The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

Genre: YA Science Fiction, Dystopia

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry

Hardcover, 323 pages

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime. (www.goodreads.com)

Charlie lives in Ludania where her life has been decided for her simply because of the social class she was born into. The problem is, though, she knows that she is different than others. She can understand languages she is not supposed to and has to keep this a secret from all of those around her. When she meets the mysterious Max, her life is thrown into a new direction and what she thought she would never face. She quickly finds out that her life is going to change and that she is in for a bigger ride than she could have ever imagined. 

 

It is no secret that I love Kimberly Derting! She is an amazing author and super great pal (especially if you send her books she wants!!). This novel does exactly what her others have done to me... sucked me in and left me absolutely dying for more. I would love to get into her head and find just a little bit of her creativity and see where it could take me because based on this book... the possibilities are endless!  This novel leaves me drooling for more and with more questions than I started with even though some were answered along the way. Maybe I will get lucky and get the second book tomorrow in the mail... wishful thinking, right? 

Happy reading!