Reckless (The Powerless Trilogy)

I am not an emotional person, but this book has drawn emotions from me that I didn’t know I had!

This was such an incredible sequel! I was so curious on how this book would pick up from the end of Powerless and I was not disappointed by the outcome. Powerless felt a bit slow to me at times and although Reckless was fitting to it’s title and sometimes a little chaotic, it was fast-paced and gripping. There was a lot of travelling around which kept me on my toes. I loved the banter and growing relationship between Kai & Paedyn. I was happy for the dual POV to be able to see what each of them were thinking and feeling. The cliff hanger on this one was somehow worse than the first so I can’t wait to get into book 3 (hopefully quicker than my gap between the first two haha)!

Let’s talk about Reckless. I went into this knowing I was already at a disadvantage because I had not read book one. My book club was mid-series, I said “sure, why not,” and dove in. That might absolutely be part of my problem because I was bored while listening to Reckless. For a large chunk of this book, it felt like Gladiator-style fighting on repeat. Duel after duel, chase after chase, tension that was supposed to feel electric but mostly felt like we were just walking. Traveling. Running into mildly inconvenient roadblocks because there is a price on Paedyn’s head. It all should have felt high stakes, but instead it felt strangely flat. Kai realizes he killed Paedyn’s father. He does not even know why he was sent to do it. He is ordered to bring her back to Ilya. She hates him. He is already halfway in love with her. It is very much giving fated lovers where one is furious and the other is pining. Paedyn straight up says she did not regret killing Kai’s father over and over again. Instead of being horrified, Kai says he can related since he killed her father under similar circumstances. So they are both king killers, who like each other. Which honestly? That was one of the more interesting moments because at least it felt emotionally charged. There is some intrigue about Ilya being very different from what Paedyn was taught. She starts realizing maybe her family did not give her the full truth. That thread had potential. I wanted more of that political tension, more of the Resistance fallout, and more of the moral grayness. Instead, we get a lot of travel and longing glances. The brothel scene? That is where the romance finally sparked a little. Paedyn pretending to be a lady of the night. Kai opening up about his sister who died from illness. The hair braiding detail was actually sweet. That was when I thought, okay, here we go. This is the emotional intimacy I was promised. Then we slide into a very familiar fantasy love triangle setup. Kit is the new king who is trying to gain his footing in the face of his father's assassination. He has sent his brother, Kai, to pick up Paedyn. I was not intrigued by the cliffhanger where Paedyn is forced to marry Kit directly after Kai professed his love in a field of flowers. Kai literally thinks, “I am the beast, and she is the beauty.” I have seen this story before. The duty versus desire conflict is the core of this book. Hunter versus hunted. Enforcer versus rebel. The execution never quite delivered on the sizzling tension the blurb promises. The romance is sweet. It is soft. It leans more emotional than spicy. It did not give me that obsessive, I can’t-stop-thinking-about-it energy. I need to talk about the narration. I am not a fan of when narrators use fake voices for the other main character during their POV chapters. It is jarring. It pulls me out of the story every time. I prefer when each character’s voice stays consistent regardless of perspective. Here it felt like teacher reading to the class. The performances were not bad, just not memorable. At the end of the day, I think this might just confirm something about me. I do not think young adult fantasy is my lane anymore. I want more complexity, edge, and depth. Reckless felt very much like it was written for a younger audience. That is not a flaw. It just was not for me. I will not be picking up book one or book three. You might eat Reckless up if you love fated enemies, slow-burn tension, and a dramatic love triangle with a wrong-person marriage cliffhanger.

I liked the main plot of the story- it did not disappoint the first book. I felt too much of the plot was dedicated to poetry- but honestly, it sort of brought up a piece of Kai we didn't see in the first book. The poppy field is my favorite part, loved how it matched the cover of the book. This is like, the moment I realized how symbolic the flowers are in the cover.

Wow. This book. I was ambivalent about book 1 but this book pulled me hook, line and sinker. I'm all in on Kai and Pae. I kind of called what Kitt's plan was for Paedyn but my goodness I need to consume book 3 pronto!!