[arc review]
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Powerless re-releases November 7, 2023

<i>“Perhaps you may not need powers to be powerful.”</I>

This debut and first installment in a new series is told in dual pov from Kai and Paedyn.
Kai is a royal prince with a “charmingly cocky” personality trained to be a torturer and killer, and Paedyn is a thief that comes from the slums of Ilya. Together, they have a dynamic filled with flirtatious banter, and playful teasing. Their ease and comfortability was done well and I liked Paedyn’s consistent stubbornness and how she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind around the royal figures.

Decades ago, the kingdom of Ilya was permeated by a plague that killed thousands and imparted supernatural abilities to the rest, whom they now call Elites. Though if you weren’t strong enough to survive the plague and be gifted an ability, it left you marked as an “Ordinary”, to which King Edric deemed not fit to live in his kingdom, thus being up for execution.
Paedyn herself is an Ordinary, but poses as a Psychic to stay alive.

This year, the sixth Purging Trials is taking place — a competition of sorts (closely resembling The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner) that are meant to showcase the supernatural abilities.
After saving Prince Kai from a Silencer in the slums, Paedyn gains noticeability, and is elected to be a participant in the Trials.
Will she be able to stay alive long enough, fighting against some of the strongest contestants, when she herself has no supernatural ability?


Powerless resembles The Hunger Games so much so that it’s almost too close for comfort — from the main female character with a likeness of Katniss, to her younger found family in Adena, the Games (Trials) with broadcasted feeds and gifts like shirts and salves that were conveniently placed when a player needed them, to the interviews and host, coming from the slums (aka the poorest district) and so forth.

For a story that constantly had a narrative touting that Elites are the archetype, with a kingdom that strived to eradicate “Ordinaries” by viewing them as “diseased”, the world building made no sense at all.
What would the purpose be to host <u>Purging</u> Trials, if your only contestants are the Elites, where the end result is to kill them off? It contradicts the mentality of wanting to build your kingdom of only the most talented and strongest if you’re pitting them against each other.
<i>“The Elites who compete aren’t chosen, but rather born into their fate. It’s always those of royal blood or of higher status on the Elites’ tier of power.”</I>
Granted, if there truly were no Ordinaries left, then it would make sense that it was only comprised of Elites, but that’s not the case. And since the Trials are not annual, they could have easily stockpiled captured Ordinaries for their entertainment, because that’s all it is to them, entertainment.
Furthermore, if this years Trials were so “different” due to the fact that Kai, the Enforcer, was now a participant, then what did the Trials previously look like?

I definitely think the writing in Powerless could have been tighter, or at least 100 pages condensed. There was just so much repetition with dialogue and scenes. We’d have a ball, then a Trial, followed by banter between Kai and Paedyn, but there’s only so many times you can reiterate the phrases “darling”, “cocky bastard”, “blue eyes”, “dimples”, “you’re tapping your left leg”, or some variation of a dagger to the throat.
There was also too much emphasis on the fact that Paedyn had to keep reminding herself that she wasn’t looking at the king, but rather Kitt, because of the likeness of their eyes. We get it — good vs. bad and all that, but there was so much alluding to characters being molded into this corrupt, morally grey killer who tortures, where it all felt very spoon fed like I was forced to compile a specific preconceived persona instead of figuring it out myself based on their actions throughout the story.

Another thing I would have liked would be more focus or explanation of the resistance group, and a comprehensive list of all the supernatural abilities.
I mean, there were just <I>so</I> many — Flash, Volts, Scholars, Phaser, Tele, Psychic, Brawny, Healer, Wielder, Bluff, Hyper, Shifter, Blink, Mute, Bloom, Silencer, Sights — those are just to name a few.
Roberts really made it seem like Paedyn was the only Psychic in the entirety of Ilya with how rare her abilities were, which just seemed too contrived. Three decades of Elites, and no one is going to question the fact that she could just easily safe guard her mind to others, when the entire kingdom is tuning in to the broadcasted Trials and interviews?

And in regard to the resistance group, I found it so odd that they’d take up headquarters at Paedyn’s former house, and claim that they were searching for her all along, yet she’s been left to live homeless on the streets for many years.
If her father was one of the leaders of the group, why wouldn’t there be some contingency put in place where they’d allow her to keep living there? It feels like it should come with found family vibes, so why wasn’t there a secondary guardian figure?

Lastly, logistically, how was the Scorched desert comprised only of sand so close in distance to the Loot town? We’ve been shown countless times that Kai can only mimic the abilities of others while in close proximity to them, and he uses the Flash to transport himself and the little girl to the desert… but it just doesn’t make sense to me as a whole.

