Series: The Blackcoat Rebellion, #1
Publisher:  Harlequin TEEN
Publish Date: November 26th, 2013
Source: ARC
Goodreads

Rating 4/5 – This story takes a bunch of standard dystopian tropes, but turns it into something very cool.

About the book: YOU CAN BE A VII. IF YOU GIVE UP 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. – Goodreads

Thoughts: One day I will be sick of dystopian novels.  Today is not that day! I really enjoyed Pawn! This is the first book in The Blackcoat Rebellion series, and I’ll be sticking around to see what happens next. The story follows Kitty who is born into poverty and is essentially a ward of the state because her parents chose not to pay the tax needed to have another child. Her life looks like it’s going to take a turn toward something pretty grim when she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime. Kitty has the same eyes as Lila Hart, the Prime Minister’s niece, a fact that the most powerful family in the country is willing to use to their advantage. Kitty then goes under the knife to be ‘masked’ to look exactly like Lila who was killed by her own family for stirring the seeds of rebellion.

There are a lot of elements to this story that you’ll have seen before. A caste system of sorts, tattoos, a corrupt goverment, wealth and rebellion, but Aimee Carter brings them all together really nicely. Kitty is a great main character, and the supporting cast all works really well together to tell the story. The romance was lacking a bit from what you usually see in YA, but it didn’t take away from the story at all. Kitty is already in a relationship with Benjy, so there isn’t as much focus on their story, he’s simply her motivation for surviving. I suspect there story might get a little more complicated in the next books in this series, but only time will tell at this point. For now, the lack of love triangle was extremely refreshing.

The plot was jam packed with action from beginning to end–not like fight scenes, explosions levels of action, but there was always soemthing happening. And there were definitely some WHOA moments that I didn’t see coming. Overall, Pawn does a great job of shaking up a somewhat stagnant genre. Highly recommended!

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