Today we’re back with a review of one of our buddyreads. Both of us read The Kiss of Deception a long time ago, so we both decided we really needed to get to The Heart of Betrayal. Especially because The Kiss of Deception was really good. Keep on reading to see what we thought!
This review contains spoilers for the first book in the Remnant Chronicles, The Kiss of Deception.

The Heart of Betrayal is the second book in The Remnant Chronicles. Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape. Desperate to save Lia’s life, her erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komizar that she has the gift, and the Komizar’s interest in Lia is greater than anyone could have foreseen.

Meanwhile, nothing is straightforward: There’s Rafe, who lied to Lia but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom Lia always believed to be savages. Now that she lives among them, however, she realizes that may be far from the truth. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her sense of self, Lia must make powerful choices that will affect her country… and her own destiny.

“I wished that love could be simple, that it was always given and returned in the same measure, equally and at the same time, that all the planets aligned in a perfect way to dispel all doubts, that it was easy to understand and never painful.”

Cover

Candyce: I think this cover is beautiful. Before I read the book and after. I have to say after reading the book I really think this cover fits this book. It makes more sense.

Isabelle: I really like this cover! As yo might know, I don’t like people on covers but I don’t mind it on this one. As the girl has her back to us and therefore you can’t see her face, I’m actually fine with a person on the cover. There are more details on the cover the longer you look at it. After reading the book the cover is even more meaningful, the person that designed the cover knew the story and knew what he or she was doing <3

Plot

Candyce: I loved The Kiss of Deception and I have to say I was one of the people who didn’t realize who the King and who the Assassin was. I was really surprised. The Heart of Betrayal starts right after the first book ended. This is when I noticed that it had been a long time since I had read the first book, haha. Certain things were mentioned and I really couldn’t remember them at all. After reading the first few chapters I started remembering more and more. I still think it would’ve been a good idea if I had read the first book again before starting this one. There wasn’t much action in this book for quite awhile. I have to say this didn’t bother me. I loved learning more about Venda and the charactes. Mary E. Pearson created a very interesting world. All of the details fit together. I have to say the different POVs helped a lot as well. This gave us more insight in the whole world. The last part of the book was action packed. I loved her fight to escape. Until the end I didn’t know how this was going to end, but I have to say if was a cliffhanger. I have a feeling the reason there wasn’t a lot of action in this book was so we had more information before the last book. I honestly think a lot is going to happen and I can’t wait to see what happens to all the characters. I will never forgive the author for Astrid though, haha.

Isabelle: I enjoyed The Kiss of Deception a lot, I really liked the concept, even though I was pretty sure I knew who the prince was from the start (and I was totally right haha), but I had a feeling the book was setting up for a much bigger world and story. To a certain degree I’m disappointed as I feel that we still didn’t learn that much. There are still a ton of unanswered questions, but I do hope everything will become clear in the last book.
It took me quite a while to get hooked or to even get interested in this one. I liked that we started right were we left off, as Candyce said it has been a while since I read the first book and I didn’t realize I forgot so many important things. However, the way Mary wrote the story, I could gather a lot of those important details just from reading this sequel. I would still recommend reading the books with small pauses in between. I hope to read the last book soon, so I don’t forget any more important details.
It was interesting to learn more about Venda and I enjoyed that we got to see another part of the world. But as I said, it took me quite a while to get interested in the story. it was pretty slow and if it wasn’t for the fact that this was a buddy read I might’ve put it down. I’m happy I pushed through though! Somewhere half way the book picked up and I started to care more about certain characters. I had more and more questions, that I really hope get answered in the third book. The last couple of chapters were full of suspense and there were some turns I didn’t see coming! I love it when stuff happens that I never saw coming, even when it hurts 😉 The ending definitely made me rate the book higher than I would’ve based on the beginning and the middle part.

Characters

Candyce: I learned a lot about these characters while reading this book. While reading I have to say I thought Lia was rather naive. Of course, she only knows the way of her own kingdom and was taught their visions and learned only what she was told. Being in Venda opens her eyes. Lia learns a lot, especially when she is out and about with the Komizar. By the end of the book, I think her eyes were open. She started seeing things for what they really are. I am looking forward to seeing how she continues to develop in the third book. Kaden was a character I was disappointed in at the beginning of the book, but the more I learned about his past, the more I understood him. Having to grow up the way he did must of been hard, no wonder he turned out the way he did. The only one he thought he could trust was the Komizar. And maybe he was even a bit brainwashed about the rest of the world. He sacrifices a lot for the others, I am curious to see what happens to him next. Rafe is still a bit confusing to me. Yes, he sacrificed his own freedom, but other than saving Lia, I’m still not completely sure what his motives are. I hope to learn more about him. I had a hate/love relationship with the Komizar. Most moments I didn’t like him at all, but there were times when we learned something about him that made me start to feel bad for him. Then he would do something that would make me dislike him again, haha.

Isabelle: I was quite annoyed with Lia during a big part of the book. While I think she hold her own really well, being a prisoner in a very hostile country, I also thought she was being incredibly naive and plain simple dumb while learning some information. All she thought was how the Vendans got everything wrong, because she learned different. Not once did it cross her mind that the information she got at home was the wrong info instead of the info she was learning in Venda. I really disliked her whole attitude about all that. Luckily she opened her eyes somewhere at the end of the book and I do have high hopes for the last book.
As Candyce said, I don’t completely trust Rafe. I feel like either there’s something going on or his character isn’t that well developed. All he seems to care about is a girl he hasn’t know for that long. Doesn’t seem like the best reason to turn yourself in at a distant and very. hostile country… Interested to see if he gets more of a personality in the last book.
I really enjoyed Kaden in this book. He was constantly pulled between Lia and the Komizar, between what he learned growing up and what he experienced with Lia. You get to know him a lot better as well, I definitely liked him better now than I did in the Kiss of Deception. You get a lot of background on him and that really helps in understanding him. And then there is the Komizar, I loved his character. He was pretty awful, but so interesting! The perfect example of a I-love-to-hate-you character. I think he was a pretty good leader for the Vendans, at least compared to what they’re used to, and you got to understand him pretty well. Obviously he also has a villain side that want to do some BAD stuff 😉 Can’t wait to see how that all plays out in the last book.
I also want to do special shout out to Aster, I loooooved her. I think she was the person that really got me to care about this story and together with the ending she is the reason for my rating.

“We had a terrible start… doesn’t mean we can’t have a better ending.”

Our ratings are a little different with this book, haha.

Candyce:

Isabelle:

“When you think you’re at the end of your rope, give it three more days. And then another three. Sometimes you’ll find the rope is longer than you thought.”

The one important thing we learned after reading this book, is that we really need to read series faster than we did this one. When you wait more than a year and decided to continue without rereading, a lot of details are lost, haha. This is one of the reasons we’ve decided the last book will be our buddyread in the near future. Have you ever experienced this with a book?