Reviews

Betrayals by Kelley Armstrong

daredeviling's review

4.0

9/12/2017: Gabriel and his development <3 That's all I'll say about this book. Also now there's gonna be a real Olivia/Gabriel relationship in the next book and I'm excited to see how that turns out since that's what they've been heading towards for the last four books. c:

8/23/2016: I'm so here for Gabriel and his character development and opening up to Olivia and trying to be more attuned to his emotions and her feelings. I'm really glad there was no big fight between Olivia and Gabriel where they stop talking for days again. It's a sign of progress!

I'm not so much here for the love triangle, but the fact that Gabriel and Ricky seem to be working things out (kind of) gives me hope for a three-way solution at the end? Maybe? That's ultimately what I want, but I would be happy with either Gabriel or Ricky because I love them both. Granted, I do have a soft spot for the dark tortured souls, but Ricky is just really sweet too.

Still loving all the fae lore and everything going on with the background information and world-building. One of the most original supernatural/modern fantasy books I've read in a while! I felt like this book was a little weaker on plot and what actually happened, but because there was so much development on Gabriel's end, I forgive it.

stephs_bookshelf's review against another edition

5.0

It's going to be a long wait until the next book comes out.

mmmbakes's review against another edition

3.0

I think this is the weakest book in the series. The mystery part of it is a little out of nowhere, and it feels like I missed a lot before the beginning of the book. What agreement are they talking about? When did that happen? Heck, what IS the agreement? It's alluded to throughout this book and the next, but it's never fully explained.
I of course enjoyed it, since I enjoy this series, but it's not the best of the best.

kirstysbookshelf's review against another edition

3.0

Actual rating 2.5

This is not my favourite series and I can't decide if I will continue on with it. I feel that I should considering that I have gotten this far.

I found that the plot in this book got quite confusing and I wasn't particularly interested. There are a lot of characters in this book and it can be difficult to keep up with. There also seems to be a lot going on and Olivia constantly has visions of the past and future which makes things harder to know what has happened and what hasn't.

A big part of this series is a love triangle so if you do not like those this series will not be for you. In the first couple of books, it did not bother me but I found it very annoying in this one.

I felt that this book didn't really add a lot to the series and whilst I did enjoy the first two books this one didn't seem as good. I believe that there is only one book left in the series and in a way, I am curious to see how it will be wrapped up but I also think that I will not enjoy it as much as the first two books.

merny88's review against another edition

5.0

I'd write a 2022 review, but I can't remember how I felt anymore. Let's just hit the old favourites; Pamela sucks, Ricky should go away... Same old.

kba76's review against another edition

4.0

Really missing the half a star rating as this was better than three stars, though there were aspects that bothered me.
The whole link between Gabe, Liv and Ricky isn’t going away, so we can safely say nothing will get resolved any time soon as they try to figure out the best way forward. Things are still good with Ricky and Liv, but there’s more than a few nods to Liv and Gabe being a potential relationship. So, until that point we keep muddling along with nothing satisfactorily sorted.
This time round Ricky is under suspicion for crimes we know he didn’t commit. Supernatural elements are required to help figure it out, and the backdrop of the two fae forces battles on.
A few dramatic moments and plenty of opportunities for each to come to the rescue of the other. We get a number of past visions thrown in and hints of ongoing plotting by the two groups.
This felt like business as usual, but I’m hoping we get some answers soon.

blurryreads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

dazzlelove's review against another edition

3.0

This series is rapidly going downhill. It should have been wrapped up in a trilogy rather than stretching it out ad nauseum. The love triangle flashbacks are a particular time waster. Plus it includes another book bugbear- where a character 'decides' to learn a language and is able to expertly translate even the most difficult of passages on minimal learning. This is particularly farcical with the Welsh language, which no one has ever claimed to be simple except Kelley Armstrong. I love Kelley Armstrong, but this is really sub par.

delaneybull's review against another edition

3.0

This installment was a little better than the previous few. It didn't circle around the same love triangle as much, or at least not in the same way. It introduced elements to Gabriel and Ricky's relationship that I really enjoyed, and Olivia was definitely less problematic than in the last books, although I do wish she would stop fainting every 10 pages, that got pretty old. I was also VERY annoyed with Gabriel in this one--yes, I suppose he's making strides on the not-being-a-douche-and-hiding-everything front, but JUST SPIT IT OUT, DAMN IT. The angsty silences were killing me. And Olivia still has a nasty habit of explaining away Gabriel's dumbass-ness on her own mistakes, which is patently untrue, but oh well.

