Kiera Cass

A would-be queen. A handsome king. A perfect match . . . or is it?

The Betrothed

Maddy T

In the end, we made enemies with our heads, but we unmade them with our hearts.

Ximena Cespedes

Rebecca Briesemeister

It was so cuteee it was an easy read and it seemed predictable at times, but others, like the end, i did not see coming. The book is simple, but in a good way and I’d consider it pretty light 

Shai

Temi Awani

I really enjoyed this book. I liked seeing how Hollis grew throughout the book and learned what she wanted in life. Silas was such a great character but I felt like we didn’t learn that much about him. I felt like the end was rushed but all in all it was a great book. 

Maggie Hotmer

Silas, my precious silas. Come back to me.

2.25 ☆

Okay, I didn't expect a complexe story or anything like that. I expected a cute lovestory like Selection, but well...
It felt like a bad fanfiction. The characters were flat, the lovestory was rushed and the plot...I don't even know what the plot was.
I don't know anything about the most characters in the book - including Hollis, Silas and Jameson. The only character I genuinely liked was Valentina.

Ivy X

Flat characters, flat plot. 
Suffered and basically skimmed through the last few chapters

Sepia

Thank you to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

I was excited to read this as I really enjoyed the selection series(I've only read the first 3). I didn't have too high expectations but did think it would be an easy and enjoyable read. This took me over 3 months to read so that shows how much I enjoyed it.

I feel like the pacing was off. In some parts,it was very slow and I didn't want to read on as I was bored. Towards the last 30%,it was very fast and felt rushed. The ending felt too abrupt.I thought there were a few more chapters and I was flipping the pages on my tablet to see where the ending was. It just ended and I thought there could have been a better ending to it.There wasn't really a plot to the story. I feel like details were just thrown in randomly. I did like the last 20-30% though even if it felt a bit rushed. 

I didn't like any of the main characters. They were not likeable at all. I thought I liked the king but then he had to go and say something stupid. I didn't really like Silas and he was just added to be a love interest.Hollis was really annoying and only cared about herself.

I did not like the love triangle at all. I didn't really see the appeal with either love interest and the second one was just added to create conflict. I feel like it would have been a much better story if there was no love triangle and it was her trying to adjust to becoming Queen. That being said,I didn't like her with the King either. We were thrown into it and didn't really see the start of their relationship and it was told by her remembering the beginnings. As for the second love interest,it was totally insta-love and I did not like that one bit. It was not developed at all and made no sense to me. As I saw in another review,this was advertised as steamy ya and it was not that at all. I did not see the chemistry and the most they did was kiss. 

All in all, I was left disappointing with this and don't think I'll be reading the sequel.

2/5

A would-be queen. A handsome young king. A perfect match…or is it? From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series comes The Betrothed, a glittering royal romance sure to captivate her legion of loyal readers and lovers of courtly intrigue alike. When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true. But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine.

Grace Sinks

So good!! I love anything by Kiera Cass, so I was super excited when I received this and the sequel for Christmas. I read it in two days, in like three sittings which is super fast for me and my short attention span. The love interests kind of gave me reverse Selection vibes, Jameson being a (not as loveable and more jerky) Maxon and Silas being Aspen.
 As far as Cass’s works go, this falls after the original Selection trilogy, before Eadlyn’s duology, and before The Siren. 

<spoiler> I was all for Jameson until he made the whole “arrows in my quiver” analogy about “his” kids. Jerk!! I wish there had been more development with Hollis’s relationship with Silas before she ran off, because it felt more like she was running off to avoid becoming queen and not because she loved him, just because there was very little development between them other than their general connection. I was sad when he and the other Eastoffes died though, because Hollis was finally starting her new life only to have it ripped from her. I like that Hollis wanted Delia Grace to end up with Jameson, because it shows her character well. My heart broke for Valentina who was in a horrible situation with a jerky villain husband who was a horrible person, and I’m glad she got at least some comfort in forming a connection with Hollis. I’m interested to see where the story goes next, and I’m kinda getting the feeling there will be a little bit of sort of enemies to lovers with her and Etan in the next one, but we’ll see!! </spoiler>

sydney

It took a while for me to get into the book, but once she actually started getting scenes with Silas I liked it. The romance did seem very fast paced, I feel like they needed more scenes to make it believable. 

