Me on The Heart of Betrayal

Title: The Heart of Betrayal
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co. (Macmillan imprint)

Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape. Desperate to save her life, Lia's erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komizar that she has the gift, and the Komizar's interest in Lia is greater than anyone could have foreseen. Meanwhile, nothing is straightforward: there's Rafe, who lied to Lia, but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom Lia always believed to be barbarians. Now that she lives amongst them, however, she realizes that may be far from the truth. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her sense of self, Lia must make powerful choices that will affect her country... and her own destiny.

The Heart of Betrayal is layered with deception and lies, of plans, of stories lost through time and revealed once again.

Lia is now in Venda. A prisoner, a captive, a young girl caught up in someone else's plan. Now near the Komizar, the man who ordered Kaden to kill her, she has to be careful of everything and everyone around her. But she isn't, not all the time. She's still bold, still reckless, still pushing the limits set before her. She isn't patient, she won't wait for long, and so she makes plans of her own. But the people of Venda surprise her. The people of Venda have a story to tell her.

When it comes to unfamiliar countries, especially countries we war and have warred against, it surprises us when we find similarities between us and them. Lia believes Venda to be filled with barbarians, warmongers, useless wrecks without any decency. What she discovers is a land with a deep, unshakable faith in her gift. A hard land, a land of survivors and fighters. But why would she have known any of this when growing up in Morrighan? Why would the sad and lonely things about Venda be taught? That would only humanize them, make them appear less than a danger and more of someone who needed help. Lia learns that not everything she thought she knew about Venda is true, and it frightens her. It changes her.

This book is more deception, more plotting and planning, than anything else. Everyone tells lies, keeps secrets, investigates, makes plans with others as well as on their own. It's hard to know who to trust, who to believe. Except for some. Lia lies in order to survive, to escape. She deceives, she hides, she uncovers. She must if she doesn't want to end up dead. The last book will, as it often is with trilogies, be the most revealing, the most eye-opening, and I'm looking forward to see how it all ends.

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Macmillan through Raincoast Books.)