When I picked up Powerless by Lauren Roberts back in late 2023, I was not amused. In fact, I quickly put it on the DNF pile. I wasn’t intrigued by it, and I couldn’t see myself continuing this story. However, my curiosity wasn’t extinguished at all. In summer 2024, this book got another chance. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I recognized its flaws. Not long after, Reckless was out in the world and surprisingly, I enjoyed this one more! This made me really curious for the final book in “the Powerless Trilogy”, Fearless. Was it worth the wait?

About the book

Fearless by Lauren Roberts
Series: The Powerless Trilogy #3
Published by Simon & Schuster on April 8, 2025
Pages: 593
ISBN: 9781665955461
Genres: Dystopian, Young adult
Rating: ⭐⭐

Paedyn and Kai are reunited but face a terrible decision in this thrilling conclusion to the New York Times bestselling romantic fantasy trilogy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and The Red Queen.

Paedyn Gray and Kai Azer return to the Kingdom of Ilya…

And Paedyn has a life-altering choice to make. Whatever she decides will determine her fate—and the fate of those around her—forever.

In the ultimate battle of love and loyalty, who wins? 

My review

Expectations

Whereas I wasn’t fully convinced by Powerless, but enjoyed Reckless pretty much, my expectations for Fearless were somewhat in the middle. This series has loads of flaws, it’s mostly copy-pasted from other popular books. I mostly found out myself, but I had to figure some of it out through other reviews as I’m still so behind on the YA classics. Also, I’m the worst in remembering quotes and dialogue, so I therefore am unable to pinpoint everything. However, the ending of the previous book looked promising for this final one, so I was really curious for how our main characters Paedyn and Kai would handle everything. I expected to enjoy this book despite its flaws, and that it was a fast read yet again. Unfortunately, I’m quite wrong.

Characters

My biggest issue this time is with the characters. I wasn’t too fond of them in the first book, but they redeemed themselves in the second one. They showed lots of growth there, alas that book is pretty character driven. Unfortunately, all the character growth is nowhere to be seen in this novel. Lost. Totally gone. Both Paedyn and Kai were reduced to one-dimensional characters who are unable to take any adult decisions. They are just so boring! They didn’t leave any impression on me, and I just couldn’t deal with them any longer. Their behaviour is ridiculously predictable and actually ridiculous in general. No, they are just your general, thirteen-in-a-dozen characters lacking any personality.

Writing

Roberts’ writing is not spectacular or extraordinary. In fact, I don’t know what it really is. This series contains so many elements that feel plagiarised, that it’s hard to judge the writing. There is too much repetition in everything, which makes it hard for me to get emersed in the story. Unfortunately, I zoned out a lot and this is definitely due to the writing, but also to the characters and plot. I still enjoyed the dual POV narration, this is necessary for the storyline and was to be expected as it’s also done in the previous books.

Plot

Guys, the plot. Really. Nah, we don’t take it any longer. I already noticed many similarities to Paedyn’s character arc in Powerless and Mare’s character arc in Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen, as well as many elements from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. As I’ve stated before, one reviewer on Goodreads pointed out all similarities this series has to other popular young adult and romantasy novels. It occurred that this final book in the trilogy also took some elements from Carissa Broadbent’s The Serpent and the Wings of Night, which was one of my favourite books of winter 2023. Anyway, apart from this issue, I had major issues with the plotline. Like, trials? Again? Seriously? This feels like Powerless all over again. And yes, also another book… I was never really intrigued by this novel and I admittedly have considered to just DNF it at multiple points. But the ebook is €15 and I didn’t want to just waste this money. Oh well. The most positive element is the ending as there are no loose ends anymore.

Final thoughts

As you have noticed, Fearless by Lauren Roberts wasn’t a good fit for me at all. In fact, I was really disappointed by this book. The character development the main characters have undergone before was lost in this novel. The plot was repetitive and just plain boring. Of course it was predictable too. I finished this for the sake of finishing it and for the money I’ve spent, but it’s just not good at all. I’m sorry, just brutally honest.