***spoiler***
I still can't believe that red wedding crap that was pulled at the end. I literally don't understand what the point in the book was and what the next one is about? Is it just going to be about them finding the people who killed their family?

Shereen Evans

** spoiler alert **
           I went into this book not know anything about it. I did a book box swap with a friend. At first I was not sure if I was going to continue with the book with how it started out but decided to give the book a chance and read more before I gave up and I am glad I did. 

There is love and hatred in the story. I was not prepared for the twist at the end of the book and what happened to Hollis. Hollis was one of my favorite characters in the story. She did not want to be just some quite pawn for the king. She was very head strong in her way of thinking and made sure people were aware. 

King Jameson...boy I don't know if I would have enough room to say what I would like but I will say he was very cunning and manipulative. He seemed very sweet with Hollis and that he loved her. He showered her with gifts and compliments. My jaw just dropped when he told Hollis that the kids they would have would be his and that he would use them as pawns any way he wanted to and there was nothing that could stop him. 

Silas...He won my heart. He was willing to wait as long as it took to have Hollis. They way he treats Hollis reminded me of the way my husband is towards me. When they got married I was hoping for more to their love story but then of course he had to be killed off with the Darkest Knights and the rest of the men in his family.

Julie Janis

I'm not sure what to think of this book. After hearing some not-so-good reviews, my high expectations went down so I'm glad I went into reading this without feeling super disappointed. The writing was pretty good, but I thought it had a slow beginning and the majority of the book was pretty boring. It only got interesting near the end. I felt there was no chemistry between Hollis and the love interest. Didn't feel any butterflies and swoon at all reading their supposedly romantic moments, so that was disappointing. Hollis was an okay character, but I didn't really connect with her. The ending is enough to make me curious to know what will happen in the next book, but I'll definitely have low expectations for it.

I LOVE Keira Cass, she is my all time favorite author. But out of all her books, this would be my least favorite. It wasn’t bad at all, it was still an enjoyable read that I couldn’t put down. But I was disappointed with her choices in this story, but they were outside of her traditional storyline, which might be why. 

Evelyn M

Ley Stanton

ARC provided by the publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review, all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The first half of this book was a little slow but a fun time, it was nice to see Hollis come into her own and realize what it meant to be Queen. She was constantly trying to learn and not letting anyone dull her spirit, she was a ball of sunshine despite how rude people were to her at times. Especially her best friend, Delia Grace annoyed me from the beginning because she felt the need to constantly remind Hollis how dumb she was. That is not how real friends speak to each other.

The last half of this book was a whirlwind, I was not expecting it at all. Once things started happening, they did not stop until the last page. I was anticipating a little angst and drama given the synopsis but Kiera Cass provided so much more than that. In this portion of The Betrothed, Hollis really came into her own and started to go after what she wanted instead of what everyone expected of her. It was nice to see her grow and realize that she had her own talents, even if they weren't the ones her friends and family wanted her to have. And that there were people who could love her for what she was instead of what they wanted her to be. That was the most beautiful part of the book, Hollis finding the people that truly loved her for her. 

While I might have gone into this expecting it to be similar to The Selection, I was blown out of the water by The Betrothed. The beginning of the book has a similar feel to it but the later portions of the book move into completely new territory. This book follow Hollis growing as a person, her choices drive the plot instead of the other way around. I really enjoyed this book, aside from the very end and am looking forward to the next one. I do hope there are some things going on behind the scenes that we will find out about in the next book. After everything Hollis has been through, she deserves some happiness. Even if you didn't like The Selection, I would suggest giving this one a shot!

Aurora Corbett

I saw that this book was coming out and I started screaming. Like, a lot. My parents asked what was wrong and I told them about the book. All they really could say was "Of course it's a book" and I'm still freaking out because HELLO Kiera Cass is my favorite author and she is publishing ANOTHER BOOK! I couldn't be more excited than I am right now!

I got it last night and I am already done with it. It was soooooooo good!

