Kiera Cass is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Selection series and The Siren, The Betrothed, and The Betrayed. She is a wife and mom and too many other things to list. If she could make a crown out of anything, it would be the unending tears of her readers. You can learn more about Kiera and her books at www.kieracass.com. You can find more of my reviews of Kiera's work here.
Can you follow your heart when it's already broken? After fleeing Coroa and leaving the memory of her beloved Silas behind, Hollis is unsteadily adjusting to life in Isolte. The Eastoffe family's affection is a balm on her weary spirit, though Etan, a surly cousin with a deep distaste for Coroans, threatens to upset the uneasy peace she's found. While tensions at home ratchet up, disquiet in the kingdom of Isolte is reaching a fever pitch. The Eastoffes may have the power to unseat a tyrannical king—but only with Hollis's help. Can a girl who's lost it all put the fate of her adopted homeland over the secret longings of her heart?
*To discuss this book's merits and weaknesses in the fullest extent possible, I will be including unmarked spoilers in the paragraphs below. Please read at your own risk!*
For those who know me, they know I love dissecting the smallest pieces of text to deduce meaning. The very first page of The Betrayed allowed me to do such thing. The Betrothed opens with "From the Chronicles of Coroan History, Book I: And so, Coroans, preserve the law, for if we undo one, we undo them all." The Betrayed opens the exact same was, except with the last saying all crossed out. I pondered over what this meant: would Cass write more books (a book II, a book III?) in this world (because you only ever say "book I" if it means more books will follow)? Since the laws weren't built very solidly into Hollis's world, I was unsure why this statement was so important to the story to begin with. While we hear about the Coroan and Isoltan reverence of the law, it's hardly ever put into action except for two different instances in The Betrayed (when the Eastoffe and Northcotts are trying to depose the king, and when Hollis is trying to deduce if she and Etan can be together). And since we only ever see this reverence in action in The Betrayed, modern-day readers might not fully understand the significance of upholding laws. It was only after I finished reading the novel that I realized the saying was crossed off to signal a new beginning for Hollis and Etan. Having been controlled by the laws, this book was the story of them realizing they were stopping them from doing what their heart desired. This was the start of their story (hence the entire duology being termed "book I"), and figuring out what role rules and laws played into the two of them ending up together.
Speaking of Etan and Hollis ending up together—such a conclusion might be easy to come to after reading the publisher-provided blurb, which I have copied above. While I would have loved to see a relationship between the two of them, I was afraid that the author would not develop a strong enough emotional bond between Hollis and Etan to convince readers of that love. There were not enough interactions in The Betrothed to warrant readers to ever consider Etan as a romantic interest, and his hate for Hollis seems to run so deep that it feels impossible to deconstruct in a less-than-300-pages finale. And since the relationship between Hollis and Silas was sadly underdeveloped and still unbelievable—as in, it was impossible to feel sympathy for Hollis as she mourned, seeing as how little we got of the actual relationship between Hollis and Silas)—it's difficult for readers to truly trust that there will be enough space for Hollis and Etan to truly fall in love in a believable, convincing, and beautiful way. Throughout The Betrayed, it seemed as if the author was laying on the Hollis and Etan interactions on thick—they were constantly talking, constantly teasing and interacting (even though most of these interactions led to Hollis in tears), and bonding. It felt as if the author heard the criticisms of the underdevelopment of Silas and Hollis and sought to rectify that somehow by truly focusing on developing attraction between Hollis and Etan. But was it enough?
I would say, unfortunately, it was not. I am a big fan of the "you can fall in love twice" trope—in fact, I'm enjoying that right now on The Bachelorette (Katie's season, with Michael). However, Silas just died. I didn't do a plotting of how many days have passed, but it had to have only happened two or three weeks ago. Not only does this quick turn-around do nothing to make us believe in Hollis's and Etan's longevity as a couple, but it only reinforces the lack of development between Hollis's and Silas's relationship, the one we are being told by Hollis meant so much—but could it have, if she were able to move on so fast? I would have loved to see Hollis explore her emotions here more—her guilt over liking and kissing Etan, her sadness at Silas's loss, her fear over being discovered. All of these emotions were touched on, but not explored in a meaningful depth. Rather, Hollis is convinced after one conversation with Scarlet that all would be well should Hollis pursue Etan. And then, once all the details of the revolution fall together, we take a break from exploring any emotions from Hollis's or Etan's sides, or ever seeing if a relationship could form, because they both become sovereigns and are torn apart by borders and customs. This also felt like a punch to the gut, because even if I had my problems with Etan and Hollis's relationship developing as it did, having it torn away so quickly meant that I experienced a sort of whiplash—the characters couldn't even build up something that could hurt so much to be torn away from. Once the ending happens and Hollis and Etan find a solution to stay together, they still also don't get a chance to talk about their feelings regarding the loss of their consorts, their shared familial losses, or their loss of freedom becoming sovereigns. We get so invested in their relationship (from friendship to romantic relationship), that an abrupt ending feels like a betrayal in and of itself—we have earned an epilogue, at the very least, to see how things are going with the border, with their romantic relationship, with their families, and their potential futures. An epilogue would have also slowed down this ending, and would have allowed for a bit more emotional exploration to do a bit more work to make this relationship believable and one to root for.
When The Betrothed ended and The Betrayed began, I began to form a theory of what really happened the day of Silas's wedding. I had a feeling that a plot twist later on in The Betrayed would reveal the truth, and I was hoping it would be as shocking, exciting, and redeeming as my idea. I had hoped that Silas had, in fact, survived the massacre. On what grounds? Firstly, the Isoltan king did not claim the atrocity as one of his own from the very beginning, suggesting he might not have had Silas killed, but rather captured to be used for his own gain. Secondly, Hollis never saw Silas's body. Thirdly, while Scarlet saw her brother go down, she never saw him actually die or confirm his death, meaning that it could have been a ruse. Lastly, Hollis is wearing a crown on the cover—suggesting that perhaps Silas returns, claims the Isoltan throne, and makes Hollis his queen. While the plot of The Betrayed did not go this way (but I did feel like the Bachelor Fantake narrator as I trying to sleuth out the ending), I was still relatively shocked by how Hollis did end up with a crown at the end. While Jameson falling on his own sword is slightly cheesy and convenient, it did bring about justice (albeit in a very unfulfilling way). Overall, though, the plot of this novel was more riveting than that of its predecessor—revolution and staging a coup and running away on horses (no less than three times) definitely makes it more exciting.
Finally, some of my last notes will include elements of the novel I didn't quite understand, or that I wished had been implemented to make the story more believable. Firstly, I was rather uncomfortable by the transition between calling Lady Eastoffe "Mother." I understood it—Hollis was Lady Eastoffe's daughter-in-law, after all—however, it felt so strange, formal, and stuffy. This title of "Mother" didn't match the sweet relationship between Hollis and Whitley Eastoffe at all. Another reason for why this may have felt so strange related back to Silas—since we didn't get to experience enough love between Silas and Hollis, it felt strange for Hollis to switch so quickly to claiming Whitley as her mother, as most of the mother-daughter dynamics happened after Silas's death. I digress. My second note related to Delia Grace and her arc. I liked Delia Grace as a character—smart, ambitious, friendly, cunning, and a true Slytherin, I felt like I saw a bit of myself in her. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see so much of her character in this finale. There was a letter from Delia Grace to Hollis at the end, and the mention of a conversation between the two of them before Delia Grace left the kingdom. My wish is that we could have witnessed that conversation. A complex one for sure, one full of emotion, confessions, and reunion, this conversation (in addition to the letter) would have given us wonderful and full closure on Delia Grace, something we just didn't have by reading the one-sided letter. Thirdly, I wished Hollis's character could have felt a little bit more elevated. She's been characterized as a good dancer, a potentially good politician, and someone with great kindness and warmth. However, a few of these traits (especially her kindness and brightness) felt forced or faked, as she was characterized by the male love interests throughout the duology. Rather than Hollis taking control of her own character, she seemed content to let the men tell her what she was good at, and then find her cleverness from there. I wish she would have been strong enough to recognize her own good traits herself, and build off of herself—that would have make her a more inspiring female character. Finally, as I noted before, the abrupt ending did not do much for the ending of the story. After a certain point, the border elimination decision was a predictable ending point, especially once the consorts were revealed as having run off together. I would have been fine with this had there been an epilogue to further dive into Hollis's and Etan's future, but as it stood, I am feeling a little unsatisfied by the ending, and wanting more closure on so many parts of the story, despite the rather neat bows holding it together.
While The Betrayed was certainly better-written and more exciting than its predecessor, it unfortunately did not level up to the hype of Cass's famed The Selection series. Authors have a very difficult task in crafting stories, and I do believe Cass and her team took reader opinions into consideration while drafting this finale, and I hope they will also do so as Cass crafts more books for the future. In the meantime, you can find more of my reviews of Cass's books here, and you can stay updated on The Selection movie hitting Netflix here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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