The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate

The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate
Release Date – November 12, 2009
Publisher – Razorbill
Pages - 248
My Rating- 6/10

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

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.

As soon as I read Cruel Intentions meets Macbeth I was sold. I wanted to read this book. I grabbed it from the library on a whim from reading the synopsis and reading the author’s Fallen series.

This different than the Fallen series. Very different. Fans of that series may not enjoy this book as much, but the writing style is the same, so if you enjoy Lauren’s writing style this book might appeal to you.

I was very torn with this book. Part of me liked it and part of me had a hard time getting into it.

The main issue I have is that I am a very character driven reader. I have to enjoy the characters to care. It doesn’t mean I have to like them, but I have to feel something. The characters in this from Natalie, her boyfriend Mike, and her nemesis Justin Barber are all unlikeable. Natalie is the front runner to be the Palmetto Princess and will do anything to obtain the crown.. She’s your typical high school “mean girl”. Her boyfriend is easily manipulated by her and agrees to go along with her in most things. The rest of the characters are just a vapid, and self absorbed as Natalie. I found it hard to even want to hate these characters.

When they play the prank on Justin I was able to guess what was going to happen to him and what various character reactions would be. The final outcome of the book however did surprise me a bit (I was expecting a much different ending). The author did a fantastic job with the ending. It perfect and actually was more in line with what I was expecting from this book.

I am a big fan of Cruel Intentions and I guess I thought this would have been more in line with that. It actually has a lot in common with Macbeth. I felt bad for Natalie in that she was popular, pretty and she let her ambition prevent her from seeing what she already had (very much like Macbeth).

My teenage self would have devoured this book and LOVED it, but my adult self may be too far past high school to really be engrossed in it.