ARC Review: Pawn by Aimee Carter

Title: Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion #1)
Author: Aimee Carter
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia
Release Date: December 1, 2013 (Aus)
Source: Harlequin TEEN Australia via NetGalley

Goodreads rating: 3.93 out of 5.00 (290+ ratings)
Goodreads | The Reading Room

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.

Review by Nara


*Quotes taken from the ARC and may not be the same in the final copy* 

Risking my life to steal an orange was a stupid thing to do, but today of all days, I didn't care about the consequences. If I were lucky, the Shields would throw me to the ground and put a bullet in my brain. 

Dead at seventeen. It would be a relief.

HOLY GUACAMOLE. This book was amazing! To be honest, I actually hadn't really enjoyed Carter's other book, The Goddess Test, that much and so therefore didn't particularly have high expectations for this book, but WOW.

"Never forget that, all right? Never forget the potential one solitary pawn has to change the entire game."

People, people. Can we talk about the beauty of that title? I don't know how many of you have played chess before, but basically, a pawn, on face value, is pretty worthless. You have 8 of them, and they're pretty much your frontline defence. However, if you keep some protected, and get them to reach the end of the board, you can swap them out for any other piece of your choice (apart from the king obviously haha). So in the same way, Kitty seems like a worthless player, but she actually has the potential to change the game. Pretty interesting stuff.

Oh my god, new book boyfriend alert! Benjy, you are the greatest. He was just so supportive and sweet- he practically had me hooked in the first two chapters! There was this one thing that he does for Kitty which was just ERMAHGERD. And his interactions with Kitty were just so cute. I loved the romance- especially the lack of love triangle. I mean, for a second there I was a bit worried because there's another guy on the scene (See, YA? Look at what you've done. Every time a hot guy steps on the scene, I automatically assume that he's a love interest.) but thankfully that guy never really becomes a threat to Kitty and Benjy's relationship.

"Kitty," he said, as if testing out my name. "Is that short for something?" 

"Yeah," I said. "It's short for 'my mother was insane and had a thing for cats.'"

I quite liked our main character Kitty as well. She was quite headstrong and snarky, but I did feel that perhaps she was a bit too much so. I mean, she was in the most dangerous situations where the wrong word could have gotten her killed, but she goes and says the most inappropriate things. Granted, they were often hilarious. But still. It was like she couldn't help herself.

Although there are quite a few dystopians going around, I'd say that this is one of the ones definitely worth reading. Plus that cover is pretty. So go for it!

Incredible

Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 5/5