Pawn, Aimée Carter [Review]

Title: Pawn

Series: The Blackcoat Rebellion, #1

Author: Aimée Carter

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 296

Format: Paperback

Source: ARC Provided by Publisher

Description:

For Kitty Doe, it seems like an easy choice. She can either spend her life as a III in misery, looked down upon by the higher ranks and forced to leave the people she loves, or she can become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country.

If she says yes, Kitty will be Masked—surgically transformed into Lila Hart, the Prime Minister’s niece, who died under mysterious circumstances. As a member of the Hart family, she will be famous. She will be adored. And for the first time, she will matter.

There’s only one catch. She must also stop the rebellion that Lila secretly fostered. The same one that got her killed…and one Kitty believes in. Faced with threats, conspiracies and a life that’s not her own, she must decide which path to choose—and learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she’s only beginning to understand.

Review:

Pawn was my very first Aimée Carter book—why it took me all this time to try this author is still something unknown to me—and despite my immense curiosity towards the story it is a fact that I didn’t really know what to expect… and what a great, shockingly good surprise this one turned out to be!

Dystopian novels have been growing on me for the past few months becoming one of my all-time favourite genres to read, and whenever I see a new release coming out I can’t quite resist the urge of at least taking a look. Pawn was one of those tempting cases—a gorgeous cover, an interesting storyline and the promise of a grand adventure were more than enough to catch my full attention.

Kitty Doe is an Extra—which means she’s a burden—and regardless of the possibilities that might reach her way once she takes the test that will determine her place in the society, she knows she’ll never be able to get a good enough score to grant her the stability and decent sense of living needed to build a safe future with Bengy, the boy she loves. So when the opportunity of going up a few numbers in the rank takes place, she’d be a fool not to accept it—the only problem relies on what she’ll have to give up in return in order to become part of the most powerful family in the country.

Oh dear goodness in heaven, this book still gives me the chills! There are simply no sufficient words to express how incredibly mesmerizing, and exhilarating, and refreshing this book truly is. Carter created a fabulous world of false hope and mischievous secrets, little imperfections that gradually start coming up during Kitty’s self discoveries. She is in deep, deep trouble, and it is quite amazing and exciting to ‘watch’ how Carter draws her main character’s lines of life through the dangerous fate of becoming a Hart. This story is twisted in so many and unimaginable ways that even for me is extremely complicated to put into words how fascinating this narrative can be to a dystopia’s fan. 

So many are the details that give life to Pawn—even the title is a key aspect of what this story hopes to portray. The society itself is interesting as Carter was seriously intelligent in the way she developed and structured the world building, but also the characters are a feature of great importance. Kitty is witty, and courageous, and fragile all at the same time, and that gives her the necessary depth for the reader to connect. The things she has to go through in order to conquer a very wanted freedom are unbelievable and the way she reacts to things, to the situations she is pushed to only make her even more special. In addition, even the secondary cast is graciously terrifying and often cruel. Figures like Knox, Daxton and Bengy shape what’s good and what’s bad in this thrilling narrative and it’s impossible not to care for them, even for the perverted, sick ones.

With no obvious love triangle­—which counts as a bonus for me—, no romantic relationship taking over the plot and a brutal and merciless place called Elsewhere in the horizon, Pawn is, without a doubt, a great read to dive right into. After turning the last page, I can only imagine the secrets and surprises kept in Captive, the second instalment in this trilogy. Uh, I can’t wait!

UK Cover

(Mira Ink)

My Soul to Save, Rachel Vincent [Review]

Author: Rachel Vincent

Publisher: Mira Ink (2011)

Pages: 362

Format: Paperback

Description:

When Kaylee Cavanaugh screams, someone dies. So when teen pop star Eden croaks onstage and Kaylee doesn't wail, she knows something is dead wrong. She can't cry for someone who has no soul.

The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad's ironclad curfew and putting her too-hot-to-be-real boyfriend's loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls: a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld--a consequence they can't possibly understand.

Kaylee can't let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk....

Review:

Since the moment I turned the very first page of this book that I’ve been asking myself why it took me this long to catch up on this series. I absolutely loved My Soul to Take (that I read back in the beginning of 2012), and despite having the need of taking some time between readings of the same author or series, I can’t seem to find a good enough reason for why I ‘needed’ almost two years to go back to Kaylee’s world of crazy. One thing I now know for sure: I refuse to take another two-year break until I devour the third instalment of the Soul Screamers series, entitled My Soul to Keep.

