Take a photo of a barcode or cover
tense
slow-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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Blood
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Have we used up the global supply of original ideas or something?
When people talk about books being written specifically for BookTok, they mean this.
When people talk about books being written specifically for BookTok, they mean this.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Blood
emotional
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Minor: Torture
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
In the kingdom of Ilya there's only place for the Elites - those who have magical powers. If you don't have powers, if you're an Ordinary, you either get banned from Ilya or killed. Paedyn Gray is well aware of the risks, since she's an Ordinary pretending to be Elite with psychic abilities. When she, without knowing who he is, saves Kai Azer, one of Ilya's princes, she gets thrown into the Purging Trials. How will Paedyn survive this brutal competition without any powers?
Sometimes you know right away that the book you started will be a "hit"! This was the case with Powerless; I fell in love with the characters from the first chapter! Paedyn, orphaned when she was thirteen, survives by stealing. She's very skilled with both bow and knife, and can handle herself in a fight, but she doesn't have magical powers. Kai, whose half-brother Kit will be king one day, have been trained all his life to be the king's enforcer. He can wield others powers, as long as they’re within a certain distance, and he can sense what kind of power you possess. Kai is definitely a morally grey character and that makes him even more interesting!
I'm not completely satisfied with the ending and I thought about lowering my grade a tiny bit, but since it really felt like a five star book up until then I let the five stars remain. The ending was also quite expected and I'm looking forward to reading the next book when it's out!
Sometimes you know right away that the book you started will be a "hit"! This was the case with Powerless; I fell in love with the characters from the first chapter! Paedyn, orphaned when she was thirteen, survives by stealing. She's very skilled with both bow and knife, and can handle herself in a fight, but she doesn't have magical powers. Kai, whose half-brother Kit will be king one day, have been trained all his life to be the king's enforcer. He can wield others powers, as long as they’re within a certain distance, and he can sense what kind of power you possess. Kai is definitely a morally grey character and that makes him even more interesting!
I'm not completely satisfied with the ending and I thought about lowering my grade a tiny bit, but since it really felt like a five star book up until then I let the five stars remain. The ending was also quite expected and I'm looking forward to reading the next book when it's out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
tense
medium-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:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Classism
Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Alcohol
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So...what am I supposed to do with my life now? What am I supposed to do until July huh? This book was beautifully heartbreaking. Like what the hell. I loved every second of the relationships in this book. I am in awe of how I could not stop gasping at the pages. I am so excited for and terrified of the continuation. This was amazing. But ow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Powerless by Lauren Roberts is a YA, dark fantasy. While I did like this book and it has a lot of potential, I was a little disappointed with certain parts of it. I loved Paedyn and I think she was a great heroine yet I felt like there was something to be desired for her character.
There's a lot of tropes through out this book. You have enemies to lovers, forbidden romance, insta attraction, dagger to throat, "who did this to you", focus on me trope, etc... honestly too many to mention which is what Lauren Roberts said she meant to do but at times was a lot.
While I really did like Paedyn, Kai, Kitt and Adena, and other characters, I felt that there wasn't a lot of character building. There was a lot left to be desired when it came to the characters and getting to know them. I also didn't like that we were told about the characters, not shown. Example: we were told that Jax was extremely close with Kai and Kitt, but there's nothing showing us throughout the story. Just like we're told over and over that Kai is a monster but yet they show him releasing a child back to its family even though it was an ordinary. Yes Kai might have been raised to be a killer and do whatever the king ordered him to do but I don't see him as a monster. He doesn't actually enjoying killing and torturing.
I love fantasy romance and YA romance. I enjoyed paedyn and this story. I think Lauren Roberts has so much potential as does this story. I do wish this book didn't feel like it was taken directly from the Hunger Games. Now I've never read the Hunger Games book but I did see the movies and even I picked up the correlation between the two. Now I know authors will take something they read or watched and then try and write a story using what they read or saw as inspiration but it literally feels like pieces of this story were just copied and pasted.
Now with that said, it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book or that I won't continue on with the series and see where Roberts goes from here. I will be reading Reckless.
**I will say that I really did enjoy the preview of book 2 at the end of Powerless. I think it was a great cliffhanger.
There's a lot of tropes through out this book. You have enemies to lovers, forbidden romance, insta attraction, dagger to throat, "who did this to you", focus on me trope, etc... honestly too many to mention which is what Lauren Roberts said she meant to do but at times was a lot.
While I really did like Paedyn, Kai, Kitt and Adena, and other characters, I felt that there wasn't a lot of character building. There was a lot left to be desired when it came to the characters and getting to know them. I also didn't like that we were told about the characters, not shown. Example: we were told that Jax was extremely close with Kai and Kitt, but there's nothing showing us throughout the story. Just like we're told over and over that Kai is a monster but yet they show him releasing a child back to its family even though it was an ordinary. Yes Kai might have been raised to be a killer and do whatever the king ordered him to do but I don't see him as a monster. He doesn't actually enjoying killing and torturing.
I love fantasy romance and YA romance. I enjoyed paedyn and this story. I think Lauren Roberts has so much potential as does this story. I do wish this book didn't feel like it was taken directly from the Hunger Games. Now I've never read the Hunger Games book but I did see the movies and even I picked up the correlation between the two. Now I know authors will take something they read or watched and then try and write a story using what they read or saw as inspiration but it literally feels like pieces of this story were just copied and pasted.
Now with that said, it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book or that I won't continue on with the series and see where Roberts goes from here. I will be reading Reckless.
**I will say that I really did enjoy the preview of book 2 at the end of Powerless. I think it was a great cliffhanger.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Violence
Minor: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail