A Vault of Sins by Sarah Harian – a Review

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo /  BAM

Description:
Even though she’s escaped, twenty-two-year-old Evalyn Ibarra is anything but free. She’s desperate to return to a life that no longer exists, but prying reporters continually draw her back into nightmarish memories, using the tabloids to vilify her. Bad press is the last thing she needs during the trial of the year: the case that she and her fellow survivors staked against the Compass Room engineers. A case that could terminate the use of the inhumane system forever…

But in her dreams, she is still locked in that terrifying jail.

When she wakes, someone is trying to communicate with her in secret, through strange and intricate clues. As Evalyn follows their signs, she uncovers a conspiracy that goes so much deeper than her own ordeal. A dangerous intrigue that only she can bring to light. One that will force her to work with the one person she doesn’t want to see.

The person who owns her heart…

Review:

A Vault of Sins by Sarah Harian, is the 2^nd book in her adult dystopian thriller series, Chaos Theory. When we last left off in The Wicked We Have Done, the terrifying Compass Room had a malfunction, and three of the doomed survived. What is the Compass Room? In case you did not read my review of TWWHD, it is a place that violent criminals are sent for a one month stay. It is a place where their nightmares come alive, with each reliving the crimes they committed. It is rare to survive The Compass Room, which Evalyn, our heroine, Casey, and Valerie did. The rules dictate that if you survive you are then free. But because of the malfunction, the country was in uproar taking sides as to what is really happening in that Compass Room.

Evalyn, Casey and Valerie are tried again, with the government willing to free them, if they would quietly say nothing about what happened. Because Valerie lost someone important to her, she wants vengeance and wants to expose the government. While the lawyers negotiate, the three of them are kept at their homes waiting. Evalyn runs away to hide, since she is trying to protect Casey, the love of her life. As she surfs the net daily to follow the comments discussing them, Evelyn begins to get messages from someone who says they will help her, and her friends discover the truth. Can she trust this mystery person?

What follows is an exciting story where Evalyn and Casey are taken and helped by a revolutionary group called Reprise. They are hackers, and some former programmers of The Compass Room. We get to meet some really cool characters in Wes, Piper and Maliyah. Can they help save Evalyn, Casey and Valerie, and destroy the evil Compass Room?

The last 1/3 of the story was intense, scary and action packed. Evalyn is willing to go back to the Compass Room to discover the evidence to stop the government running this program. We hold our breaths on every step that Evalyn takes and it is a credit to the writing of Sarah Harian that she can grab a hold of our emotions in this exciting finish.

There is sort of a cliffhanger, but the ending does nicely tie things together, not leaving us in suspense waiting for the next book. I look forward to more of Sarah Harian, as the Chaos Theory will reach its conclusion in the next book, with our heroes helping to expose the horrific truth about The Compass Room.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher