Creatures of Chaos – Julie Hall

Locklyn, best friends with the dragon shifter heir (Becks) and fae (Ensley) siblings, is repeatedly bullied by magic users in her school, Nightlark Academy, and is getting to the point where enough is enough. While she trains to defend herself physically, she lacks the ability to defend herself magically.

Locklyn meets Talon, a new student at their school, who tells her about the Shadow Striker, a dagger that can steal the powers of creatures it draws blood from, and to magicless Locklyn, this intrigues her.

While at lunch one day the trio are handed a flyer advertising the start of Chaos, an underground competition where the winner gets a life-changing prize, while others may die during the trials. At the party the prize is announced as the Shadow Striker, which has a desperate Locklyn entering the competition.

Side note: Locklyn has quietly been in love with Becks for years and has ever been able to act on her feelings as the dragon heir’s mate gets chosen for him by the dragon council, and they will choose the most powerful female. Finding out he must be mated after graduation is another reason she enters Chaos.

Talon helps Locklyn during the first trial even though she would’ve completed it if her bully, Jules, hadn’t stolen the Chaos coin from her.  The second trial is hand-to-hand combat, without the use of magic, and Locklyn makes it through her fights except for her last one against Talon, which she loses.

The third trial is a battle of wills, where the competitors must resist compulsion, which Locklyn mostly does. Afterwards her and Becks kiss. Locklyn also makes a deal with Talon, that if he can get the dragon council to not force Becks into an arranged marriage, she will fail out of the next trial.

The fourth trial is basically an escape room, except in an asylum, this is the trial Locklyn is supposed to fail, but instead to help Talon, Locklyn finishes the trial.

The night of the fifth trial, Talon, Locklyn, and Titus band together to get through the ruin and to the Shadow Striker. We find out who the game master is, why Locklyn has no magic, and what the game master’s ultimate goal was.

Creatures of Chaos is truly a root for the underdog kind of book, and if you’re fans of books like the Hunger Games (with a little more fantasy added in) then this is the series for you to add to your reading list. The recap is just a basic overview of what happens, but there is so much about Locklyn’s and Becks’ relationship that I left out, so I didn’t give away too much of the storyline.

This book really had me at the edge of my seat, and I read it a bit quicker than most because I really wanted to know what happened, and almost screamed at the cliffhanger, but luckily the next book is coming out soon so we can continue Locklyn’s story, and what happened to Becks.

PAGE COUNT: 456 Pages

TROPE: Fantasy Romance – Shifters – Vampires - Fae

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