The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove Review

The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate

Publisher: Razorbill

Release date: November 12, 2009

Source: Publisher

Other books by this author: Fallen

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.

Review:

Wow! What a book! I hadn’t heard much about this when I got it in the mail. With all the buzz about Fallen, I had assumed it was her debut novel or that if she had others published they had come out in years past. With two books coming out within a month of the other and one being the very popular Fallen, I’m afraid The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove was kind of buried in the back. It was a terrific book that I think everyone definitely should read. I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it at first, but there were so many exciting and creepy twists and turns in the plot I just couldn’t put it down. I didn’t really care for Natalie in the beginning, she seemed so obsessed with becoming Palmetto Princess that she didn’t care about anything else. I was really wondering how the Justin scene was going to play out- wow that was really well done! I think Natalie really got a wake up call on the fact that she needed to change her ways. The main female character in a lot of the novels I’ve read is a snotty, popular girl who just has the perfect life. The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove really proved that there’s more to every person and fate also played a big role. Each character got what they deserved… I don’t want to give anything away, but the biggest part of this novel that surprised me was the ending. WOW! What an ending, it was such a shocker!

The characters were really good, but the book mainly focused on Natalie. I mean yeah she’s the main character, but I would have liked a little more information on some of the other characters. Mike kind of fell to the background by the end as did Kate and the Bambies. I think the school “royalty” system was pretty cool, the juniors ruled the bathroom with beanbag chairs. Although some things were a little far fetched- my school would never allow the students to set up beanbag chairs in the bathroom and hold meetings while burning incense! Overall the plot was really creative and I enjoyed it a lot. By the end I couldn’t put it down. This was an original, exiting book that made me even more excited for Fallen. Definitely pick up a copy soon- it’s out in paperback!

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars