Reckless by Lauren Roberts – No Spoilers

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“Call us even. Call me crazy. I don’t care. Just…” His eyes are pleading, brimming with emotion. “Just call me yours.”

*Just a preface, there will be a video for spoiler/non-spoiler, as well as a spoiler post to accompany the video. These will be posted towards the end of the week & I’ll update this post with links once they’re posted!

Goodreads / Storygraph

Summary from Goodreads

The kingdom of Ilya is in turmoil… 

After surviving the Purging Trials, Ordinary-born Paedyn Gray has killed the King, and kickstarted a Resistance throughout the land. Now she’s running from the one person she had wanted to run to. 

Kai Azer is now Ilya’s Enforcer, loyal to his brother Kitt, the new King. He has vowed to find Paedyn and bring her to justice. 

Across the deadly Scorches, and deep into the hostile city of Dor, Kai pursues the one person he wishes he didn’t have to. But in a city without Elites, the balance between the hunter and hunted shifts – and the battle between duty and desire is deadly. 

Be swept away by this kiss-or-kill romantasy trilogy taking the world by storm.

Thoughts on the Plot

This book held very little plot. Which was disappointing after coming off of the first book where the plot was definitely a little stronger.

Like the first book, a lot of what happens in this book was primarily for convenience. Primarily with Pae and Kai. 

There was also very little in terms of fantasy in this book. With Pae being an Ordinary and Kai not having Elites powers to borrow in Dor, a lot of the fantasy elements were completely missing in this book.

There was a huge focus on the romance instead.

So much of this book was also incredibly repetitive, and I found myself skimming through a lot of parts. 

Similarly to Powerless, I was not a fan of the writing. This book needs a bit more editing and a lot of the fat needs to be trimmed. 

While Powerless seemingly had a linear plot line to follow and go back to when it strayed, Reckless does not and it shows. 

Thoughts on the Characters

This book is very much about the developing love story between Kai and Pae. Which was infuriating. 

They would “pretend” instead of just owning up to their feelings for each other. 

Pretend to enjoy kissing, pretend to not like each other, pretend to not want each other. The list goes on.

It was exhausting. Pae holding her knife to Kai’s throat is so overdone by this book, and yet there she is, doing it again and again and again, anyway. 

I also don’t understand the Kitt and Calum dynamic. Why on earth is the leader of the resistance advising Kitt? Whose very little narrative we do get this book is nothing short of depressing and almost whiny. 

The ending was also completely ridiculous. We get next to nothing from Kitt except grief and annoyance and then he makes that announcement at the end of the book?

What????

But back to Kai and Pae. How much of a letdown was their first kiss? 

Remember how the first book had us dehydrated and unable to reach for a glass of water? This book hands us the glass but its room temp. The ice has completely melted.

This book is still not spicy. It has some kissing scenes but focuses more on the romance. 

It felt like the author only wrote it in to get it over with because a lot of us (readers) were pleading for more after Powerless just kept burning with no relief in sight. 

If anything, I am nervous about the third book because of the revelation about Pae’s history. If I’ve learned anything about this author, she loves tropes and I am not in the mood for Pae to become another overdone YA Fantasy trope.

Overall Thoughts

I wanted to enjoy this book so much more than I did. By halfway through, I kind of knew that I was not going to like this book. 

The romance between Kai and Pae was incredibly repetitive. I wanted to them, just give in and realize it was okay to admit they were falling in love with each other. 

I did enjoy the banter, and Kai can literally do no wrong. While his flirting might have been a bit out of place at times, it was refreshing to see at least one of them openly being romantic. 

I am hesitant to see what ends up happening in the third book, but my hopes are not high. 

Kitt’s declaration at the end of the book came out of nowhere. I still don’t understand the point of the resistance and how the world really seems to work. 

While the world-building is expanding with this book, it still doesn’t fully make sense. 

I wanted more; the anticipation was built up so much after the ending of Powerless. 

While in my reading vlog I finished this book and gave it a 3.75, I think this book is closer to a 2.75 out of 5 stars. 

I’m going to round it up to a 3. So 3 stars out of 5 stars for Reckless by Lauren Roberts. 

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