How to Steal a Galaxy: Chaotic Orbits - Book 2 starts off just after the events of Full Speed to a Crash Landing where Ada Lamarr delivers the goods from her scavenger mission. It quickly becomes clear to the reader that, while she sympathizes with the activist group she was hired by, she is only doing what she does for the money. Needless to say, their attempts to win her over for the good of the cause fall on deaf ears and she will only consider their next job if the money is right.
Well, that was the plan anyway. It turns out the next job has the added incentive of dealing with Rian White, the black-ops government agent she had to deal with during the previous book. Given her budding feelings for the man, and her strong suspicions about his own attitudes, she decides that the job is worth taking, and she is off to attend a high society charity auction whose proceeds are slated to help repair Earth's devastated ecosystem. Of course, Ada is going to use this opportunity to not only meet her client's needs, but if she plays her cards right, she might be able to advance her own personal desires.
While the reader knows Ada is attending the ball for some covert reason, what we aren't aware of is exactly what she is there to obtain. What is clear though is, she is not trying to hide her presence from Rian, and as head of security for the event, it should come as no surprise when he immediately identifies her and starts to question her true motives.
Most of this novella is a bit of cat and mouse between Ada and Rian. While Rian spent most of their previous encounter only suspecting Ada as being more than she seemed, now he knows she is an artful thief and spends the evening constantly questioning her actions and trying to decide exactly what she plans to steal and how she expects to do so right under Rian's nose. Of course, as the evening progresses, the chemistry between the two characters continues to react and what was a wary romance before starts to become something deeper. It's just too bad they are on opposite sides of the law.
Like the first book, How to Steal a Galaxy: Chaotic Orbits - Book 2 is a fast read. In only a couple of hours, I burned through this story, and it was an overall enjoyable experience. Like I said above, where most full-length novels feel like watching a season-long show, these books have each felt like an individual episode. Yes, the story has a full arc and the main focus of this book reaches its conclusion, but How to Steal a Galaxy is just another taste of the universe Revis is building, and quite frankly, I want more. How to Steal a Galaxy ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and it will be interesting to see how Revis handles the next part of her space-romance heist series.
