Title Powerless Author Laren Roberts Cover Art --- Publisher Simon & Schuster - 2023 First Printing Simon & Schuster - 2023
	Title Reckless Author Laren Roberts Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Category Urban Fantasy Warnings None Main Characters Paedyn Gray, Kai & Kitt Azer Main Elements Superpowers Website ---

Powerless

We start off meeting our protagonist Paedyn Gray, and Ordinary in a world of Elites, this means she has no powers while everyone else does, and she passes herself off as a Psychic by pulling a Sherlock Holmes, noticing the tiniest details that when put together tells a tale. And she has to do this as Ordinaries are believed to weaken the powers of the Elites and she will be put to death if she is discovered.

Then she unintentionally steals silver from a prince, Kai Azer, who is a particularly powerful Elite, one who can draw upon the powers of all those around him...well, except Pae's. This intrigues him, along with her beautiful silver hair...

But what happens next is a bit confusing to me. Its a kind of Hunger Games called the Trials. Except that instead of tossing the people you want to oppress into a killing field it is more of an Olympics for the best of the best...only the losers die. Why would you want to kill off your nearly-best warriors is a mystery to me. I mean I understand wanting to find out who is the best, but even your second best will be useful in protecting the kingdom no?

Note - It was a little too much Hunger Games really...from interviews with the candidates, to the balls, to people gathering to watch the players try to kill each other and simply survive the environments. Trials are fine to reuse, the Roman gladiators did it first after all and don't hold the copyright, but when every aspect is nearly exactly the same as another famous one...not good.

Another part of the worldbuilding I had issue with was just the world itself. Sure, a disease mutated the survivors giving them powers, but in this world people travel by horse but they also have record players, so kinda Victorian period? Pae was constantly running around in sleeveless dresses with slits up the legs, so not so Victorian, much more modern? Its not our world but at the same time my brain couldn't grasp what I could expect to see, if you have a record player don't you also have guns which are older inventions? And if its not our world, why a record player at all? And we learn nothing about the rest of the world outside this one kingdom, which is ok, two more books after all.

Being a romance there was a lot of staring into each other's eyes, and nearly dying because you're too distracted by the dimples. And of course, falling in love with your enemy, Pae where the king killed her father and now she's falling for his son, and the son whose job is to exterminate Ordinaries. So lots of "I can't love him, I'm supposed to hate him!". I'm not holding this against the book even though I'm not a fan, I went in knowing this was the kind of book I was reading and I'm sure will satisfy those who do enjoy romances of this sort! Oh, and don't forget there's also a bit of a love triangle, a mild one but it's still there.

And these people are injured left, right and center! Doesn't seem to phase them much, nearly dying one day and then going to a ball the next. I suppose it helps when some of the Elite are Healers and can put you back together quick? Its rarely mentioned though so you're left wondering how everyone recovered so fast.

Ok, seems like I had a lot of complaints and yet I still found myself reading 100 pages in one sitting. There's mysteries to unravel, tons of action, and I'm kind of fond of Kitt and Kai, one sweet one tortured, both very handsome, and of course, princes. They are actually really great together, you don't often see siblings that really care for each other like that in books, a great camaraderie. SOme of my favorite scenes are when those two are fooling around. There's also a Resistance, and you might think its only for Ordinaries, but there are some powers that are just too powerful, like if you can read minds or suppress the powers of others, so even some Elite are executed just for being who they are.

I do want to learn more about this world, I want to find out what goes on outside this kingdom of...I guess they're really mutants, kind of X-Men like, since its not really magic if caused by a plague. So far its been predictable in that (I don't feel this is a spoiler) Kai finds out the truth about Pae, and they go from potential lovers to hunter vs prey. But we have a couple more books to see how that sorts itself out and I plan to read them.