Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Powerful

Rating: 4/5 stars

A novella set during the same timeline as POWERLESS, this is the story of Adena’s experiences during the trials.

This is a short and fast read (I read it mostly in one sitting), and adds a lot of color, depth, and context to the POWERLESS universe and characters. Overall, it definitely didn’t grab me quite the way POWERLESS did, but I LOVED Mak, and the story was definitely super emotional. I’m hopeful that some of the events and characters here will tie into the rest of the trilogy, but I’m glad I read this either way.

CW: Violence/blood/death/grief; child abuse; sexual harassment

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emmmmmaaa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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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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thebankofbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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snapeygan's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

3.75

As for the first book of the serie, I’m not a fan of the way it’s written. But I am fan of the twists and the characters. I knew what would happen, but deep down I kept hoping that somehow what happened in the first book didnt happen for real (and even though it still happened AGAIN, I will keep hope, leave me alone). I can’t wait to read the sequel!!!

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izzyreads13's review against another edition

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dark emotional lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I loved powerless and was very excited to get into powerful. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the dynamic between Adena and Mak, as it was very different tot he relationships we see in Powerless. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. There’s a lot of funny banter between the two of them and it’s engaging and makes you want to proceed with the story. Since it is a Novela, their relationship does progress rather quickly, but it never doesn’t make sense, it manages to speed up and get to where it needs to be without sacrificing a lot of relationship building between the two of them. I also do personally relate a lot to Adena so I loved seeing her perspective and her story and this book did give me all the more reason to love her.

Due to the short nature of the book, there’s not a lot this book focuses on besides her relationship with Mak which is this books only “set back” to me, as I’d hope to see more interactions with Paedyn but I understand why that maybe couldn’t be possible. Despite that however I did enjoy the mentions of all the other characters from the first book.

Kai, Kitt and the king

all make appearances and we get to see how they each interact with Adena and her thoughts on each of them. I

Overall, I did enjoy this book and piece of the story, I loved their dynamic, how different it was from the first books dynamics, how they progressed with one another and grew. The only reason I don’t rate this higher is simply because of the fact that it’s short (which is a given) so some things that I may have personally liked to see more of, didn’t occur. But the story itself was beautiful and well written as was powerless and if you’re a lover of the grumpy x sunshine trope I HIGHLY recommend this book to you.

Happy reading!

Content Warnings

readwithsophsx's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.25

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