In addition to a drop-dead-gorgeous cover, My Soul to Save also embraces a strong plot with a fare share of unexpected twists and turns that maintain the reader in an absolute and exhilarating agony while waiting, wishing even, for the possible solutions to many of the problems encountered, effortless way-outs that could easily save such an adoring group of characters, but also knowing, at the same time, that those will never happen—all due to the particularity that this is not a simple, obvious story. Vincent created an incredible world of bean sidhes, and reapers, and all kinds of terrifying monsters that go perfectly together with the type of characters that populate it. Kaylee is unbelievably charismatic and engaging by the fact that she’s still discovering a lot of what her heritage stands for and that allows the reader to connect with her on a different, deeper level seeing that he/she is also learning along side her. This means that every single problematic circumstance that comes in the way represents a novelty for both main character and reader—and that sensation of forever being on the edge of the seat is undoubtedly priceless in a book like this.

The big surprise in this second book, though, is Tod. The narrative itself might be of great quality—as a matter-of-factly is—, but Tod gives it an extra touch of enigmatic, mysterious and utterly sarcastic vibe. He is such a charming figure, with so many cool ‘powers’ that it is impossible not to feel impressed by him, and when you add an additional dose of personal feelings and worries (actually towards a girl that is alive—well, sort of), he gains a whole new level of sympathy and care. I, for instance, really like the way Vincent has been developing his personality and plan of action, and can’t wait to read more of him.

At last, another aspect that must be mentioned is the Netherworld. It is clear as water that this is a dangerous and cruel world, but I never imagined how much until I actually read this book. Vincent reveals bits of the ‘hows’ and the ‘whos’ of this particular place and I couldn’t be more captivated by it. A creepy, creepy place that I hope to get to know more about in the near future.

A Day of Silence

Can you imagine a day without any kind of social interaction? Without Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads or even a cell phone. And what if you’d add to this fairly unique equation the natural and instinctive act of speaking? Can you picture what would be like if you’d take a vow of silence? I can’t. Couldn’t, actually. Until I decided to take one myself.

I honestly believed I could do it, that it would be a rather easy thing to accomplish, but the truth is that I couldn’t be more wrong! And thinking about it, if it was such a straightforward, effortless task, probably Chelsea wouldn’t have done it to redeem herself, right?

Escaping conversations wasn’t hard. So many times I simply used a smile or a nod as an answer. The complicated consequence of not replying with spoken words was thinking about what I wanted to say or would’ve said, and then understanding that maybe that wasn’t quite what I hoped to respond. Therefore, I ended up over-thinking everything, and analysing every single reaction of mine. At times it wasn’t demanding, it would feel right, but so many others it was just plain hurtful. And that made me realise that I might have misunderstood and offended people before without being my intention. It is not an excuse, it never is, but wasn’t that a bit of what happened to Chelsea? She couldn’t keep her mouth shut, everybody knew that, so she revealed a secret, but was really her purpose to almost kill someone? Wasn’t she misinterpreted? Maybe even a victim herself, of her own insecurities and fears?

I was able to go speechless for the entire experience, however, I did use a small notebook for emergencies, only because I picked the toughest day possible to endure such a silent mission. Believe it or not, I had to plan an entire holiday using basic and small sentences. Couldn’t it have waited until the next day? Unfortunately no. The trip took place three days later.

This was also a very useful method to pick up a ticket reservation and to order dinner. The funniest—and incredible—thing about it was that I was the one being astonished at the face of results. From the bare start, I knew I wanted this to be a challenge, I needed to feel like I was capable of anything in any given situation, so like Chelsea I went out and tried to have a normal day. I just never expected people to react the way they did. Seeing I merely had a couple of words written on a paper sheet, both men thought that I also couldn’t hear, thus they communicated with me using their hands. I found this to be extremely interesting because neither of them even thought about the possibility of me being unable to speak due to having the flu or something like that. They just automatically assumed I could only talk using ink or sign language.

I also got looked at—a lot. I think people were curious, wanting to know why I was having a conversation with someone who was answering me through speech—and the other way around too. Some of them had no problems about leaving me uncomfortable by simply staring, but others tried to hide it every time I looked at them. The only moment I felt scared and nervous was when an old couple that truly communicated using sign language passed nearby my table. What would have I said if they had noticed and stopped? Would I have broken my vow? Would I experience muteness for real? Frankly, I have no idea what my reaction would be. 

At the end of the day, it takes a lot of courage to do something like this. And, to me, Chelsea simply showed the true strong person that was laying beneath all that shallowness. ‘Cause it is much easier to just speak about it, think about it, wonder about it than it is to actually do something about it. And she did something. She changed herself. She erased all the bad things and learned how to reach deep down for the good ones. She became the person she was meant to be all along. And as for me, I did discover some things about myself that were still unknown to me. This was an incredible experience that I surely won’t forget anytime soon. But would I ever do it again? Yes, sure. Just not for now.

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