The Betrothed by Kiera Cass | ARC Review

Title: The Betrothed

Author: Kiera Cass

Series: The Betrothed #1

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Romance

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication date: May 5th, 2020

Pages: 400

My rating:

---

When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true.

But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine.

Ever since I heard Kiera Cass was coming out with a new book I knew I had to pick up as soon as possible, because even though The Selection series isn’t the best crafted piece of literature, it was such a fun and fast paced book to read, full of drama and romance, so after reading the synopsis of The Betrothed I was expecting something like that. However, I ended up really hating this book, sadly.

Though it had some similar features, like the romance drama and similar characters, this book was pretty different from The Selection. To be honest, it didn’t have a bad start. Though I wasn’t blown away by the beginning of the story or the characters, there was a little bit of information about the world building and the society, which was pretty surprising.

On the other hand, I found that once I reached the 20% mark there was pretty much no plot at all. The book was purely focused on the romance and the characters, and I would have no problem at all with that, if the characters were one: interesting, and two: well crafted and complex, and unfortunately, these characters were not only stereotypical and plain, but also I feel neither of them had any development at all.

And I could have given it a pass if it had an enjoyable and angsty romance, but this had one of the most cringey, insta love-y and cheesy romances I’ve ever come across in a book. Not only the protagonist lacked chemistry with both male interests, but there was a love triangle that came totally out of nowhere and there wasn’t any dynamics or interactions between her and the love interest when she suddenly realized she was in love with him and started to made such stupid decisions. I don’t mind a love triangle when it’s well written, but there wasn’t anything that made me root for any of the characters.

And the protagonist infuriated me. Yes, at the beginning of the book she wasn’t amazing but she was okay, but as I kept reading and reading she became so annoying and stupid, and I just couldn’t understand why everyone thought she was so interesting and unique when she was only pretty, because that was all she was.

Then, the cherry on top was the plot twist that literally came out of nowhere and didn’t add anything relevant to the story. There wasn’t anything solved or wrapped up, and I understand that it is the first book in a series, but still, it added a plot point that wasn’t even there until then.

Overall, I was at least expecting to enjoy this book and have fun reading it, but the characters and how they acted throughout the story didn’t help at all. I wasn’t a fan of the romance, and sadly I won’t be continuing with the series.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This doesn’t change my opinion whatsoever. All thoughts are my own.

Follow me on BlogLovin’

Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter | Contact Me