Review – All Hail Chaos (Time of Iron, Book 2) by Sarah Rees Brennan (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy / Portal Fantasy
Length: 480 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: May 12, 2026
ASIN: B0DS54C4M6
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Time of Iron series
Source: Borrowed on ebook from library
Rating: 3/5 stars

“THE EMPEROR IS HERE. AND SHE MADE HIM WORSE.

Rae is a fantasy reader who’s been transported to her favorite fictional world of swords and sorcery, castles and monsters. Playing the villainess, she thought she could change the narrative, but this version of the plot is far more deadly than the one she knew. Her friends are on the run: the Cobra shelters in an eerie manor haunted by dark secrets, while Emer and Lia stoke a revolution in the gutters. Undead armies roam the kingdom, raiders camp at the city gates, and the all-powerful Emperor—Rae’s favorite character ever, now possibly the greatest monster in the land—wants her to be his evil queen.

Romantic in fiction, complicated in reality. What’s a villainess to do? Time for wicked bargains and fake engagements, in a fantasy where the most dangerous thing you can do is believe in someone.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 2nd book in the Time of Iron series. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: I stopped reading this about 25% of the way in. I went back and read my review of the first book in this series, and while I didn’t like the writing style of that one much, I enjoyed the characters and the humor. The first part of this was just a drag to get through. It is a lot of our heroine whining about her mistakes and how bad they made everything. I just couldn’t stomach it and decided to set it aside.

This book picks up where the last one left off. Rae is still in her favorite fictional world playing the villainess. However, her actions in the last book have left her friends on the run and Rae on the throne besides the Emperor, a man who was her friend but is now her enemy.

We get a brief look into our world where Rae is in a coma at the beginning; this is done from her sister’s POV and was a bit awkward. Then we are transported back to the fantasy world where Rae is living out the consequences of her actions in the first book and very unhappy about it.

I don’t remember this from the first book, but Rae comes across as incredibly immature and whiny in the beginning of this book. I kept waiting for her to do something…anything. She just whined and randomly prayed to gods. We do start to get POVs from her friends who are on the run around the 25% mark, but by that point I was really irritated at the story and Rae and just didn’t care. I ended up setting this aside and moving on to other books.

My Summary (3/5): Overall the beginning of this book was slow and whiny and I didn’t like it. I am giving it 3 stars because maybe it gets really good in the last 3/4’s of the book. I probably shouldn’t have picked up the second book in the series since I didn’t love the first book. Take from that what you will. I guess if you loved the first book, give this one a try. If you were boarder-line on the first book then consider carefully before picking up this book. I am happy I borrowed this from the library and didn’t purchase it.