I want to call you mine.
Powerless
Lauren Roberts
Powerless Trilogy, book one
Hardcover, 528 pages
Published January 31, 2023
ISBN 9781665954884
She is the very thing he’s spent his whole life hunting.
He is the very thing she’s spent her whole life pretending to be.
Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites.
The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward. Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished in order to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and a thief by necessity.
Surviving in the slums as an Ordinary is no simple task, and Paedyn knows this better than most. Having been trained by her father to be overly observant since she was a child, Paedyn poses as a Psychic in the crowded city, blending in with the Elites as best she can in order to stay alive and out of trouble. Easier said than done.
When Paeydn unsuspectingly saves one of Ilyas princes, she finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials. The brutal competition exists to showcase the Elites’ powers—the very thing Paedyn lacks. If the Trials and the opponents within them don’t kill her, the prince she’s fighting feelings for certainly will if he discovers what she is—completely Ordinary.
Picked this up in hardcover and seriously, could you have picked a smaller font?!
I've seen a number of book boyfriend lists, a game of which I do not partake, but consistently within the top five are Xaden Riorson and Kai Azer. Now that I have experienced both... I get why Azer trumps Riorson on most lists.
Less than forty pages in and I was spiralling into this world. The darkness... the bitterness... Kai and Kitt. Paedyn and Adena. The magic. The Purgings. The trials. Hunger Games be damned. This was that and more.
In my tour of book fandoms, I've hit the motherload of bantor and smooth talk.
There isn't anything I could say that hasn't been said before. The hype is real for this book, and so very well deserved.
Loved Kai's darkness. Although he didn't appreciate it as much as I did. Resigned he is to his fate in life though. Didn't care for his smooth talk. "Darling" came way too soon. His POV chapters though? Best parts of the book.
And when my gears started to grind, I took a mental step back and for a time dwelled on what it was he was doing and the "masks" he wore while enacting it. The mask that smiled and said, I'm happy and I'm charming and I'm okay.
And damn it, Malakai, I did not want to feel that much for you. But the author delivers him so exquisitely. He's not a monster. He takes no joy in the executions, the banishments, or the torture. He plays the part, if only to spare it from defaulting to his brother.
That said, he is not without darkness.
I loved what the author did with chapters 4 through 6 with the overlapping pov's accompanied by the rewind. Expected the tactic to continue throughout but was unfortunately disappointed in that regard.
So what was this book about?
Paedyn Gray. An Ordinary girl living in a world surrounded by magic while she herself has none. Taught to fight by her long deceased father so that she'd have a mere chance at surviving in a kingdom where the Ordinary have been deemed diseased and executed for the greater good that is the survival of the Elite.
Since that devastating night when her father was murdered in their own home, Paedyn has survived on the streets of the Loot by thieving, pickpocketing, and lying.
Until one fateful day when her path intersects with the future Enforcer and he unwittingly becomes her mark.
Kai Azer is the second born prince but a spare not to be wasted. Kai was molded at his father's direction and very hand into a ruthless and unyieldingly loyal killer destined to be his brother's most feared tool. A weapon that can take on the power of any within his vicinity.
She's caught in a storm. He's drowning in an ocean.
Paedyn pockets half his coin, and his heart, before disappearing into the shadows. Leaving Kai to wander into yet another's plot as he's attacked by a Silencer, the one power that brings Kai to his knees in agony.
And Paedyn, in a rage spawned from flashbacks of her father's death, is the lone spectator that chooses to intervene.
Saving the man who believes himself unworthy of any such mercy.
What does she get in return for the savage display of putting such a powerful wielder on his knees? Voted into the Trials. A chance to win a better life. A greater chance to die in the name of entertainment.
And once she's thrust into the royal castle alongside the princes and fellow competitors, Paedyn is introduced to a dangerous new path. That of the Resistance.
Which hands her a new mark: the future king and Kai's older, half-brother, Kitt.
And I'm having to remind myself that this is a woman on a mission and not a girl playing with the hearts of boys because there's a triangle forming and of those I am not a fan.
Nor am I a fan of authors pulling a big fuck you to the reader and calling it a plot twist. False memory? Really?
No. Absolutely not, Paedyn. You have no standing to judge him. As morally bankrupt as you are. As gullible as you have become. As much blood that has been spilled because of you... Don't you dare hold him accountable for what he was forced to do.
Forced to kill your father.
While you chose to kill his.
Damn it, Paedyn. Now I have to take a mental step back for you, too.
Thankful to bookstagram and their many spoilers for putting me at peace with an ending that will follow many a plot twist in this enemies-to-lovers, found family (ha!), star-crossed lovers, arranged marriage saga that will result in a daughter's name that my hands are itching to edit in the metadata. If only.
So while this is basically the Hunger Games with magic, complete with the necessity of eliciting the support of the devoted fans, it is, at the heart of it, the story of a boy falling in love with a girl.
And her many threats against his life.
4 out of 5 stars.
Available in ebook | hardcover | paperback | audiobook
2025/42
