Review: Pawn

PAWN
The Blackcoat Rebellion #1
Aimee Carter
Young Adult/Dystopian
352 pages
HarlequinTEEN
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
YOU CAN BE A VII IF YOU GIVE 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.

MY THOUGHTS
Pawn is a thrilling start to a new series, the intensity of it stemming not so much from action but rather intrigue, every person Kitty comes across outfitted with multiple masks both literal and figurative that keep us guessing as to what their charm or their cruelty is hiding. It’s with no shortage of trepidation then that we flip the pages of this first installment, wondering what move any one of the players of this horrifying power game will make next and, even more pressing, where that move falls in the grand scheme of their endless conniving. Though it may sound as though Kitty is surrounded by a group of utterly miserable and truly awful people, what makes this book so thought-provoking is Ms. Carter’s ability to cast light on some of their darker motives, forcing us to understand their endgame even though we’re appalled by the lengths to which they're willing to go to achieve it.

Kitty is a joy to follow from the beginning, a young woman with an extraordinary sense of self despite being what society calls an “extra”, given the last name of Doe and shipped off to a group home to be yet another hungry mouth to feed in a sea of gaping maws. She knows exactly who she is though, and even while those in power succeed in shaping her physically, she never bends mentally, refusing to be manipulated and always keeping an eye and ear out to help her navigate exceedingly dangerous seas. She’s a person who absorbs information like a sponge, allowing it to seep in and settle while she figures out how she feels about it, never overreacting or jumping to conclusions like those around her. Instead she is ever-patient, learning the rules of a game she never thought would have a place in her life and slowly acquiring the knowledge to outplay the longtime players.

The romance in this first installment is as interesting as the rest of the story, at first appearing as though it will be a non-issue, only for previously clear waters to grow murkier as Kitty is sucked deeper and deeper into Lila’s life. She begins this journey with an adorable longtime boyfriend in Benjy (whom we unfortunately don't get to know all that well in this first book), someone she’s desperate to save from herself given her unfortunate classification as a III, but when playing Lila Hart she’s engaged to Knox, someone she knows from the moment she meets him has innumerable secrets. Luckily though, there's no real love triangle situation even when Benjy enters back into the picture after a fairly lengthy absence, and thankfully all three of them know exactly where everyone else stands so there’s no petty jealousy or over the top reactions. They are all victims of circumstance (perhaps Knox to a lesser degree than Kitty and Benjy), and the relationship between the three of them has the potential to be one of those nuanced and infinitely complex ones that hold us captivated rather than irritating us with the transparent purpose of creating drama for an existing couple.

Overall, Pawn is a quick and extremely tense read, one that makes us absurdly grateful we have our reality to return to after seeing the Hart’s warped version of utopia. We’re left at a logical stopping point with no cliffhanger in sight, and I simply can’t wait to see where Ms. Carter and Kitty take us next.

Rating: 4/5

Find Aimee 

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Book Trailer: Pawn by Aimee Carter

Who's excited for Pawn? Well there are only a few more days until it releases, but in an effort to make even the short wait remaining less painful, HarlequinTEEN has released the book trailer. *happy dance* I'm so excited to be able to share the trailer with you today (if you haven't already seen it), I absolutely adored Pawn and wish Ms. Carter the gift of speed writing so the sequel can magically be in my hands asap.



As an added bit of extra fun, I can also provide you with a little peek behind the curtain of Pawn's gorgeous cover. Or a peek behind the metal grate/maze as it were; check out what's waiting inside:

 • • • • • • • • • •

PAWN

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 • Amazon • B&N

Review: The Goddess Inheritance

THE GODDESS INHERITANCE
Goddess Test #3
Aimee Carter
Paranormal Young Adult
Harlequin Teen
384 pages
Available February 26th
Received from publisher via NetGalley

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Love or life.
Henry or their child.
The end of her family or the end of the world.
Kate must choose.

During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can't stop her--until Cronus offers a deal.

In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he'll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of the council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.

With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.

Even if it costs her eternity.