Despite the tropes, vibes, and enemies to lovers/who did this to you/wound tending/love triangle situation, there’s so many plot holes and questions.
I really wanted this to lean into the whole “powerless” aspect, but I felt like at every corner we turned, Kai was there to save or assist Paedyn, which diminishes the ability to portray a “weak” and oppressed character as strong, capable, or individualistic.

4.5 stars

I could not put this book down! I am a sucker for a competition of some sort and some good friendly banter between love interests and this book was full of it! The tension!! The story moved along quickly and left me wanting to keep reading so I could find out what was going to happen next. I can't wait for the next book.

Plot wise, it reminds me a lot of The Hunger Games and romance wise, it reminds me strongly of Fourth Wing; so if you enjoyed either of these books, you should definitely pick this one up.

The one thing that just really annoyed me and I couldn't seem to get over was the use of darling all the time. I'm sure it won't bother everyone, but it just really annoyed me for some reason. What girl wants to be called that? I wish he had chosen a nickname that meant something. Just seems like a generic word that feels belittling to women, so it wasn't very romantic.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but couldn’t. I constantly felt like I was reading a glamorized fusion of the Selection and the Hunger Games. Although the author had a few really well written lines and descriptions, I was unable to bring myself to finish the story. I think I would have appreciated if the story wasn’t so moulded to fit certain tropes, as I feel that would allow the characters more agency and room to explore their identities. Thank you for e-arc and the opportunity to explore this story.

First 33% of the book had me screaming. Last 66% had me going this is now too much. It is lacking balance.

I absolutely loved this book when I picked it up. We were introduced to some amazing characters with an enemies to lover story ready to bloom. I was giddy with old YA vibes and was so excited to go back into that YA fantasy. The relationship between Paeyden and the prices, especially Kai got me yelling at anyone who would listen. The banter and charm between them were wondeful and perfect. But for once, I do not need more.

As much as I enjoyed Paeyden and Kai's relationship, it was too much. This whole story turned into a Y/N storyline where I felt there was no balance between an actual stronge plot and character dynamics. It had everything you can think of in an enemies to lover story mashed up with the Y/N plot. There was Paeyden being hurt and Kai going "tell me who did it", there was rain and the heated movement, there was a shared bed. Literally every Y/N or tensed relationship plot you can think of is shoved into this one read which caused it to lack any desire to want more character interaction. I wanted a story too.

The story itself is the most basic and predictable YA story line you'll read. There's a bit of Hunger Games mixed in with Brigid Kemmerer's world that I found cool but again, lacking in any creative spin off. There just wasn't a strong enough plot for these characters which made my rating drop. While it's important to have loveable characters which Lauren accomplished, it's equally important to me to have a decent storyline.

Overall, if you're looking for a book that is predominantly character based and specifically filled with the witty back and forth conversations between enemies then give this a read as it succeeded in this area. For me, it was just too much and I found myself craving a story to love as well. However, for a debut read, I think Lauren did an exceptional job in creating easily likable characters and built out their relationship extremely well.

5/5 stars! I absolutely loved this book. I just couldn’t put this down and didn’t want it to end. Powerless is the first book in The Powerless Trilogy. I can’t wait for the next two books to be released. This book is released November 7, 2023. Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada, Lauren Roberts and Netgalley for an opportunity to read this book.

⭐️ ⭐️

Juvenile writing, this should be steered towards a younger audience of readers. It was not for me personally. I also don’t like the fact this is like a romanticized version of the hunger games… there are so many similarities, some parts feel as if they’re copied from that dystopian trilogy…

Powerless

This book should be geared towards a much younger audience. It was very juvenile. It was very similar to many other reads already out there such as hunger games and red queen. It was overloaded with tropes which felt a little like the writer was trying too hard to shove as much possible into one story. It was overly descriptive to a point that was awkward to read. There was a lot of unnecessary descriptions that made it hard to connect to a place or a character. Small example- “I take in a deep breath and look out over the crumbling, run-down buildings cast in shadows by the flickering lampposts dotting the street.” At some points it felt like I was reading something a 14 year old girl had written. While I understand this is a debut novel, I just don’t think the ideas behind it were very original or well thought out.

I received this ARC via NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review.

Loved the romance in this book! Many similarities to popular books like The hunger games and Throne of glass which prevented this from being a 4-5 star book. The character writing was great! The plot twist and ending have me excited to read the next one in the series.