Once Upon a Twilight!: Book Review: Pawn by Aimée Carter

Pawn
The Blackcoat Rebellion #1
Author: Aimée Carter
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian | Romance
Release Date: November 26th 2013
Review Source: Harlequin TEEN

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.

We didn't see the last of Aimée Carter when the final novel in the Goddess Test series released back in February this year, which of course made me very happy. I loved Carter's Goddess Test series and knew anything else written by Carter was a must read. So when it was announce she would be publishing this new book called Pawn and that it was dystopian, I honestly think I saw a Rainbow pop up in the sky that day.

Pawn as I mention is a dystopian novel where the future of your life from age 17 and on depends on the number you are given after you are tested at that age. These numbers range from I - VII, so like any other number system you want to score the higher number in this society. You do not want to get stuck with a I - III, this would royally suck for you. If you get a IV or V then your OK and you'll do ok in life with those. Now if you are one of the lucky few that actually scores a VI or VII then you are made for life. Now VII is pretty hard to obtain if you are not part of the Prime Minister's family. So now you have an understanding of the system in place in this novel. So when Kitty Doe gets a III, her life turns upside down and she never in a million years expected it to be that low. She had a feeling it would be lower than her boyfriend's because she knew she never learned to read but she was smart. So at that point the only thing to do in life is survive and leave everyone you love behind so they can live a better life with their higher numbers.

So when Kitty decides to join her friend in a underground sex trade club, she never expects who will be the first person to buy her. Little does she know they didn't buy her for sex, so her virginity is saved. But when Kitty wakes up after remembering she had been drugged and put to sleep, she finds herself with the opportunity of a lifetime, forced but opportunity nonetheless. She has been offered a VII. This would mean everything including being able to be with Benyi. Ha! Did I tell you what that big catch is though? To get that VII, Kitty will give up being herself, she has been Masked. Meaning she now looks like someone else completely from head to toe. That VII belongs really to who Kitty is now impersonating and that would be the Prime Minister's niece Lila. See Lila has been killed by her own family and they needed her replacement so the society doesn't figure out she has been murdered. Kitty now will have to learn to be Lila, and Lila comes with two faces and I'm not taking about Killy's masked one.

Kitty will be tested and will have to decided for herself as Kitty if she will do what is expected from her as Lila on both sides, or will she risk it and lose the VII she has been given and die then rather live with what she was forced to become. Pawn will have you turning the pages to see how far this family will go and will trusting the III work out for them to be the VII everyone knows.

Pawn gave me thrills, chills and many surprises. The romance was just enough to get my heart racing. You will be hooked with this new take in Dystopian YA. Can't wait to find out what happens next in the Blackcoat Rebellion series.