The Essence by Kimberly Derting

The Essence
(The Pledge, #2)
by Kimberly Derting
Released |January 1st 2013 by Margaret K. McElderry|
Edition |Hardcover, 352 pages|
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“Danger, dread, mystery, and romance” (Booklist) continue in the second book of The Pledge trilogy, as Charlie’s reign is under siege from the most unusual of enemies.
At the luminous conclusion of The Pledge, Charlaina defeated the tyrant Sabara and took her place as Queen of Ludania. But Charlie knows that Sabara has not disappeared: The evil queen’s Essence is fused to Charlie’s psyche, ready to arise at the first sign of weakness.
Charlie is not weak, but she’s being pushed to the brink. In addition to suppressing the ever-present influence of Sabara, she’s busy being queen—and battling a growing resistance determined to return Ludania to its discriminatory caste system. Charlie wants to be the same girl Max loves, who Brook trusts, but she’s Your Majesty now, and she feels torn in two.
As Charlie journeys to an annual summit to meet with leaders of nearby Queendoms—an event where her ability to understand all languages will be the utmost asset—she is faced with the ultimate betrayal. And the only person she can turn to for help is the evil soul residing within.

The Essence was a strange read. It was interesting and it was also pretty good at the same time, but the content that it was made up of was just weird. The whole thing with Sabara's essence living inside of Charlie confused me at times. In this installment, someone is out to murder Charlie. So on top of Charlie and her people trying to stay alive and find out who the killer is, she's also battling Sabara's essence who is trying to take over and control her body.

I did enjoy the story, but like I said it was a bit weird. The journey that Charlie takes had some great action packed moments. The book wasn't TOO action packed, but at times the action that was there was really good. I do wish there was a bit more though. Also, there wasn't a lot of romance in this story. When it did happen, it would come out of nowhere. Like Charlie and Max, you didn't see a lot of they're relationship, but it would pop up every now and then. Insert the weird guy Niko... I don't know what to think of his character or the role he will play in the next book. I understand who he is and the connection, but it's weird and kind of hard to explain. The characters were pretty interesting in this, but towards the I was sad to see some of the distance between a few of the characters :( Hopefully things get patched up in book 3?!

Overall, the story was pretty good. If you read and enjoyed book one, I think that you should definitely read book two :) I really would like to see how things will turn out in book 3 and since there's a lot of things brewing, hopefully there will be a lot more action!