I will never trust book Tok again. This “romantasy” (loose on the antasy part of the word) is exactly what the author described it as. A Frankenstein of every single romance-fantasy trope in one book. I don’t believe there is a single original plot within the book. The book takes you through the world of “Ilya” (what a creative name I know) where people called “Elites” reign with their powers and “Ordinaries” are well... ordinary. I love how the book does not let us infer or hypothesis power dynamics within this kingdom whatsoever. First page we are immediately told who is discriminated against and why, and how bad it is. We are introduced to our main character, Paedyn, who is Ordinary, when it is illegal to be one, as you will be exiled? Killed? Not entirely sure. Anyway, she lies, cheats, and steals to live. Then you meet the royal male lead, Kai, who is broody, bantery, dark-haired, tall, charming, protective, and TOTALLYY not like other male leads. (Half of his romantic scenes are exact copies of others, but that’s beside the point.) Anyway, they both are entered into this tournament, where most of this book takes place, but there are so many issues within that. The first issue I found was Kai’s motive to enter the Purging Trails tournament thing. He is the second prince, and the future “Enforcer” which we get reminded of every single page. The book tells us that he enters the trails and has been training for the trials since he was a kid, to prove to the world that he’ll be a great enforcer or something, but the book never shows who the current enforcer is, how the trials prove anyone anything whatsoever, or why people even enjoy it? The book explains the people’s motive to celebrate the exile of ordinaries, but they demonstrate this by watching elites murder each other. What? Also, why the senseless killing? The people in the trials have grown up together and are described as being close earlier in the novel, just to kill each other in the trials for literally no reason other than the opportunity to kill is there. Am I missing something? Oh, and every single plot point of the Trials was a rip off of another book, whether it be the Hunger Games or Harry Potter. I have a lot more issues regarding the trials, but I will spare you the reading. Trust, I can make essays off this nonsense. Powerless is a romance book, not a fantasy, and I stand on that. They never explore any worldbuilding outside of these trials, or even within the trials if you ask me. They just shove the Elite vs. Ordinary thing in your face and call it a day. I rated this a 3 out of 5 because it at least entertained me somewhat. Though romance is barely romance, just banter. The entire thing is banter. Read if you want to read a Hunger Games/Red Queen fusion but take out the good parts of both books and replace them with banter.