“Powerful” and “Fearful” by Lauren Roberts are both novellas from Roberts’ “Powerless” series. They add new and unique perspectives to the original trilogy.
“Powerful” is the first novella in the series and was released April 11, 2024. The events of the novella happen at the same time as the events in “Powerless.”
It focuses on Adena, who is the best friend of Paedyn Gray, the main character of “Powerless.”
Adena’s novella tells the story of her struggle as she learns to survive after her best friend is forced to leave their home and compete in trials at the palace.
However, Adena is not the only focus, because this book has switching points of view between Adena and a new character named Makoto, or Mak.
The new character is part of what makes this book so shocking, despite knowing how it is going to end because of “Powerless.”
Mak has a way of adding another layer to Adena’s story through the relationship that they form. It allows for another perspective on Adena that is outside of her own and her best friend’s.
Their relationship and interactions truly capture the reader’s attention and keep them in the moment, which makes the ending even more tragic than it was in “Powerless.” This is because of the anguish and suffering Mak endures watching the events unfold.
Additionally, Mak makes appearances in other books in the series, and this novella provides incredible insight into who he is and what his motivations are in the rest of the series.
“Powerful” isn’t the only novella that provides more insights on characters.
“Fearful” is the second novella for the “Powerless” series that takes place during the events of “Fearless.” This novella is from the perspectives of Kitt, Kai’s brother and new king, and Mara, who is death incarnate.
Going into “Fearful,” I truly did not expect to love it nearly as much as I have loved the rest of the series because of the focus being on Kitt, but I was quickly proven wrong.
Similar to “Powerful,” this book had a tragic ending because of the ending of “Fearless.”
However, the end felt a lot less tragic in “Fearful” than it did in “Fearless” because the novella delves into a new aspect of the series, the Mors.
The Mors is the place where humans go when they die in the “Powerless” universe, so knowing that Kitt’s end isn’t actually the end of his story is comforting in a way.
The end of “Fearful” was surprising for more reasons than the addition of the afterlife.
It took a different turn than most of the other books in the series do, because in “Fearful” the love is one sided, and one of the characters ends up scorned. This was slightly unexpected due to the trend of romance and relationships in the other books such as Kai and Paedyn as well as Adena and Mak.
While on the topic of unexpected, Mara provides so many unexpected elements to the story.
Chapters in her perspective range from her observing Kitt, observing the growing relationship between Blair and Lenny, two characters who grew strangely close during the original trilogy, and navigating the task that come with being death itself.
Her chapters were always interesting and provided insight that was surprisingly vital to the series, and she is easily the best character in the series because of her being so unique in comparison to the other characters.
Overall, “Powerful” and “Fearful” provide much needed insight that simply couldn’t be included in the original series in an entertaining way.
