Betrayed by P.C. and Kristin Cast

Urban FantasyYoung Adult

Author: Kristin Cast
Series: House of Night, #2
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (Imprint of Macmillan)
Published: September 29th, 2009
Rating: ♥♥♥♡♡

Fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird has managed to settle in at the House of Night. She’s come to terms with the vast powers the vampyre goddess, Nyx, has given her, and is getting a handle on being the new Leader of the Dark Daughters. Best of all, Zoey finally feels like she belongs–like she really fits in. She actually has a boyfriend…or two. Then the unthinkable happens: Human teenagers are being killed, and all the evidence points to the House of Night. While danger stalks the humans from Zoey’s old life, she begins to realize that the very powers that make her so unique might also threaten those she loves. Then, when she needs her new friends the most, death strikes the House of Night, and Zoey must find the courage to face a betrayal that could break her heart, her soul, and jeopardize the very fabric of her world.

My Review:

A lot has happened to Zoey since first coming to the House of Night. She’s made some awesome friends, she’s become the leader of the Dark Daughters (and Sons), she’s in training to be a High Priestess, and she seems to be gifted on many levels that is very unusual for a fledgling (and even a vampyre). Now some strange and sad things are happening at the House of Night and she has a bad feeling about everything that’s going on. She feels that it’s her duty to find out what is happening in order to help those she loves.

This book was a huge step up from the first one in the series. Despite that though, it’s still falling short of four stars for me. However, the main thing that helped this book out immensely is that it actually had a plot! The first book just felt kind of thrown together in places and it felt like Zoey was kind of just floating around and not heading towards anything specific. But this book laid down some foundation and I was happy to see that. I was also happy to see the extra comments in parenthesis brought down to much more manageable levels than the first book. They were still there, but not to an annoying degree.

I did have a couple problems with this book though. My first problem is the presenting of a love triangle (or maybe even a square). Boy do I hate love triangles! This one moved that up a notch from the last book, and I was disappointed in that. It makes Zoey seem immature and inconsiderate of others. She doesn’t seem to feel particularly faithful to any of her guys. I won’t say much to prevent spoilers, but lets just say that I just wish she’d pick one so that I could like one of them and not all of them! I hate that! lol

But overall, I liked this book a lot more than the last. It even had me close to tears at one point. But, like I said above, it’s still falling just a bit short for me. I can definitely tell now that there was some foreshadowing in the first book in preparation for this one. But at the same time, some of the story just falls a little flat. The plot in this one was much juicier and I cared more about the characters. I’m not a big fan of Zoey, but I could see her growing a bit in this one and I appreciated her more because of that. So we’ll see where this goes. If the books continue to get better then I’m sure they’ll start approaching the four star mark for me!