Betrayed by P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast

Pages (Hardcover): 320 pages

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Released: September 29, 2009

Quick Thoughts I love the world that P.C. and Kristin Cast created, however, I didn't like Marked, their first novel, very much. That being said, I was interesting in a few of the plot points and decided to read Betrayed to see if some of my questions were answered.

Review: The book takes place right after the events from Marked, Zoey has increased her powers and is now training to be a High Priestess and taking on more responsibilities as the head of Dark Daughters and Sons. Her enemy, Aphrodite, has fallen from grace and is now a social outcast and everything is just great for Zoey and her friends, except they aren't.

Zoey still has some weird feelings about her mentor, Neferet, her almost ex-boyfriend won't leave her alone and despite Zoey's efforts, she can't stay away from him. Not because of him though, but because of her cravings for his blood. The hot teacher, Loren, shows an interest in Zoey and Zoey can't help but feel attracted and beautiful by this. Her boy troubles get more complicated when she wavers around her feelings for her boyfriend, Erik.

But enough about her love life, the real danger is the ghosts. Zoey has no idea if they are involved with the recent string of deaths involving humans, but she knows something isn't right with them. And by the time this novel ends, one of Zoey's friends will die, breaking her heart and causing her to wonder if everything is truly worth it.

The plot, minus Zoey's love life, is interesting. Sadly, the characters are still so bland and one dimensional. Her friends are still cliche ridden and the twin stuff might be making be slightly crazy. The villain has potential to be really good though, so I'm interested in seeing how that route turns out.

With this book, I felt like Zoey was kind of everything she hated, in terms of her love life. She blasted her former best friend and Aphrodite for being a ho, yet she cheats on her boyfriend and even though she feels guilty she doesn't want to stop. The situation with her teacher, despite how weird it is, sounds interesting because you can easily tell Loren is evil and will do something messed up to her, but despite this, Zoey wants him. In the first book, Zoey felt Nyx leading her own and guiding her, yet she feels nothing in regards to this. Odd.

I will say that Heath and Aphrodite are my favourite characters in the novel. Heath is a love sick addicted to being bitten puppy, and he's written well in this aspect. Aphrodite grows the most in the novel, however, and over shadows the rest of the characters. I wanted to read more about her than Zoey, which isn't good if Zoey is the main character in this novel.

Final Thoughts: The plot is interesting, however, the bad guy has been hinted since the first book so it doesn't come as a surprise, and the conversation between them (Zoey and the bad guy) at the end of the novel doesn't work for me. Zoey increases her power, but it still feels forced and too perfect. The book is a bit better than Marked though and I can't help but want to know more about Aphrodite and Heath.

Grade: 5.5 out of 10

Betrayed is the second book in the House of Night series and it's available at bookstores and Amazon.

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