The last thing Nova saw was the men she loves collapsing in the street.
Then a black bag. Then nothing.
Now she’s alone inside the Nightmare Order, trapped somewhere deep within the system that spent centuries making sure people like her could never exist.
The questions never stop.
Neither do the tests.
And the longer Nova stays inside the Order, the more certain she becomes that this was never random. Never accidental. Whatever they want from her, they’ve been waiting a very long time.
Back in the Hollow, something is breaking.
Six men were never supposed to bond the way they did. The system was built to prevent it. To control it.
To erase it.
But grief makes people dangerous.
And somewhere in the dark, the nightmare is starting to wake up.
Order is a slow-burn why choose romantasy featuring – a feral heroine trapped inside the institution built to fear her – six dangerously devoted men pushed to the edge of unraveling – forced separation, forbidden bonds, and found family – psychological tension, hidden experiments, and buried truths – a town willing to fight for one of their own – and a system that spent centuries containing them, and the cluster about to tear it open
CeeCee Crow writes dark, slow-burn romance for readers who like their heroines guarded, their heroes obsessed, and their bonds impossible to walk away from. Her books live in the tension — the half-glance, the held breath, the moment someone realizes they're already in too deep.
She's drawn to feral women, quiet devotion, and the kind of love that doesn't ask permission. If a character is morally gray, emotionally unavailable, or one bad day away from burning it all down, she's probably writing about him.
She lives in Wisconsin and writes the books she wishes someone had handed her years ago.
I’ve really enjoyed this series, but this being the “final” book - nope. There are so many unanswered questions. I’m disappointed, and confused.
Spoilers:
Who are “the fourth”, where are they/where do they live?, where did the clockwork people come from, and who exactly are they? What was the prophecy they traded for? What did they trade for it - just warning wards? Not an actual defense? The series started with the premise that the houses were all there were - that there was no where else to go. But then they are going to “the fourth” to live outside the system?! Too many questions!!!
First of all, the ending was anti-climactic. Second of all, So glad Locke literally built a bed from scratch with his bare hands for absolutely nothing as a gesture of love for Nova and now they’re leaving it behind. And they’re just gonna let Laith go? The man who caused literally all of this and is performing experiments on other shifters. Sounds like a great idea.
The writing style of the author is a tad weird. Lots of little sentences. Partial sentences. It gives it a bit of a weird vibe. The end was a tad weird. Like, it was kind of incomplete. We don't know what really happens. They don't take down the system as I think everyone was expecting. Oh well, it's over.
Order is the third and final installment of the Nightmare Misfits series. FMC Nova has been captured by the exact people her and her bonded were trying to outrun - the Nightmare Order. Through all the torture, questioning, and tests performed on her, the only thing Nova can think about is the men she left behind to save them - and the way they still collapsed in the street after she agreed to go with the enemy. But something else starts prying at her while in captivity, Nova begins to feel the Nightmare Order has had eyes on her for years, and that none of the choices in her life have been accidental.
While Nova is trapped, her men and the people of the Hollow are concocting a plan to rescue her. Which, in true CeeCee Crow fashion, will cause even more chaos.
Now, my review..
The positives:
We learn a lot more about Nova's past. This is something I have been yearning for with this series. It made a lot of sense why the author waited to divulge this information when she did, and there were definitely a few twists with this I didn’t see coming.
I enjoyed seeing how all of the different relationships with Nova and her men evolved in this book. Each relationship had its own timeline and development, which I think made the relationships feel much more realistic.
The spicy scenes in this book vs. the other 2 were.. WOOOO. CeeCee really took it up a few notches here, in the best way possible.
The new characters that were added into this book were fun additions, it looks like a new series will be coming early next year that focuses on the Clockwork Order. I am very excited to learn more about them, because this book left a handful of open ended questions in relation to the Clockwork Order.
I loved the way everyone banded together to help Nova, even those who had not even met her. Nova spent her life feeling very alone, so it was really nice to see all of these people take her in as one of their own. Nova’s relationships went much deeper than just her bonded, she ended up finding a family within her community, which is all any of us can hope for.
The negatives:
As stated in the other books in this series, I feel like we are still missing quite a bit of background information and world building. I was really hoping at some point in this series to get a deeper understanding about the different houses, the Nightmare Order, the marks, shifting, etc. There is quite a bit of surface information about these topics, but I think when it comes to a fantasy series I am looking to see a deeper dive into the concepts that make up the fantasy world.
Honestly, I did not love the ending. If you haven’t read this series, please skip this part of my review as some spoilers are contained. But I felt too strongly about this to not address it. The ending of Order was so abrupt and rushed that after I finished the book I sat there holding my kindle for a while thinking.. “Is this really how this series is going to wrap up..? Is that really the end?” I think even an extra chapter could have made all the difference for this ending. Some more explanation or deliberation with the main characters and the town would have been huge for me. But everyone just being like.. “Okay lets go” and leaving two seconds later was just such an odd ending to be when they have built their lives around the Hollow.
