Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy) by Tera Lynn Childs

“This is not my life to take.” – Chapter 43, Page 362

What a surprise this was.

Powerless follows Paedyn Gray, whom is a thief and Ordinary (has no powers in a world where this is standard). Her father died by the King’s orders when she was young and she has grown up since with a shield of survival and anger. When Pardyn helps a man dying at the hands of a power silencer (self-explanatory) in the streets of the slums, she later finds out it was the King’s son she saved.

Thrust into the kingdoms annual Trials due to her show of bravery and strength, Paedyn must use her survival skills and unexpected connections with the King’s sons, Kai and Kitt, to make it out alive.

Pleasantly surprised by the bind this book had me in, I enjoyed every bit of the grief, tension, and dark themes created to enhance the character development of this story. It is heavily character driven, so please know that before diving in, in case that is not your style of writing. It is veryyyyy similar to The Hunger Games, but Lauren Roberts does such a wonderful job making it her own and creating an interesting and exciting setting that brought the book to life. Kai and Kitt were tremendous MMCs. Kai had an equally traumatic childhood and they trauma bonded throughout the book, leading him to care about her in a way he hadn’t been able to do with others before. Watching Kai’s shields come down was quite entertaining and this storyline was a GREAT time! Kitt might lowkey be my favorite character. I feel like he will have a lot of growing to do in Reckless, and I am so excited to watch his development as a character.

The areas of opportunity for the book were in the small grammatical errors (so the editing) and the world building. I wanted more from the world. While the characters had me in a chokehold, the setting felt like a bit of an afterthought. That being said, I gave it 4.75 stars for a reason – Lauren, this debut was magnificent and it can only get better from here so I am really looking forward to continuing on in this world. This is a series I will reread again.

I’m going to admit that this book started a two star read for me. It was so hard to get into. I thought it was a little childish in the beginning and a lot of the details didn’t make sense. I almost felt like the author had two good storylines, on one side was the royals, Kitt and Kai, the political dynamics of the kingdom and royal family and then on the other side was the trials, contestants, and ordinaries and when she tried to smash them together it was not making a great story. It didn’t make sense why the trials and games were being played. Paedyn is an ordinary and a thief making her living by blending into the slums where she lives and stealing from people, yet when the people nominate her for the trials they know her full name to put on the banner and where to find her to bring her to the castle? Kai is the younger prince to his brother who will become king so his Father is raising him to be the future enforcer but it never explains who the current enforcer is. You would think they would be having a hand in his training and someone would need to be managing those duties while Kai is away for weeks at a time during the trials. Also, Paedyn has stayed alive by hiding that she is an ordinary and pretending to be a psychic based on little observances she makes about people, but once she is thrust into the spotlight in the trials and has to perform her ability in front of the kingdom there would end up being more than a few people who don’t have something for her to guess about them. She would eventually get it wrong. I was about 1/4 of the way through the book and dragging, I kept wanting to read something else but there have been so many amazing reviews for this book so I decided to push through and I am so glad that I did! This author is amazing at writing romance! Kai and Paedyn are everything for me ♥️♥️ They are so cute, sweet, and fun together. I wish we could have at least had ONE kiss between the two of them but let me tell you that the romantic tension and sweetness between these two almost makes up for that. I hope we get even more in the second book. A few things that I wish the author had cleared up for us by the end are why Kitt pursued Paedyn even though he knew how much she meant to Kai. Was he colder than he seemed on the outside or was he jealous of Kai and wanting to beat him to it? It never says but maybe it will in the next book. I also didn’t understand why the king didn’t try harder to have Paedyn killed. He sends Kai out to kill people in their homes so why didn’t he try to have her killed in her room? The only explanation he gives Paedyn is he needed her alive but it never tells you why. Even with the plot holes I did think this was a really good story in the end. I hope there is improvement in the next book and I can’t wait to read it!

Je l’ai à peine commencé que je suis déjà subjuguée 🥰