Review - The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Pledge
The Pledge #1
Author: Kimberly Derting
Publish Date: Nov 15, 2011
Hardcover, 320 pages

GoodReads
Barnes and Noble
Amazon

I am so bummed I waited so long to read this book. I truly got stuck in the book. I couldn't put it down and now I have to wait til the next one. What a bigger bummer.

I loved Charlie. She was fantastic. Her character was heart warming. She was kind, honest, protective of her family, hard working, sweet and someone I would have been friends with. Her friend Brooklyn was a nightmare. She is selfish and always looking to gain everyone's attention. Charlie's youngest sister, Angelina (I think?) was pure joy. I loved that she was silent. The fact that she didn't speak was well portrayed in this book and I quite admired her independence and spirit. Ugh, to fall in love with a man like Max is a great work of literature, but I won't even tell you if Charlie does. Max is just a hunky, nice seemingly fellow. His friend are not so much.

Derting did a wonderful job keeping the reader in the dark and hinting at just the right amount to keep my peeked through the entire book. I wanted so badly for a specific type of ending and even though it wasn't exactly how I imagined, I wasn't disappointed and cannot wait for more.

This reminded me of Phillipa Gregory, but a bit lighter and cautionary for teens. It didn't have all the violence and cussing. I liked that it was clean and I could easily see any teenager reading this.

I read the ebook version of this book and was lucky to catch sight of the hardcover at work and OH MY is this cover spectacular. I love the lace and the darkness of it, but it's still very romantic and historical. A great cover!!

Summary -
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.