Betrayed
In the second book in the Arnaud Legacy series, teenagers Phoebe, Miles, and Eleanor follow Phoebe’s family to Versailles, where the teenagers experience sudden periods of time travel, locate an old enemy, and learn the roots of her immortal secrets. But the teenagers have some role in this tale, one essential to their “graduation,” and they must piece together the clues to keep Phoebe’s family safe from harm.
This is a series where you should read the first book because if you don’t, you will have a lot of catching up to do in the first 20 percent of this novel. There’s one major secret about the teenagers that (if you don’t read the spoilers online) will further muddy the water in the opening pages, if you haven’t already been clued in. Heavy on telling, coincidence, and pre-teen dialogue, this book favors breakneck pace over depth, creating a mishmash of teen sci-fi adventure, Da Vinci Code intrigue, and Twilight-esque love story that never really coalesces. The historical details, although interesting, are more like tangents than essential elements to the plot. The premise (which I won’t spoil here) provides limitless possibilities, but the plot never capitalizes on all that potential. More sophisticated dialogue and plotting would take this promising setup much farther.
