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Chronicles from the Applecross #3
Chaos Broken
The final instalment of the Chronicles of Applecross trilogy finds Lora left in charge–and quickly losing control.
Lora Blackgoat is in charge. But after losing a lucrative contract, it looks like she’s also running her beloved benefactor's mercenary company into the ground while he's away on holidays. Her problems double when she discovers Roman, exiled nephilim warrior and current confusing love interest, is brokering a dangerous peace agreement.
When a new enemy emerges from across the ocean, threatening to tear the city apart, Lora finds herself taking on new and surprising allies, finally acknowledging the prophecy that haunts her and using it to her advantage.
Lora Blackgoat is in charge. But after losing a lucrative contract, it looks like she’s also running her beloved benefactor's mercenary company into the ground while he's away on holidays. Her problems double when she discovers Roman, exiled nephilim warrior and current confusing love interest, is brokering a dangerous peace agreement.
When a new enemy emerges from across the ocean, threatening to tear the city apart, Lora finds herself taking on new and surprising allies, finally acknowledging the prophecy that haunts her and using it to her advantage.
251 pages, ebook
First published April 1, 2015
8 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Rebekah Turner
7 books57 followersWith a degree in graphic design and a raging coffee addiction, Rebekah escaped the corporate world to freelance in between sensible adult jobs. She rides a motorcycle called Fat Betty, owns two dogs who don’t get walked enough, and can never seem to find a blue pen when she wants one. She’s a dedicated movie gal, with a special affection for classic horror and action movies.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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January 11, 2016That moment when you realize you still have one book left in a series you enjoyed. Woohoo!
May 19, 2015
Originally published at Reading Reality
At least this time the cover picture of the guy looking over his shoulder actually makes a bit of sense. Not that every man, woman and otherkin doesn’t need to be looking over their shoulder (and in every other direction) just to stay alive in this story.
But the picture probably represents Roman, the exiled nephilim who is central to entirely too many people’s plots and plans, and many of those plans are not ones he would approve of or want to take part in.
In spite of Roman’s importance to the outcome of this particular story, it is still Lora Blackgoat’s show, and we still see events from her perspective. Unfortunately for her, one of those events is the financial catastrophe that the Blackgoat Runner and Mercenary Company has become under her watch.
Her adoptive parents, Gideon Blackgoat and Orella Warbreeder, left Lora in charge while they take a much-needed vacation. Unfortunately for everyone, Lora is no good at being in charge. She’s not terribly good with people, and she mostly does an excellent job of pissing possible clients off. The town of Harkin is going through an economic downturn, and paying clients are far and far between.
She doesn’t want to call her parents back to bail her out, but she knows they are expecting to return to a going concern, and not a bankrupt business.
Because Lora is always the center of chaos, things just go from bad to worse.
The only two jobs Lora can turn up are weirder than normal. She is contracted to find the cat belonging to the school headmistress (and her former teacher). Lora just thinks that job is beneath her. The other one is even worse - telling her life story to a playwright so he can turn it into his masterpiece. Lora hates talking about herself, her very messy origins, or how she feels or thinks about anything. The writer doesn’t like her either, but he needs a big hit every bit as badly as she needs the money.
But finding a cat should be (relatively) simple. Instead, she finds a dead teacher and what seems like a budding psychopath. Oh, and a magic calling circle around the dead body. Getting the local religious hierarchy into the middle of her business is the last thing Lora needs, because they suspect her of dark magic, they exiled one of her boyfriends, and they fired her.
In spite of that, the local chapter isn’t all bad. But the fanatics from the capital are a whole other matter, and they’re coming for a visit.
And that budding psychopath - well, that situation is even worse than Lora can imagine, even though if there is one thing Lora is good at, it’s finding the dark cloud around the silver lining. This time, she just isn’t thinking dark enough.
Escape Rating B: Once this story really gets going, it is impossible to put down. I absolutely adore Lora as a point of view character. It’s not just that she is a chaos magnet, although she certainly is - but that she is so human in the midst of her heroism.
She always needs more coffee and more sleep. Her love life is a confused mess. She misses her parents but knows that she needs to be independent. She dreads taking over Blackgoat Company, but knows that Gideon wants to retire. She can’t be diplomatic to save her soul, but she’s not afraid to step in and help people when they need it. She does what she thinks is right, even when everyone around her tells her that it’s wrong.
