Review – The Heart of Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles, Book 2) by Mary E. Pearson (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Steampunk/Historical Fantasy
Length: 480 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Release Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-0805099249
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in Remnant Chronicles
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This is the second book in the Remnant Chronicles by Pearson. I didn’t like it quite as much as the first book, in fact the first half of the book is pretty slow. Things really pick up towards the end though and I ended up engaged and curious in the story again. I would actually give the first half of the book 3 stars and the second half 4 stars.

Lia and Rafe are held captive in the kingdom of Venda, Kaden’s home kingdom. Kaden has told the Vendan leader, Komizar, that Lia has the Gift in order to increase Komizar’s interest in Lia and ensure that she is protected. Lia, Rage, and Kaden have woven a complicated set of lies which makes everything tougher. Lia is also realizing that the Vendan people are not the barbarians everyone has assumed and it is affecting the choices she needs to make to survive. What will happen in the kingdom of Venda? Will Lia and Rafe escape, will they survive their capture or even make a life in that forsaken country?

I found the first half of this book to be incredibly boring. Lia wanders around awaiting rescue. Rafe wanders around pretending to be an ambassador from his home country. Both of them are waiting for Rafe’s supporters to rescue them and neither are doing much productive.

This changes in the second half of the book when Lia gets a chance to have some serious political power it leads to her having to make some tough decisions.

This wasn’t the easiest book for me to read. I had trouble engaging with the characters and story for the first half of the book and really struggled. The writing just didn’t flow all that well. This changed some towards the end of the book when the characters finally started taking action and doing something.

The story is mostly intrigue and politics with some romance. The kingdom of Venda is pretty much a typical Norse-like kingdom (very cold, trouble finding food, lots of wearing animal furs, etc). There wasn’t anything super creative here.

Overall this was an okay book. I didn’t like it as much as the first book. I thought the first part of the story was very slow and had a lot of trouble engaging with the characters. Things picked up in the second half and I am curious about what will happen given Lia’s choices in the second half of the book. I would tentatively recommend to fans of political fantasy.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge