Pages: 346
Published: November 26th 2013 by Harlequin Teen
Series: The Blackcoat Rebellion #1
Source: HarlequinTeen via Edelweiss
YOU CAN BE A VII. IF YOU GIVE UP EVERYTHING.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.
I’ve been long growing tired of dystopians so when Pawn was first announced and talked about in the blogosphere, I overlooked it and didn’t even both to check it out. Fast forward a few weeks later, and everyone was talking about how awesome it sounded and even advanced reviews were coming in and people were loving it. I decided to look it up on Goodreads and was shocked that this sounded amazing! Totally unique and something different to spice up the tired dystopian trend so I wanted to give it a shot.
Aimee Carter wastes no time in jumping into action and her characters stories. The initial scene is with Kitty and her boyfriend, Benjy in the market when Kitty steals an orange. We quickly learn about the casting system in the futuristic world, and how Kitty has just received her fate and level: She’s a III, which is not good. She will have to work in the sewers, leave her boyfriend and essentially live a life of poverty.
I really liked Kitty a lot. I didn’t have overwhelming feelings for her, but her story was incredibly engaging and I loved seeing her development as a character throughout the story. She had an incredible will and intense loyalty to her loved ones, so you couldn’t help but like her. I also found her struggle with not being able to read heart wrenching, especially as a bookworm, because I couldn’t imagine not being able to enjoy books. She talked so often about trying to learn and failing and it was terribly sad. My favorite quality of Kitty is that no matter how dangerous, or what she was told to do, she always had her own thoughts. Despite being in a dangerous situation, she still made her voice heard and kept her loyalties to who deserved them. Incredible character. Knox, Kitty’s fiancée as Lila, is a DREAMBOAT. I know I should have probably loved Benjy because he was kind, sweet and innocent but KNOX. A lot of the important, high-ranking characters were actually good, which is another part about Pawn I loved. Often in dystopians there are only one or two good guys mixed in with the terrible, government but it was the opposite here.
My favorite aspect of Pawn, hands down, was the world building and the plot. Most dystopians are not realistic to me. This one was. It’s not set incredibly far into the future (or at least it didn’t give that impression with some explanations), and the way people live and the rankings is not something that would be entirely out of the realm of possibility. I liked that aspect, I found I could get more into the story. The plot was fantastic. Pawn is totally unique to anything I’ve read. It was fast paced, hard to put down and a few twists that I didn’t see coming.
Between the engaging characters, fast paced plot and fantastic world building, I think Pawn is one book you shouldn’t pass up. It was one of my favorite dystopians of the year and I will definitely be anxiously waiting for the second book. If you are tired of the dystopian trend, but do love dystopian stories, I highly recommend giving this one a shot!
I am not usually a huge fan of dystopian books either! But I completely agree with you about this one! Such a good book 🙂
Em @ http://theyabookbutterfly.blogspot.com/
It was SOOO good 🙂 I could honestly read it over again, I had such a great experience reading it !!
I am so glad to hear that you enjoyed this book. I am getting tired of dystopians too, so I wasn’t thinking of picking this one up.
Ugh, dystopians are so overdone right now in my opinion. Maybe in 2014 I will like them a bit more but now I’m so over them. This one was excellent though so maybe give it a try!
Haha yes — KNOX!!! I love his character 😀
I liked Kitty and I really admired her determination and dedication too, and like you, I also really enjoyed the world building! I think one of the things that draws me to dystopians is such an element of world building and Aimee Carter did a fantastic job with this book! It didn’t 100% wow me, but I really enjoyed it and I got really excited for book two!
WOOOO TEAM KNOX!!! I’m glad you really liked this one too! I cannot wait for book two! Tooo long of a wait 🙁 lol
I try to avoid as many dystopians as I can, not that I’ve overly read them, just that they kind of overwhelm me, so I definitely have to be in the mood for one. I kept hearing about Pawn, too, so had to read it. And I loved it. Dynamic characters, sweet romance and ohmygod yes, Knox. What I loved most though was the evil characters. Finally, evil characters that were truly evil and not ‘buuuuut I waaaaant to be good’. No. Such an interesting one though, and so addicting. Great review! 🙂
I’m glad you loved it too Kirsty-Marie! I agree about the evil characters!! They were evil indeed!
I loved Pawn! Such a great dystopian and written so well 🙂 Great review!
Thanks Sarah 🙂 I’m glad you loved it as well! There has been a lot of mixed reviews of it!
It sort of makes me extremely happy that you mentioned Knox in your review, because he is just AWESOME. I look forward to reading more about him in the next book of this series! As for the book, I was initially kind of just okay with it, but something changed in the last third. I find that I’m very curious to see how everything will turn out for Kitty now!
He is SO AWESOME! I love him, and I want benjy to go away lol. I don’t know what it was, but it seriously just captivated me… I’m glad because I was really read to throw in the dystopian towel 😛 I am so interested to see what happens to her too… I hate reading advanced copies for this reason lol.. TOO long of a wait 😛
I was kinda disappointed by this one. Strangely enough right after I finished it I was all “that was amazing!” but then when I sat down to write my review I was like “what did I like about that?” So I guess for me it wasn’t very memorable. I did like Knox way better than Benjy. I think it’s because we didn’t really get to know Benjy all that well. Maybe in the next book we will and I will change my mind. But after this one, I am totally Team Knox!
I can’t remember if I read your review on this one Rebecca, I have to go back and check!! I think it was so memorable for me because I’m honestly so turned off by dystopian lately that when I really liked this one I was SHOCKED! YES! Team Knox all the way 🙂 Benjy is boring and too pure and good for my liking 😛
[…] addition to my January read and reviewed books I also posted by reviews for Pawn by Aimee Carter, Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott, and Here After by Kate […]