Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Powerful

“In the end, it was all light and dark, loud and soft. I knew nothing but the memory of those I loved. One, a friend. The other, unfinished. And that alone is what I took with me into the next life. But I watched, warm and bright and high above. Just as he promised.”

So this book tells the point of view of Adena while Paedyn is on the royal grounds. What she's doing and is planning on doing while Paedyn is off to try not to die in the trial. And she also met this blacksmith named Makoto, who also has his cousin, Hera, in the trial. It's so fun having to read both point of views. You can see Makoto slowly opening up to A while hiding his secret.

Overall, I thought I would have felt great pain by the end of the book but sadly not. I feel for Adena but the ending just left me with some more questions. Specifically, what happened to Makoto - which I hope would be answered in the third book.

TMI: I finished this book a few hours before I broke up with my long-term boyfriend.

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mayareads4fun's review against another edition

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emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I knew where this was heading considering the end of Powerless but I still held onto hope nonetheless until those last pages.

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kaitlynnnng's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This entire review contains spoilers. Then again, you shouldn’t be reading this if you haven’t read Powerless.

Ugh! I obviously went into this book knowing what would happen to Adena, and the ending still shattered my heart.

Adena and Mak’s love story felt insta-lovey, especially compared to Paedyn and Kai’s in the first book, but they are side characters and this is a .5 novella, so it’s understandable. I wish we could’ve gotten more vulnerable moments with them! They deserved to live their love story, even if it wasn’t for long.

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boba_nbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Spice Rating: 🫑 / 5 🌶️

Powerful added so much context to Powerless, and I absolutely loved it. Even though I knew how this novella was going to end, it still devastated me.

This novella follows Adena--the best friend of the female main character from Powerless, Paedyn. We get a small peek into Adena's life before she meets Paedyn and then follow her journey as Paedyn is going through the trials. When Adena is left alone, she meets a mysterious man named Mak who is also desperate to see someone before the trials. Together they team up to try to sneak into the palace and save their loved ones. In the meantime, Adena and Mak find out that they have more in common than they originally thought.

I knew that Adena was going to die, but her death hit SO much harder when you see it through Mak's eyes and realize that he had to watch it while he was powerless to stop it. My heart!

This is a great companion novel to Powerless. I'm dying to see what happens next in Reckless.

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bookedandbusy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This novella was incredible and I loved it! I loved Adena is Powerless so seeing her side of things while Pae was doing the trials was interesting! I also loved Makoto and I loved that the book was multi pov!!

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