After reading Betrothed and posting its very first review back in 2013, I was excited to receive Allegiance last year shortly after its release date. Wanda personally requested a print copy for me, which I adore her for! But to be honest, I adore her anyway, just for creating such a beautifully fantastical world and story.
It's taken me a long time to finally finish the book (I haven't been reading anything at all, apart from some children's books here & there). But I really want to start getting back into it. I have a few books I'm excited to read, which is something I didn't have for a long time. Anyway, I wanted to start off with finishing Allegiance first.
Allegiance is a wonderful continuation from Betrothed in that the tone of the story hasn't changed a lot, although many, many things are different. Marla's human friends live in Faera now, which is great, and we see so much more of the world of faeries, but there's still one foot in the real world (the human world). I've always loved the combination of worlds - the world-building is done very well, Wanda paints a gorgeous picture of Faera and I just want to escape to that world all the time.
I'm extremely intrigued by King Telophy. I loved seeing the development of the characters, particularly him. Now that Marla has the bond of allegiance with him, she sees him in a whole new light and he doesn't seem at all as terrible as he once did.
The storytelling this time round I think was done particularly well. The underlying mystery about Marla's fae parents kept peaking its head amidst the present struggles happening in the kingdom with the Shadow Fae. I personally love that we've found Marla's twin bro Lysander and that he's living with Marla's human family in Sydney. I'm sure he'll end up in Faera soon enough. The ending was a lot more digestible than the ending of the first book - for the most part, loose ends were tied, and the readers' aren't left in the lurch with the MCs in dire straits. (In other words, it's a good ending!)
The only little niggling thing I have with this series is the writing and dialogue sometimes, mainly in romantic situations when conversations can get a bit cringey. But don't get me wrong, I do love a good romance! And love the amount of it that is written into the story. There's a lot of romance.
In a nutshell: I'm really enjoying the Betrothed series so far - the story, action & adventure, along with the fantasy and mystery, along with the adorable characters, oh and the gorgeous book covers as well - it all makes for a magical YA fantasy series.
I'm a little sad that Confused (the third book) didn't come out this year, but I'm definitely looking forward to reading it next year.
My rating: 3.5 stars
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