Sara B. Larson
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Defy (Defy Trilogy, Book 1) (1) door Sara B. Larson
Alexa, who has survived by pretending to be a boy called Alex, serves an evil king by being one of the primary guards for his son. Prince Damian comes across as an attention-deficient fop, but under that is a facade equally different like Alexa's. When her twin brother is killed and she and the prince captured by those fighting the king, it's the beginning of a wild adventure that ends up better for the kingdom, but heartbreaking for Alexa. I'm eager to read the other two books in this series.
This started off okay. I felt like the brother and sister main characters were believable and were characters that I could really get interested in. Then, very quickly, it went downhill fast and got very, very icky and dumb. Romance is not my favorite type of story, but there are plenty of romantic stories among books that i have completely loved. In this case, character development came to a complete halt and it was all gooey descriptions of chocolate brown eyes and blah blah blah.
*Disclaimer: I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are mine and 100% genuine.
Rating: 2.5 stars
When I first heard of and saw Defy, I thought "Whoa, a high fantasy, sword-fighting, cross dressing heroine?! You can't go wrong with that, right?" Well, apparently you can. Defy seemed like an extremely promising novel and I was really into it until about 75% of the way through. It started out strong, with the background of Alexa and her brother and how/why they are part of Prince Damian's guards and why she is pretending to be a boy (which I found to be very Mulan-ish).
Characters: I surprisingly enjoyed Marcel's character in the few chapters that we met him. His relationship with Alexa was one of the things I liked in the story. Alexa herself on the other hand, was a character that I did not understand. In the beginning, I saw her as this strong, sword fighting champion but then things turned for the worse. All of a sudden, the character that I actually liked became this sappy, love-struck girl, while mind you, still pretending to be a boy. See the problem? Her being on cloud nine wasn't the thing that bothered me, it was the love triangle.
Love Triangle: I knew there was going to be a love triangle from the description, and I was a little afraid to read this because of that. Now, don't get me wrong. I happen to like love triangles as long as they're done right. This one, however, was disappointingly not. Even though I wasn't expecting "a thrilling love triangle" I was hoping for it to be at least decent. One of the main reasons I didn't care for this love triangle was because of the love interests. I felt as if Rylan didn't play a huge part in the book at all, and I just didn't know how I felt about Damian. He was so moody and secretive I just couldn't take it. It took me until the last few chapters of the novel to decide that I thought he was decent. Just decent.
The Plot: The plot genuinely had a huge potential, because it's not everyday you read a high fantasy novel with a masquerading main character. But it needed more. It was too love based and not enough action. I would've loved to see more scenes involving sorceress magic and fighting. Also this takes time in the olden days, but I forgot about this (even though they use swords) because of the dialect. The way the characters talked and the setting made it seem pretty modern. Only sometimes throughout the novel would I actually remember that it was a different era. There was a couple of revelations near the end of the novel that really surprised me but other than that the plot was pretty basic to be honest.
Overall, this book had an extremely high potential to be amazing, but it was simply a "meh" novel in my opinion. Perhaps it simply wasn't my cup of tea but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I'm debating whether or not the next book is worth reading, but we'll have to see.
My Favorite Quote:
“True beauty is what lies inside of us, not what the world sees. A beautiful shell that houses a vile soul becomes sullied over time. But an outer shell, imperfect as it may be, that houses a beautiful, shines with that beauty, radiating it for all who have eyes to see.”
Would I recommend Defy? Maybe. I would definitely warn about the love triangle though.
… (meer)
Rating: 2.5 stars
When I first heard of and saw Defy, I thought "Whoa, a high fantasy, sword-fighting, cross dressing heroine?! You can't go wrong with that, right?" Well, apparently you can. Defy seemed like an extremely promising novel and I was really into it until about 75% of the way through. It started out strong, with the background of Alexa and her brother and how/why they are part of Prince Damian's guards and why she is pretending to be a boy (which I found to be very Mulan-ish).
Characters: I surprisingly enjoyed Marcel's character in the few chapters that we met him. His relationship with Alexa was one of the things I liked in the story. Alexa herself on the other hand, was a character that I did not understand. In the beginning, I saw her as this strong, sword fighting champion but then things turned for the worse. All of a sudden, the character that I actually liked became this sappy, love-struck girl, while mind you, still pretending to be a boy. See the problem? Her being on cloud nine wasn't the thing that bothered me, it was the love triangle.
Love Triangle: I knew there was going to be a love triangle from the description, and I was a little afraid to read this because of that. Now, don't get me wrong. I happen to like love triangles as long as they're done right. This one, however, was disappointingly not. Even though I wasn't expecting "a thrilling love triangle" I was hoping for it to be at least decent. One of the main reasons I didn't care for this love triangle was because of the love interests. I felt as if Rylan didn't play a huge part in the book at all, and I just didn't know how I felt about Damian. He was so moody and secretive I just couldn't take it. It took me until the last few chapters of the novel to decide that I thought he was decent. Just decent.
The Plot: The plot genuinely had a huge potential, because it's not everyday you read a high fantasy novel with a masquerading main character. But it needed more. It was too love based and not enough action. I would've loved to see more scenes involving sorceress magic and fighting. Also this takes time in the olden days, but I forgot about this (even though they use swords) because of the dialect. The way the characters talked and the setting made it seem pretty modern. Only sometimes throughout the novel would I actually remember that it was a different era. There was a couple of revelations near the end of the novel that really surprised me but other than that the plot was pretty basic to be honest.
Overall, this book had an extremely high potential to be amazing, but it was simply a "meh" novel in my opinion. Perhaps it simply wasn't my cup of tea but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I'm debating whether or not the next book is worth reading, but we'll have to see.
My Favorite Quote:
“True beauty is what lies inside of us, not what the world sees. A beautiful shell that houses a vile soul becomes sullied over time. But an outer shell, imperfect as it may be, that houses a beautiful, shines with that beauty, radiating it for all who have eyes to see.”
Would I recommend Defy? Maybe. I would definitely warn about the love triangle though.
… (meer)
When Alexa's mother and father are killed by an evil sorcerer, to avoid being used as a breeder (yep, that's a thing), she cuts her hair off and poses as a boy, and she and her twin brother, Marcel, join the king's army. Because her father has been teaching her to wield a sword for years, she is better than most, and is appointed to the elite prince's guard. For three years Alexa has gone by Alex and has pretended to be a boy, but she's 17 now and is finding that fact harder and harder to conceal, and events are about to make that even more difficult..
I have mixed feelings about this book because I liked Alexa alright, but when her gender is revealed, her actions are harder to understand, I don't want to give anything away, but it's this fact that makes the love triangle that follows harder to connect to. I just didn't feel the heat. The plot was enjoyable, and I loved the action scenes, it was just the romance I didn't engage with.
Because I liked more about the book than I didn't, I'm giving this book a 3.5/5 star rating, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
3.5/5 stars.
*** I would like to thank NetGalley, Scholastic Press, and Sara B. Larson for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.… (meer)
I have mixed feelings about this book because I liked Alexa alright, but when her gender is revealed, her actions are harder to understand, I don't want to give anything away, but it's this fact that makes the love triangle that follows harder to connect to. I just didn't feel the heat. The plot was enjoyable, and I loved the action scenes, it was just the romance I didn't engage with.
Because I liked more about the book than I didn't, I'm giving this book a 3.5/5 star rating, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
3.5/5 stars.
*** I would like to thank NetGalley, Scholastic Press, and Sara B. Larson for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.… (meer)
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