A review by meeklovestoread
Powerful by Lauren Roberts

adventurous dark emotional funny sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Wow! I'm so glad I read this! While I did enjoy "Powerless", I wasn't obsessed with it like a lot of other people were and was honestly not going to continue the series. However, I was really in the mood for a quick read and I saw this book rolling around a few months ago plus the 2nd book came out this month so I figured I'd give the novella a go considering it was only 200-ish pages. 

And boy am I happy I read this! Adena is probably one of my favorite FMCs that I've read about. She's literally me (but much more optimistic)! She's bubbly! Sweet! Fragile! Curly hair. And she talks a lot. Her dynamic with Makoto reminds me a lot of my dynamic with a few of my male friends so it was so endearing to read about them (Adena and Makoto). Although, I will say their feeling for each other came very quickly to me, I wasn't too convinced of their romance until the later half of the book, and even now I still feel like their romance happened extremely quickly which negated a lot of the emotional impact for me, but it's a novella so I guess I can't fault it too much on that front. I'm not too big on tropes but this is most definitely a grump x sunshine if I've ever seen one (he could be a little too grumpy at times for me).

I think this book was extremely needed cuz although we all know what happens to Adena, I think this book gives what happened to her more emotional impact than it did in Powerless. In "Powerless", Adena is rarely in the novel which in my opinion hinders the emotional impact of her death because we don't really get to see much of her or her friendship with Paedyn. In this book, at least we get more insight into Adena and her personality so in my opinion makes her death more impactful for the reader. I actually shed a tear when reading about her death (something I didn't do when I read it in "Powerless"). 

My main qualm with the book is that some major questions that I wanted answered still weren't answered. We still don't know the exact reason why the king targeted Adena in the first place. Also, a pressing question I have is how the elites' powers are determined?
Like in this book, Makoto is born with two Mundane parents and yet he possesses the power of a wielder. How?
I'm very curious to see what Makoto's role will be in the next book considering what we know about him.
Poor Makoto! Both the women he cared about the most died within a few weeks of one another.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one (and the writing in here; there were some cute little quotes), and will most definitely be continuing the series now! 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings