Review: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove, by Lauren Kate

Title: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove
Author: Lauren Kate
Pages: 248
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: November 12, 2009

Genre: Young Adult
Keywords/Themes: death, deception, high school

A steamy Southern beauty makes one fatal mistake

Natalie Hargrove would kill to be her high school’s Palmetto Princess. But her boyfriend Mike King doesn’t share her dream and risks losing the honor of Palmetto Prince to Natalie’s nemesis, Justin Balmer. So she convinces Mike to help play a prank on Justin. . . one that goes terribly wrong. They tie him to the front of the church after a party—when they arrive the next morning, Justin is dead.

From blackmail to buried desire, dark secrets to darker deeds, Natalie unravels. She never should’ve messed with fate. Fate is the one thing more twisted than Natalie Hargrove.

Cruel Intentions meets Macbeth in this seductive, riveting tale of conscience and consequence.

My Review: I'm one of those people that, once I discover an author that has a great book, I like to read what ever else they have available. I had read Fallen a while back, and looked up on Lauren's website to see if she had any other books available. When I saw The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove and read the blurb ... I hesitated.

I'm not a huge fan of the "popular" people, or people that do harmful things to get ahead in life - it's never been my thing. So, I guess it was a blessing in disguise when I won an ARC of The Betrayal... through a blogger contest.

I have to admit, I enjoyed the book than what I thought I would. Lauren Kate made sure that we got glimpses into Natalie's past to show why she acts the way that she does, and I think that helped to make Natalie a more real character that you could actually relate to and empathize. In the end, I still thought Natalie's actions were horrible and definitely something that could have been avoided all together. But, then again, I guess we wouldn't have had a great YA book to read if that would have happened.

Overall, the plot was good. The characters were very real, though I have to say the only one I actually liked was Mike. The writing was wonderful, as it was in Fallen and the ending was kind of expected, but I was still surprised even when I fancied the idea of the ending before I actually read it. Lauren Kate is a wonderful author and I look forward to reading more books by her in the future.

Rating: ½ - I am definitely more of a fan of Fallen, but this one was better than what I expected. I'm not a huge fan of the cover, it's not an attention-grabber like others. The plot is a twist on something we've seen many times before, but it's definitely different enough to keep you reading through the end.

More Books By Author: Lauren Kate is the author of Fallen, who's sequel [Torment] will be released September 28th of this year - which I am too giddy about!

Source of Book: Won via blog contest.

Etc Etc: Read my review on Fallen here.