Review: Betrayal
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 23, 2013
After reading the first book in this series (Deception) and being left on a huge cliff hanger I couldn't wait to read the sequel and see how things played out. Once again Stacy Claflin has engrossed me in her world and kept me transfixed for hours as I couldn't put the book down unless it was imperative.Betrayal picked up where Deception left off straight away and I was thrown instantly back into Alexis's world. It was great that the story took off so quickly as it captured my interest and didn't relent until the end. One of the issues I had with Deception was there were too many cliches in the romance between Cliff and Alexis and I was pleased to find that all though they are still madly in love their relationship came across more believable and less cheesy. The emotions felt right and it made it easy to relate and sympathise with them. As well as this the love triangle that continued was developed brilliantly and I found that my opinions of the characters have shifted from what I thought of them which is great as it shows Claflin has done a good job in their evolution. The book had its ups and downs in terms of emotions, at some points I was laughing and others I was feeling sad for the characters - I love books that can do that!Although I didn't feel there was as much action in this book it didn't stop it being interesting and the scenes where there was it was fast paced, tense and described with the senses well. The stroyline continued to be unpredictable like in Deception and filled with twists and turns. I won't reveal who or what is introduced as it will ruin the suspense I felt when reading it for you guys but the characters who come up I wouldn't have guessed in a million years. As well as this they all tie into Alexis's life well and I couldn't fault the structure or plot - it was linked really well and was solid.When reading Deception, although it was a vampire novel it was still pretty original to me due to the nature of Alexis's change and the vampire hierarchy. For me Betrayal lost some of the originality around the mid-way section with the introduction of a new species which I have read about a lot before. Thankfully though these characters took a back seat in the book and after a few chapters the story picked up again and became unpredictable and original once again. Even though they were less original they were still interesting to read about and it was slightly different so I did enjoy the book regardless.Overall for me Betrayal bettered Deception and after Claflin left the story on yet another impossible cliff hanger I am dying to find out what happens in book 3 when it's released! I would definitely recommend this series to YA paranormal lovers.