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As she grows closer to her new friends at the House of Night school for vampyres, Zoey Redbird begins to feel as if she finally belongs somewhere. She’s been greatly blessed with powers from the goddess Nyx, which she’s getting used to. She’s even attracted the attention of two boys and an instructor, though she can’t decide which one to pick.
But then Zoey’s mentor, Neferet, takes a cold, cruel turn that only Zoey—and Aphrodite, a former leader of the Dark Daughters—can see. At the same time, some of Zoey’s former classmates from her old life begin turning up dead—drained of blood and tossed into the river. All clues point toward one of the vampyres at the House of Night, straining the already uneasy relationship between the vamps and humans in Tulsa.
When she runs into her old boyfriend, Heath, they begin a relationship that distracts Zoey from the things that she needs to pay attention to. Her unique powers put her friends in danger, and a betrayal shakes her to her soul.
For a young adult novel, Betrayed is a highly seductive and sexy read. My mother would never have let me read something like this when I was a teen. As a result, Zoey comes off sounding a bit loose, and I ended up not liking her as much as I wanted to. She does have her good points, though, and it’s realistic for her to feel lust while sampling Heath’s blood—because that’s what vampyres do. But still—at the risk of sounding like a less than hip parent—this is supposed to be a young adult read, and I don’t think it should include so much groping and rubbing.
Another thing that bothered me about Betrayed was what felt like the authors’ intrusion into the story. They seem to have a problem with “people of faith,” ignorant rednecks, and a number of other things—and they keep harping on it. I wish they’d quit using their characters to air their social views—because it only makes me dislike Zoey even more. I had really hoped that they wouldn’t carry this over from the first book in the series, but, unfortunately, they did, which sometimes makes Betrayed a less than pleasing read.
However, when the story picks up with the creepy aspects of the plot, Betrayed becomes a spooky, enjoyable read that kept me in its grip and made me want to grab the next book in the series. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that the authors’ intrusion stays out of the plot and the scary aspects are ramped up even more.
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