Powerless: TikTok Made Me Buy It! The epic romantasy series taking the world by storm! (The Powerless Trilogy) Paperback – 6 July 2023

Omg omg omg! I loved this!✨The plot of this book is amazing! I loved all the characters, everything about this book was fantastic!The tension between Kai and Paedyn was chefs kiss 💋 and that ending hell yeah!! I am hooked and will be reading the next asap 😂

Beyond the basic premise of Powerless and seeing an aesthetic video on Insta I didn’t know much about this book other than it’s a YA fantasy with a stabby FMC.Paedyn is an 18-year-old orphan, left to fend for herself and work as a pickpocket on the streets of Ilya, after her father's brutal murder. Ilya is a kingdom ruled by a king who wants only the magical Elites to have a place and the powerless Ordinaries to be eradicated. Of course, Paedyn is an Ordinary in hiding and using her abilities to read her adversaries' weaknesses and pass herself off as a Psychic.When she picks the pocket and then saves the life of a handsome stranger, Paedyn is entered into the annual Purging Trials. In these survival challenges she is forced to compete against a group of Elites, all with their own deadly magical abilities. Making an unlikely alliance with Kai, the king's second son and personal fixer/assassin, Paedyn must use her skills to fight to survive the trials and bring down the tyrannical king.I really enjoyed the story and characters but I know if I hadn’t read The Hunger Games I would have loved it so much more. There are so many elements which are a direct parallel to THG that it started to become a bit predictable. For example the contestants are made to gain the Ilyan peoples votes through a public interview (where Paedyn doesn’t say the script she’s meant to follow), royal balls (where of course Paedyn goes against tradition and dresses to stand out) and of course the trials themselves which despite knowing there can be only one winner they form alliances.For a new YA generation this book does a great job of combining a fast paced fantasy adventure with a very capable female main character, a dark haired morally grey Prince who only has eyes for her and enough slowburn tension to keep the reader wanting more. If like me, you’re an older reader that likes to dip back into YA then this might not be the best choice as it has so many elements of other books that it loses some of its charm and becomes too unoriginal in places.Overall an enjoyable book and I’ll definitely be reading the other two books in the series.RatingsSpice: 0.5🌶Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐

Lauren is an amazing writer!This series has been on my TBR pile since its release. Finally, I have read it and it didn't disappoint.Paedyn is badass and I love how challenging she is and not so easily won over. Kai is a sexy, dark God and wielder of death, yet he is so complex and has so many layers. It's been a pleasure unravelling it all with Paedyn herself.I am so glad there are more books because... the ending! I will not spoil it, but you'll be left NEEDING to know what happens next.It has badass fight scenes for all your action needs, top-tier banter that leaves you smirking or laughing. Tension, flirting and touching but not in an extremely steamy way although, I long for a scene like that to come around!Overall, an amazing, amazing read.Thank you Lauren for your hard work and amazing imagination. I hope to read more from you in the future! 💜

Enjoyed the story and it went fast, the design is also so pretty which is an added bonus , was first book I actually read and it got me to books to will forever be a defender of it

Review contains spoilers!I was nervous to start this book as there is a lot of hype around it but when I finally did I found that I was generally enjoying the story. By about half way through I was thinking this is a 4* book, nothing life changing but really good fun, but by about 75% of the way through I was pretty certain I wasn't going to like the ending and this proved to be true.My feeling about the book started to change when Paedyn joined the Resistance, something about when this happened in the book just didn't sit right, it made the pacing of the book feel a bit lopsided. I 100% believe the character would want to join up, but the authors choice of when to make this happen just didn't feel right in the arc of the book. I've thought a lot about when would have felt better and I think there would have been two better options:1) From before the trials started. It would have provided more time to discuss the focus of the Resistance and how they're planning to achieve their goals and, more importantly, provide space to discuss why the Elites believe that Ordinaries cause illness and loss of power. This explanation was sorely missing from this book and turned what could be have been a really well rounded 'big bad' into a simple 'they're evil because they're evil', which is boring: or2) (my personal favourite option) She joins the resistance after the Trials end. If she was outed/she outed herself publicly after the Trials, then ran and was found by the Resistance you'd have a really solid start for a second novel in which she becomes a freedom fighter and Kai is set up as her enemy. It means her betrayal of the princes is smaller and more understandable, leaving space for them to potentially start fighting against their tyrant father. I like this option more as it allows Kitt to potentially become a good and fair ruler, rather than setting him up as his father's doppelganger and just making a relatively likeable character into a rage machine. My realisation that this was where Kitt's character was going really marred my enjoyment of the last quarter of the book, so I would have chosen to avoid that if possible.I've seen a lot of reviews that critique the writing of this book and, though it wasn't a literary classic, I think it was certainly good enough to make an enjoyable book. It was the plot that really let it down and for me I ended up slowing down as I reached the last 150 pages instead of speeding up, which I usually do when I'm enjoying a story and want to know how it's going to end. I will most likely read the sequel, because I'm hopeful that the author might rectify some of the issues I had, but I'm not running to it and I'm certainly not recommending this book to anyone.