Ace of Betrayal - Book Review

November 14, 2025

Ace of Betrayal - Book Review

✨️ Book Title: Ace of Betrayal: Hand of Revenge Series Book #1

✨️ Author: Jessica Jude

✨️ Genre: Romance

✨️ Tropes: Second chance romance, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, dual POV’s, scheming/trickster best friends, found family

⭐️ Star Rating: 3.75 / 5 stars

🌶 Spice Level: 3 / 5 peppers peppers (hot/spicy - open-door intimacy)

⚠️ Trigger Warnings: Explicit language, explicit sexual content, sexual harassment, cheating, verbal abuse, violence, abandonment

📅 Release Date: March 4, 2025

My favourite room is, to no surprise, the library. It’s unlike any home library I’ve ever seen before, and if there were any way to stuff it into my trunk and take it back to Oxford with me, you’d better believe I would have already done so.

After abruptly leaving her hometown of Wesbourne and her elite lifestyle behind 2 years ago for her studies in Oxford, Walker is back in town. In need of specialized resources only available in Wesbourne, Walker finds herself returning home to complete her research project. With a plan to lay low and quickly finish her research before heading back, she soon realizes how fast well-laid plans can get blown out of the water. Will Walker be able to complete her research and return to school unscathed by those she used to know in Wesbourne?

In the beginning of Ace of Betrayal, I loved Walker, and I completely related to her love of libraries and being surrounded by books. A goal-oriented and driven woman, her no cheating stance resonated with me, and I loved that Walker learned from her parents’ mistakes… or so I thought.

Walker’s values on loyalty seem to take a nose dive when her romance rekindles with her ex-boyfriend, Heath. Early on, I liked Heath’s character quite a bit, and I was hoping to see more growth in his character, to see the spark that Walker saw. However, as the story unfolded with cheating, agreeing to a revenge plot against Walker (when he was the reason she left in the first place), and constantly lying by omission to Walker, I was not at all a fan. While I love a HEA, this was one of those times where I just wanted Walker to leave him behind and finish following her dream, and hold onto her golden rule of “no cheating”. She could do so much better. I also wanted to see Heath do more to try and redeem himself to Walker. Where was the groveling, telling the truth, and standing up for her to the group?

Putting this aside, I didn’t find a dull moment in Ace of Betrayal. The dual POV’s helped to shape a better understanding of each character, and kept a nice pace to the storyline overall. The rebellious friend group that we meet has some interesting characters that definitely kept the MCs and the readers on their toes, which I appreciated. While they have some work to do with personal growth, I felt that this opened up a great opportunity for each character to be expanded on in future installments of the Hands of Revenge series.

I also really appreciated how Walker responded to the group following her discovery of their revenge plot against her. It was a beautifully executed plan. One that really held a personalized equal weight to how they planned to sabotage Walker. This moment was the ultimate chef’s kiss for me.

Overall, I am still looking forward to reading books two and three as I’m intrigued to see the storylines develop further for book one’s side characters. Ace of Betrayal is perfect for fans of Gossip Girls and those who enjoy stories about the elite/wealthy mixed with some forced proximity, second-chance romance.