Book Review: Powerful

Title: Powerful
Author: Lauren Roberts
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy

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What It’s About:

Five years ago, Adena was running and avoiding the Imperial Guard behind her after stealing a sticky bun. People move out of her way, until a girl with silver hair doesn’t, so Adena runs through her using her Phaser ability. The next thing she knows is that the Imperial Guard in pursuit of Adena has stopped and the silver-haired girl drags her into an alleyway until they are safe. The two talk, introduce themselves, and Paedyn agrees to partner up with Adena.

Makoto had found out that his cousin, Hera was going to be one of the Trial contestants, so he made his way around Loot to get to Hera, cursing himself for not doing it last night. He comes across a crowd gathered and watches as Hera enters the carriage, and followed by a flash of silver hair—the Silver Savior, who he isn’t convinced actually saved Prince Kai. But then he notices another girl with curly hair waving as if she loves the Silver Savior. He quickly recognizes her as the girl with whom he got into an argument a few days ago over her blue blouse. He knows that she is a seamstress and quickly a plan comes to mind.

Adena says good bye and makes her way to the Fort, where she stays alone for the night. When she wakes up in the morning, she finds it strange without Paedyn there with her, so she quickly grabs all of her clothes and heads out into the morning, but then realizes that she’s hungry and that she doesn’t really know how to steal. She grabs a sticky bun, but the owner of the market yells at her and she starts running as an Imperial Guard chases her. Adena throws her clothes into the Fort, feeling bad for the fact that they may get damaged, and then she keeps running until strong arms grab her and Phase her through the wall into another building. The man introduces himself as Mak, and shows her that he, too, can phase through walls and things. He tells her that he needs her and walks her to his place, which is a blacksmith’s shop.

Mak and Adena discuss what it is he needs, and she takes his measurements for the Imperial Guard, before telling him exactly what he needs to get for her in order to create the Imperial Guard uniform that he wants to use to sneak into the Palace to see Hera. At least that is what Mak had told Adena. He goes out and buys the cloth Adena needs, while she peruses his apartment and actually cuts herself on one of the many blades in the shop. When he returns, he notices that she is hiding something and bleeding, so helps take care of it. The two of them spend time together as Adena sews the uniform for him, though she does sleep in the Fort at night. Then, one night, some men chase her and she comes running back to Mak when she feels unsafe, so he tells her that she should always run to him. He gives her the bed, and despite getting ready for bed himself, he heads out of the shack in search of the men.

Two days before the first Trial, Adena gets up to put out her clothes on the corner that she has, but then is surprised by a man, who she recognized as one of her potential attackers. Mak does show up and chases the man off, after giving her the opportunity to punch the guy. He has been trying to teach Adena how to fight though Adena doesn’t feel like she wants to do it or need it. Once he leaves, Adena comes face to face with an Imperial Guard, and he tells her that she has been called to be the seamstress for Paedyn Gray. She takes a moment to go to Mak and tell him that she had actually been called in to work in the castle, which leads to Mak having a meltdown, during which he reveals that he is actually a Wielder and that he was planning to go to the castle with her that night in order to get Hera out, as she would not survive the trials. They get into an argument over it, with Adena telling him that he would have no chances if he kidnapped Hera as they would hunt him.

Eventually, she is working in the seamstress’s room when Mak shows up and tells her that he cares about her. They do talk a bit, but then steps come towards the room, so Mak leaves as Kitt comes in. Kitt asks Adena about Paedyn and what to do to become closer to her, so Adena tells him that he should be honest and listen to what she has to say, take it under advisement, as she probably has a lot to tell him. He asks her for advice as well for what to wear, now that he knows that Paedyn will be wearing gray, and she gives it to him. Mak and Adena spend their first night in the Fort that night, and he reveals to her his past—his parents never wanted a child, but then got pregnant with him, and at first they thought that he has Mundane abilities. But then at 5, he almost burnt down the house and then started crawling up walls within an hour of each other, which is when they realized that he’s a Wielder. Then, Hera came to live with him, and she is his cousin, so they became close. Then at fourteen, he left with Hera in tow, after an argument with his father, who had come home drunk and started saying that they should sell him out to the king. So his father cut him with a blade, and then with Hera, they ran.

