Review: Betrayal (Haunting Emma #2) by Lee Nichols

Emma Vaile is the most powerful ghostkeeper in centuries. Which is great for battling the wraith-master Neos and horrible for her social life. Emma knows fellow ghostkeeper Bennett Stern is her soul mate, but when ghostkeepers fall in love, the weaker one loses all power. And until Neos is defeated, Bennett and Emma can't risk it.

When the temptation of being with Emma gets to be too much, Bennett disappears, pursuing a dangerous path to increase his powers. Heartbroken and alone, Emma tries to lose herself in school. But when the Knell, a secret ghostkeeping society, sends two new ghostkeepers to Echo Point—one a snarky teen guy, the other a British scholar—Emma throws herself into training to battle Neos. But as the team grows stronger, so do the ghosts. And worse, one of their own will betray them. One Emma never suspected. . .

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Why I read it: I really enjoyed Deception!


Review: In Betrayal we return to Emma Vaille, the most powerful ghostkeeper in centuries. Too bad she doesn't know how to control her powers. I was such a fan of Emma's voice in Deception as she was snarky and attitude driven but also vulnerable enough to like. In Betrayal I still like her but I felt that she spent an awful lot of time moping over Bennett and it took away from her strong heroine persona. Never mind though, she still stays on the strong side an never becomes whiney.


I still struggle to see Bennett as a nineteen/twenty year old guy, to me he comes across as a lot more mature and so I struggle to like their relationship. While it's intense and heartbreaking, I still feel as though it didn't have enough build up and there isn't a gigantic amount of chemistry. I like both Bennett and Emma as separate characters but as a couple? Not so much. Bennett does some not-so-great things in this book and I look forward to some conflict in the next in the series because of it.


The story in Betrayal is better paced than in the last book. There was a bit more action, some serious issues such as Emma's situation at school and some awesome conversations. My favorite part of the book was, strangely enough, not the ghostkeeping parts but the parts in which Emma was being blamed at school for the events of the last book. I loved this conflict as it added something new to the whole ghostkeeping paranormal storyline. I never felt as though the book dragged.


The book is titled Betrayal and it could be referring to many things - Bennett's decision to leave and what he does when he leaves, the way the school friends felt about Emma's actions in the first book or the main betrayal (which wasn't really as big as I was expecting, but still a shocker).


Overall, Betrayal is a good edition to series that I am really enjoying so far. My issues are with the relationship between the main characters which doesn't seem authentic and seems a little er... weird to me. I do, however love the characters individually and the plot and pacing are superb!


Overall Rating: B

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Stand alone/Series: Second in a series (Review for book #1 here)
UK Release: 5th September 2011
UK PUblisher: Bloomsbury
Many thanks to the publisher for sending me this copy for review!