In Fury Lies Mischief (Midnight Mayhem)

The fucking villain in my story who stole my black fucking heart

Hmm.

Was this book just not my thing or did I read it at the wrong time?

⚠️ TW: sexual abuse, rape, grooming, bullying (implied), OW (other woman) drama

I guess the name Killian stands for whiplash in some other language because how are the Killians across all book worlds so indecisive? (Yes Killian Carson, I'm looking right at you)

I had a hard time getting into this book because of the characters. Killian (H) and Saskia (h) were hinted to have a little something in the first book - where Saskia was the new girl from Persephone's (aka old Dove) crew. In this book we get a lot of pushing away and pulling back in from both of them which made it annoying. I know it is supposed to contribute to the angst and to make the reader (aka me) feel like they're meant to be but I... didn't feel anything for them. I was just reading the book at a certain point just to get through it, I didn't care about their past-bond-slash-history-slash-incident-that-ruined-their-lives anymore. And that is disappointing because I was most interested in Killian's book, he seemed like a cool guy from book 1 especially with the way he was with Perse but he really only thought with his Jr for 3/4 of the book. There wasn't any chemistry or connection, Killian and Saskia didn't even try. If they didn't, I shouldn't try to like them either. That's why when they said their "emotional" I love yous at the end, I just rolled my eyes.

One thing I liked in this book was the friendship aspect between Perse-Saskia, Saskia-Val and Saskia-Kenan. The way they stuck together and looked out for her was nice to see given how overwhelming it would be for someone new to join a dark circus, spin hoops and breathe fire like its air. Younger me would have thought it is impossible for a guy and a girl to be bestfriends but maturing is actually having them, Kenan was protective of Saskia even though he is equally new to the dark circus. All these friendships had way better developments as compared to the main couple and it was something that made me continue reading.

The major con of this book though are that the themes were repetitive and that's mainly why I had to decrease my ratings for it. The first book had amnesia or forced forgetting of memories and this book had it too. King and Persephone knew each other as kids and in this book Killian-Saskia knew each other too. I couldn't appreciate these two themes because it was consecutively repeated (I generally dislike amnesia but I'm okay with childhood friends x lovers). There was also OW drama in both books: King used Val (best friend of Saskia in this book) to make Persephone jealous whereas in this book Killian used Callan to make Saskia jealous. I get it Killian is the textbook example for fuckboy but c'mon I don't want to read the same let's-make-her-jealous-so-she'd-come-running-to-me again and again.

I also think there's a reason why Saskia and Perse got along so well and it's because both of them don't do anything about what their "other half" does. I was really looking forward to Saskia because she said (not showed but still) Killian was an ass that she doesn't want to be around him and I thought she might be the exception to the girls-who-fall-despite-him-being-an-asshole but she also turned out to be the same. I really hope the fmcs in the next books speak out their mind because I won't be able to take it. Killian made it seem like he had a threesome +1 with other girls but Saskia could still sleep with him after knowing that. How can you just hop on for a ride after knowing it got used??? Initially the OW drama was just implied but it got major asshole-ish when Killian chases every guy away from Saskia but gets to have Callan sitting over his lap and taking photos of him. That's just so toxic. The fact that even Killian asked her about it:

Why didn’t you ever rub it in my face? Aside from you and the party, you never slept with anyone else in revenge. Or kissed anyone. Any time I saw any of the boys drippin’ over you, you either didn’t give enough of a fuck to notice or was slightly repulsed

and she just went like:

I’ve never been that girl

Honey you're not that girl but scream about it don't just shrug it off!

The appeal of this book or series is definitely the dark-mystery-suspense which goes for about 60% of the book before the plotline starts to fully unravel. But in this book it took even longer for me to piece everything together because of how late facts were revealed. I know it is to keep the reader hanging but for me the more I read the book, the more I didn't care about Killian-Saskia at all. I'm not ignoring Saskia's past or trauma, I'm just saying it was written in such a way you only wish you could have connected with her.

I'm still going to continue this series in hopes for a vocal fmc but TLDR: Killian was not as interesting as his name.

Midnight Mayhem series ratings
In Peace Lies Havoc