The Offering by Kimberly Derting

Summary (from Goodreads):

True love—and world war—is at stake in the conclusion to The Pledge trilogy, a dark and romantic blend of dystopia and fantasy.

Charlie, otherwise known as Queen Charlaina of Ludania, has become comfortable as a leader and a ruler. She’s done admirable work to restore Ludania’s broken communications systems with other Queendoms, and she’s mastered the art of ignoring Sabara, the evil former queen whose Essence is alive within Charlie. Or so she thinks.

When the negotiation of a peace agreement with the Queendom of Astonia goes awry, Charlie receives a brutal message that threatens Ludania, and it seems her only option is to sacrifice herself in exchange for Ludanian freedom.

But things aren’t always as they seem. Charlie is walking into a trap—one set by Sabara, who is determined to reclaim the Queendoms at any cost.

Review:

Why did it take me so long to get to this one? I love Kimberly Derting. I have read (and possibly own) all of her work. I love that the books she writes are so different from each other (one’s about a girl who can find dead bodies, another revolves around alien abductions, and then there’s this dystopian series with immortal queens and language barriers). What’s next?

One of the best things about this series would have to be all the kick-butt girl characters. Seriously, I would not mess with Charlie’s friends. A chunk of the book deals with Charlie, her best friend (or past best friend who is now pissed about the Charlie killing her father), and the leader of Charlie’s army going on a quest of sorts. And well, the three of them together is pretty epic. Even Charlie has been learning to fight.

I liked that each character had his/her own story and that they weren’t just strategically placed to work around the story with Charlie. I also loved how intense and action-packed everything was from the beginning. Seriously, the opening pages deal with an epic betrayal and the torture/possible death of a much-loved character. On top of the action and the awesome characters, there’s still the whole crazy old queen stuck inside the new, good queen problem. And watching Charlie struggle with the old queen was hard.

Stuff gets a little more heated romance-wise as well. And while part of me just never really loved the love interest that much in this series and wished he had more story/interesting flaws or characteristics, part of me also loved that he took the back seat to the plot and the kick-butt girl characters. I also really love Charlie’s sister and how she doesn’t even try to stop her sister from going off and dangerously trying to fix things. I wish I got to read more about her.

All in all, I read this book in one night. The action and drama were spot-on. I loved the characters (throughout the series). I was never a huge shipper of the romance though I’m not 100% sure on why that is. I like and accept the ending. And I give it a 9/10.