I am also confused what the point of this series is--is it a procedural? A really extended love story? An exploration into faerie mythology? It needs a main focus that doesn't revolve around the same tired question of will they or won't they.

leelah's review against another edition

4.0

3,5 stars

If you don't like love triangles in your book in general, then I have bad news for you: it's still a predominate theme and I don't think you would enjoy it. But, if you didn't like the way this particular love triangle was written so far in series, I find Betrayals to be much better book than previous was, simply because KA took everything I had problem with concerning the triangle and tried to handle it with more or less success:

1) first thing that left me disappointed in previous book was the fact that love triangle between Olivia, Gabriel and Rick became this, main, uberstory of entire series. Every buildup of every mystery and intrigue up to that point leads to choice Liv has to make between two men. Larsen murders, all the ominous owls and ravens, Trystan meddling... it's all because these three are living embodiment of Matilda, Arwen and Gwynn and Tylwyth Teg (fae of Cainsville) and Cŵn Annwn (the Wild Hunt) are manipulating events for Olivia to choose their champion. I really didn't like this direction because it, in my opinion, constricts main character(s) development. What was the point of reading about evolvement of Olivia's powers from seeing omens to blown-out visions if only for it to mean: oh, she is Matilda (and she has to choose). Same goes for Gabriel and Ricky, who are both, individually, interesting characters and yet, in previous book, they were pigeon-holed into these roles of romantic rivals as their primary roles. This is exactly what Armstrong changed in this book. First of all, we have a parallel plot with Olivia actually using her powers and trying to catch the killer and save lamia fae with Gabriel and Ricky and it doesn't have to do anything with feud between Hunt and Cainsville. A classic mystery subplot, but I mentioned it also because introducing lamiae, different type of fae, Armstrong is finally showing us that this supernatural world she created is more than just Cainsville and love triangle. Olivia has a great power and it was good seeing she is using it to get answers and help someone, not to mention the fact that her visions can be interesting and creepy which is fun to read. Same applies to Ricky and his Cŵn Annwn heritage. More obvious disengaging from triangle and their roles are characters themselves who are making decisions about their lives like they would if situation is different, like they are not living embodiment of old legend. Sure, they know what happened and suppose to happen, but they are not letting that govern their decisions. And, of course, the ending which heavily hints the resolution of this plot (and for the first time, I actually believe it).

2)The biggest complaint, though, I had in previous book, was the fact that because of the way she wrote this love triangle, Armstrong fucked up the best thing (at least for me) about series: dynamic between Olivia and Gabriel. I have to stress out that that my disappointment has nothing to do with the fact that I wanted Gabriel to be romantic interest since I enjoyed reading them being friends or talking/bickering. I just liked them together doing whatever. But suddenly Olivia started misinterpreting his actions and words and basically turned from one person in his life who understood him into a person who doesn't get him at all and I always felt their sudden miscommunication was actually a collateral damage of an attempted justification of love triangle existence. And to be perfectly clear, I don't mind the crisis in their relationship, but I do mind how contrived it read. There are still traces of this at the beginning of Betrayals, like when Olivia doesn't want to call Gabriel to investigate with her because she thinks it would annoy him or when she thinks he is annoyed she used her shirt to help injured person (:exaggeration induced eyeroll:.) Anyway, there are still several scenes like these, but there is great deal of scenes toward the end with Gabriel and Olivia actually talking and discussing and asking each other what they mean instead of making wrong assumptions. This is what I was missing in previous instalment. It's also a great place to mention that it's in this book where Ricky's character really started to shine for me. He was always likeable, but here he becomes fully realized character with a story of his own to tell.

Apart from triangle, Betrayals is fast-paced and keeps you glued to your reader all the way. It has an interesting mystery with predictable outcome (rather, responsible person is predictable); Olivia being injured at least one time too many (seriously, she bounces back too fast considering everything that happened to her in this book); Gabriel who in all his "grumpy crab" self is still successfully staying my favourite even when he's moping assessing the situation regarding Olivia; Ricky being the most adult person in the room and Patrick being the least adult person in the room and just in case you wondered, definite proof that riding a bike does wonders for Liv's libido.

Looking forward to next book. :)


Dear Kelley, let's break this triangle, please?