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Betrayed

P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

Published 2007            310 pages

Summary (from the book jacket)

Fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird has managed to settle in at the House of Night finishing school.  She finally feels like she belongs, even gets chosen as the Leader of the Dark Daughters.  Best of all, 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.

The Review

Betrayed is the second novel by mother and daughter writing team P.C. & Kristin Cast in their popular Young Adult (YA) House of Night series.  Events in Betrayed continue from about month after the events in Marked (the first book in this series) finished.  These books are written as a series, with a continuing story arc, so I would recommend reading them in series order.

Betrayed is narrated in first person by Zoey a fledgling vampyre who has been gifted with unusual powers by the vampyre goddess Nyx.  Marked saw Zoey bewildered by the twin ordeals of realising that she was destined to become a vampyre and having to go to a special boarding school for fledgling vampyres.  Betrayed sees a more confident Zoey starting to use her goddess-given powers and have more faith in her own abilities. 

There is still plenty of confusion in store for Zoey though, as she deals with her feelings for her human ex-boyfriend who she has accidentally Imprinted (a kind of vampyre mind-mojo thing) and her feelings for her new boyfriend Eric, who, as a vampyre fledgling, is a more suitable companion for Zoey.  If that wasn’t enough to occupy the thoughts of any sixteen-year old girl, one of the attractive young male vampyre teachers at the House of Night appears to be flirting with her – leaving Zoey suitably breathless and hankering after all three of her suitors…

The air of dark intrigue that has been surrounding the House of Night since Zoey first arrived is continued and intensified in Betrayed.  Something is definitely very wrong at the school and yet it seems to Zoey that she is the only person who can sense the hidden dangers. 

With fast paced plotting, likable characters and great dialogue Betrayed (like Marked) is a hugely readable novel.  There are still quite a lot of religious rituals, involving circles of power and calling the elements - and these are still the slowest parts of the story - but overall the rituals seem less of an interruption in the storytelling in Betrayed than they did in Marked. 

Betrayed is a great addition to the fantastic (and possibly addictive) House of Night series.  While Betrayed doesn’t have a cliff-hanger ending, readers are left with plenty of questions about the future of Zoey and her friends - guaranteeing a return trip to the book store for Chosen, the next book in this series.

Fantastic!

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