Review: The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson

Genre: YA, Fantasy
Pages: 470
Series: The Remnant Chronicles #2

Disclaimer: The Review will contain spoilers for the first book.

Lia has been kidnapped by Kaden and taken to Venda and Rafe has folloed her there under a false idenitity. Rafe says that he has a plan to get bother himself and Lia out, but it will take time. Now, Lia and Rafe have to find a way to survive long enough to escape.

Onto the review…

First of all, the ending. THAT IS NO WAY TO END A BOOK! Leaving people hanging like that is mean. Very very mean. Would one more chapter have killed you?

Next, as much as I would love to give this book five stars because I absolutely loved it and I’m very happy with it, I can’t do that because of a problem that was in the last book as well. It’s slow. Both the books in the series don’t move fast enough. And while the last few chapters made up for it in a way and even the super-slow parts weren’t the put-me-to-sleep kind, I still wish the author would pick up the pace. That’s the only problem I have with this book. Everything else was great.

I loved the plot and how so many things were revealed. I loved the rawness that this book had, how you had to do things you hated so you could survive. I loved the betrayal and the deception, the webs of lies that came into play. And I loved the characters.

I said in my review of The Kiss of Deception that Lia and Rafe combined could give Percy some challenge in the whole not-sure-if-that’s-brave-or-stupid thing. I stand by that. But it was more than that. They were both so strong and patient for being two highly impulsive people. They had their slip ups, though. I love them both. Lia and Rafe are the best.

But it wasn’t just them. It was the terrible and horrible and needs-to-die-slowly-and-painfully Komizar, Kaden with his confused priorities, Calantha the mysterious, and brave little Aster. All the characters were so well-developed and they developed throughout the book as well. It almost made the pace seem okay. It if weren’t for how interesting they all were, I’m not sure I would have been able to continue till the end.

Finally, the writing, like the last time, was great and I still really like the little snippets from songs or holy texts, especially since they make a lot more sense now. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend the series while also desperately waiting for the final book.

P.S. This book, thankfully, did not have a love triangle.