I received and ARC copy of this through NetGalley though all thoughts are my own.

Constance Fay is back with another adventurous scifi opera. In this one, Cyn is a bounty hunter who has been hunting a man that took her cousin years ago. She finally has a good lead and needs the help of the Calamity team to track him down on her home planet. However, that pesky medic and his sexy arms is constantly keeping tabs on her. can they resist each other?

this one was another fun and adventurous read. I really like seeing the whole gang together and their dynamics. I think the beginning of this one was a little long winded in the the descriptions of things. The plot will be moving but then the author stops this momentum to describe a plot point and it kind of takes me out of story a bit. The whole book is a bit corny and cheesy but that's why i love her books. I still liked Calamity more but this was another fun read and i'll be continuing on in the series.

As I went to write my review for this I realized I read book one last year and forgot to write anything about it in Goodreads. Thinking on book one I liked this one better. I found the two main characters more sympathetic and a bit more likeable than the book one characters. Cyn has a lot of trauma but she’s “coping” just fine. And the deaths she’s caused are pretty justifiable. Book one male lead is basically a spare prince. This book’s male lead is a medic. Makes him feel more real to be a normal person with a job. I’d read a book three pretty happily after book two being better than book one. Practice makes perfect and so now I expect book three to be solid too.

Fiasco is the second book in the Uncharted Hearts series. While Calamity compliments this book, Fiasco can be read as a stand alone.

Cyn, a bounty hunter, is given the opportunity to take revenge on the man who kidnapped and killed her cousin years ago. Cyn desperately wants to be seen differently in her family’s eyes so she agrees. The only problem is, she has to hand over the notorious Micah who is not only pretty to look at but understands Cyn in a way she hasn’t experienced.

She becomes entangled with Micah in ways she does not want to admit while scouring space for the kidnapper. She is given a huge shock and it becomes the fight of her life, all with Micah at her side.

“Without a doubt, nothing good comes from trusting. Someone always winds up bloody.”

I loved Cyn and the easy banter in this book. The characters were fun and endearing while also being tough-as-nails. It was entertaining while also touching on more emotional parts of Cyn’s life and the choices she had to make. Space travel books tend to have the best characters and crew and this did not disappoint. It was full of adventure with danger lurking and deadly repercussions, and with those characters, it was never short on entertainment.

I recommend this to those who love found family with a snarky lead and a fun space story!

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for the copy!

I loved the first book in this series Calamity and am so happy to return to it in Fiasco!

Cyn is a bounty hunter and when she is hired to find a young girl who has been kidnapped by the same person who killed her cousin she is in no questions asked. She rendezvous with the crew of the Calamity who don't know they met her before when she was undercover, and together they are tracking down this insidious kidnapper before the same thing that happened to her cousin happens to this girl.

The crew of the Calamity feels like family and I am so happy to come back to this world and get to see some explosive chemistry between my favorite bounty hunter and favorite medic. We get plenty of action-packed moments, twists and turns that I did not see coming, and some beautifully emotional moments (along with smexy ones) between Cyn and Micah. So far both books in this series have provided a rollicking good time and I didn't want to put them down until I turned the last page. The banter was perfect, along with the dynamics between Cyn and Micah. He really sees her flaws and all, and I loved his nickname for her. It made me laugh every time he used it!

I hope we get many more adventures with the crew of the Calamity and I can't wait to see what's going to happen next!!

4 -⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Something you should know, Cyn. The only thing that's going to get me to stop is you saying no. Not scolding or timing. Not anything else you're coming up with in that devious mind of yours."

Fiasco is the second novel the the adult sci-fi romance series, Uncharted Hearts. Each novel follows a different couple but are set in the same universe and you will see characters from the previous book, as such I would say these are interconnected standalones. In this instalment we follow Cyn, a bounty hunter, who is on her last legs...until she is offered a bounty of the lifetime - a chance to catch the person who kidnapped and killed her cousin all those years ago. When she is forced to partner with the crew of the Calamity she is initially nervous not just because of her fake identity last time she was with them but also the connection she feels with their medic, Micah. A medic who also has a bounty of his head that higher ups are pressuring her to take out. And so hunting down this kidnapper will not just have Cyn dive into her pasts, unveil family wounds, and keep secrets but also to consider taking a risk. For she can seek out the future she never dreamed of but yearned for...if she can let things go and do the job.

