This is not a good book. To be fair, none of Kiera Cass' books are good, what they are is fun nonsense. The Betrothed is, whilst undeserving of the savaging it's received on Goodreads, neither fun nor nonsense, excepting the insane ending. The first two thirds are very dull, Cass has never explored diversity in any depth, but having a character be discriminated against for being "born out of wedlock" seems pointedly outdated in 2020 in a book with no minority characters. The instalove is dull if inoffensive, I felt the same thing in The Heir series. But the ending is bonkers, the odd inheritance pathway I saw coming but his death with the marriage unconsummated, the parental murders for no reason, and the sudden onset of never before mentioned rebels? What? Why? This book felt very amateur.

I hadn't read any of Keira Cass' books before but I had heard good things about The Selection so I was looking forward to reading this story. Unfortunately, it was a huge disappointment. Hollis is quite bland and seems to change personality overnight. King Jameson is cringey and over the top and Silas' personality is non-existent. There is barely any connection or communication between Hollis and Silas - and definitely no chemistry - before they decide they're soulmates. It is unbelievable and I didn't really care how it ended. The supporting characters were also awful and lacked any depth.
I doubt I will be reading any books by this author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion,

I really tried to like this bit dnfed it twice. I finished it now and I can say I am really disappointed that it could not even get close to the Selection series...It was weird and boring and could not hold my interest. I just really hope that the next Kiera Cass book will be better

Thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

It's often said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

I guess I had hoped Cass' writing might have improved over the years. Spoiler - it hasn't.

It was also nice to see that ridiculous names are still very much a feature. Hollis Brite -______-

Anyway i'm sure this will sell like hotcakes like the other books did so just feel free to ignore me.

Review not posted anywhere else

I do not expect anything deep and meaningful with a Kiera Cass book. On the whole, they’re light, fluffy romances, that don’t really require too much thought and yet are highly addictive books. Which was exactly what I needed when I picked this up, and precisely what I didn’t get. There wasn’t really anything to redeem it - the character’s are flat caricatures that never develop or turn into anything worth sticking with. There is little to no plot until the last part where suddenly what could have been an entire book's worth of plot is rammed in and has little to no emotional resonance because of the aforementioned rubbish characters and lack of time spent developing the plot that’s shoved in. And insta-love. Oh boy, the insta-love.
There were a couple of characters I would have been interested to have a book from, but nothing is really developed.In short, it is an absolute hot mess, that I’m staggered made it to being published.

This review will be published on The Review Diaries on 10th July 2020.

Enjoyable to read and interesting to see how the king draws her into his world even though she isn't as refined as the girls in his scope. I was expecting maybe a bigger betrayal than was there and the cliff hanger was a bit of a let down, I thought there might be a slight hint of her love surviving but I'm glad of how the main character handled the loss in the end and how the story was handled. I feel like the king isn't as accepting as he seems and it makes me wonder if he caused some of the pain she feels but it will be interesting to see in the next story how the author plays this out.

Overall this is a good solid story and one that I enjoyed reading but it wasn't earth shattering or overly unique.

I enjoyed The Selection series back in the day, but, unfortunately, I found The Betrothed very disappointing.

The story is told through the perspective of Lady Hollis, who has caught the eye of King Jameson. However, she has conflicting emotions when she suddenly falls in love with a young man, Silas, who seeks refuge from an opposing kingdom.

I really wanted to like this book, but I found it quite flat and dull the entire way through. I didn't root for the main character at all, and really couldn't care less whether she followed her heart or her head as both love interests were just as cringey and lacking in chemistry as the other.

Having been a huge fan of Keira Cass's Selection series, the hopes were high for her latest novel The Betrothed. She did not disappoint. It's a very easy read, doesn't really over power your brain, it's just a nice gentle book with characters you both love and hate in equal measures, a bit of romance, angst in historical royal setting. Tickets all the boxes really.

I found The Betrothed to be incredibly disappointing compared to Cass’ previous books. The characters felt underdeveloped and flat in the majority of cases and I was not invested in any of them. The plot was also minimal with uneven pacing.

I’ve read some of the Selection series and I really enjoyed them, but this just let me down. It was a lighthearted read and fun, but it just lacked the sparkle in the other books I’ve read, it seemed too far fetched and silly and yes, I know but it just did. I’m sure lots will love it and it’s not a waste of a read, but just not one I’ll go back to.

This is possibly the stupidest book I have ever read... which was exactly what I was hoping for!

Look, it isn't good literature. The main character is a naive girl who consistently makes the single worst decision possible at any given moment; an enormous amount of the book is taken up with descriptions of gowns and getting ready for events; the love triangle comes out of nowhere; and there's a completely bizarre tone shift just before the end of the book. It's like the TV show Reign, if you stripped out the majority of the (already silly) plot. It's glossy, and fluffy, and makes your brain feel like a marshmallow - but to be honest, is that not what you want from a book like this?? I loved The Selection for its vapidity and I kind of love this too. It's like a little holiday for your brain. It's brilliant comfort reading - even better than The Selection as it has way less girl-on-girl hate .

If you're looking for a powerful historical read about the complexities of setting yourself up to woo a king, this isn't it - but if you're looking for pure, delightful fun, this is perfect. It's the kind of thing you can escape with wholeheartedly.

I loved the selection so I thought I would love this book especially after reading the synopsis. Unfortunately this just wasn't a very good story in my opinion.

It felt like the author didn't know what to do with her characters! Nora is introduced as a mean girl but a few scenes later shes a lovely girl and is probably the nicest in the book. Her best friend Delia is.....well I haven't a bloody clue what she is . Is she a friend or a frenemy I haven't a bloody clue!!

The King is ok but good lord does he come out with stupid one liners about Hollis being the sun or some such nonsense. I think if we had a few more scenes with them together I would probably be able to see where the characters are going but nope.

Here comes another character Silas and of course she doesn't know who she loves now after locking eyes with this new guy. I mean come on! No wait sorry she decides she's confused because he calls her 'His sun' and not 'The sun' like the king does. I mean wtf

I gave it a second star because of the last few chapters and all the stuff that happened here (no spoilers here!) but I am now left wondering if I was meant to care about the characters involved? because I don't. I actually can't figure out if they were meant to be main characters to the plot or what the heck is even going on.

Will I read more books from this series? Probably because I really hope it gets better and the lack of plot and character development will make sense.

Would I recommend the book to others? No I would not. it could have been fantastic with a bit of world and character building but it fell really flat.

IN SUMMARY: Lacklustre characters, setting and writing raises fears that THE SELECTION is a one-hit wonder. THE BETROTHED tries to be so many things: dramatically, romantically, and politically indulgent, and fails on all three accounts.

MY THOUGHTS:

I really liked THE SELECTION series even with all its flaws, but THE BETROTHED genuinely feels like it's trying to be exactly the same but with worse characters.

Against all odds, Coroan lady Hollis Brite has all but been chosen to be King Jameson's bride, a huge honour in their court. Hollis thinks so too, until she meets Silas Eastoffe, the swordsmith son of refugees from Isolte, Coroa's natural enemy, and Hollis must choose between her place in society and her heart.

The book is exactly that of the premise, as Hollis wanders through extremely tame court politics and keeping her growing love for Silas a secret for 60% of the book. Because as you know, there's nothing more interesting than the riveting drama of deciding what to wear each morning, the small talk of tepid conversation between characters, and meeting new people. Holy god, it. Is. Dull. Thankfully the book is short enough to hold your attention. The last third is most interesting, but the bar is so low at that point that it's not exactly a compliment.

The main cast are flat and underdeveloped and I wasn't invested in any of their stories, and the 'villains' are faceless, nameless people who wreak havoc for a watery, contrived reason. Their name alone made me laugh out loud, and that's never a good sign. Scene setting is entirely absent; I don't know what anything or anyone looks like. Delia Grace? Not a winkle of description. Nora? No idea. Keresken Castle? Some sprinkle of hallways here and there but nowhere close to build a big enough picture. And oh lord, the romance is blander than white bread. I mean it so wholeheartedly when I say that the two leads share zero romantic chemistry. Their attraction to one another comes across as superficial when we at that point knew almost nothing about one of them and they've known each other max two weeks. It was so unsatisfying.

The writing is uninspired, and the style of prose is monotonous and boring. There's the occasional line that made me pause and go "huh, that was good", but it's a drop of water in a barren desert. There's no poetry, no magic.

The only thing saving this from one star is the ending. That really spiced up the book. I wouldn't say the execution is all there, since the villains had no personal stake in Hollis' life, but it did entirely spin Hollis' world upside-down and I'm interested to see how she deals with it in the sequel.

Ultimately? Really disappointed and sad that I didn't enjoy this as much as I was hoping.

WILL I READ ON? I will, just to see how Hollis manages her next steps, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to read it.

Right, what on earth have I just read?!

This is basically a backwards the selection – she starts with the king, moves onto the new guy that’s just moved there (who they were acting like was a peasant or something – let’s face it, he was a gentleman AND STAYED IN THE PALACE he was no commoner 😅) and then I don’t even know what happened, it all went a bit mental.
Firstly, Hollis is incredibly fickle, she goes from not caring about the king to being madly in love with him (which was very strangely framed, I was expected the story to start with unreciprocated love from the king or at least for her to realise it pretty sharpish but instead it actually took 50% of the book for any of this to happen) & then completely changing her tune and having insta love with Silas, so….? How am I meant to take any of the love interests seriously?
Plus there weren’t many moments between Silas & Hollis. I mean, it took like half the book for that to even be a thing and then 2 kisses, a couple conversations dotted here & there & we’re married. 🤦‍♀️

