Fearful

📢 “THE SILENCE IS OVER. KITT’S SIDE OF THE STORY IS HERE.”
-The villain is finally getting his voice! “His letters cracked me. His POV will wreck me.”

OK GUYS FEARFUL CAME OUT WEEKS AGO AND I ALSO READ IT A WEEK AGO (my pookie, my bestie, the loml, GIFTED ME THIS BOOK FOR MY BIRTHDAYYYY) I ALMOST CRIED WHEN I SAW IT. ILYSM POOKIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE OK LETS GET INTO THIS REVIEW. also warning: it is literally almost 1 am, I am EXHAUSTED but i felt like writing so here i am. Writing. There’s probably gonna be 20 million mistakes. i apologize times a million, i swear I will fix them (whenever i feel like it)

Set during the time of Fearless, a mysterious figure arrives in the kingdom of Ilya to witness the fight for the throne and the price it costs those sworn to defend the land in this beautiful and heart-wrenching story in the #1 New York Times bestselling Powerless trilogy.

Love too grand, it kills.

Mara never intended to set foot in Ilya again. But when the king makes a life-altering decision, her interest is piqued, and Death is determined to understand Kitt Azer’s mind if he is destined to join her in the Mors.

Spending time with the king while observing the castle’s inhabitants reminds Mara that there is more to life than just death. There is love. But even the purest of intentions spur revenge and the pursuit of power. And fate will have its way with all of them—to live, to rule, to love, and most certainly, to die…

Oh okay?? Did Lauren have to stab me in the back, front, and heart with that one line??😭 So we’re not healing this year?? We’re unraveling emotionally page by page?! “We read kitt’s goodbye. Now we hear his rage.”

This book. Is. 100+ pages. Of my boy, Kitt. Being in love. HOW DO I SURVIVE READING THAT AFTER KNOWING WHAT HAPPENS!? (wait I don’t actually know if I’ve posted a review for Fearless, I’ll check later. But iykyk)

It’s Mara, the Reaper, walking Ilya’s halls like a ghost of what never should’ve bloomed.
It’s Kitt Azer, king of restraint, finally choosing something for himself…
And of course, it’s going to cost him everything.

Kitt MY SHAYLA!!!They can never make me hate you, babygirll (ok let’s be so for real, Kitt is so babygirl. TRUST.) I even loved him Powerless! Like, my friends HATED him. But not me!

➷ WHAT TO EXPECT (and cry through):
✨Mara: cold, maybe immortal — and suddenly curious about the boy who chose power over peace.
✨Kitt Azer: the king, the fighter, the flame — stepping into the darkness with nothing but his crown and convictions.
✨Death watching the living fall in love — until. it happens to her.
✨Kitt Azer, you haunted me in Fearless. And now?? NOW I HAVE TO WATCH YOU CHOOSE LOVE WHEN I KNOW HOW THIS ENDS??? No. No. No. 💔
✨This isn’t closure.
This is a wound with no name.
And baby—I’ll keep reading it anywayyyy

📢 “You Hated Him—Now You’ll Hurt For Him.”

Because once the villain starts speaking…
You’ll wish he never stopped.
Even when it destroys you. (credits to whoever wrote that, I just saw it somewhere and I was just like YES THATS THE ONE)

Fearless gave us war.
Fearful is about what that war cost.

AND I AM NOT OKAY. 😭💔

🎯 If 2025 is the year of crying over fictional men with crowns and wounded hearts—SO BE IT
I AM READY TO CRY AGAIN!! Baby, I don’t care what happens. I’m choosing delusion over devastation all day EVERYDAY!!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Kitt Azer: Oh, Kitt. My bbg. I adored him in the first book, had mixed thoughts but still liked him in the second, and the third? I just wanted to give him a big hug. Now, in Fearful, we get to dive deeper into what Kitt was going through. It KILLS me to read how lost he was, how much Edric still affected him even in death (EDRIC CAN GO DIE AGAIN), and the loneliness he felt. He just wanted to be great. Wanted to be better than his father. I’m glad that he had someone of the sorts to confide in (even if that someone was Death, herself), that he could relate to in a way. He was different in Fearful. I don’t really know how to explain, but he just seemed unlike the Kitt from Fearless. And boy oh boy, did he deserve a better ending than whatever that was. LIKE, LAUREN. YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM MY LAWYER AND THERAPIST.

