Review: Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion #1) by Aimee Carter

Release date: November 26, 2013
Author info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 296
Format: Egalley
Source: Publisher provided through Netgalley
Buy the book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | The Book Depository

YOU CAN BE A VII IF YOU GIVE 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 keep reading that the dystopian trend is waning, that people don't want to read them anymore. I don't know about anyone else, but that's not the case for me. I haven't read many recently, but I still love 'em. The only problem with the number of dystopians that have been published in the past couple of years is that it's harder and harder for them to feel original. And while I feel like Pawn is certainly an enjoyable enough read, I don't feel that it's adding something terribly original to the mix. There are bright spots, but they aren't quite enough to make Pawn more than pretty good.

Kitty has modest dreams. She only wants to take her assessment and get a IV, enough to live a comfortable life with Benjy, her boyfriend. But when she gets a III, she takes things into her own hands. Soon, she's meeting the prime minister and he's giving her a chance to become a VII. When she wakes up, it's been weeks and she's been Masked--made to look exactly like Lila Hart, the prime minister's niece, who was secretly murdered. Quickly Kitty is being pulled in two directions--either help the revolution Lila was fostering and endanger Benjy and herself, or help out those who are suffering, just like she did.

Though I didn't find Pawn to be life changing, I did find it pretty darn entertaining. The plot never stops and we're fed information slowly but surely, which kept me engaged the entire book. I was fascinated by the idea before I even picked up the book and that never stopped.

There is almost a love triangle, but Kitty always loves Benjy and she never wavers, so not really. I'd like to see more of both Benjy and Knox and really get to know a little more about each of them, since I feel like we didn't get hear all that much from them. Kitty herself is an interesting character, and she has a lot of potential that I'd like to see expounded upon in the next book. It's a very different idea that she's got something akin to dsylexia and can't read, which is really what sets off the story, since she has to have someone read the test to her.

So, there's good and bad. No, this is not likely to become the next dystopian sensation, but Pawn is ridiculously entertaining and has a lot of potential to become more than that. I had a lot of fun reading it, especially as the plot started to twist and turn like a maze. Here's to the next book being even more fun!