A review by pip94
Betrayal by Fiona McIntosh

3.0

This one is a bit of a tricky one to rate because although I did end up enjoying it, I did also have quite a few issues with it. I'll start with some positives - I thought this was a good introduction to this trilogy, the characters were a little cliched but they were pretty well written, the plot is engaging and compelling and the writing is quite easy to get into, although clunky at times. You can tell that this was her first book, but I didn't dislike the writing. Now onto some negatives - it contains the extremely overused (at this point) trope of 'The One'/'The Chosen One'. I don't mind this if it is done well but I think in this book I think it didn't quite work. This was mainly due to Tor's development of his powers - one chapter he's discovering that he has magic, and then after a couple of chapters he seems to be in full control of his powers with little to no training... what? How can he suddenly be so adept at magic? I just didn't make sense to me. For me the character development was also lacking. Don't get me wrong we do get development we just don't see it. Five years past at some point in the book so we don't get to see how the characters develop into adults, if that makes sense. I wanted more depth from the characters too - I felt what we got from them was quite surface level. One thing I really didn't like was the girl on girl hate for no obvious reason other than they are female - not a fan of that at all. The plot probably could have been shorter. Other than that, it was a good read, but as you can see it wasn't without flaws.