MY THOUGHTS 
As befitting the final installment of a trilogy, The Goddess Inheritance is action packed from beginning to end, building on the physical and emotional intensity of the previous two installments and bringing everything to a dramatic and tearful conclusion. We pick up nine months after the brutal cliffhanger of book two, our concern for Kate returning with shocking clarity as our minds play catch up, and our nerves remain exposed throughout – the battle between the council, Cronus and Calliope wreaking havoc on characters and readers alike.

Kate has been a challenging character from book one, her instinctual reaction to fall on her sword as the solution to any situation that demands payment in the form of violence or sacrifice one that has plagued us from the beginning, but it is particularly strong in this last book. Despite both James and Henry calling her on this tendency, Kate simply acknowledges their comments and then disregards them when a new opportunity to save others arises, and while we at first applaud a mother's need to do anything and everything to save her child, the repetition of Kate's actions seems to gradually distort the grand gesture from a noble one to something else entirely.

Initially we can't help but see Kate's willingness to do what Cronus asks of her in order to spare her child and Henry further pain as the selfless act it appears to be, but it doesn't take long before red flags begin to wave themselves madly in our field of vision–suspicions that are later confirmed by Kate herself–to make us question her motives. We come to realize her actions are both admirably selfless and extraordinarily selfish; the decision to lay down her life for those of her family not simply about wanting to protect them, but even more so about wanting to protect herself, the weight of loss a burden she prefers to hand off to someone else because she's not strong enough to bear it herself. That realization–that she'd rather leave Henry and her family to deal with the agony of her death, especially knowing what Henry's already suffered prior to their marriage, than simply be honest and communicate with them to try and find an answer to their problems that doesn't result in her martyrdom–darkens and twists our perception of her into something we can't quite move past no matter how much we wish to.

Despite the issues with Kate, The Goddess Inheritance is as captivating as its two predecessors, the emotional dramas of the inhabitants of Olympus painfully riveting, and Ms. Carter does a beautiful job of deftly tugging on our heartstrings each and every chapter. Though Kate and Henry's relationship still doesn't feel quite as genuine as we might like, the love between them still feeling somewhat fragile and delicate even after all they've been through, they present a more unified front in this final book to give us a little hope that their romance will achieve that solidity in the future even if we're not able to witness it for ourselves.

Rating: 3.5/5

Goddess Interrupted: Interview + Giveaway

Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you an interview with Aimee Carter, author of the paranormal young adult Goddess Test series. Also, thanks to the fabulous people at Harlequin Teen and Media Masters Publicity I have one copy of Goddess Interrupted to give away on the blog, so be sure and check the bottom of the post for details.

I'm a huge fan of all things Greek mythology so this series is right up my alley. While I have a few small issues with Kate and Henry (you can read my full review of Goddess Interrupted HERE), I really enjoy this series overall and cannot wait to get my hands on the third book!

As this interview was provided for me, some of you may have read it already, but I hope those of you who haven't enjoy reading as Aimee dishes on the series!

How familiar were you with Greek myths and folklore before writing the Goddess Test series?  Was a lot of research required?

I first fell in love with Greek mythology when I was a kid learning how to read, and my infatuation only grew from there. I’ve studied various kinds of mythology for years, sometimes for class and always for fun, but even then I put a great deal of research into the Goddess Test series. Mostly as a refresher to make sure I was getting my facts right, but I also researched the various myths looking for ways to tie the plots and characters together in unexpected ways.

Was Goddess Interrupted any easier or harder to write than the first book in the series, The Goddess Test?

It was both easier and harder, in a strange way. I rewrote The Goddess Test multiple times, and I’ve never edited a book more heavily in my life. Goddess Interrupted did require some editing, of course, but it was much easier.

However, the pressure to deliver a sequel worthy of the series made the writing process for Goddess Interrupted more difficult than I’d anticipated. There’s something called the “sophomore slump”, where sequels or second books generally don’t quite match up to the second, and I wanted to avoid that at all cost. So that added a lot of stress, but in the end, I was very happy with the results.

You give the gods and goddesses in the series “ordinary names” – Zeus is named Walter, Aphrodite goes by Ava, Hermes is named James.  Why did you do that and do the more contemporary names have any significance?

This was something I went back and forth on multiple times. Initially the characters Kate encounters weren’t council members at all – I changed that very, very quickly though. By the second draft, I had a place for each of the Olympians, and I did some heavy rewriting to replace my first draft characters with the gods. I wanted to find a way to keep their names the same, but since they’re supposed to live among us in secret in the modern world, it didn’t really make sense. How many men named Zeus do you know, or women called Aphrodite? On top of that, keeping the council’s identities secret was incredibly important to the plot. So eventually I decided they would have changed their names when Western civilization stopped worshipping them as gods, allowing them to live freely among us.

I did choose each name for what it means, some more than others – Walter, for instance, means “army leader”, while James means “supplanter”. The exception is Calliope, which in the story was chosen by her counterpart for its Greek roots. The reason the gods changed their names – and why Artemis didn’t wind up with the name Diana – is explained throughout the series, but you get to actually see this happen in The Goddess Legacy (July 31).

Goddess Interrupted begins with the main character Kate Winters adjusting to her new life as an immortal.  Given Kate’s innate strength and stubbornness, was it difficult to switch gears to portray her as a bit more vulnerable and unsure of herself in her new role as goddess AND wife?

Not so much, to be honest – her progression felt natural to me. While Kate is very tough in certain ways, she’s extremely vulnerable as well. She’s emotionally dependent on the people around her (her mother in the first book, Henry in the second), and that in and of itself carves the path she takes in the sequel. She’s spent six months with Henry, falling in love with him and forming a relationship she thinks is going to last for eternity. But Henry is battling his own demons and isn’t ready to be the person she needs him to be, and because Kate is so stubborn, she has a hard time coming to terms with that. In the sequel, Kate really is her own worst enemy emotionally – her entire world has changed, after all, and that’s a lot for anyone to take – but it’s all part of her development into a goddess and queen.

Kate finds herself trying to work through her rather complicated relationship with James, as well as her relationship with her new husband, Henry (Hades).  Neither seems to be black and white, but rather varying shades of gray.   Were any of Kate’s feelings or situations based on any relationship struggles you’ve been through?

Not personally, no, but I did try to make Kate’s relationships with the people in her life as realistic as possible. She isn’t perfect, and neither are they, and that’s something they all have to work through at varying points in the series. None of the relationships in the books are based off of specific experiences I’ve been through though.

What is your favorite part of the writing process?  Least favorite?

Outlining is by far my favorite part of the process. I love the idea stage, where anything’s possible, and it’s such a shiny place. All of that comes crashing down when I write the first draft though, which is the hardest part for me. I tend to get mentally exhausted about two thirds to three quarters of the way into the manuscript, and it’s always a struggle for me to push through it, especially if I’m on a deadline. And inevitably there are a ton of problems I didn’t notice in the outline stage that have to be fixed for the story to work. I’m a perfectionist, so in order for me to continue writing the story, everything I’ve already written has to make sense.

Do you have a favorite quote or line from a poem or book?

I love so many quotes that I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite.

How did you get your first publishing deal and how did that feel?

My agent, Rosemary Stimola, sent the manuscript out to various publishers, and after a long submission process, Harlequin TEEN offered to publish it! I was stunned at first, but that quickly gave way to giddiness. It was an incredible feeling to know I’d be published, and to this day, I still can’t quite believe it.

When is the next book in the series due out? Any hints on what will happen in book 3?

Goddess Interrupted, the sequel to The Goddess Test, came out in late March. The next book in the series, The Goddess Legacy, will be out July 31. It’s a collection of five novellas told in the perspectives of Calliope, Ava, Persephone, James, and Henry, and together they form one story.

The third book in the series, The Goddess Inheritance, is currently scheduled to be released in March 2013. Unfortunately I can’t say too much about it, but the challenges that Kate will face are pretty clear by the end of the sequel!

After the huge success of The Goddess Test, Goddess Interrupted is on many, many TBR lists for this summer. What’s on your TBR list?

I’m so excited for a slew of books coming out – The Girl in the Clockwork Collar, Grave Mercy, The Selection, The Serpent’s Shadow, Philippa Gregory’s YA novel, and a ton of others. I never have as much time to read as I want, but I’m definitely making time for all of those and more!

Yearbook Superlatives! If you went to high school with the Greek gods and goddesses, who would you vote for?
 
•    Most likely to succeed? - Hera
•    Class clown? - Hermes
•    Nicest? – Demeter or Hephaestus
•    Best dressed? - Aphrodite
•    Best dancer? - Apollo
•    Most school spirit? - Iris
•    Most likely to attend summer school? - Ares
•    Teachers pet? - Athena

More information on Aimee and her books can be found here:

Goddess Test Official Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Buy on Amazon
Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy at Harlequin
Watch the Trailer

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Harlequin Teen and Media Masters Publicity, I have a copy of Goddess Interrupted to give away on the blog today! To enter, just fill out the form. This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only, and will run through midnight EST on Friday, June 22nd after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog. Good luck everyone!

Review: Goddess Interrupted

GODDESS INTERRUPTED
(Goddess Test #2)
Aimee Carter
Paranormal Young Adult
304 pages
Harlequin Teen
Available March 27th
Received through NetGalley for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Kate Winters has won immortality. But if she wants a life with Henry in the Underworld, she'll have to fight for it.

Becoming immortal wasn't supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she's as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he's becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate's coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans.

As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future.

Henry's first wife, Persephone.

MY THOUGHTS
A bit darker and fraught with more emotional intensity than its predecessor, Goddess Interrupted takes us beneath the surface both literally and figuratively as Kate descends to the Underworld after her absence over the summer and finds the progress she made with Henry before her departure lost behind his reinforced defensive shields. The tenuous thread of hope she mustered after he saved her life in the previous book quickly frays, the stark realization that she’s in a relationship with not only Henry, but also Henry’s long memory of Persephone as well, one that settles over all of us with a tangible weight that only increases in tonnage as she throws herself against his barriers again and again to no avail. We walk alongside Kate one lead foot after the other, wishing as she does for some flicker of love or approval from the ruler of the Underworld to help her navigate the monumental task of guiding the dead while she fights a Titan who can easily replace her immortality with mortality.

Kate is still the same young woman we met in the first book, her tendencies toward self-sacrifice in full swing as the Olympian gods face an ancient foe, but her vulnerabilities with regard to Henry are more apparent than ever. While we completely understand her insecurities when faced with Henry’s obvious love for Persephone and how his seeming lack of affection for her chips away at her confidence, the cyclical nature of her self-pity, then her resolve to embrace what she has instead of mourn what she doesn’t, and finally the deterioration of that resolve in the face of Henry’s detachment gets a bit tedious. Her anger and hurt are more than justified, Henry’s family’s pretty words and assurances that his love for her is real both empty and meaningless when any sign of their truth is hidden behind an impenetrable immortal mask, however her downward spiral into a repeated mantra of “I’ll always be second to Persephone” tries our patience as we flip the pages.

Like Kate, Henry is much the same character we met in The Goddess Test, a rather dark and brooding version of Hades who doesn’t reflect the explosive personality we might expect from the God of the Underworld. His brooding nature isn’t necessarily a bad thing by any means, but the lack of any emotional spark from him does make our connection to him rocky at best, and we long for the moment when the force of his personality will break through the block of ice in which Persephone’s betrayal encased him to give us a man we can reach out in touch instead of a god who slips right through our fingers. By the end, he does begin to slowly take form, solidifying ever-so-slightly to give us the barest hint of reality instead of smoke and mirrors, and that's enough to have us thoroughly anticipating the third installment in the hope we’ll see what we’ve up till now only caught the barest glimpses of.

The Greek mythology element was extraordinarily subtle in book one, but luckily for us it’s a bit more prominent in Goddess Interrupted, the immortal nature of Kate’s new family becoming more apparent as secrets are revealed thanks to a Persephone-shaped catalyst, opening our eyes a bit wider to Henry’s pain and giving both Kate and us an idea of just how different from us they truly are. Despite Kate’s continuous self-doubt and Henry’s emotional distance, the story itself is fast-paced and entertaining, though those who fear cliffhangers should brace themselves for a rather spectacular one at the end of this story. It does its job however, leaving us blinking rapidly in stupefaction that we’ve reached the last page and groaning aloud as we realize how long we must now wait for the next installment.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review: The Goddess Test

THE GODDESS TEST
(Goddess Test #1)
Aimee Carter
Paranormal Young Adult
297 Pages
Harlequin Teen
Available Now
Received via NetGalley for review

THE STORY
Kate has known this time was coming for years. Her mom was supposed to only live a couple more months, but she's held out for four long years, though now her body is finally giving out. Wanting to return to the town she grew up in, Kate's mom moves them from New York City and sets Kate up at the local high school.

After an unfortunate run in with resident popular girl Ava, Kate finds herself in the presence of dark and mysterious Henry, a young man offering to fix some of the problems in her life in exchange for her spending six months of the year with him. Unwilling to believe he has any power to save those she cares about, Kate reluctantly agrees, and then finds herself at Eden Manor with Henry who now claims he rules the dead.

He also informs Kate that she must pass seven unspecified tests in order to uphold her end of the bargain, and in doing so, she will gain immortality and be able to rule the Underworld at his side. Though she at first rejects her circumstances, Kate begins to have a change of heart the more time she spends in his presence, and suddenly her passing these tests becomes of the utmost importance. But there is someone that doesn't want Kate to pass, someone who will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure she not only fails, but fails in a way that takes her life with it.

MY THOUGHTS
The Goddess Test is a story that elicits from us a mixed reaction, both warming us with a quiet and sweet romance but also weighing us down with the tangible despondency of two heavy-hearted individuals for whom life has never been simple or easy. Circumstance forces Kate and Henry into a delicate situation where fear and affection are entangled to a spectacular degree, and we as readers must carefully sort through the tenuous threads linking them together with them, hoping and willing both to soften the hardened exterior their complicated lives have forced them to build. This story is not one with a frenetic pace where the action catapults us from page to page with blurring speed, it is rather one permeated by a sense of unease–an underlying tension resulting from Kate and Henry's fragile relationship as well as the inordinate pressure both face in terms of the seven tests propelling us forward at a slightly slower but no less riveting speed.

Kate is a character with whom it's a bit difficult to relate in the beginning, projecting an attitude of complete indifference her first day at a new school while proceeding to pull a second layer of emotional armor down around her even thicker than the first shortly after our introduction. Her only focus and area of interest is her dying mother, and while we can certainly sympathize with her difficulties, her armor does have the desired effect and keeps us at bay. She's almost self-sacrificing to a fault, jumping into a situation with Henry to save enemy-turned-friend Ava but then refusing to see it through with fairly disastrous results. In order to right her wrongs, she again offers herself up to extend her mother's life, and while her actions are admirable, she does mope a bit upon first arriving to Eden Manor after her decision is made, causing the distance between her and us to grow instead of lessen as we feel a connection to her slowly slip from our grasp.

About halfway through however, Kate begins to make the best of her situation, engaging in her new life and those who are now a part of it, and we finally begin to be drawn deeper into the story. While she does adhere to her personal credo of "no one else will be hurt because of me" throughout, her gradual change in attitude toward Henry is a pleasure to read, and hope for a positive outcome for both of them together and individually begins to penetrate the cloud of melancholy surrounding them, each admission of growing emotional involvement causing it to dissipate ever so slightly. By the end, Kate is a far more interesting character, and one whom will be more enjoyable to read about in future installments now that she's dropped her guard and made herself more accessible.

Interestingly enough, despite a premise that suggests otherwise, those who pick up this book expecting strong references to Greek mythology will most likely be a little disappointed as that element is surprisingly subtle. Gods and goddesses are alluded to but they don't play a major role, and even Henry's position as Hades is subdued as both the growing romance and the mystery surrounding the deaths of Kate's predecessors remain the primary focus. It only detracts from the story in that our expectation for a greater mythological prominence is high, but the story is entertaining in and of itself even with that noticeable absence. With the shift in both Kate and Henry's demeanor from one of grim depression to one of reserved excitement for the future at the end, the second book has the potential to be more immediately compelling, and I do look forward to its release.

Rating: 3.5/5