Mara: While I loved the concept of Death, aka Mara, I was a bit let down when I realized that most of her chapters were just about her ghosting around the castle, watching Blair and Lenny, and not really getting to know her or her past. I did really like Mara, I thought she understood Kitt a lot and in a way that no living human could, I also felt so bad for her. She would tap her foot in a rhythm and pretend it was her heartbeat. She felt envious of the romance/happiness that was happening around her, felt lonely as well. But that ending? My opinions about her are a little bit unclear now. I don’t hate her, and it’s not her fault. But am I supposed to like her after she practically enslaves Kitt in Mor? I just wanted to learn more about her, but I understand that she is Death so it makes sense, I guess. In a weird way?

Blair + Lenny: Let me just make this clear to everyone. I don’t like Blair, I never have and honestly don’t think I ever will. (I mean I kind of did like her in this book. Just a little bit. A teeny tiny bit. But only because I sympathised with her!!) But I adore Lenny. And if he’s happy with her, then I’m happy as well. To say I’m surprised that they had a relationship is an understatement. I never in my life would’ve expected them to end up together. I did sense there was something going on between Blair and Lenny in Fearless, as well as her ‘death’, so I was happy to have my suspicions confirmed. I did like their banter, the back and forth bickering/flirting. And their happy ending where Blair got to be who she wanted to be, not what she was forced to become. While Lenny left his job as an Imperial and created a life with her. Ok, I might adore them…maybe. But I still don’t like Blair. LIKE SHE KILLED ADENA. LIKE GIRL I CANNOT JUST FORGIVE YOU FOR THAT.

Now there’s just one itty bitty thing that I wanted to point out. In this book, Death is a woman. Now, you must be like “Oh wow, Aaradhyaa, you don’t say!?” But I pinkie promise I have a point.

Most of us immediately think of the Grim Reaper: hooded, skeletal, a dude, cold, untouchable. Roberts flips that, and it’s exhilarating. A female Death feels different—she’s not just an abstract force of fear; she’s commanding, complex, and unapologetically powerful. There’s a sense of closeness in her presence, but it’s paired with inevitability and authority. She embodies what society often don’t associate with women: ultimate power, control over life and death, and the ability to command both awe and fear.

By making Death feminine, Lauren challenges deep-seated assumptions about gender and strength. She’s reminding us that women can hold the terrifying, the revered, the unstoppable, all at once. It’s not just a clever subversion—it’s a feminist statement woven into the story itself. Reading it, you start to question why we’ve been conditioned to picture authority and inevitability as male, and you can’t help but feel a spark of rebellion, of thrill, in seeing that power in a woman. Lauren takes something we all fear—Death—and transforms it into a figure that is bold, magnetic, and unforgettable, and in doing so, she invites readers to see women as fully capable of owning the ultimate authority, even over life itself.

And throughout the story I was like “YES BADDIE” 💅 Like when she was all “Men are lowkey stupid and clueless” I was like “YESSS THATS WHAT IM SAYINGGG!!!” There’s this sly, knowing awareness in her. She watches the egos, the overconfidence, the cluelessness, and it’s funny how effortlessly she holds power over it all. She reminds us that ultimate authority doesn’t bend to ego, fragility, or bravado—and when it’s wielded by a woman, it feels revolutionary.

EXCEPT THE END. IT WAS SO SADD. LIKE MY BABYGIRL KITT IS SO…BCHEFJBFHEU I CAN’T EVEN ANYMORE!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE AND LET ME DIE IN A HOLE PLEASE.

Ok I’m cutting my mental breakdown short now. This is it for this post. Love yall and byeee

XOXO

Aaradhyaa