I feel like the same main plot point of this book was repeated twice within the book and I would have liked to see maybe a little bit of a different story line the second time a character from the Nightmare Order was captured. It made the story feel repetitive when things could have gone differently during the second capture.
Overall, I did enjoy Order as well as the rest of the Nightmare Misfits series. The books were fun, easy to read, and a storyline that was addicting. CeeCee Crow is really good about drawing you in and keeping you wanting more. But there are just some things I can’t get past with this book, the biggest being how this series ended. If the ending would have not been so rushed this would have been a four star read for me. Would I still recommend CeeCee Crow to my audience? Absolutely. Will I still read CeeCee Crow? 100%. From what I can tell, CeeCee is a new author and I am excited to see how she grows within her stories and writing. I am looking forward to Tick, the first book in the Clockwork Rebels series, releasing March 12, 2027.
From the start of this series I was unhappy about the world building and storyline. Not because it wasn’t original bc it is, but bc we are thrown into an unknown world with absolute rules that are never explained.
Spoilers ahead with my many reasons for asking if 2 writers wrote this series and why imo it is awful.
I mean what the hell is the system, is it a person, an invisible entity, a computer, nobody knows but it was created and is the new normal.
This series needs some serious editing both for misspelling and sentence structure. But the biggest reason is that scenes and information given are confusing and contradictory. There are plenty of little facts that are said and then changed a few pages/chapters later. It is beyond frustrating bc you have to stop and go check for the previous information. There are also, silly things like a character comment is 4 words long and then next sentence from another character say those 2 words were said and they change everything. This happens multiple times.
The commentary is repetitive and not appropriate for the scene that is happening. I hate you and I am going to kill you are a constant conversation between FMC and her men. They are always laughing but nothing is funny and it is uncomfortable response to situations. Scenes have commentary where the character will say “I know”to someone or about something but we never get told this happens multiple times, as well.
Also, the author writes the commentary as if we already know info that she hasn’t given us and/or that is unclear who is saying it and what meaning we are supposed to derive from it.
The 3rd book is ridiculous, there are NO answers. Not one character has any knowledge of what is happening or what anything means. They spout 1/4 to 1/2 answers that mean nothing to the whole picture. It usually is the same info just said by different characters and doesn’t allow for any conclusions. We are left high and dry with no resolution and in my case disappointment that I wasted my time reading these three books.
The clockwork people are introduced but never explained, except that they are from another dimension. They show up and are all “hey bitches”, and “this is so cool”. Why are they even there, bc they are looking for a prophecy that supposedly Minerva has, though how they know that unanswered and how does she even know how to contact them with this prophecy information. But that is why they are helping the Hollow. Immediately, you can tell they were only introduced so a new series can be started.
We never receive any information on the Fourth, we are just supposed to ignore them like all of the rest of the unexplained world that she threw us into with no world building at all.
They “win” battles mainly bc the bad guys, Nightmare whatever(never explained) show up and then do nothing but watch for most “battles”.
Laith the head Nightmare is beyond confusing. He is evil and disgusted by the anomalies, but then stops the battle and allows them to take him prisoner a 2nd time. He is let go to fix his mess but there is no way to know if he even understands what the mess is and how to fix the shifting problem. He seems pretty ignorant. He just wanted to test her and separate the variable so he can make people shift, not let it happen organically. Will he keep doing this, who knows!
The FMC AND HER MEN decide to go to the Fourth to be free, but I am not sure how they know that they will be free, since they are only given a hot minute to decide with absolutely zero, zilch, information about it. On top of that issue, is that the FMC looks back while leaving and says she won’t go if the whole town can’t go and everyone just packs a few things up and leaves. End of awful story.
