The Pledge

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

Age: Young Adult
Category: Fantasy; romance
Rating: 4 stars

Rosie Thinks: I went into this book with mixed feelings. On one hand, I was intrigued by the premise of the story. On the other, a lot of the top reviews on Goodreads weren't overly nice about the book. I'm glad I disregarded the latter and gave it a try anyway! This story is more Dystopia than fantasy, which I didn't realise until I actually started reading it.

Based in the world of Ludania, this story focuses around Charlie. Her country is ruled over by a tyrannical queen who rules her domain with an iron fist. The society is segregated into various classes who speak their own language, and these class lines are severely enforced. Once you're born into your class, there's no way to get out of it. Charlie, born into the Vendor class, should only be able to speak the common language and her class one, but can somehow understand all. She keeps this a close secret until she meets a guy she's instantly attracted to and he figures it out. So we have the crazily evil Queen Sabana with a tyrannical hold over Ludania and the revolutionaries who oppose her regime - and caught in the middle is Charlie and her little secret.


I like Kimberly Derting's writing. It was fluent and precise, with lovely descriptions that weren't too long-winded and were suited for the YA audience. Her world-building of Ludania was subtle and slow, so I gained a well-rounded understanding of the world by the end of the book. I liked all her characters, and the situations they were in were so original that I couldn't really tell what was going to happen next (most of the time, that is). Charlie was smart, loyal and stubborn - while I've seen this character a lot of times before, the plot made Charlie into an interesting character to read about. Of course, my favourite character was Max, our love interest. He was amazing from the beginning and I liked how Derting unravelled his secrets (even if some were guessable). Usually, the love interest's personality is shaped around his being a love interest, but that wasn't the case with Max - thankfully, he was characterised further than this!

I had only one problem, and that was with an event close to the end of the novel. I'll try and be vague so I don't spoil anything! This event consisted of something that was incredibly obvious to me, yet the characters in the book were surprised by it. As a result, it came across as forced and unbelievable, and made me want to yell at the book. But other than that, I loved it! I was hooked on it and read it within a day, which shows how well Derting's writing flows.

My final words are this: I loved it and would recommend to anyone would likes dystopia/fantasy/romance/fast moving stories. Having read the second book already, I can assure you that it doesn't disappoint!