I’ll also admit that I loved her reaction when her friend kept handing her the baby. She has the same reaction I do. She isn’t sure what to do with the child, she doesn’t have a biological clock ticking, and she is uncomfortable as hell and scared of doing the wrong thing. Not all women want babies, and Lora certainly doesn’t.
That she is having a serious problem committing to anyone isn’t the issue in this case. She just isn’t pining for motherhood. Period. There may also be a bit of being correctly concerned about whatever genetic craziness she might pass on, but that definitely isn’t all of it.
The big, overarching story here is about freedom - especially freedom from religious fanaticism. Harkin is fairly far from the capital, and it has developed a kind of live and let live attitude toward all the otherkin in the city. The local Witch Hunters Guild is even relaxing some of the rules that their nephilim are forced to live under. That matters not just because Roman is a nephilim, but because the Guild’s treatment of nephilim is slavery.
Nephilim who agitate seem to go berserk, but the ones who have managed to leave the Weald for our Outlands are instantly cured. So is the berserker stage truly inevitable, or are they being poisoned to keep them in line?
The head honcho of the Guild descends upon Harkin in order to nip any possible resistance or rebellion in the bud. He starts witch burnings and otherkin exiles just after he threatens the local government into complete submission.
He decides that Lora is the biggest threat to his reign of terror out there (he’s actually kind of right) and tries to take her out. Everyone in town comes to her rescue, which was awesome.
This is a story with plots within plots, and wheels within wheels. Everything falls into place (or gets dropped, or is killed) in order to bring this series to an absolutely slam-bang conclusion - complete with lots of real slams and bangs.
However, the Chronicles from the Applecross are definitely a case where it is absolutely necessary to have read the entire thing for all the plots and all the players to fit together. In fact, it’s probably best to read the whole thing in a gulp. I read the first two books, Chaos Born and Chaos Bound back in December 2013. It took a good chunk of Chaos Broken for me to remember all the players and find my old scorecard. But it was definitely worth it.
At least this time the cover picture of the guy looking over his shoulder actually makes a bit of sense. Not that every man, woman and otherkin doesn’t need to be looking over their shoulder (and in every other direction) just to stay alive in this story.
But the picture probably represents Roman, the exiled nephilim who is central to entirely too many people’s plots and plans, and many of those plans are not ones he would approve of or want to take part in.
In spite of Roman’s importance to the outcome of this particular story, it is still Lora Blackgoat’s show, and we still see events from her perspective. Unfortunately for her, one of those events is the financial catastrophe that the Blackgoat Runner and Mercenary Company has become under her watch.
Her adoptive parents, Gideon Blackgoat and Orella Warbreeder, left Lora in charge while they take a much-needed vacation. Unfortunately for everyone, Lora is no good at being in charge. She’s not terribly good with people, and she mostly does an excellent job of pissing possible clients off. The town of Harkin is going through an economic downturn, and paying clients are far and far between.
She doesn’t want to call her parents back to bail her out, but she knows they are expecting to return to a going concern, and not a bankrupt business.
Because Lora is always the center of chaos, things just go from bad to worse.
The only two jobs Lora can turn up are weirder than normal. She is contracted to find the cat belonging to the school headmistress (and her former teacher). Lora just thinks that job is beneath her. The other one is even worse - telling her life story to a playwright so he can turn it into his masterpiece. Lora hates talking about herself, her very messy origins, or how she feels or thinks about anything. The writer doesn’t like her either, but he needs a big hit every bit as badly as she needs the money.
But finding a cat should be (relatively) simple. Instead, she finds a dead teacher and what seems like a budding psychopath. Oh, and a magic calling circle around the dead body. Getting the local religious hierarchy into the middle of her business is the last thing Lora needs, because they suspect her of dark magic, they exiled one of her boyfriends, and they fired her.
In spite of that, the local chapter isn’t all bad. But the fanatics from the capital are a whole other matter, and they’re coming for a visit.
