The Pledge (The Pledge Trilogy)

I definitely think the second half of this book was the strong part. I was actually surprised how long I felt that it took for us to really start moving with the story. Once we finally started moving into the nitty gritty, I was like "Wow, this is really cool!" but up until then I was like, "Okay, this chick is interesting. But what's the REAL story?"I think one reason I was kind of disappointed is simply because it was another book that I built up in my head before I read it. I was just so in love with the concept because I'm a language person (Spanish major and I've dabbled in Italian, German, and French) so I was thrilled to see a story where this girl can understand any language. Now that I'm reflecting back on it, I guess I was hoping she was going to use that more instead of obeying her parents and covering it up all the time. I really wished that should would have been a bit more exciting and took a few more risks, other than to stick her neck out to constantly protect her little sister (noble and all, but still). If we had seen a bit more of Brooklyn's character in Charlie and not have had them so polarized as far as personality goes, I think it would have spiced up the story and made me feel like there was a little something more to keep me on the edge of my seat. I think if I could change one thing about the first half of the book, it would be that - a more daring Charlie that uses her talent to really show it off to the reader and not just passively listen to people's conversation.I guess part of me also feels that as far as dystopians go, I understand that all of them - to a certain extent - need to have an uprising against the authority, but too many of them are just blending together in my head. This had a lot of feel of the Matched series (I guess specifically Reached, which I stopped and will later come back to because I was not feeling it) and I couldn't help but make comparisons in my head while I was reading. I guess I'm starting to tire of the whole militant/community uprising aspect to save a society from tyranny (a la the Matched trilogy (Reached specifically), Divergent/Insurgent) versus a more personal quest to keep freedoms (The Giver, the Chemical Garden Trilogy, Delirium (although I guess Pandemonium kind of takes on a more "militant" feel...).As far as the love connection goes, I was just kind of 'meh' about Charlie and Max. As much as it was a quick connection, I didn't feel like it was "insta-love"y, so that's good, but even still, I didn't quite make it there to really be like "YES make this relationship happen!" I think I never really quite made a connection with him so I never really made a connection with the relationship.The second half of the book was really great and I love the direction it took towards the end, as well as a few twists here and there. Mostly, I feel like now everything's been established and we can really get into the meat of this story and book one was more like a light snack. I'm really interested to see what happens in book two now!

The Pledge is a purely exciting combination of fantasy and dystopia. It takes off with great promise and continues to get better from there on out. As a fan of Derting's Body Finder series, The Pledge is by far the best of her works yet. Bit by bit it takes a hold of your interest and urges you forward to discover Charlie's story. I found the world totally fascinating, and the minor characters nearly as intriguing as the heroine. I read straight through to end without taking breaks which is a major problem for me when I'm reading but The Pledge was an exception.Charlaina is seventeen and lives in the country of Ludania know for being strict in its laws, and swift in its punishment. Breaking even the smallest rule will get you hanged. Remembering your place in society is paramount. Speaking a language or understanding one outside of your own class is all it takes. Charlie has been keeping a dangerous secret for years--she can understand all languages even those she's never heard before. She's unable to tell anyone because if they find out it's the end for her and her family. Her ability is punishable by death and those who help conceal it. Her life alters course when she meets Max whose handsome and obviously above her class. He seems interested in her in a way no one else has ever been, and that scares Charlie more than she'll admit. Ludania is at war with itself, and the tyrannical Queen is willing to go to extreme lengths to squash the rebellion, but that's not the only agenda she has.There are a few things that could have been worked on such as the character development. You don't really get to know who the heroine really is. I wish readers got more of a personality, because she was lacking. I think the side characters had more to them than Charlie. Despite that I liked Angelina, Max, and Xander. They made up for the underdeveloped characters. It's not that I didn't like Charlaina but I didn't see a whole lot of depth beyond what other people thought of her. The relationship between Max and Charlie was instant attraction-infatuation. Neither could explain why they fell for each other only that they did. I love romance and theirs magically blossoms out of nowhere. Aron, Charlie's best friend who means so much to her is basically written out of the book after the beginning, then right at the end he's back again. I didn't understand some of the connections because they were a little nonsensical. If it weren't for those things I would have loved this book completely.Overall I was surprised by how many secrets everyone was keeping and how many are revealed by the end. The Pledge does a great job at being unpredictable and reeling you in. It has a gloomy atmosphere, an enchanting narrative, evenly distributed action, and characters with a lot of potential. If you like dark dystopias with fantasy elements, and don't mind the lack of character growth this is an exciting read!

This is a great dystopian story! It's different to any other I've ever read and its written really really well.What I really love about the Pledge is the way that the story reads very easily. Its complex yes but it doesn't seem so in the way that Kimberly tells it. She has created an opressive, scary world of classes and languages and royalty.Our protagonist, Charlie is in the vendor class. She is only permitted to learn and speak the language of her class, plus the universal language Englaise. If someone from a class above yours speaks in the language of their own class then you must bow your head and not look them in the eye whilst they are speaking! The penalty for breaking this rule is death.However, Charlie can understand ALL the languages. She does not know why but she and her parents have to keep this fact a secret or it would mean her execution. I found this really intreaguing. I enjoyed finding out the true reason for Charlie's gift and how it was all pieced together.I also really love the characters in this story. Charlie is very relatable and likeable and her relationship with her family is very realistic. From being told off for swearing by her parents to going to night clubs with her best friend and meeting guys, I just found it all very refreshing in comparison to your usual YA heroin. And of course she meets a boy, Max. But he speaks a language she has never heard before and this is what originally draws her to him. But Max has his own problems and secrets and seeing small sections of the story from his POV really helped to bring together all the elements of the tale.Another thing that impressed me about The Pledge was the way that it was not predictable. I kept coming up with theories in my head about what was going to happen and I was so sure that it was obvious but nothing I came up with was right! There are so many twists and turns that I only just managed to catch my breath before something else was sprung on me and I loved it!All in all then a very good dystopian story indeed. There is even a small element of magic, something that you don't usually find in dystopian books and this just added to the uniqueness of this book! If you are a fan of dystopia then I suggest you pick this one up!