Talk about anticlimactic, Jeesh. I just don’t feel like I have it in me anymore, giving books a chance, and then only to be disappointed again and then having to leave a disappointed and bad review. It’s becoming the norm and it’s just draining and disappointing and so beyond saddening. Reading has been my entire life for the past 42 years. Books have been everything and meant everything to me. And maybe it’s just the genre that I am reading in or maybe it’s books in general minus a few amazing authors. But they’ve just been so disappointing and so lackluster nowadays. Authors just be phoning it in giving us the bare minimum sometimes not even that acting like they’re doing us some type of favor with the books they’re publishing when all we are is just left unsatisfied. This book made absolutely no sense. The writing was super weird. It was lazy as hell. It kept promising something that never happened. The sex scenes were unoriginal and after thoughts. All the MMC‘s were pretty much the exact same person. The author had favorites and you could definitely tell. The chapters were short and often read like a police report. The flow was horrible, and it felt stuttered if that makes any sense. The author was so lazy and so disrespectful towards us as readers that she didn’t give us any, and I mean any, world, building or explanation or answers or anything that she would actually have to put some time and effort into. This author talks about factions and the order, and they have weird names like whisper and clockwork. We don’t get any explanation at all about any of that. The Academy didn’t really even make any sense. This girl‘s whole backstory is a huge mystery and it remains a mystery yet another question not answered. And then to add the shit cherry to the shit Sunday, it had the most anti-climactic and lackluster ending ever. You would think that the FMC would want to stick around kill off the bad guy and make a change within the world that is so fucked up. So she could stop the horrific experiments and just try and make it a better place. But no, she let the bad guy go and then she hops off to some other place that we again have no clue where that place came from or what it’s about. She just dips out. I swear the author had no clue where to go with this book. Like how dare she or he whoever this author is??? The audacity, the laziness. It’s almost like a slap in the face to us readers. And it sucks because when I read book one it had potential. But it just never lived up to it. These authors are phoning it in y’all. And it’s kind of devastating. There is just no effort. No time spent on fleshing out a story and for world building. There’s absolutely no originality really. Especially not in the why-choose sex scenes. I mean, you have a beautiful woman with multiple men with multiple appendages, you would think that others could come up with some more originality when it comes to bedroom scenes. But they don’t even try with that. I’m just so over it y’all!
Let’s begin with this: this first part is for Ms. CeeCee Crow. Also, anyone who wants to be nosy is welcome. (I’m nosy too, so I’m glad you’re here.)
I was in a book slump for six months. I would reread my favorite books and then move on to a new book, immersing myself in it once again. I skipped over the first book multiple times before deciding, a few days ago, to give it a try. I’m so glad I did because Miss Ma’am, you’ve become one of the authors I’m following. I’m thrilled to be one of the readers of your very first series. I’m also excited for your second one because Miss Ma’am, you did warn us, and I went in knowing that’s all I can say.
No spoilers:
Now, let’s discuss the books:
The first book: I’m glad I stuck with it. It was unlike anything I’d read before, and I had numerous questions that I was certain I knew but kept reading anyway! I’m so glad I did. Approach it with an open mind.
Book Two: answers some questions before the plot takes a dramatic turn!
The last book 👀🤫: it answers more questions but also raises more. Does it conclude with a HEA? Well, you’ll have to read it to find out. I’m curious to know your thoughts on it.
I wanted to like this series more than I did. It started out well but about halfway through the first book I had to look it up and ensure I was supposed to be reading a fantasy, not contemporary book lol the fantasy aspect doesn’t emerge until, what, the last 10% or less of the first book? I liked the different intended personalities but they all blended together via dialogue and internal thinking. I can’t even tell you how often ALL the characters said, or thought, “I don’t know what to do with that.” And the fmc kept coming across less intelligent than the others - her speech was always stuttered and cut off in a kind of immature/flustered way.
The SUPER random parent arc drop was weird - random dude literally walked in on the “torture” and makes one comment out of nowhere and none of that clicked with me, I felt nothing. Then the way it ends right when they’re about to go on an adventure and get answers, leaves you hanging.
I did like the diverse magical creatures and wish the fantasy aspect was more fleshed out and focused on.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Like the rest of this series, I genuinely enjoyed this book for there were some things about the series thay could have been improved.
There were some things about this series i would have loved more information on. Mainly a look into things from Silas's POV and Laiths. Potentially one from Linda as well to give us more depth into the plot, seeing the other side, gaining more insite into what was actually going on. There was a lot of details and information left very much up to interpretation that made me wish for more information.
Nova and her guys get their HEA but the ending fell a bit flat for me. All this build up and nothing really happened which left much to be desired. Id love an epilogue a few years into the future to see where Nova and the guys are and how things are going. A bigger fight with more action, like the build up was prepping us for.
I'm bummed because I really liked the first two books. The premise was interesting. It was well written. But....this 3rd book/finale made no sense. There's all this build-up, and then the bad guy just sends his whole army home and turns himself over to them after a very confusing conversation?? Why? Nithing was explained. And then there's this random group they all just decide to go live with. Who cares about all the other shifters stuck under the Order is what they decide...it just was a real let down.
I could barely get 33 pags. The guys just made me that livid I couldn't go any further. Don't even care if they come around why would I want a main character it ever end up with people like that.
Got this book from Good Reads giveaway. I have to say this book series wasn’t the worst I’ve read this year but kinda disappointed how the series ended. A lot of unanswered questions and plot holes to the story. I feel like it was more of a why choose smut read than an actual plot.