Title: The Essence
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: The Pledge
Publication Date: November 15, 2011
Page Count:382
Genre: YA, romance, science fiction, dystopia
Format: eBook
Source: ARC
Rating:
MY REVIEW:
I received a free copy for an honest review
This is the second book of the Pledge Trilogy
For those who are not familiar with this series, here is a basic in sight ans summary for the story for this franchise.
In the world of the Pledge, people are dived into hierarchies by their language. There are languages such as Parshon who are spoken by the vendors, the Englaise for the commoners (and basically everyone), and of course, the royal language that only the imperial court understands. Charlie was born with a unusual gift. She can understand any languages there is. And in the world where your language puts you in your place, this is a lethal information that nobody can know, because if people know...god knows how the society is going to eat you up alive.
Along with Charlie is her mother, father, and her sister Angelina. Her parents know about her gift, and it's them that told her to keep the secret. From the begging of of the book we are foreshadowed to her importance, for her father killed a man for her in order to protect her secret when she was little, which was what ultimately got her realize the seriousness of the situation and never told a single soul.
Her sister is apparently mute in in the first book, since she never talks. They took her to the doctors, but for some reason, she just refuses to talk. But my the end, for the first time in her life, she talked. And her dialog continued to this book, even know she doesn't speak much, at least we know she can speak.
Beside from her family, there's her best friend, Brooklyn and Aron. Brooklyn is the biggest flirt in the world. She flirts with everyone, and I mean everyone. From her classmates to even the guards on the street everyday. But in this book we started to see changes in her, her maturity and leadership is slipping and showing in every turn of the page, from her being the general and basically the Queen's right hand.
Talking about the queen, Charlie officially was Coronated queen in this book. From the last book we witnessed how Angelina exerted Sabara out of Charlie, but there were also some foreshadowing that she was still there. And she was.
In the book we constantly see conflict between Charlie Sabara, struggling for control. But their relationship as the story goes on, went into the interesting twist. They start to accept each other, and you can see that from how Sabara was giving Charlie advice of being a queen, Charlie tolerating Niko for Sabara, and more. By the end of the book they were kind of friends, which I believe is good for both of them, and can help them achieve something greater together. Also, how Sabara told her real name to Charlie at the last line, really symbolizes their trust for each other.
After all these words, you must be thinking why I'm still not getting to the actual book review, right? Well the reason I've been babbling away was because I need to give some (okay, a lot) background information and character analysis.
I really admire how Kimberly drew out all the character changes and plot-line twists in this book. It was clear and complicated at the same time, the characters are multidimensional. You never know who's friend whose' foe, someone might seem unfriendly but is the only one you could trust, or a second later someone from your home would backstab you.
Either way, the book is amazing. The Romance is on point, the plot-line has twist has turns that is organized well along with multi-dimensional characters. So check out this book, it's wonderful, and worth every penny!