As weeks go by, Adena spends a lot more time with Mak, whose name she now knows is Makoto Khitan. She makes him two gifts—a belt for all of his knives, and then tops it with a vest that he can use for all of his knives. He’s grateful for it. She returns to the castle to make dresses both times, and before the second trial, they spend time together at the Fort again. They also share a kiss before Adena has to return to finish the dress for the Third ball for Paedyn.

That night as she is bringing the dress to Paedyn, she runs into Kai, and decides that she thinks that Paedyn and Kai belong together. She decides to root for him over Kitt. She comes into Paedyn’s room, teasing her alongside Ellie about Kai, and then dresses her up in the new dress, which is all black. Then she leaves to go meet with Mak, but finds herself summoned to meet with the King.

Mak goes to the Fort, and waits for Adena, but she never shows, and he thinks that maybe she got caught up at the castle with a fashion emergency. So he puts the needle he purchased for her back into the pockets of the vest, and then leaves, with the plan to meet up with Adena the next day inside the Bowl. The next day, he makes his way to the Bowl with the plan to find his seat and Adena.

Adena, in the meantime, had been in the dungeon, dealing with pain of her broken fingers. She meets a man in the cells, who throws her the stale bread that she had tried to get to and she eats it as best she can with the mangled fingers that she has. She talks to Al, the man, and he tells her that he doesn’t have any friends because all of them end up being dead, and that he has been in the dungeons for doing something that he shouldn’t have. Adena, on the other hand, doesn’t know why this is happening to her, but before she can talk more, guards grab her, stuff a cloth into her mouth, and drag her out of her cell. She wakes up in the Pit, this time tied up, and tries her best to get up. Adena thinks that this is a nightmare, and thinks that if Paedyn gets to her first, she will win the Trial. Mak realizes that she is inside the Pit, feeling for her magic and recognizing that phaser ability, and he doesn’t understand what she is doing inside the Pit as Adena is not a criminal. He tries to speak to an Imperial Guard, who tells him that he will throw him over to join her if he touches him again, so Mak does try to do it but the Guard realizes that he will suffer more if he stays inside the arena rather than the Pits.

Mak watches as Paedyn comes out, and hopes that she will save Adena, but his hope is dashed when a branch flies through Adena’s chest, ending up on the other side. He falls to his knees and watches as Paedyn catches up to her and holds onto Adena. He realizes that Adena is counting the stars and starts counting with her, knowing that he will never once again see her gaze, as he leaves the Bowl. Paedyn, on the other hand, had caught up to Adena, and Adena knows she is dying despite the fact that Paedyn is telling her that everything will be all right. She has Paedyn promise her she will wear the vest, and she thinks about how Mak will also wear it so that the two of them will have her last works. And then she passes into oblivion, becoming a star

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed the story of Adena and Mak. She wasn’t that big of a character in the first book, so I didn’t really know what I was walking into when I read this. But again, there isn’t much shared in this book that keeps the story on the edge of your seat. We don’t find out why Adena was killed—though now that I know what happened in Powerless, I suspect the King had her tortured and killed for harboring an Ordinary, Paedyn. But he never revealed that. I do wonder, as I did some research after the fact, if this book would have been better read after Reckless, since it was published after it, and it will fill in some gaps.

While I don’t think this was a waste of time to read—it definitely was entertaining—I don’t feel as if I’ve developed a strong emotional connection with either Adena or Mak. And I think that’s the crux of the problem with both Powerless and Powerful. I don’t feel any sort of emotional connection to either character in the books. Perhaps, for Paedyn and Kai, that will change with the next book—we’ll see, but for Adena and Mak, there is so little of them given to us with this book, that I don’t think I will think much of them at all going forward. If Adena gets mentioned in any of the other two books, it will be just a place that I can use to fill in the gaps, but I will not likely get emotional at her death. It’s almost as if she doesn’t matter. And this book hasn’t done anything to convince me of her value as a character in the story. I simply don’t understand why she even matters as a character in the scope of this series at all—nothing that the author has done thus far has given me an inkling as to why I, as a ready, should care about Adena and Mak. It’s just a nice story and I suspect that it was intended to fill in the time between the release of Reckless and the release of Fearless. I’m going to continue reading this series so let’s see what happens next.

IF you are interested in reading the full series, you can find it here: Powerless Trilogy.