{Excerpt/Giveaway} Kimberly Derting's The Pledge Trilogy

I'm a big fan of Kimberly Derting's The Pledge Trilogy, which is a great, absorbing, gritty fantasy series. I've been a big supporter of this series since the very beginning, and I'm so excited to be taking part on the birthday blog tour to celebrate the finale!

I've previously reviewed all three books in the trilogy:

THE PLEDGE

THE ESSENCE

THE OFFERING

Today, I'm featuring an excerpt from THE OFFERING, released last week, as well as a chance to win a $25 gift card that you can put toward THE OFFERING or earlier books in the series if you need to catch up!!! ^.~

So join me in celebrating THE OFFERING with its birthday blog tour!

Praise for THE OFFERING:

"This was a truly epic ending to the series." --Crystal Perkins, Goodreads Review

"The final book in Kimberly Derting’s Pledge trilogy is a thrilling conclusion. I was immediately swept up into it and powered right through. It was pretty much what I wanted with a few surprises along the way." --Krys at Bibliopunkk Reads

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Here's an excerpt now!

EXCERPT I:

And then Eden stopped pacing and turned to face me. Her expression was hard to read, but her mood wasn’t. “I don’t want to be a guard any longer,” she stated with impervious resolve, and I remembered her the way I’d first seen her when she was part of Xander’s underground resistance. When all I could think was that this woman, with her muscular arms and her piercing black eyes, was a weapon in her own right. “I’m done with all that nonsense. All I want is to get Xander back.”

I didn’t know if I could give her that, because I didn’t know if Xander was alive or not. She surely knew as much too.

I nodded, agreeing to every unspoken term forging between us. “Good,” I told her, my blood hot and my skin starting to glow beneath the heat of our new alliance. “Because I don’t want you to be my guard. I want a partner. And if you help me get to Astonia, I’ll do whatever I can to help you get revenge.”

EXCERPT II:

The two guards dragged Xander toward a small, round opening in the stone floor, a hole through which blood could easily drain away to the sewers. They, along with two others who’d appeared, pinned him to the ground while he continued to writhe and scream. They waited until he was too weary to fight any longer. Until he had no other option but to accept this fate he’d been handed.

Then the executioner raised his blade.

Niko would have closed his eyes, if Elena wasn’t observing him so keenly. Unlike Niko, she had no interest in turning away. She seemed to relish the moment.

When the axe fell and the sharp crack of metal struck stone beneath, he felt the slightest jerk from beside him. But when he turned his gaze on her, he saw that she was frowning at the hem of her gown, rather than at the grisly view at her feet.

“Will you look at that,” she clucked, craning her neck to get a better look, and ignoring everything else going on around her. “He got blood on my new dress.”

~*~

O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title: THE PLEDGE

Author: Kimberly Derting

Release Date: Nov. 15, 2011

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry / Simon & Schuster

SUMMARY:

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

Title: THE ESSENCE

Author: Kimberly Derting

Release Date: Jan. 1, 2013

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry / Simon & Schuster

SUMMARY:

“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.

Title: THE OFFERING

Author: Kimberly Derting

Release Date: Dec. 31, 2013

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry / Simon & Schuster

SUMMARY:

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.

~*~

AUTHOR BIO

Kimberly Derting is the author of the BODY FINDER series, THE PLEDGE trilogy, and THE TAKING (coming April 2014 from HarperTeen). She lives in the Seattle area, with her husband and three children, who often find the outrageous things they say either in the pages of her books or posted on Twitter or Facebook for the entire world to see.