*** (3 out of 5)
The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson
The Remnant Chronicles Book 2
This is the sequel to The Kiss of Deception.
Urg I wanted to love this book, I really did, but it just didn’t do it for me. It felt drawn out and got a bit tiring. I got completely sucked in the first book, but it took me a while to get into this one. It had sooo much potential yet it was just sort of flat.
I still love Lia. She is amazingly strong despite all the bad things happening to her. She does what she needs to survive. She is resourceful and clever and everything a strong female character should be. However, I am a little tired of the love triangle (or is it a love square? its kind of blurry where that one is headed) I realize she needs to play certain games to survive, but does she really have to fall in love with them all? Just because someone has a troubled past doesn’t excuse their current actions, even if their intent is sincere.
I could have done with less interactions between Lia and the Komizar. Or at least it would have been nice if the interactions had more variety. They were very redundant.
And what was his deal with obsessing over her hair and clothes?!? Oooooh maybe he is gay and in love with Kaden. Haha that would be a cool twist.
I would have liked to know more about Rafe and his time as “emissary.” For the most part you only see him when he is with Lia and that is not very often. It would have been nice to learn more about who he is and what he thinks. We did get a lot of insight into Kaden.
I also would have liked to know more about Pauline and her story. There are only a handful of chapters where you see what she is doing. I know that her actions will most likely come into play more in the next book, but it would have alleviated some of the monotony of Lia’s story, to see more of Pauline’s.
This book is better than the first in the aspect that it actually has a conclusion of sorts. It is still a huge cliffhanger but something big actually happens at the end of the book. It was a slight improvement, but not enough to overcome all of its other shortcomings.
I am still very much invested in the story and am excited to start the third and final book. Hopefully it isn’t slow (because there is a LOT that needs to happen).
Perfectly Tolerable 