Cyn is a mess and I loved it. She has a lot of trauma she has never fully addressed but when she finally is with people that truly care we get to see how unravel. She is so use to being alone and not relying on anyone when she has people that actually support her it shakes her...but she grows so much more because of it.

Micah is a guy that sees everything and I love seeing how navigate the minefield that is Cyn. He see her red flags and her walls but he can't deny the connection and he is so careful. He calls her out when he needs to but he's always there for her. He ensures she has choice but doesn't let Cyn steamroll him.

We also get to see our old cast and crew from the previous book which was fun. I adored the lizard companion Cyn had and I want more pet companions as the series continues. I enjoyed how much we got to dive into side characters, from Cyn's family to more of the villains, as it helped open up the world and plot.

In terms of spice I would place this at 2.5 spicy pepper out of 5 spicy pepper. This is a slow burn in spice (instant attraction, though) so don't expect anything until the second half. I feel like we needed more time with the romance as Cyn was very much still focused on guilt and hunting so the transition to romance was a harsh turn. That said I loved Cyn and Micah's dynamic, down to his nickname for her, and I felt the spice was romantic, passionate, and fitting. It was well written and fun!

"I'll be you oxygen if you'll be my atmosphere."
And together we'll be a whole world.

The story itself is fun with a race against the clock, family drama, and investigations. I felt it did take a bit of time for things to pick up but there are quite a few good twists to keep you on your toes. I also enjoyed exploring the backstory of characters (so much trauma that just worked so well with their journeys) and the moments we got to just hang with them (TOP NOTCH BANTER), despite the looming deadline. The story grows from the initial premise and that added a lot of depth for me. The ending rounds everything together to a nice happy moment for out two love birds.

Overall another wonderful instalment in this delightful sci-fi series!

Thank you Bramble for the arc!

I had a lot of fun with this book once the plot really got rolling! It's told in that first person, present tense, single POV sci-fi romance voice that always makes me feel like I'm playing a video game. (This is not a criticism - I love sci-fi RPG video games!)

Cyn follows the tracks of the "Abyssal Abductor" back to the scene of one of his first crimes, which also happens to be her home planet. She's working with the crew of the Calamity, who she first met while she was playing the role of a brainwashed cultist (see first book in the series). Together, they follow the trail of the Abductor, encounter several plot twists, foil some kidnapping plots, etc. Cyn even falls in love (gasp!) with the buff medic of the crew, Micah.

Speaking of Micah, I'd have loved to have any of his POV. That said, this was very, VERY sexy once they got together, in addition to being a major romp.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

Fiasco is a delightful blend of steamy interstellar romance and gripping sci-fi adventure. The plot kept me engaged throughout, with an unexpected twist that truly surprised me and added depth to the mystery. Cyn, is a multi-faceted protagonist whose journey from bounty hunter to partner in crime (and romance) with medic Micah Arora is thrilling.

Overall, Fiasco is a must-listen for fans of sci-fi romance, and offering a perfect mix of adventure.

Cyn was going through it. okay. Trying to avenge her cousin and being a bounty hunter isn't all luxury living as she still is in debt and owes the Pierce family, one of the fifteen families in power. When a bounty comes in from another wealthy family, it will get her closer to the person who kidnapped and killed her family but of course, it all can't be easy. Nothing it seems was easy for Cyn. This new job puts her in direct contact with Micah, the medic from the calamity, AND Cyn's other bounty.

For the most part, I liked Fiasco. The author did an outstanding job with the action in the story; it was entertaining and fascinating. Cyn was such a flawed character, her guilt drove herstory to a point of self alienation. It was easy to root for her to get a hea. I liked the interactions between her and Micah. His grump to her grump made for some good moments together. They had good tension and I liked that he fell first. I wish the author had built more into a romance between them, but it was so much going on in Fiasco: kidnappings and space chases. So in way, it made up for the missing romance.

Another thing that did not work for me is the pacing of Fiasco but the world-building is well done so I will let it go. All and all Fiasco is a fun read. If you love your science fiction with romance elements, then add this to your summer tbr.

*Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

I think I liked Cyn as a protagonist even more than Temper and I liked Temper A LOT. More Family bullshit, more adventure, and hey, Mica actually talked, who knew he had it in him. I don’t think I’m ever going to get tired of this crew and I really enjoyed the look at the expanded universe and the possibilities for different planets and cultures within it. Here’s to book 3!

