The Betrayed

Hollis went through a traumatic, character defining experience at the end of the first book, but when we get to this one, it’s like it never happened. There are no lasting effects or consequences for anything. Why care when it doesn’t matter? 🤷‍♂️ The pacing is atrocious. I was hoping that Kiera Cass had moved beyond the “instant romance” trope of YA. But no, relationship development goes as far as, “you like the color red? So do I! We must be soulmates.” Outside of all the bad storytelling, there’s not a lot to say here, other than it’s boring. It’s hard to sum-up what happened in this book because it didn’t feel like anything actually happened. I mean obviously stuff happened, but it didn’t seem like there was any real progress made (kind of like when a politician is asked a debate question, they’re talking but they’re not actually saying anything). Difficult to say without a third book, but this felt like a stopgap entry that could ultimately be skipped. I don’t know if there is a third book planned, but I think this series would greatly benefit from one. Lastly, the worst part is this line at the end of the book: “It is surprisingly easy to teach people not to hate.” Um… have you met people? 🤦‍♂️

Like please read this series it’s so frickin good

Hate to rate low, but this one is necessary. I’ll start saying the first book left “the mystery” of the story kind of obvious. So, when I was reading this book it was clear the path the principal characters were taken was wrong, and I didn’t buy the outcome that was unfolding from the beginning. So, I already knew whatever they were doing, would be to discover they were wrong by the end. No plot twist at all. The bad guy, that we know will became a good one, changes his attitude and personality so quickly that you just don’t buy the actions he makes so suddenly. It’s really poor developed. The story runs so fast and it’s so shallow that you just can’t connect really well with some of the characters, that was the same mistake from the previous book. I thought she would use this one to get deeper, Nope… (May contain little spoiler) Not only that, when everything is about to change, and the action starts to happen, she spent the entire first book and half of this one describing the king of Isolte as selfish, power-hungry, manipulative… and there is not a single fight when they try to conquest his kingdom, not even from the guards securing the palace, nor from the kind who fought for so many years to keep the power. Not writing about other things, because I would have to give details and I want to avoid spoiler for those willing to read it. The final was starting to bring some emotions, but the Author ended the story leaving that feeling like “what? Is this over?” The lack of development is really annoying. I know It supposed to be 3 books and she ended up writing just two, but it seems she wrote it just to make sure the serie would have an ending. I don’t recommend…

It’s so good!!!

I was definitely hoping for more after reading the first book, and this did deliver! The characters had more depth, and the romance was more thought out and I connected more with the relationship itself. I also enjoyed having a faster pace with more action and suspense. Overall it was a satisfying finale to a sweet story. If you’re looking for a nice easy read that you can finish in a few hours or days that has swoon worthy romance and a plot that involves royalty and castles, with a hint of enemies to lovers, this series is for you!

*this contains spoilers* 2.5 stars, but i rounded up i absolutely HATED the betrothed but honestly this one almost makes up for it. i kinda loved etan and hollis near the end of the book and even if they stayed just friends i would’ve liked that. hollis got less annoying (thank god) but she still has a few major problems that were never resolved. my biggest problem, though, was with certain parts of the ending—why are how did jameson trip and fall and impale himself…. anyways i recommend if you like hate-reading books to read this :))’