Review of The Powerless Trilogy

Lauren Roberts published the first installment of this series Powerless back in 2023 at only twenty years old! With the sequel and novella being published the following year in 2024 and the conclusion to the trilogy being released on April 8, 2025, Roberts has definitely been a busy lady! Knowing how quickly these books were written, edited, and released, I have to admit that my expectations were pretty low for this series, but after the imploring of several good friends, I knew I had to pick it up!

Thus began my mad dash to buy and read them all! I began Powerless on March 31st and finished it, the sequel Reckless, the novella Powerful, and the concluding book Fearless by April 11th. When I say I devoured this series, I mean it! I was a kid at a candy store shoveling all manner of sweets in my mouth and swallowing without chewing! And since I read them so quickly, it took me a couple of days to really digest these books. I’m sure after having more time to sit with them, I will have even more thoughts on this great series.

The first things you need to know if you’re considering reading this trilogy is that this is a romance fantasy, lovingly referred to as romantasy, with an 18-year-old female as the main character, and with a plot surrounding fighting, magic, and themes of rebelling against tyranny. This is all pretty standard, run-of-the-mill, characteristics of young adult (YA) romantasy, but Roberts does it different. She does it better. These books are poetry, ooey-gooey sweetness wrapped in a hard, I’ll burn your house down with you in it, shell. I have heard so many comparisons, characterizing these books by mentioning them alongside other YA gems like The Red Queen, but no other YA romantasy has lines so well-crafted that I knew they would stick with me for years to come. I will forever struggle with the impossible standards that Kai and Mak have set. No one does love letters better than Roberts’s characters. Here are a couple lines from each book that I will have a hard time forgetting:

“He’s looking at me like one would a painting—drinking in every detail, delighting in its originality, deeming it a work of art.” (Powerless)

“She’s so beautiful, I can hardly believe it, hardly breathe. Her soul is stunning. Her very being is bright and bold and so unbelievably better than I am. She is a good beyond my grasp, one that I am not worthy of glimpsing, let alone grabbing hold of.” (Powerless)

“She is an intoxicating sort of exhausting, like running until you’ve lost your breath but enjoying the feeling all the while. And I feel as though I’ve been sprinting for days. Even worse, I fear that I am, in fact, beginning to enjoy her. What a terrifying realization, to admit one’s admiration for another.” (Powerful)

“But you… you’re the embodiment of everything I am not. And yet, here I am, crawling back to you as though I’ve left a piece of myself behind.” (Powerful)

“Call us even. Call me crazy. I don’t care. Just…” His eyes are pleading, brimming with emotion. “Just call me yours.” (Reckless)

“I may be a monster, but if you cut me, I'll bleed. And if you break my heart, Pae, you'll break me. So, if even a sliver of your soul longs for mine, I'll spend the rest of my life trying to deserve it.” (Reckless)

“I’ve been nothing but willing when it comes to drowning in those ocean eyes. But now, I can’t fathom drowning if she is not the anchor I’m sinking with.” (Fearless)

“At the end of a blade, I would love you. Until it pierced my throat, I would say ‘yes’ to you.” (Fearless)

I can sing nothing but praises for the writing style and the overabundance of amazingly-quotable lines throughout these books, but I struggled a bit to get on board with the plot. Mainly in book 3. Powerless is definitely my favorite of the group, but I did find myself aggravated with where the story went in book 3. I had my mind made up about what I wanted to happen, but Lauren Roberts delivered something completely different. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. I still wish I could get her to write me an alternate ending, but that’s not something I can flesh out here for spoiler-free review purposes. Email me if you’ve read them and want my real, un-abridged thoughts.

Regardless of my own personal desires not being pandered to, there were still some issues with the plot in the third book. I felt that many things were rushed or not explained enough as I was reading, and honestly I still think Fearless could have been two books instead of one. So much happens in these 600 pages that I think it could have been separated into two 500 page novels in order to tie up all the loose ends, but maybe she didn’t have a book contract to cover a fourth, or maybe she just didn’t see the need for a fourth. I just couldn’t help but wish for more while I was reading this last book.

Despite my sad experience as a major Kitt fan (you’ll have to read them to understand), I would recommend this series to anyone that knows how to read. And if you don’t know how to read, I recommend the audiobooks!

One major problem that most romantasy books have in my opinion, is the reliance on sexually-explicit scenes to move the plot along. I view this as a crutch and as evidence of a lack of skill. Roberts does not have this problem! She is able to craft gut-wrenching emotional scenes throughout these romance books with scenes as innocent as a game of thumb-war. You don’t have to worry about your ears turning read, or hiding the title of these books when reading in public, and it makes me respect Roberts’s craft so much more. Society has become so incredibly desensitized to sexually-explicit content that it can be difficult to find well-written books that aren’t too “spicy.” Roberts has excelled at leaving the spice behind “closed doors” with this series!

I can’t get enough of this series, and I definitely see myself rereading it in the future. Don’t walk, run out to buy these books!

And I very rarely go beyond simply leaving a rating on Goodreads, but I had to leave the following review for Fearless:

“This book was nothing I expected! I had such high demands for this last installment of the trilogy. There were so many things I wanted to happen that simply did not. The only thing I can say is #teamkitt and he deserved better. Lauren, you have wrecked me.”

Have you read this trilogy by Lauren Roberts? If so, what are your thoughts? Drop a book recommendation in the comments!