Kimberley Derting is well known for her Body Finder series, but in her next series she brings something very different. The Pledge is a YA fantasy series, in a dystopian land controlled by female queens.There is a very strict class system, with each class having it's own language. To look at someone in a higher class when they are using their own language can result in death. Charlaina has a special `gift' which means that she can understand every language, something she obviously has to be very careful to keep hidden.In addition to this, there's a magical element. The ruling queen has actually reigned for many hundreds of years, each time persuading a daughter to accept her soul. This has now come to an end, as there are no daughters, and male heirs mean nothing, and cannot inherit.Charlaina's life appears normal when we first meet her, apart from her ability - she has friends, attends school, puts up with bullying and helps her parents. This all begins to change when she's taken to an underground club by her friend, and when she overhears Max, who speaks a language she's never heard before.From here, things soon change, and Kimberley has produced a fast paced story full of surprises. There's a gentle romance story, but also some powerful scenes of war as things break down.For me, the star of the book is Charlaina's young sister, Angelina, as she's just adorable.. and the relationship between the two sisters is powerful and heart-warming. It's suggested that she'll play a bigger role in the second book, so I'm hoping.The story is complete in itself, but it's also the first part in a trilogy - there's a slightly darker feel towards the end of the book, and Kimberley has said there's more darkness to come. The only thing I really struggled with was the combination of dystopia and magic, because they are two genres I've not seen together. The magical element is however necessary for the story progression, and I think it'll seem much more natural by book two.Kimberley Derting now offers two very different series for the YA market, both of which I feel can be enjoyed by older adults too. With the genres of thriller and now fantasy covered, I wonder what she'll bring us next!

I like the idea of this book, the blurb was interesting and hooked me in and I was excited to start reading. The plot was good with plenty of twists and new ideas, this doesn't just rehash the genre. However, I just finished this book yesterday and already I've forgotton the main character's name, she wasn't that memborable and honestly I didn't like her that much. Maybe because I didn't feel like I knew much about her. The other characters were a little flat, Max was likeable enough and Xander was cool but no where near fleshed out enough for me. For a movement of resistance that was supposed to be huge we didn't see much of the 'rebels' etc; I wish we could have spent more time with them and really learned more about the state of the Queens reign and what she was doing. The book itself was very fast paced, and while good for adding momentum to the story I think it meant the author missed chances to add depth to the characters.However, its not all bad I liked reading this book and would recommend 'The Pledge' if you want a quick read. It ended on such a sinster note and I look forward to a sequel to find out what happens next!

After reading a variety of Young Adult Distopian Kindle ebooks (which appears to have its own section in Amazon now too), I was becoming a bit fed up with them. Often, they have a good concept which gets lost in annoying, headstrong, Mary-Sue like protagonists that are never, ever wrong and the plot gets lost in pages and pages of ill-thought out dialogue. That's all before the story comes to head too quickly and you feel completely let down, considering you've spent a good few hours wanting to know what's going to happen and battled your way through the sloppy writing to get there.Okay, rant over. This book is quite the opposite of what I've written above. The writing in this book is very good. The protagonist, Charlie, has her flaws but I feel that this makes her a well rounded character. She can be annoying at times but you can understand her thought process and why she does what she does.The other characters in the book are pretty good too but Charlie, considering she's still a teenager, is pretty self-focused for most part and not in a bad way. I was dying to know more about Max and the fantasy country they live in and the language-barriers within that country, and these curiosities of mine were answered slowly, which kept me reading.However, I again feel a little let down by how quickly the novel came to a head. It was a little slow to start but everything starts moving pretty quickly and I finished the last 60% of this book in a few hours. As you're reading, you can quite easily guess what's going to happen but it doesn't take away from the book itself.All in all, The Pledge is much better than a good few of these kind of ebooks on Amazon and very good for the price. It felt more like a real book rather than some of the strange self-published-through-Amazon books around, which was a major relief.I really do recommend this if you're look for a quick yet exciting read.

SPOILERS (although I wouldn't worry too much)I have never felt such a lack of connection to a main protagonist in a story before, but Charlie was just a very plain girl who seemed incredibly weak throughout the whole book. In the final scene, her sister was the one to save her. I found this book very dull, there were only a few parts which were remotely enjoyable and the romance between her and max was very strange. They seemed as if they barely knew each other throughout the whole book and most parts made me cringe. There was very little action, and I really don't understand the point of this book whatsoever, nor do I understand why I bothered to read until the end. I suppose I thought it might improve but it really didn't. The idea itself was very good and it is such a shame it was wasted. I wouldn't bother wasting your time on this story.