an opportunity presents itself to Dorothy to free Strontium and have her own mind to herself again, it sorely tempts her. All she has to do is embark on a quest with Felicia Kestrel, an assassin who has been until this point Dorothy’s mortal enemy.

Felicia seeks a scale from the armor of the legendary dragon Hypatia, a relic of the non-real world she believes has survived the Mayhem Wave, and whose sole purpose is to heal. She needs a witch to help her employ its magic and use it to heal herself of an undisclosed malady, and claims it has the power to restore Strontium to her own body. Joining her will make Dorothy a fugitive. Passing up this opportunity could mean spending the rest of her life with Strontium exiled in her head.

Enlisting the aid of a pixie to protect her, and armed with a magical sword, Dorothy leaves her home, trusting that the woman who tried to kill her once won’t do so again. The quest for the Scale proves trickier than expected, with dangers beyond Dorothy’s experience, and the threat of an unknown enemy who apparently desires very badly for her to fail. Each step along the journey brings her closer to getting her life back and freeing her friend, but also brings new and contradictory information about the object they seek, and Felicia’s reasons for seeking it may be far more sinister than she has revealed. 

REVIEW:

Once again, as this story begins, a significant amount of time has passed since the last novel ended; this time five more years.  As with previous volumes in the series, I anticipated being upset by the perceived missed events during that time, but it really wasn’t an issue.  We drop right back into the lives of these characters whom we’ve come to know so well, have some brief catch-up as to what their lives are like now, and then just jump right into the story!

Something happened.  A fight?  No, an argument.  Hurt feelings.  Strontium had made a joke about Ian, once her son, now Dorothy’s.  She laughed.  Claudia, Dorothy’s life-partner and co-parent, didn’t like being left out.  Sometimes the complicated nature of their family overwhelmed them all.

And what a story it is!   This book is pretty much entirely Dorothy’s tale to tell.  (Apparently, since Harrison had his own book, the author determined that it was only fair for Dorothy to get hers as well.)  Of necessity (after the events of Mayhem’s Children), Strontium obviously plays a significant role here also.  Claudia makes some brief appearances in the beginning and takes on a more significant part later on.  Bess and Sparky both came along for the ride, too.      

“I would ask you what this is about, but I think I’ll save you the trouble of making up a cover story.  Thanks for trusting me.  I won’t let you down.”

“Let me down?” said Dorothy.

Sparky grinned.  “Every quest needs a pixie.  We come in very handy.”

Dorothy avoided eye contact.  “I never said anything about a quest.”

“Yeah, that’s cute.  When you’re ready to roll, give me a ring.”

The biggest surprise of this book is quite simply the identity of the other main player.  Next to Dorothy, the most significant character is Felicia, formerly Agent Kestrel, the assassin who last-seen was trying to kill Dorothy and her compatriots in the previous volume.  Having now been cursed with an empathy spell, however, Felicia is not the same person we became familiar with in Mayhem’s Children.  And it is in fact her desire to lift this curse from herself that starts them on the path to this grand adventure. 

What’s the catch?

“What makes you think there’s a catch?”

Life is a tradeoff, kiddo.  Magical fixes don’t come cheap.  It’s the balance of mayhem.  That’s a powerful good take, so what’s the give?

“I had to make a deal with an assassin,” said Dorothy.

Apart from brief appearances here and there by Harrison and some other minor male characters, this narrative contains an almost exclusively female cast.  That being said, however, this is certainly not what would normally be considered a “girly” story at all.  In fact, the females pretty much spend their time fighting, treasure hunting, and otherwise kicking butt.  Indeed, this is a great example of female empowerment, even more impressive when considering that it was written by a male author, who still manages to produce characters that ring true and appear quite real. 

Dorothy wrapped her hand around Bess’s hilt and drew her slowly from her scabbard.  As she lifted the blade vertically in front of her face, Eric giggled.

Do you need my protection?

“I don’t think so,” said Dorothy.  “Not at the moment.”

“Did she just ask if she should kill me?” asked Eric.

“Something like that.”

“Ha! Fantastic!” He clapped his hands once.

There are some down times where the pace slows down and it occasionally even gets a tad boring, but by and large things keep moving at a strong clip, with lots of action throughout the narrative.  As usual in the Mayhem world, things are not always as they seem and there is a LOT going on at all times.  There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader entertained and on their toes (or totally confused, if you don’t pay attention!).

“How much trouble am I in?”

“We’re still sorting that out,” said Harrison.  “Claudia? Can you take a walk, please?”

“You okay here, Dotty?” asked Claudia.

“I have no idea.”

The next volume is purportedly the last in this series, and while I am hesitant to see visits to this world come to an end, I am anxious to discover what the author has in store for us!

I received a free eBook copy of this title from the author, 

and have willingly provided an honest review.

BUY LINKS:

Amazon Kindle Edition    Amazon - Paperback

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