And that budding psychopath - well, that situation is even worse than Lora can imagine, even though if there is one thing Lora is good at, it’s finding the dark cloud around the silver lining. This time, she just isn’t thinking dark enough.
Escape Rating B: Once this story really gets going, it is impossible to put down. I absolutely adore Lora as a point of view character. It’s not just that she is a chaos magnet, although she certainly is - but that she is so human in the midst of her heroism.
She always needs more coffee and more sleep. Her love life is a confused mess. She misses her parents but knows that she needs to be independent. She dreads taking over Blackgoat Company, but knows that Gideon wants to retire. She can’t be diplomatic to save her soul, but she’s not afraid to step in and help people when they need it. She does what she thinks is right, even when everyone around her tells her that it’s wrong.
I’ll also admit that I loved her reaction when her friend kept handing her the baby. She has the same reaction I do. She isn’t sure what to do with the child, she doesn’t have a biological clock ticking, and she is uncomfortable as hell and scared of doing the wrong thing. Not all women want babies, and Lora certainly doesn’t.
That she is having a serious problem committing to anyone isn’t the issue in this case. She just isn’t pining for motherhood. Period. There may also be a bit of being correctly concerned about whatever genetic craziness she might pass on, but that definitely isn’t all of it.
The big, overarching story here is about freedom - especially freedom from religious fanaticism. Harkin is fairly far from the capital, and it has developed a kind of live and let live attitude toward all the otherkin in the city. The local Witch Hunters Guild is even relaxing some of the rules that their nephilim are forced to live under. That matters not just because Roman is a nephilim, but because the Guild’s treatment of nephilim is slavery.
Nephilim who agitate seem to go berserk, but the ones who have managed to leave the Weald for our Outlands are instantly cured. So is the berserker stage truly inevitable, or are they being poisoned to keep them in line?
The head honcho of the Guild descends upon Harkin in order to nip any possible resistance or rebellion in the bud. He starts witch burnings and otherkin exiles just after he threatens the local government into complete submission.
He decides that Lora is the biggest threat to his reign of terror out there (he’s actually kind of right) and tries to take her out. Everyone in town comes to her rescue, which was awesome.
This is a story with plots within plots, and wheels within wheels. Everything falls into place (or gets dropped, or is killed) in order to bring this series to an absolutely slam-bang conclusion - complete with lots of real slams and bangs.
However, the Chronicles from the Applecross are definitely a case where it is absolutely necessary to have read the entire thing for all the plots and all the players to fit together. In fact, it’s probably best to read the whole thing in a gulp. I read the first two books, Chaos Born and Chaos Bound back in December 2013. It took a good chunk of Chaos Broken for me to remember all the players and find my old scorecard. But it was definitely worth it.
January 12, 2024
Great potential for the heroine, but after the first book she became a bumbling idiot. I didn't like the way the story continued, but it was original enough to deserve an average rating.
February 5, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed book 3 of the Applecross series. Great conclusion. Witty, full of action, this book is a great paranormal fantasy. The world building is fabulous and the characters even more so.
