Book Review: Capative by Aimée Carter

A character that shares the name with Goddess of my country.

The truth can set her free
 
For the past two months, Kitty Doe's life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate Lila Hart, the Prime Minister's niece, in a hostile meritocracy on the verge of revolution, Kitty sees her frustration grow as her trust in her fake fiancé cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoat rebels she is secretly supporting keep her in the dark more than ever. 

But in the midst of discovering that her role in the Hart family may not be as coincidental as she thought, she's accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape. 

As one shocking revelation leads to the next, Kitty learns the hard way that she can trust no one, not even the people she thought were on her side. With her back against the wall, Kitty wants to believe she'll do whatever it takes to support the rebellion she believes in—but is she prepared to pay the ultimate price?

This is the second book to The Blackcoat Rebellion Trilogy, if you've not read the first one, I have a review of it.

Kitty is an idiot, nothing she does will ever change my mind about it. She does idiotic stuff at least every other chapter and it so fucking hard to read. Unlike the last book, there's no sense she knows what she doing is dumb and this time I did want to violently shake her (this sentence is reference to my review of the first by the way). The supporting cast should not be deeper and more interesting than main character. I think we might to have seen Kitty grown in this book, but I'm not sure she really learned from the mistakes she should have.

The plot while I interesting, I feel Carter gets us there the wrong way. Everything relays on Kitty making the wrong mistakes, which are often and she never learns from them. Also they is attempt at forshadowing in this book, but too obvious and with everything else just felt like repetition of the book's plot points. Also not sure how I feel about the main character's disability being used as a plot point, especially a plot point that feels seems sort of obvious with everything we told.

Also things that happen to certain characters feel pointless. Maybe there be a reason for it in the right book, but right now there doesn't. There also this love triangle thing going on, it doesn't do anything and really hope it doesn't just go BLAM in the finial book. In this book, the romance doesn't feel like it plays much into the plot but that might because of how distant I have became from Kitty so I didn't care at all. Kitty could have ended up in a blender and been turned into paste and would not have cared.

Overall, I gave this book three stars out of five for stylish jumpsuits. I really want to know how this Trilogy ends. This world is interesting, it just a shame that the main character is annoying. Hopefully, the next book will be less reliant on Kitty doing something stupid. It still a good book once you get past Kitty's short coming.

I got this book for review off NetGalley and it was published by Mira Ink December last year.

Book Review: Pawn by Aimée Carter

I would totally be an VIII.

Are you more than the number on the back of your neck?

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.

 Basically, Kitty agrees to something without knowing what she was getting herself into (not that she had much choice in the matter) and the real plot takes off from there. Kitty gets chosen to be masked because she has the same eye colour as Lila which is apparently rare. The government is corrupt (but what dystopia is not). When you seventeen, you take a ability test and results indicate where you work for the rest of life. Its I to VI, Kitty is gets a III which means she get manual labour and because she has no family she meant to be get sent to different city far away. It very dark world Carter has made. Nothing about Kitty life is fair. She finds herself in a family that just scheming against each other which might involve murder.

Kitty is actually quite smart but she can't read. It never actually stated in the book but she obviously Dyslexic which made me realise that I think this is the first book that I've read that has a dyslexic character as the Protagonist. I know the frustration of failing a test/not doing as well as hoped due my dyslexic nature. Running out of time before you're finished always sucks. Obviously, I could retake the test but also marked down for failing in the first place. I like her, she has spunk. I also likes the fact that Kitty might do something stupid but knows it stupid so you don't to shake her till she get sense. She backed into a lot of corner in this book so some of them can't be helped.

The characters that Kitty comes in contract after becoming Masked are complex bunch. She never really sure if she can trust any of them because their motivation ain't always that straight forward. There are some gems there and of course because this YA so there is three teenage boys involved that I know from the other reviews that they is shipping going on. Though, if you don't like sort thing much (like me) you can ignore it and focus on the plot (which is really good by the way). There is some romance but it not overbearing and actually goes with the plot and its friendship romance so it nice.

There's is one thing I don't get. Why is it a Prime Minister if there no King/Queen? The Harts are basically old fashion Royal family in that the oldest rules the country and has done for the past three generations. They do have a vote but it only ever one name on the ballot. It small thing, just why did American swapped from a president in the first place?

Overall, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars for stolen oranges. This the first of a series and I'm looking forward to the next one which is meant to be out sometime this year but Pawn just came out so going to be good few months. I think it promising series and I'm very intrigued with what happens down the line. If you like dystopia or people swapping life with each other I recommend this book to you as it good on both fronts.

I got this book off Netgalley for Review. Published by Mira Ink.