This was a fun second installment to the Uncharted Hearts series, after last year's "Calamity." This book focuses on bounty hunter Cyn Khaw, who we briefly met in the last book when she was undercover as a brainwashed cult member while hunting down a bounty. In this book, Cyn finally gets a chance to take down the infamous serial killer known as the Abyssal Abductor, the same man who kidnapped and murdered her cousin when they were younger. Teaming up with the crew of the Calamity, she must work to finally track him down and save his latest victim before it's too late.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the first book in the series, although I have to say I liked it a little bit less than the first one. I felt like the mystery/sci fi/action part of the book really took center stage here and the romance between Cyn and Micah (the ship's medic) took a bit of a backseat. I didn't feel like we got to see them develop much as a couple, although we got a lot of Cyn confronting past trauma and growing as a person which was a really rewarding character arc. The first book just felt more balanced between the two so this was a little bit of a letdown in comparison, but still a very satisfying return to the characters and universe that Constance Fay has created, so I will definitely still be continuing with this series going forward! (If you're wondering about other returning characters from the first book, Temper and Arcadio are mostly off-page here, so we don't get to see them together much, but Itzel and Caro got a lot of screentime and I'm really crossing my fingers that Itzel's book is next!)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books/Bramble for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: June 4, 2024

4.25 stars
I will admit this didn't suck me in as much as the first but I think that is mostly due to how much the MC overthinks and it being a little too close to my own personality. But still, by the end, I didn't want to put it down and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to who we get to know better next!

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of "Fiasco" by Constance Fay in exchange for an honest review.

This sequel to Fay's "Calamity" focuses on bounty hunter Cyn Khaw and medic Micah Arora, both introduced in the first book. However, when readers first met Cyn, she was deep undercover to retrieve someone from a dangerous cult. By the start of Fiasco, Cyn has parted ways with the crew of Calamity and shed her false identity. Her life's mission is to track down the Abyssal Abductor, the merciless kidnapper who murdered her cousin Aymbe years before.

When she's recruited to find the Abductor's latest victim, she's reunited with the Calamity crew, including the ship's medic Micah. Micah takes an immediate interest in her, though whether that's based on suspicion or lust, Cyn isn't sure. To make matters worse, a powerful Family member is blackmailing her into taking a secret bounty: unbeknownst to him, Micah is being set up as a political scapegoat and Cyn is the one who must bring him in.

The Abductor's trail leads right back to Cyn's home planet, forcing her to confront the fractured family she left behind, memories she'd really rather forget, and secrets she never saw coming.

Fiasco is a solid follow-up to Calamity. It's got many of the best sci-fi building blocks: an important, time-sensitive mission, quirky side characters, and a metal-eating, flying lizard. (Though, really, there could have been much more lizard. Vuur was one of the best characters and it never even speaks.) The world-building is excellent, particularly Cyn's home world Ginsidik. The big, political system is important in this plot, but not quite as central as it was previously.

The one thing to keep in mind is that if you're reading this for the romance, it's not as strong as it was in the first book. At it's core, this is the story of a family reeling from tragedy, and how it has affected them through the years. Cyn and her family have never really processed their trauma from Aymbe's death. Most of Cyn's emotional journey is related to that.

So while there is a romance with Micah, it's not ABOUT that romance. You can take that portion of the plot out, and the book doesn't lose much. Furthermore, in the best romances, the relationship brings positive emotional growth to both characters; here, Micah doesn't really grow much. He's a solid guy who wants to take care of her, but he doesn't really change from start to finish. He's still a handsome, grumpy yet nurturing dude with attractive muscles.

It's a good book. It's interesting and exciting. It's less Romanscifi, but rather more straight up sci-fi, so as long as you go in with that expectation, you won't be disappointed. Recommended for fans of space opera with a hint of romance.

I think this book was a great continuation to the series. I love a good steamy sci-fi story that has lots of action and humor. I liked the new characters and plot this story brought and will continue to read anything this Author puts out :)

Genre: sci-fi romance

Cynbelline Khaw has gone by many names to keep her family safe while she tracks a serial kidnapper who stole and murdered her cousin many years ago. Estella Escajeda approaches her with a mission she would knowingly do for free: Estella’s illegitimate daughter has been kidnapped as well, and she wants to keep the story under wraps. Cyn is the woman for the job. This lands her back with the Calamity crew - who she worked with prior under a different identity - with Estella’s brother Arcadio, ship captain Temperance, and the achingly handsome and mysterious medic Micah Arora.