December 31, 2015
You will need to read the first two books in this series Chaos Born and Chaos Bound before reading this book as they really set up who Lora is, what she has discovered about herself and her powers as well as all of her relationships. Turner also does most of the world building in the first novel Chaos Born so a reader jumping into the third novel may not get the Applecross and the world that Turner has created. In the third book (and possibly final???) novel in Rebekah Turner's Chronicles of Applecross series, Lora has been left in charge of the runners and everything goes to hell: Lora Blackgoat does not want to be in charge, especially when she loses a lucrative contract (of no fault of her own I assure you) and the business is struggling to stay afloat. Lora is desperate to make money any way she can even if that means looking for a missing cat. Who knew a missing cat was going to turn into a murder scene of magic that Lora has never seen before and all hell is about to break loose in the city. There is a new headman coming to head up the Order of Guides where everyone who has ever practiced any magic can be sentenced to burn at the stake. Lora is trying to make sure she does not make it to the stake, find a murder and Oh Roman is back in town stirring up all kinds of trouble; Just another day in the life of Lora Blackgoat (the musical???). I'm really not sure if this is the last book in this series or not, I personally hope that it is not as I still think that there are many questions that need to be answers after reading this book. Maybe this will be the last Applecross series and move into a different setting with the same characters, but I think that Turner needs to continue the series because I love Lora as a character, the ideas that Turner comes up with, the world she has built and her ability to balance the fantasy, fight scenes and romance within the book. It was interesting to see Turner bring in a little bit of real history into the book with the introduction of burning witches at the stake, without a trail, just needed someone to accuse a person that they had seen them performing some aspect of the dark witch craft and to the stake they went. This added Lora the need to be not only extra cautious but to watch her back as she is well known throughout the city for her witch craft. Lora has grown up quite a bit since the first book to this book, she barley drinks in this book and I don’t think she attends one dice game, who is this person. At first I questioned if this our Lora Blackgoat from the first two books, but the more I think about it, Lora is still there in a lot her actions and verbiage/sarcasm, but the act of being responsible for the Runners has made her have to change, well that and Crowhurst helping to keep her in line. One of the things that I love about Lora is her unswerving loyalty to those that she cares about and willing to put herself front and centre to protect them. My one criticism for the book is that I think that Turner attempted to do too much and had too many ideas for this book. Yes, Turner is able to bring everything together in the end, but at times it seemed like there was a little too much going on for Lora to handle and at times I found myself getting a little bit lost. There is the murderer using magic she has never seen before, Lora trying to keep the Runner business afloat, Roman and all the problems he brings to town and then the introduction of a new head to the Order of Guides which causes all sorts of problems. Let’s just say that more than once it seemed like Lora's head was spinning and in turn mine was as well, so maybe that is a sign of good writing as I was so in tune with that was going on with Lora, that I felt just as lost and confused as she did at times. I think that this series keeps getting better and better the more books that Turner adds to this series, I'm not sure of anyone else who has read this book but I am personally excited for Lora Blackwood the musical. I know I would go see it. It says on Goodreads that this book is the final installment of the series, and I seriously questions that just based upon how this book ends and all the unanswered questions that I think that Turner has left open. This better not be the last book in this series as I really enjoy Lora and the world that Turner has created. Enjoy!!!
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April 24, 2015
"I believe in a cold beer. I believe in a good game of dice. What I don't believe in, is being someone's puppet."
Lora Blackgoat is back, as earthy and irreverent as ever. Ancient prophecies? Who needs them? Certainly not Lora, who makes her own destiny in ways no one else would ever see coming. Of course, that's also because her plans can seem so crazy.
I've been waiting for this third and final instalment of the Chronicles of Applecross - and it certainly didn't disappoint. In between the darker issues of financial insecurity, the play of religion in politics, slavery and witch-burning, Lora's always short a coffee, several hours' sleep and in need of a pastry.
Together with some unlikely allies and friends, including the aptly labelled Captain Crazypants, once again Lora finds herself with a city to save. Though it may cost her own life and the lives of those she loves. But what more can a hero (not a heroine - or she'll use her Sucker Punch Special on you so you can tell the difference) do but stand and fight for what she believes in?
I'm sad to see it end, though the ending certainly wraps Lora's tale up nicely. Five stars.
Lora Blackgoat is back, as earthy and irreverent as ever. Ancient prophecies? Who needs them? Certainly not Lora, who makes her own destiny in ways no one else would ever see coming. Of course, that's also because her plans can seem so crazy.
I've been waiting for this third and final instalment of the Chronicles of Applecross - and it certainly didn't disappoint. In between the darker issues of financial insecurity, the play of religion in politics, slavery and witch-burning, Lora's always short a coffee, several hours' sleep and in need of a pastry.
Together with some unlikely allies and friends, including the aptly labelled Captain Crazypants, once again Lora finds herself with a city to save. Though it may cost her own life and the lives of those she loves. But what more can a hero (not a heroine - or she'll use her Sucker Punch Special on you so you can tell the difference) do but stand and fight for what she believes in?
I'm sad to see it end, though the ending certainly wraps Lora's tale up nicely. Five stars.
June 20, 2015
A fun read that has Lora taking charge and saving the day. Full of action and humour, it is a satisfying end to the Chronicles of Applecross, but still leaves me wanting more.
February 13, 2016
it was okay I just kind of felt like there were a lot of loose ends left
December 27, 2015
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews