Publisher Description
The first move is hers…
The Blackcoat Rebellion
Book 1
Author of The Goddess Test novels
A single test determined her entire future…until she was given a way out
Kitty Doe had one chance to prove she could be worthwhile to society. Instead, she walked out of her ranking test as a complete failure, with a permanent "III" tattooed on the back of her neck. At seventeen, she's facing a lifetime of cleaning sewers…and being separated from Benjy, the boy she's loved for as long as she can remember.
So when Kitty is offered a chance to escape her fate, it seems like an easy choice. 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—a VII—she will be famous. 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 learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she's only just beginning to understand.
"Carter has created an engaging heroine to root for in Kitty and a page-turner full of twists and turns." —Booklist
"The actions and plot twists will keep readers satisfied and waiting for more in the series." —School Library Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Carter (the Goddess Test series) tries her hand at near-future dystopia, with mixed results. The economy has collapsed, and resources have run out that's as much world-building as Carter does, so it's hard to see how or why the United States has willingly and rapidly transformed from prosperous democracy to micromanaged dictatorship. Kitty, raised in a state-mandated group home, is in love with her boyfriend, Benjy, but her test results show she's a low achiever, and the 17-year-old is assigned a sewer-maintenance job in faraway Denver. While they wait for Benjy to be tested, Kitty runs away to become a prostitute, only to have her virginity bought by the most powerful man in the country, Prime Minister Daxton Hart. It's not sex he's after, though: he wants Kitty to impersonate his dead niece. Why, and at what price, Kitty can only guess. The romance is anemic, with Benjy barely mentioned for chapters at a time. Though well-paced and readable, as Carter's prose normally is, the absence of credible setting or emotion makes this an underwhelming read. Ages 14 up.