Then at least we can have some nice female friendships, right? And yeah, I’ll give you that Valentina and Scarlet were lovely and so was Silas’ mum. But I’m sorry what even was Delia Grace?! Like I am SO confused. She was meant to be Hollis’ best friend but she was mainly just mad at everyone all the time and also completely controlling and manipulative. And also poor Nora who was honestly a sweetheart & completely made up for whatever she could have said about Delia Grace, was just completely forgotten about. Like 100% was not mentioned again for the rest of the book. I mean, Hollis didn’t even write to her to say she was ok!
Finally, the plot twists at the end, I saw them coming from a mile off, well not the Silas thing (that was MENTAL) but the other thing which someone should have told Hollis about? Like welcome to our family iT’S nOT dAngEROuS hERe AT aLL

Honestly I’m not even sure how someone didn’t pick up that everything and everyone in this is completely 2D. Sure, the selection was trashy but at least it was fun, this was just completely ridiculous 😅 I mean she left the king, who was honestly a pretty nice guy (apart from a couple of VERY OBVIOUS scenarios like “any children we make are arrows in my quiver, and I will aim them wherever I must for the sake of Coroa” like I’m sorry but that line is just laughable – the author created the perfect guy & then ‘quickly, someone think of a flaw he could have so Hollis won’t love him!’) Plus the main thing was that he didn’t value her opinion but one of the first things he did was make her sit through the Eastoffes arriving and then ask for her opinion on it AND LISTENED TO HER (although at the time she was too busy staring at her new boyfriend to pay attention properly, so I’m not really surprised he never asked again) & then went to live with a whole family of liars – how romantic.

So I’m sorry but I would not suggest wasting your time on this 🤷‍♀️

I tried hard to enjoy this book but i just couldn't get into it, i managed 30% hoping it would get better but i kept losing focus. I might try to read it again once its out as a physical copy to see if that can hold my attention.

I read The Selection series back in the day so when I started this I knew I was in for a quick, fun, easy read that I could devour in an evening. And it absolutely was those things; it was a solid 3 star read for the first 75% of the novel.

And then Kiera Cass properly shocked me with those last 100 pages. It. Got. Real. And I realised I cared about these characters more than I thought, that the story was stronger and deeper than I’d predicted, and that I really, really wanted to know more.

I was surprisingly impressed by The Betrothed. It’s a serious step up from Cass’s first series and I’m looking forward to reading more of this one.

As soon as I had The Betrothed in my hands I had to start reading. I loved The Selection series so I knew that I was in for a treat. 

Before I begin, having read all the way through, this is not much like The Selection series. Yes there are gorgeous dresses, lots of jewels and stunning moments. But there is a darker undertone throughout that makes it different in so many ways. Including what I was expecting. 

From page one I was engrossed. And I was desperate to see what would happen. Especially between Hollis and King Jameson. I did really like Jameson, I felt like he had good intention and it was just him being King that got in the way of him showing his true feelings. I know that we were meant to be rooting for Silas.

But in every situation thrown at Hollis, she follows her heart. No matter what pressure is put on her. From her family, her friends, and even to some extent herself. She does what she believes in and remains true to herself. 

And it is at this point, when she decides to follow her heart that the story actually starts. Before it was all about pretty dresses, grand gestures and beautiful moments. And yes I have to be honest at the beginning The Betrothed felt very must like The Selection but in the end it was completely different. 

And with that ending, I honestly cannot wait another year to read the next book. While it did not have a cliffhanger (of which I am incredibly grateful for!), there is an air of anticipation for what will happen next. I honestly cannot think of what will occur but I am excited to see what happens. 

The Betrothed was everything I wanted and also not. It was the book that I needed in my life until it went dark. But I cannot wait to meet Hollis again and see what she will achieve.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Collins Children’s UK for the e-arc copy to read and review.

This book was very similar in some ways to The Selection series, so if you loved that you’ll love this.

Hollis is entertaining King Jameson as he courts her while trying to pick his Queen, she captures him with her personality and beauty, she’s funny and makes him laugh with her somewhat childish behaviour but he finds it entertaining. She gets so swept up with the enjoyment of being wanted by the king and getting to rise up in power she doesn’t consider the other factors that would be at play and further down the line it hits her what could or couldn’t be. Then she meets someone that shows her what true love should feel like and things change.

So pretty much each character made you like them and hate them at some point throughout this book. Hollis our protagonist was funny and opinionated, she didn’t overly obey the rules too much but she stood for what she believed in, one thing that annoyed me with her was the way she treated Delia Grace. I honestly adored their friendship from the start of this book but then it changed as time went on. I liked a lot if the characters in this and liked the varied differences in them and it worked really well and think each was though out a lot.

The story was fascinating it had so many different elements to it from all the fancy royal gifts and royal events to mysterious visitors that leave you curious and testing our lead character to action you didn’t see or expect was coming, then to a major cliffhanger that made me scream “Oh my gosh What? Why? No?” When it ended and I didn’t get another chapter. Seriously I have to wait how long for the rest of this story?

I will say I did get lost in conversation scenes a couple times, I couldn’t follow who was talking to who or about who I kept looking for the names of who it was and couldn’t always figure it out. However this was a minor thing and didn’t ruin anything for me.

I honestly loved this book so much and as soon as I have a physical copy I’m reading it again and again. If you are into this genre of book then please read it, it’s beautiful, exciting, so fun and you will be transported to a whole different royal world at the Keresken Castle.