Wow. I was really excited to read another Kiera cass book because she’s never failed me before but this book was disappointing. It was so hard to read and it took me so long to finish. The plot was kinda boring. I know the second book has potential. I just hope it’s not as predictable as the first book. 

tilly ✨

the big twist at the end was that hollis is secretly a ✨ horse gurl ✨

Madalena Oliveira Maia

** spoiler alert **
           I don't know what to say. I don't know where this is going but I really hope that Silas isn't really dead because I can't see another love interest. Their love was a little to insta love to me but I'm gonna see where this is going

I wasn’t really expecting this on this book, it comes with a darkness that I am not used to in this type of books, but I loved it. 

The instant #1 New York Times bestseller from the bestselling author of the Selection series! Kiera Cass is back with a glittering royal romance sure to captivate her legion of loyal readers and lovers of courtly intrigue alike. A would-be queen. A handsome young king. A perfect match...or is it? When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked--and thrilled. After all, she's grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king's attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true. But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine.

Tatiana Alvarez 

This book wasn’t bad...but it also wasn’t a book for me. I went into this novel with hope that it would live up to her other novels. I really enjoyed The Selection, even though it’s pretty much fluff, so I expected the same with this one. 

This book had TOO much fluff and hardly any real storyline. It is a typical girl is supposed to marry king, but falls in love with someone else storyline. I generally enjoy this troupe, even if it’s over played, but the main character, Hollis, has little to no personality. She should have never been chosen by the soon to be king because she doesn’t understand the politics game. And she’s too nice! She would have made a push over Queen. 

Also, I didn’t like the storyline Cass wrote for Silas. He could have been an interesting characters but for obvious reasons, that won’t be the case. 

Overall, I wasn’t a big fan nor will I continue.

Micol Scalabrino

The selection with little changes meets something I'm not sure about. Here goes this first installment of a "brand new" series. 

The first 70% of the book seemed to be a big description of the realms, court life and important people. It took me around four days to get through it. Then everything happened in a second, I swear I had no time to breath. Definetly not what I like to read! Unfortunately, the pace of the last part wa way too fast and I found myself rereading parts in hope to find parts that I somehow missed, parts that would make the book way better.

Characters had no psychological depth, I found them being really superficial, naive and I always wanted to punch them at least once during a chapter. I hated Delia Grace, she was always, always acting as the victim: you need a definition of victimism, look at her. Let's just say that Jameson and Hollis were flat, I didn't care about them and I just wanted to jump their parts, but oops the entire book is about them. 

The style. Guys I swear, I couldn't finish this book soon enough, it was terrible, the only part I can save is the very beginning where nothing happened. The structure of the book was literally thrown away at the beginning.

The thing I dreaded the most was the love triangle, but be at ease, there was not even a love story worth of its name.

Final vote: 2/5

Shannon Thomas

I really enjoyed The Selection series so I was very much looking forward to this “new”, “original” story that wasn’t linked to The Selection at all...
It started out ok and I thought I might enjoy it, then I realised that this was practically an alternate ending to The Selection series with the location, names and circumstances changed slightly. 
I was promised steam; there was no steam. 
None of the characters held much depth. 
The twist seemed pointless and kind of (actually, very) irritating. 
It just fell very flat for me. I was more interested in Queen Valentina, she seemed like she had a lot more depth to her character, there was potential there but it wasn’t used. 
Maybe she’s in the next book more... but this book has left me with no interest in reading the next one.

Olea Haynes

** spoiler alert **
           I was actually really disappointed in this book. I LOVE Kiera Cass and The Selection so much but the ending to this book was the worst! The story line was pretty good but the ending. Aghhh I seriously HATED IT. It happened so fast. Within about two paragraphs everyone was dead. This book would be an amazing read if the ending wasn’t so terrible.

Maya avisar

One word: cute.
No more, no less
It felt for me like this whole book was an exposition for a different story. It was almost as if you could take this whole story and put it in the first 50 pages of a different book, the one that tells the story of Hollis' journey that starts at the end of the book. Because of this, I do feel like the second book -whenever it may come out- has so much potential. I have great hope for the next book.

Fleur Zuurbier

** spoiler alert **
           What did I just read? 

I think there is a sequel coming out. Honestly this book would have been way better if this was a stand-alone and she got married and was happy. Everyone dying at the end was unnecessary.

The Betrothed

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