Review: Pawn by Aimee Carter

Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion, #1) by Aimee Carter
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN
Publication date: November 26th, 2013
Number of pages: 346 Pgs
Format: E-Arc
Purchase: Amazon | The Book Depository

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.

This book has been a long time coming. I remember when it was titled Masked and couldn't wait to see what it was going to be about, with its release, minus a title change, it was an enjoyable read.

I'm a fan of Aimee's from her Goddess Test series and couldn't wait to see what she came up with next. While this may not be the most original idea, since I've read more than one book about a character having masquerading as someone else, but the world the MC was situated in was surely not an easy one.

Kitty Doe has a choice to make, and if she chooses correctly, she'll have a better life and transformed into somebody else. It might not have been the ideal situation, but given the current situation she was in, I don't think she had many choices, at least good ones.
Kitty lives in a world where you are ranked, and being who she is, she doesn't have the best rank in the world, after being caught, she gets a choice offered to her.  Accept their conditions and have a better life, or basically, die.  The morning after accepting, Kitty finds her own body and appearances gone, and in place is the face of the daughter of the Prime Minister, who was recently killed.
She will have to learn Lila's responsibilities, and all the while discovering secrets even she had no idea was kept hidden. What was Lila involved in, and just what is she meant to accomplish?

There is one person she leaves behind, her boyfriend. She feels he deserves better, but  he won't be able to recognize her for who she looks like now after her own appearance, the one he is so used to seeing, gone.
I do wish we had gotten more information about how the world came to be this way. How were they ranked, why was she a certain number, while others were not? Was there some kind of test, or were they just born this way from their parents?  Some explanations would have been nice, but there was just bits of information laid down.. hopefully within the next book we'll get more into the world-building.

I felt this book was more setting up, and that the next book would be more action packed, maybe more romance? since that was also lacking here as well.  I do have some high hopes given it is Aimee, but while this book was not the most fantastic book in the world, it surely had potential, and we'll see what happens next.

Thanks to Harlequin Australia for sending me this copy in exchange for an honest review! :D

3.5 Stars