#Review - Wicked Betrayal by Marty Mayberry #YA #Fantasy

Series: Darkwater Reformatory # 1
Format: Kindle, 271 pages
Release Date: May 2, 2020
Publisher: Amazon.com Services LLC
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

Nothing beats being locked up in supernatural juvie. If only murdering the guy I'm falling for wasn't my only way out.

Framed by the head of the Seeker's Guild and sent to Darkwater to serve a life sentence, I'm doomed. The prison is located in the fae world, on an island in the middle of a forbidding sea. Wizards sent there never return.

The moment I arrive, I'm forced to take a series of initiation tests with a snarky, too-hot fellow inmate. If the creatures trying to kill us don't do him in, I just might. Yet my birth father's at Darkwater, and while he could be the warden, a guard, or a fellow inmate, I'm determined to track him down. He stole something from me when I was a baby, and I want it back.

Once I get what I came for, there are two ways out. Survive the Challenge--another series of trials that take place in the ever-changing, magical catacombs beneath the prison, and they'll send me to pre-release at Darkwater Reformatory. Or I can fulfill the secret blood bond I made with the Master Seeker. Eliminate a fellow inmate and the Master Seeker will transport me home.

...Except the inmate I must kill is the wizard I'm falling for.

Wicked Betrayal is the first installment in author Marty Mayberry's Darkwater Reformatory series. Apparently, this is a spin-off from the authors Crystal Wing Academy series. Tria is the main protagonist for this series. She is a Seeker trying to track down her father Bastian Spires who stole something from her when she was a baby. Seekers are apparently used to track down lost Wizards. After finding a way into the Seekers Guild squirreled away inside Icean Mountains, Tria comes face to face with Ramseff. 

 

Ramseff not only looks down his nose at Tria calling her an apprentice Seeker, but forces her into a Blood Bond that will remain unbreakable until she kills someone for him. Tria is stuck between a rock and a hard place when Ramseff goes even further by setting her up for a murder of a professor that she adored. Even though she's innocent, Tria is condemned for life at Darkwater Prison which is the Super-Max of Fae world. The Prison is actually located between realms and nobody has ever escaped.

 

Tria is apparently a Sidhe Fey who was raised by her stepfather and mother. She just recently found her sister, Fleur, and was also trained on how to handle a specific type of magic others don't have access to. To make matters interesting, a Rabid shifter dude attacks her and tries to bite her. He promises that his face will be the last thing she ever sees. The twist to this story is that in order for Tria to get to her father, she must get to the so called Reformatory after passing a series of tests. 

 

Of all the bad luck, Rabid just happens to be going to the same prison. This is the part of the book where a good editor would have caught the numerous mistakes of calling Rabid by his name before HE tells Tria who he actually is. Once Tria and Rabid arrive on the outskirts of Darkwater, they are forced to traverse multiple environments and multiple creatures that only want to kill them. Not only does she have to deal with those creatures, but she soon discovers Rabid is acutally Brodin, the boy she needs to kill to get rid of the Blood Bond. 

 

Tria finds a friend in Jacey, her roommate, who has her own story to tell which I won't. Jacey is an interesting characer whose background could write another book all itself. Tria, Jacey, and Brodin soon become something of a team. They have to face the usual bad girls and boys who want to see them fail spectacularly. There is the usual nasty Warden who is drunk on power. There is also a cat like creature called Kai who finds Tria much more interesting than the old nasy Wardens. 

 

Unfortunately for this story, there's no world building whatsoever. We, as readers, are to have presumed to have read the authors previous series to find out more. I absolutely abhor easy mistakes that could have been caught had the author had an editor around to proof read her book before it was released. The trio also finds another partner to their triad, Akimi who is a tree nymph. Akimi, Tria, Jacey, and Brodin must now face a series of challenges. If they succeed, they enter the Reformatory. If they don't, lights out.

Amazon