I enjoyed Calamity. I *really* enjoyed Fiasco. I knew a little more of what to expect, and listened to the audiobook of this one and it worked really well for me in first-person present tense on audio. Cyn has so many identities, it's almost hard to keep track, but being in her head kept her inner-self cohesive to the reader. Micah is an excellent foil for Cyn's highly anxious psyche: as the medic on the Calamity, and is the strong silent deadly handsome type. Fiasco has a couple of major plot threads, all of which coalesce nicely for both the romance and SF adventure plot. Plus, there's pirates.

If you read Calamity first, you’ll get a better sense of the broader universe, with the major houses and the lay of the land (outer space and planets). That said, I do think you could pick up with Fiasco as well, as there is enough basic background worldbuilding present here and the novel focuses on the romance between Cyn and Micah and the current plots rather than a continuation of the previous plot.

I'm always here for a spicy space opera. This companion novel revolves around vulnerability and thinking we have to always be alone. Cyn is haunted and convinced she has to keep everyone away. So what happens when the lies, her mistakes, and her legends all catch up to her? Fiasco has to break down Cyn's walls, the ideas that she has to be alone, that the ones we love cannot be trusted to carry the weight of our fears and ghosts.

This was just as fun as *Calamity*, the first book in the Uncharted Hearts series. Maybe more so.

The protagonist this time is Cyn Khaw, a down-on-her-luck bounty hunter with a brief cameo (under cover) in *Calamity* as the cultist Generosity. What she was up to in that book was the kind of side gig she has to take to pay the bills; her main focus has always been the pursuit of the serial kidnapper who abducted her younger cousin and murdered her when the family couldn’t raise the ransom. The action in this book kicks off when Estella Escajeda (sister of Arcadio from *Calamity*) shows up in her office, in true film noir femme fatale fashion. Her daughter has been kidnapped by the man Cyn has been hunting, and Estella wants Cyn to recover her daughter.

Cyn isn’t alone on this job. She’s joined on this job by the scout crew from *Calamity*. Temper and Arcadio are pretty minor players in this book; by far the most prominent member of the scout crew (from both the reader’s perspective and from Cyn’s perspective) (very much from Cyn’s perspective) is the medic Micah.

Complicating matters: in an earlier job Cyn committed the unforgivable sin of embarrassing a member of the prominent Pierce family (she really should have let him put pants on before she stunned him). Carmichael Pierce wants revenge on Cyn, but he’s willing to forego that … if she betrays Micah to him, as he’s a wanted outlaw in Pierce territory.

Further complicating matters: the job takes them to Cyn’s hometown, where she’s going to have to talk to her parents and won’t be able to keep the subject limited to her houseplants.

This story is just so much fun. The hunt for the kidnapper is exciting and unpredictable. The developing relationship between Cyn and Micah is fraught and tense and very entertaining to watch. And Cyn has a pet lizard that adopted her; a genetically engineered critter that eats metal (something to be carefully managed on a spaceship), breathes fire, will be able to fly when his wings come in, and is a completely useless coward.

This is pure entertainment. Highly recommended.

I didn’t read the first book in the series because I didn’t know there was one but I will probably be going back to read it.

I really loved the whole concept of this book. Cyn, who has many identities is given a task to hunt down a kidnapper and transport a medic, Micah or her identities would be revealed and all her friends and family would be in jeopardy.

Along the way, many obstacles and revelations come to light, changing everything Cyn thought to be true about her past. A steamy, passionate relationship with Micah complicates things but by the end, Cyn is willing to fight for, well, pretty much everyone.

Fun, unique, and engaging Sci-fi romance!

Fiasco follows lone wolf bounty hunter Cyn Khaw as she attempts to track down a serial killer known as the Abyssal Abductor. She's been investigating him for her entire career, but a hot new lead from a powerful Family has Cyn teaming up with the crew of the Calamity in order to track him down and save his most recent victim. Unfortunately for Cyn, the trail leads right back to her home planet, which she's been pointedly avoiding since her own cousin was kidnapped and killed by the Abductor years ago.

I enjoyed our protagonist Cyn quite a bit. Watching her confront her past trauma and grow to trust again was a great journey. The mystery was fun, even if a bit obvious, and the crew of the Calamity is always a joy to follow.

My main issue with Fiasco is, unfortunately, the romance. With everything else happening, it felt like our love interest Micah was firmly situated on the back-burner. As a result, there just wasn't much chemistry between him and Cyn. He spends the majority of this story just kinda hanging around and keeping an eye on her, and it's been long enough since I read the first installment in the series that the memory of them initially meeting has faded, so there's not much of foundation for their relationship to be found here. It all ends up feeling very insta-lovey, made even worse by the fact that Micah has no time to develop as his own character. I remember him having a bit of an amusing temper in Calamity, but in the book where he's meant to shine, his only notable characteristics seem to be his nice arms and being a protective medic. There's very little banter between him and Cyn in order for us to get to know him better, which is disappointing.

Overall, this was a fun and steamy sci-fi romp, which is always a good time, but I wish the romance had been able to develop more. The first book balanced the space shenanigans with the romance so well that this one just felt a bit lackluster in comparison. That said, the universe and cast of characters is still a lot of fun and I plan to continue to pick them up as Constance Fay puts them out.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

The crew of the Calamity is back for another fine romp, and I enjoyed this one even more than the previous book.

We get lots of bad guys (and gals), lots of action, lots of suspicion,lots of suspense, and lots of family (both good and bad, biological and found). While the book does a decent job of closing out some of its major plotlines, it also leaves some open for the (hopefully) future books in this series. Here's hoping!

I’m always so pleased when I come across a new author, especially one who is writing in a subgenre that you don’t see much of, in this case romantic science fiction! I’m even more pleased when I read a second book from the same author and can confirm that it was more than a “one hit wonder” situation! And such has been the case here; while I think I might still have preferred “Calamity” to this book, “Fiasco” is an excellent book in its own right!

I had a guess that these would be the two characters we followed in this book, based off which side characters were best set up in the first book. That said, from what we had there, I knew a lot more about the male love interest, Micah, the ship’s medic, than the mysterious woman who flits in and out of that story. That left this book with a lot of blank canvas to tell a fresh story about a character who was practically brand new to the readers. And Cyn turned out to be fantastic! In many ways, she is a much more tragic figure than our original leading lady. Carrying around not only a ton of family baggage, Cyn is also plagued by crippling PTSD from traumatic events in her past. Her life up to this point has been largely solitary, so much of her arch in this story is learning how to trust and depend on others, especially challenging perhaps with the force of personalities that make up the crew of the Calamity!

The plot revolves around a serial kidnapper, an individual Cyn has spent the majority of her life chasing down. There were a number of twists and turns here, and I enjoyed them all! I found a few things a bit predictable, but as so much of the story really depends on the reader caring about Cyn’s own growth and feelings, I think this worked fine. The last third of the book, in particular, was very action packed and there were a few moments that ratcheted up the emotional stakes so high as to be quite thrilling.

The story also delves a lot into family trauma and the way tragic events can re-shape an entire group of people. I really liked a lot of what we saw here between Cyn and her parents in particular and their mutual realizations that they didn’t truly understand one another. At the same time, much of the first half to three quarters of the book presents most of these family members in a pretty negative light, and even understanding their circumstances, Cyn was more forgiving than I was. I wish there had been a little bit more push back on some of the tactics they used and how unhealthy the way that they treated Cyn truly was.

As for the romance, it was sweet, but I think this was the area where the story took a clear second to the first book in the series. While I liked Micah as a romantic lead, I never felt like I really understood the connection built between him and Cyn. The reader isn’t given many reasons for why these two characters are drawn to one another, only that they are. This was all the more frustrating because in many ways Micah’s character is the sort that I particularly enjoy as a leading man in romance novels: quiet, but incredibly capable, with deeper wells of emotion buried deep. But, again, it felt like much of this wasn’t fully utilized as the love story progressed.

Overall, however, I very much enjoyed this book! Cyn’s arc was incredibly sympathetic, and the overall plot was action-packed and thrilling. The love story was also sweet, but if there was one area that I think could have used just a dash bit more…something…this was it. Either way, I’m fully on board with this series and can’t wait to see what comes next!

Rating 8: A great leading lady, a thrilling adventure, and a story jam-packed with family trauma, and that’s all before you even get to the swoon-worthy romance!

(Link will go live June 5)