Book Review: The Pledge

The Pledge

(The Pledge #1)

By: Kimberly Derting

Published by: 
Margaret K. McElderry Books

Publication Date: November 15, 2011

Buy it at Amazon or IndieBound

Audience: Young Adult
Source: Purchased by Reviewer

I liked the concept - new world, segregated society, different languages for different classes, revolutionists, ultimate punishments for disloyalty and an evil Queen worthy of Walt Disney! The main character, Charlie, was a nice girl (I can't feel more strongly about her than that), and her little sister was just lovely... I think I liked Angelina better than Charlie. I felt early on that clearly something big to do with the revolution was going to happen to these two, and I was right. :) 

Parts of the story seemed perhaps a little convenient, as things happened without much questioning from anyone, BUT it didn't really hurt the story and I still enjoyed predicting how everyone was linked to each other. Max and Xander were interesting characters, and I did enjoy reading the parts between Charlie and Max in particular... Kimberly Derting is a great writer, and she knows just how to make me fall for a character. She writes just delicious romance scenes, which are somehow much more involving than you'd expect for just kissing! 

I felt like this was a stand alone novel at the end, and if it hadn't have been for the epilogue, I wouldn't have guessed at there being a sequel, or even two as it seems to be from Kimberly's Goodreads page. However, I can deal with there being more books - it was well written, interesting and I read this in hardly any time at all, so I'm definitely in for the sequels! 

Summary from Goodreads:

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed. 

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.