Book Review: Fearless (Book #3 in the Powerless series) by Lauren Roberts (Major Spoilers)

Right off the bat, I have to say that I definitely went into reading Fearless with certain expectations, and I was also worried that Lauren Roberts might disappoint me by ending the series by having Paedyn discover that she has powers too, and that she’s not actually “Powerless” after all. Thankfully, I was thrilled to see that Roberts didn’t go that route, and Fearless was a very satisfying conclusion to Roberts’ Powerless series. However, this book was still full of its fair share of “scandalous” plot twists.

 

Fearless’ biggest strength is definitely the fact that Roberts did a fantastic job of bringing the series full circle in many ways by having Paedyn compete in a whole new set of trials, like she did when she competed in the Purging Trials in the first book. Having Paedyn face a whole new set of Purging Trials in the final book of the series was definitely a great idea on Roberts’ part to end the series that way. It also made Fearless a very action-packed book. Still, at the same time, I felt like Roberts did a great job of having these Purging Trials play out differently for Paedyn in this book compared to the way the Purging Trials were handled in the first book of the Powerless series, which I thought was very important for her to do, so that Fearless wouldn’t come across as lacking originality, but especially since this was the last book in the series, aside from Fearful.

 

The writing for Paedyn and Kai’s relationship and the moments between them throughout the book were once again a major strength for me. However, Paedyn and Kai’s relationship is something that I’ve always loved about the Powerless series.

Book Review: Reckless (Book #2 in the Powerless series) by Lauren Roberts (Major Spoilers)

Going into reading Lauren Roberts’ book, Reckless, I was full of excitement and anticipation, and thankfully, Reckless ultimately lived up to my expectations for the most part.

One of Reckless’ greatest strengths is that Paedyn and Kai spent pretty much the entire book together, especially when they were chained to each other. Reckless had some great character development for Kai while Paedyn and Kai were chained to each other, and it was also incredibly entertaining at times. Paedyn and Kai’s interactions throughout the book allowed them to grow a lot closer to each other throughout Reckless, and Roberts’ writing for their relationship throughout Reckless was truly stellar, as far as I’m concerned.

That being said, while I loved that Paedyn and Kai spent pretty much the majority of Reckless chained to each other, I have to admit that a big part of me kept waiting for Paedyn to find a way to get away from Kai again and flee; so a part of me was a little disappointed by the fact that never happened in this book. Perhaps Lauren Roberts didn’t do that in Reckless because she felt like that would ultimately come across as being repetitive storyline-wise. (Shrugs in disappointment)

I was thrilled to see that Kitt had a larger presence in this book. I thought that Roberts did an excellent job of showing the readers what Kitt’s mental state was like throughout the book, with him locking himself in his father’s study, and emphasizing the fact that he had been dumping his food out the window of his father’s study. Being so wrapped up in the fact that he was doing all of these things caused Kitt to forget about Ava’s birthday, which Kitt eventually realizes. (Ava is Kitt and Kai’s sister who died when she was a little girl.) Having Kitt do all of these things throughout the book makes it so his actions at the end of the book, with him ordering Paedyn to marry him for the end of book cliffhanger, honestly made a lot of sense to me; because it shows the reader just how much Kitt truly has gone off the deep end mentally and emotionally, which I thought was a truly brilliant way to end Kitt’s storyline in this book. I also thought that it showed just how much Kitt has changed as a character, since he was first introduced in the first book in the series, and not for the better.

Book Review: Powerful (Book #1.5 in the Powerless series) by Lauren Roberts (Major Spoilers)

As someone who has always had rather mixed feelings about novellas, I have to admit that I definitely went into reading Lauren Roberts’ novella, Powerful, feeling excited to read it while also having relatively low expectations for the novella, given many of my lackluster previous experiences with reading novellas. That being said, I ultimately really loved Powerful for the most part. 

One of Powerful’s greatest strengths is that it does a fantastic job of further developing the character, Adena, which I was thrilled to see take place in this book, since one of the biggest complaints that I had about Powerless was that I felt like the character development for some of the secondary characters in the book was hit or miss, and in retrospect, I think that Adena is a character that could have benefited from some additional character development in Powerless. The events that take place during this book take place also take place during the same timeframe as Powerless, so that helps this novella fit into the overall narrative of the Powerless series rather seamlessly, as far as I’m concerned.

Lauren Roberts’ Powerful did a great job of further developing Adena as a character. Since I had already read Powerless and this book takes place during the same timeframe as that book, I obviously knew that Adena was going to end up dying in this book. Even though I knew that Adena was going to die in this book, that thankfully didn’t stop me from becoming invested in Mak and Adena’s relationship throughout the book.

Book Review: Powerless (Book #1 in the Powerless series) by Lauren Roberts (Major Spoilers)

Right off the bat, I want to start this review by saying that I’ve been very interested in checking out Lauren Roberts' Powerless series for a long time now. After having read the first book in the series, I’m so glad I did. I loved the first book, and it left me feeling really eager to read the rest of the series. That being said, here are my thoughts on Powerless (the book).

 

The fact that Powerless is written primarily from both Paedyn (Pae) Grey and Prince Kai’s points of view is a major strength of this book. Lauren Roberts did a great job of developing both Paedyn and Kai as characters throughout the book. I also thought that Roberts did an excellent job of developing Paedyn and Kai’s blossoming romantic relationship in this book, and I’m looking forward to seeing where Roberts takes things with them as the series continues.

 

That being said, one major complaint that I have about the book is that I felt like Kitt definitely could have benefited from having some more character development in the book. I felt like he was featured throughout the book in Kai’s chapters and some of Paedyn’s chapters, and then suddenly, when Roberts wrote the epilogue from Kitt’s point of view, it ultimately came across as being rather random to me in an incredibly jarring way that I kind of got even more emotional whiplash from the ending of the book, because Roberts decided to write the epilogue from Kitt’s point of view when there aren’t any other chapters in the book written from Kitt’s point of view. The epilogue really left me wondering if there are going to be any additional chapters that are written from Kitt’s point of view in the other books in the Powerless series. At this point, that’s something that I would be very interested in seeing in the books that follow this one.

 

Roberts’ success with developing the other contestants in the Purging Trials was somewhat hit or miss, as far as I’m concerned. Except for Blaire, I ultimately found the other contestants to be rather forgettable. Maybe it’s just me, but when Lenny was first introduced as Paedyn’s Imperial, who stands outside the door in the palace, a part of me was really expecting Lenny to end up betraying Paedyn later on in the book, so I was very surprised when it was revealed that Lenny was a part of the resistance that’s working to fight against the injustice that’s being done to people who are Ordinaries (People who don’t have abilities). I suppose there could still always be some twist with Lenny betraying Paedyn later on in the Powerless series, but I’m glad that, at least when it comes to the first book in the series, my prediction about Lenny being a villain ended up being wrong.