Pawn by Aimee Carter

Genre:  YA Dystopian

The Blackcoat Rebellion Series, Book 1

Aimee Carter's website

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Description (taken from Goodreads):

YOU CAN BE A VII. IF YOU GIVE UP EVERYTHING.

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.

Have you ever thought about the perfect society where everyone contributes?  And those that don't are sent away.  The thiefs and criminals aren't allowed in society.  And you are ranked based on what you can contribute which also determines your class in society.  Almost sounds like the perfect world, right?  Too bad we'll never get it right.

Kitty, the second child in a family whose class only allows for one child, spent her life in a group home.  The only mother she's known she's had to share with 40 other kids.  At the age of seventeen, every kid takes a test that determines their rank in society.  The Is (those that can't contribute to society) will be sent away while the lower rankings will have mediocre jobs but a roof over their heads.  Kitty's goal is to get a IV: something that lets her stay in her town to wait for Benji to get his ranking.  Only problem is she can't read and it's a written test.  Unfortunately, she ends up a III and must leave everything she's ever known for a mediocre life.

But...  People from very high places have noticed her.  She's given the opportunity to be a VII: a ranking that only belongs to the Hart family.  Only problem is she'll have to be Masked as one as well.  She will become Lila Hart.  But once she's a VII, nothing gets easier.  Instead, everything is more complicated and nothing is as it seems.  Can Kitty handle losing her identity and taking a new one?

The description that comes with this book is good and enticing.  But there's so much more to this story than that.  This book builds on the world Kitty is in.  And once you think you've figured it out, you're thrust into Lila's world.  And while a lot of the plot twists are predictable, you're so engrossed in the world that you don't care anymore.  This is the kind of world-building I love to see.  It's as if I can throw the characters aside and think of myself in this world (as a VI of course).

This is a dystopian that doesn't disappoint.  It's fun to read, and you begin to question all those off-handed remarks you've said about your own society (or at least I did).  I'll be picking up the next one for sure.