After school on April 8, my friend Julia and I drove straight to Target and grabbed a copy of Fearless by Lauren Roberts. After patiently waiting for the release, the day was finally here. It was extremely exciting to pick up the book and see how thick it was, almost a whole 600 pages of Paedyn and Kai!
This past winter break, I decided to complete my 2024 book reading challenge with the Powerless Series, which at the time only consisted of the first book, Powerless, the second book, Reckless and a novella, Powerful. I was inspired to read this book because it seemed to have everything I love: romance, fantasy, and a Hunger-Games-style twist. Additionally, I knew that the third and final book of the series would be coming out soon. Upon reading the first few chapters, I fell in love with Paedyn’s strong personality and the banter between her and the two princes, Kai and Kitt.
Powerless is about a girl named Paedyn, an Ordinary, who pretends to have magical powers to survive in a kingdom where only those of magical descent, known as Elites, are worthy of citizenship. However after a meeting with one of the princes, Paedyn must compete in a set of Trials where Elites compete against each other to showcase the power of the kingdom. Paedyn must survive the trials without getting exposed as an Ordinary if she wants to go back to her normal life.
The ending of the second book, Reckless, was a major cliffhanger. Even waiting 4 months proved difficult because I was anxious to discover how Lauren Roberts would create a ‘happily ever after’ out of this mess. However, after reading the Fearless, I can say that the wait and 600 pages was totally worth it.
Fearless was formatted similarly to Powerless, with Paedyn once again competing in three trials. Unlike others, I actually appreciated this because I felt it gave the story a structure that Reckless lacked. The pacing between each trial helped move the story along with a steady pace while leaving room for surprises and unexpected mysteries needing to be solved.
While Fearless definitely leaned more into romance than fantasy, I thought it totally worked. The past two books really focused on world building, so allowing the plot to focus more on the growth of the characters and their relationships helped keep this book interesting. Also this book introduced a lot of new kingdoms and settings besides Ilya, which helped add enough fantasy to break up the romance. Nevertheless, the romance was truly the star of the show for this book. Paedyn and Kai’s chemistry throughout the series is unmatched, they have some of the best book banter I have ever read. Every time Kai speaks to Paedyn, we are left with another quote-worthy line. His love for Paedyn is so genuine and strong that you actually start to believe that there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her.
That being said, the only thing I didn’t fully enjoy about this book was the ending. Throughout the novel, there was a ton of build up for a big reveal, but it ended up feeling super rushed and just didn’t land the way it should have. Instead of a ‘happily ever after’ epilogue, I would have preferred to see a more in-depth conclusion that makes reading all 600 pages feel worth it.
While reading Reckless, I noticed a lot of typos and missing quotation marks. Surprisingly, Fearless—which was released less than a year later—didn’t have any of those issues, which was a nice improvement.
Overall I would rate Fearless a solid four out of five stars. The romance was absolutely perfect, the plot was quick paced and entertaining, and the character development – especially for Paedyn and Kai- was amazing. However, the plot deviated a lot from the original book, making it feel like you were reading a different series entirely. It might be a long read for some, but if you’re as heavily invested in Paedyn and Kai as I was, Fearless delivers a perfectly balanced romantasy that’s worth every page.
