The Essence: A Pledge Novel (The Pledge Trilogy)

And the streak of sequels that outshine their predecessors continues!This time the streak is continued with, obviously, The Essence, sequel to The Pledge which, while I enjoyed overall, left me with mixed feelings. However, despite The Pledge leaving me with mixed feelings, I went into The Essence with high expectations after the conclusion of The Pledge, and I am thrilled to say that most if not all of those high expectations were met by the time I turned the last page of The Essence.The Essence takes place shortly after the explosive conclusion of The Pledge; Charlaina is now the reigning queen of Ludania after defeating - sort of... - the previous and notoriously harsh queen Sabara. However, Sabara's Essence is now trapped inside of Charlaina, setting her skin aglow, and, more importantly, letting Sabara have access - and manipulate - Charlaina's thoughts and actions. As a new queen, Charlaina travels to a gathering to meet with the queens of nearby queendoms, but soon enough things begin to go awry as body counts start piling up, and she soon finds herself consulting to the very person she wants to consult least - Sabara - for help.The Essence is stronger than The Pledge in almost every way imaginable; the plot is much more fascinating, fast paced, and bears higher stakes, the characters are met with more character development and are more likable - even Sabara! - and the romance is no where near as large of an element in The Essence as it was in The Pledge.One of the things I appreciated most about The Essence was that, while Charlaina is now the new queen of Ludania, she still managed to remember where she came from, and remember the people who helped her get where she is, and was able to keep the same relationships now as a queen as she had before she was a queen. Because of this, among other things, I found Charlaina to be much more of a likable and multi-layered character in this installment than she was in The Pledge, and I also absolutely loved how Derting added such character development and background to the character of Sabara, making her, like I had mentioned before, almost - if not entirely - likable.Derting's writing in The Essence is, as always, completely and utterly breathtaking, and her descriptions are so stunningly detailed and gorgeous that I can't help but be jealous of her writing skill and her ability to truly paint a picture inside a reader's head, exhibit A:Stark and harsh, a daunting fortress of towers and turrets and spires, all dusted in ice and rising above a thick layer of frozen fog that made it appear as if it was the only thing that existed on the entire snowbound isle. As if the palace itself were crafted from the great glacier that rose from the water.And while I found there to be quite a few pacing issues, most notably towards the second half, but also in scattered portions throughout the first and second halves, I think that might just be the only negative thing I have to say about The Essence, though that one negative played a pretty significant part in my enjoyment in the story, and is the most prominent reason it took me so long to finish it.However, with the pacing issues aside, I found The Essence to be a worthy sequel to The Pledge, outshining it in execution tremendously. Ending in another explosive ending that is entirely satisfying yet leaves the reader wanting more, I thoroughly look forward to reading the final book in The Pledge trilogy, and who knows, maybe it'll be even better than this

We don't need castes and language barriers to separate us from our fellow human beings, but in the sequel to Kimberly Derting's The Pledge, Charlie finds out just how difficult it is to break down the barriers of generations worth of differences. In The Essence, we see a young woman with good intentions who struggles to shake off the pieces of her own past.Charlie hasn't adjusted at all to being the Queen. Not only does it feel strange for people to refer to her as "your Majesty", but everything about being the queen is difficult, even the table manners. When she defeated Sabara, she didn't expect all that embodies royalty to become her future, but then again, she didn't expect Sabara's essence to attach itself to Charlie's psyche either. While Charlie is trying to exact great change to the country she loves, Sabara is inside her trying harder and harder to gain control over Charlie's body and do what she has done for generations: rule Ludania.The war inside Charlie's head isn't the only one being waged. The people of her own country are turning against her and the queens of surrounding nations don't trust her. Charlie believes in what she is doing, abolishing the caste system and trying to instill equality among her people, but the people are fighting back. Even the simple act of opening a new school has become a battle field for Charlie and everyone in her wake, innocent or not. She can't control what is going on inside her head, but she won't stop trying to help the people of Ludania.The fact that the wars in this book are being fought on a global and on a mental scale made the story all the more intriguing. Charlie is a tough girl, but having someone inside your head, someone you didn't hesitate to kill, can't be easy. Imagine the realization that every time you let your guard down, a piece of yourself takes over and you can't stop it? It must be maddening! So the Charlie you remembered form the first book is still there, but she is being consumed by the war being waged inside her head. I really liked this angle, especially when Charlie starts to see more and more of Sabara's memories. It brought a whole new level of sophistication to the story and it kept me from putting the book down.I think this story has a tiny bit of the sophomore stall because it really needed to take the time to transition Charlie from wayward rebel to unrefined queen. That 180 took some time, but Derting was great at making the transition while still moving the story forward. In all, I barely noticed the stall, but it was there. What I didn't get enough of with this story was more of our supporting characters like Angelina and Max and Xander. We got a lot of Brook, who I love, but I want more from everyone! They are such great characters that you want them to pull out into the spotlight so you can enjoy it. On a whole, however, I loved this book, love this series, and can't wait for the next installment!

I enjoyed the first book, and thought I would buy the second book in the series.I actually found this one much more enjoyable than the first, as the characters are coming into their own more, the plot is thickening, there are more struggles to deal with and so on. In places this one was a little darker, which I liked. What I particularly liked about this book was the inner conflict of the main character, how she battles with what is her own thoughts and feelings and what Sabara is feeling. I felt at times in the first book that the main character, Charlaina, was just being buffeted along by what others wanted and by outside influences. In this book she is learning how to be a queen and is taking control more.Over all, a really good read. I look forward to reading the next in the series.

Such a good read. I love the story line for the series so far. I can't wait to see how it ends. I recommend the book for teens and adults alike

It was Ok but if I hadn't read the pledge I wouldn't have read this as a stand alone

Utter brilliance is the only way to describe this book, if you've read the first in the series then carrying on too this book you will enjoy. A little more informational than the first but so so worth it!

please please please read this book seires,its so worth your time!i can't wait for the last one every book so far has been gripping and I think all of the characters are well written and believeable