Name: Powerless
Series: The Powerless Trilogy #1
Author: Lauren Roberts
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s UK
Format: Paperback
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Noted Tropes: Games and Trials, Enemies to Reluctant Allies to Lovers?, Love Triangle
Steam or Spice: Steam-ish
Rating:
Synopsis: Goodreads
She is the very thing he’s spent his whole life hunting.
He is the very thing she’s spent her whole life pretending to be.
Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites.
The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward. Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished in order to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and a thief by necessity.
Surviving in the slums as an Ordinary is no simple task, and Paedyn knows this better than most. Having been trained by her father to be overly observant since she was a child, Paedyn poses as a Psychic in the crowded city, blending in with the Elites as best she can in order to stay alive and out of trouble. Easier said than done.
When Paeydn unsuspectingly saves one of Ilyas princes, she finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials. The brutal competition exists to showcase the Elites’ powers—the very thing Paedyn lacks. If the Trials and the opponents within them don’t kill her, the prince she’s fighting feelings for certainly will if he discovers what she is—completely Ordinary.
Review:
I saw this book everywhere. I picked it up because it was everywhere. I knew nothing about it. It had a pretty cover… and it was everywhere. However as soon as I read the blurb I knew I was going to devour this one. And I did! I really enjoyed the characters, the plot and that cliffhanger ending! The Love Triangle however, is kind of meh? At best.
Our main character Pae (Paedyn) is a powerless, Ordinary – aka someone without powers in a world where in the aftermath of a plague, those who survived either had powers and became the Elites or didn’t and became the Ordinarys. The Elites wanted to be rid of the Ordinarys as they are believed to be diseased and stripping the Elites slowly of their power. And so in this world that Pae exists, the Ordinary’s are either killed or exiled, but they do not live in Ilya.
Pae has spent a long time building up her reputation as a Mundane, a Psychic, so that no one realises she in fact has no powers. And this works for her, until one day when she saves someone from an Imperial (a guard) and then as punishment (or not – I’m undecided on this) she is voted into the trials. Also in these trials is the man she saved, who turned out to be Prince Kai.
Prince Kai is training to be the future Enforcer, which means he has to be brutal and willing to do the dirty work (the amount of times I likened Prince Kai to Prince Corrick from the Defy the Night Trilogy JUST because of their jobs – Enforcer… King’s Justice…) and Kai is ‘happy’ to do it. His involvement in the trials is simple, he is supposed to win it and prove he can be the Enforcer – to do what is necessary. He just didn’t expect the girl who saved him in the markets to be there too…
These two are adorable together. Others have said it, and I’ll repeat it – they give Rom-Com vibes. They’re clearly into each other, they have great banter, he looks after her without a care for the consequences, and yet she’s keeping a big old sercret from him. She can’t exactly tell the future Enforcer that she’s POWERLESS?
Then Prince Kitt – the future king and the third part of this ‘love triangle’. Now, without spoilers, I do not think there was much of a love triangle here at all. I think whilst Kitt was into Pae, I think Pae was into Kai (and Kai into her). And so ending aside, I truly do not think the love triangle will develop any further than Kitt being into Pae. And yet, there were some cute scenes, I’ll give them that.
I enjoyed Kai and Pae together, and they’re why I bump the story from a 3 to a 4 star rating. But I can’t help but find a lot of similarities between Powerless and The Hunger Games, and Red Queen, and The Selection Series… I don’t mind repeated ideas across books, but it felt very in my face in Powerless – the similarities that is. It has all but solidified the fact that I will be doing a Selection re-read before the year is done!
Our cast of side characters didn’t give me much, again I got Red Queen vibes from a lot of them and whilst I enjoyed the side characters in Red Queen, I don’t think I enjoyed them as much in Powerless. But perhaps that’s just because I’m reading the books pretty close to each other. I can’t be sure.
I am absolutely picking up the sequel (and almost certainly the prequel – though I don’t always know the order you should read these in) because as I said I did devour this book! But the love triangle that left a lot to be desired, the side characters that felt like they’d been taken from Red Queen which was odd… But as I said, I will absolutely be continuing with the series (trilogy?).
“And I’ll save your life again and again, aimlessly hoping you will allow me to stay in it.”
Reading With Tyler 
Leave a comment