Well, this is better than the dumpster fire of the first book, but that's not actually saying much.
If the first book had been written better, this one would have actually been decently strong. I probably would have liked the series instead of landing on an opinion more along the lines of "meh".

The Betrayed picks up right where the first book left off, which is good because that first book left off in a confusing mess. The "is he / isn't he" dilemma from the first book carries over into this one and made it kind of hard for me to root for certain characters or to process and move along with the story. I wish the author would have ended that question much sooner or actually addressed that readers were unsure and hadn't quite believed her description of the most important scene in the first book. I think that's what harmed this book the most.

Other than questioning if I had the whole picture for about 90% of the book, this one was pretty okay. The writing flowed along much better. The main characters actually grew and changed and acted in believable ways. There was some witty banter that I actually found enjoyable. Side characters were very flat and forgettable, though.

The Betrayed doesn't completely make up for the sins of The Betrothed, but it at least levels everything out. I'd read more by Cass.