The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E Pearson

The Heart of Betrayal (Remnant Chronicles, #2)

by Mary E Pearson

Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape. Desperate to save her life, Lia's erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komizar that she has the gift, and the Komizar's interest in Lia is greater than anyone could have foreseen. Meanwhile, nothing is straightforward. Lia always believed the Vendans to be barbarians. Now that she lives amongst them, however, she realizes that may be far from the truth. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her sense of self, Lia must make powerful choices that will affect her country... and her own destiny.

Reviewed by natpatreads on

4 of 5 stars

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This series actually got better in the sequel!

Is it a thing that your least favourite book is the second one in a trilogy? That is normally my thing, but this book was a great surprise.

I loved the descriptions of Venda and the additions to the cast of characters. The author wrote about a people and a culture that I want to visit and observe. The secondary characters were well done in this book as well. I feel like this went beyond just the YA fantasy romance tropes that were introduced in the first book and made me care more about the people. This book made me love the main characters even more and wrenched my heart more as well (in a good way...mostly).

As a warning, this book ends in a massive cliff hanger (so yay for the trilogy being finished by the time I read it - I am not sure I would have been forgiving if I had to wait long for book three). If it was the first book, I probably would have been more frustrated by that, but I feel like a lot of book twos in trilogies have cliff-hangers to keep us invested in the story.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 17 January, 2022: Finished reading
  • 17 January, 2022: Reviewed