The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Published by Macmillan on July 7th 2015
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 480
Format: ARC
Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape . . . and even less of being together.Desperate to save her life, Lia's erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komisar that she has a magical gift, and the Komisar's interest in Lia is greater than either Kaden or Lia foresaw.Meanwhile, the foundations of Lia's deeply-held beliefs are crumbling beneath her. Nothing is straightforward: there's Rafe, who lied to her, but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom she always believed to be barbarians but whom she now realizes are people who have been terribly brutalized by the kingdoms of Dalbreck and Morrighan. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her very sense of self, Lia will have to make powerful choices that affect her country, her people . . . and her own destiny.
So…I’m going to need a copy of book 3 immediately. For real…hand it over.
To say I was excited when I got a copy of The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson is probably a major understatement. I loved The Kiss of Deception and the minute I finished that book I needed the next book because OH MY GOD!! Anyway, I used almost every ounce of willpower I possess and forced myself to wait until it was closer to the release date to dive into it because I am horrible with series books due to my impatience.
If you haven’t read book one yet…STOP HERE! I am going to do my best not to put any spoilers into this review but if you haven’t even started the series, I can’t promise anything and you really don’t want to know all the things yet.
So this book begins with Lia, Rafe, and Kaden heading into Venda and things are not looking great for Lia. She and Rafe are prisoners of The Komizar and he is always willing to do whatever is necessary to keep his power over the people of Venda. Unfortunately for Lia, she now has a role to play and The Komizar doesn’t care what she wants, only what she can do for him.
The thing I love about Lia is that she is strong and she adapts to her surroundings. We saw it in book one and we see it in this book too. She learns about the people around her and figures out who she can trust. I loved that she was always looking for ways to get around the rules that trap her and she was willing to jump right into any situation with her head held high, no matter what the people around her thought of her. Lia has an open mind and she is smart about the things she does.
Another thing about this book is we get to learn a lot more about Kaden which was great because in book one I didn’t feel like I knew enough about him and his story starts to unfold in this book. Not only are we in his homeland, but we also get to learn about where he comes from and what his relationship is with The Komizar. In addition to that, we get to learn a bit more about where Kaden’s head is at in regards to Lia. He has a plan…not a great plan but a plan none-the-less. Of course, things definitely do not go as he planned and it was interesting to see how his mindset changed over the course of the story.
The Komizar…I don’t really have words for him. All I will say is that you have to experience him as the story unfolds. He’s an interesting character. Notice I say interesting…not good. He is not a good guy and I don’t care what his motives are, he does some shady things and that is all I will say.
Now…let’s talk about Rafe – because, why not!?!? I love him. He is so hopeful that he will be able to prove himself to Lia and no matter the odds, he is optimistic that his men will be able to save them. It made me love him even more than I already did. I admit, most of the parts I tagged in my book were swoony bits between Rafe and Lia. There weren’t a lot, mostly because they had to hide their relationship/feelings, but what I did get made me happy.
I want to mention here that Pearson did a wonderful job of building Venda in the story and I thought her descriptions of the Sanctum added to the feeling that Lia was definitely a prisoner and she and Rafe were truly trapped.
Soooo…All I can say at this point is you DEFINITELY need to read this book when it comes out. So much happens to move the story forward that I am pretty sure I am not doing this story any justice at all and probably just rambling on and on. Similar to my reaction with book one, I am willing to beg and plead to whoever I need to in order to get my hands on book 3. I’m not kidding, that ending…all I can say is:
Thank you to Macmillan for the review copy!
US/CA only
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