“System Collapse” probably would have been better if it was part of the novel “Network Effect”. There, I said it. The two stories are only vaguely separate, and the thing that Murderbot says it’ll do come the end of “Network Effect” doesn’t actually happen until the end of “System Collapse”. Which is kind of confusing I know, imagine how I felt reading this. The events of the latest novella follow right after the full-length book, like immediately after, which is why I am glad I re-read the novel before starting this latest novella because, otherwise, I’d have been lost throughout.

I’ll be the first to admit that “Act Your Age, Eve Brown” was, out of the Brown sister’s series, the one I was looking forward to reading the least. From the brief snippets I saw of Eve in Chloe and Dani’s books, she always kind of annoyed me. So, to say I was a bit apprehensive about her book would be putting it mildly, but man, did Eve prove me wrong just like she did to her family. Eve is a super sunshine character with certain… quirks. She’s so afraid of failing that she quits just as things start to get hard to avoid the stigma of being a failure. It’s terribly relatable, and her parents’ reaction to their twenty-six-year-old child “failing to launch” is totally understandable, too. That’s how Eve finds herself in the country interviewing, on a whim, for the chef position of an adorable bed and breakfast. Typical romance hijinks ensue, and Eve is forced to take the job, and take care of the owner who she hit with her car, out of guilt. I really enjoyed the kind of twist on the sunshine and grumpy love interests that came out of this too, because neither is happy or grumpy just for the sake of it, which is why Hibbert is my favorite romance author.

If you’re looking for a futuristic semi-dystopian where country disputes are settled through Olympic-style virtual sporting events played to the death (kind of like the Hunger Games), but with a distinctly “Matrix” vibe to it, well, that’s “MegaDeath” in a nutshell. In this futuristic version of the world, the global pecking order is decided every 4 years through a series of virtual simulator competitions which have replaced all wars. Sounds kind of nice, except the losing team dies and there’s something very fishy going on with the bets people make around these top athletes, and the Control system that puts on these virtual games. That’s where our main character, Megan, comes in. She is the elite of the elite when it comes to dominating in these games, but she doesn’t play for glory. She plays because she is in such intense anger and grief that she wants these games to punish her. That’s really compelling, but, unfortunately, Megan spent too long being an unlikable character to really get me invested in her, or the conflict.

This is pretty much "Saga" meets DnD with some super sassy, modern babes leading the charge. This whole bindup was just feral FUN honestly. I love me some unapologetically badass babes with strong friendships and swords. My only issue was that, at times, the story could be a bit disorienting with what was happening, the story arcs could have been tied together a bit better to where the story flowed. As it was, there were times where I thought I was missing a volume or something, which is impossible given the bindup.

What a perfect little novella! I was immediately enmeshed in the characters lives and their predicaments and felt like I knew them for much longer than the short novella actually allowed for. This sapphic, regency story included so many great tropes, too: one bed, forbidden romance, plus a nice little revenge plot for good measure.