{Review} The Pledge (The Pledge #1) by Kimberly Derting

Posted by Donna
Release Date: November 11th, 2011
Finished Date: January 15th, 2015

Publishers: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Source: Gifted
Format: Hardcover

Pages: 323

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

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.

The Review: Intriguing and suspenseful, The Pledge is a fantastic story woven behind a realistic fantasy/dystopia setting.

Charliana lives in a world that is divided by the language they speak and judged by status – the lower and higher class. If the lower class ever looks a member of the higher class in the eye while speaking their own language, the penalty for this is death. As Charliana and her family try to keep under the radar and work to the best of their ability to help her families restaurant stay afloat. But Charliana is hiding a secret. Somehow she can decipher any language or text from any other class, when she’s only supposed to know her own class’s language. If anyone finds out her secret, she knows she will be in danger.  So when she meets the mysterious Max who talks in a language she’s never heard before, her secret is nearly revealed, but what Charliana doesn’t know is that there is something much bigger going on and she and her family are in more danger than ever.

Why ‘o’ why did I not read The Pledge sooner? I seem to be wishing this more and more lately while I’m trying to tackle some of my own books rather around my review books. I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf since it first released – I remember one of my friends gifting it to me and me being so excited to read it and here I am like 3 years later JUST reading it. If you haven’t already guessed, yes I loved it. It was amazing and that was totally unexpected because I’ve read both of the first books of Kimberly Derting’s other series and yeah they were okay, but nothing like The Pledge. Nothing! I guess this is third times the charm right?

As I mentioned before The Pledge is a very intriguing read. From the moment I started it I didn’t want to put it down. Charlie’s world is dark and brutal and I immediately felt sorry for her. She has this gift that she can’t share with anyone other than family and being able to hear every different language, she had to be careful every minute of the day in case she slipped up. There is a lot of mystery to the story and surrounding Charlie and her family. It was pretty easy to see why the Queen wanted Charlie but then trying to discover how Max fit in to the story and who some of the other characters were and their reasoning’s, weren’t so easy. The story is full of suspense and there are so many good qualities to the story that makes it a truly enjoyable read.

So in all The Pledge is a totally awesome read and you must read it.

{Review} The Taking (Taking #1) by Kimberley Derting

Posted by Donna
Release Date: April 29th, 2014
Finished Date: September 1st, 2014

Publishers: HarperTeen   
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Source: For Review
Format: eARC

Pages: 320

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing. 

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day. 

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men. 

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?

The Review: Sixteen-year-old Kyra wakes up behind the Gas ‘n’ Sip gas station with no memory of what has happened to her. All she can remember is the argument with her father, the flash of light and then nothing. Thinking she passed out and it’s now the following day, Kyra makes her way home, however she suddenly finds that things are how she left them last night. Five years have passed, her family has changed and aged, her boyfriend has a life in College with a new girlfriend but Kyra, Kyra is still the same….she hasn’t aged. What happened to Kyra during them five years is a mystery, but Kyra wants answers but will she like what she finds?

The Taking started off with such an engaging and strong start that I instantly assumed this would be a fantastic read. It’s intriguing and exciting. It reminded me of one of my favourite films that was released in the late 80’s called Fight of the Navigator and even though I knew it wouldn’t have the same final outcome, I was still so impressed with the start of the story, I was dying to rate it 5 stars straight away. But then, I have no idea what happened because once I hit about a quarter of the book, I suddenly lost interest. 

I liked Krya and I felt for her situation but I almost felt as though I was more concerned for her than she was herself. She has no idea what has happened, her parents have no idea and I felt as though there wasn’t much concern of that. No concern from doctors, or the police. Everyone seemed to accept Kyra’s story and just try to get on with their lives. I kept reading and thinking that surely there should be more hype over the fact she’s returned without aging, but there wasn’t any. Kyra was obsessed with keeping time, but we never find out the reason why. She also spent a lot of time being upset over her ex-boyfriend and her new love interest, but for a girl who has lost five years of her life and she has no reason why, surely she would be more upset? For me the lack of emotions didn’t make her story believable. 

The plot of the story was quite entertaining, however it’s not until a third of the book that you start to get a hint of what is going on. The romance was good, a little fast but good. I didn’t mind that Kyra fell for her ex-boyfriends brother. I think the way the author did their story was quite good and especially with ending – that was totally unexpected. 

In all, The Taking was an okay read. I just felt it was a little poorly executed and needed to be a little more believable. Would I read the sequel? Maybe,  I’m not sure if the ending grabbed me enough to but I could change my mind.  

Thank you to HarperTeen for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review. 

A review for The Body Finder by Kimberley Derting

Posted by Donna

Published Date: March 16th, 2010
Finished Date: March 28th, 2011
The Blurb: Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies - or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world...and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift, but now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer - and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling in love, Violet is getting closer to discovering a killer...and becoming his prey herself.

The Review: I'll admit I wasn't to sure about this book to start with, I'd heard quiet a review mixed reviews but in the end I thought I would give it ago myself, and I'm glad I did as I did end up enjoying it. 
The Body Finder is the first book in a new series by author Kimberly Derting and by writing a story about predator and prey, I believe she wrote this book beautifully. 


Violet Ambrose has a gift to finding the dead, human and animals. She was just eight years old when she found the first body and then for many years after that she's found many animals. That, is until there is a murder on the loose in her hometown and death seems to keep finding Violet everywhere. As she is the only one who can find the girls, the town's police asks for Violets help, help that could result in Violet becoming the next victim.


I found this story a little slow to start with but I did enjoy, as we get to know Violet and how her gift works. We also find out about her secret love for best friend Jay, who to say the least....is hot! but, we also see what her parents are like. I for one, am glad that Violet didn't have to hide who she was from them (as I have read so many times before) and I did enjoyed that her parents helped take her journey and also try to take the burden off her.


What I loved most about the book was that we got to take a peak at the murders point of view. I've only ever read one other book like it and I LOVED IT! To take you into the mind of a killer, its quiet disturbing but you can't help wanting to read more and try and understand why they do what they do.  Also, I'm glad for the romance that was included in the story. It was pretty obvious from the start that Jay & Violet are meant to be together, even though I could of banged their heads together at times, I'm glad they finally released they both felt the same way. 


Although I rated the book 3 flowers, I did enjoy it. I would recommend this to other readers as I believe its a must read. I look forward to reading the sequel too.