Book Review

Review: Defy By Sara B. Larson

Title: Defy
Author: Sara B. Larson
Series: Defy
Book #: 1
Pages: 336
Book Rating:.5
Goodreads Rating: 3.61

Published: January 7th 2014

A lush and gorgeously written debut, packed with action, intrigue, and a thrilling love triangle.

Alexa Hollen is a fighter. Forced to disguise herself as a boy and serve in the king's army, Alex uses her quick wit and fierce sword-fighting skills to earn a spot on the elite prince's guard. But when a powerful sorcerer sneaks into the palace in the dead of night, even Alex, who is virtually unbeatable, can't prevent him from abducting her, her fellow guard and friend Rylan, and Prince Damian, taking them through the treacherous wilds of the jungle and deep into enemy territory.

The longer Alex is held captive with both Rylan and the prince, the more she realizes that she is not the only one who has been keeping dangerous secrets. And suddenly, after her own secret is revealed, Alex finds herself confronted with two men vying for her heart: the safe and steady Rylan, who has always cared for her, and the dark, intriguing Damian. With hidden foes lurking around every corner, is Alex strong enough to save herself and the kingdom she's sworn to protect?

So in this book we've got a girl who pretends to be a boy in order to serve in the king's army, reminds you of any Disney movie? So it's safe to say that we were all expecting a Mulan story right? I think that's the reason why this book was a huge disappointment. Mulan was actually brave and all badass, and Alex? Well she does nothing but cry and whine all the time. So let me tell you why this book disappointed me:

My first problem, control! Don’t you have any Alex? And she calls herself a soldier. I’ve seen more control in a chicken than I saw with Alex. She has been acting like a boy for a long time now but out of the blue all the guys become desirable to her. Alex sees Damian shirtless and “coated with a fine sheen of sweat” and what does she do? She becomes shy, stares at the guy’s chest and blushes. UMM HELLO! Don’t you work out with guys who sweat all the time? I thought she was used to seeing shirtless boys “coated with a fine sheen of sweat” all the time.  And Rylan oh how hot and beautiful he is with his chocolate brown eyes. Oh poor Alex how can she resist this delicious boys? it’s not like there’s a war going around her! You know I am tired of these ridiculous love triangles.  It gets BORING!!! With the same poor bastard guy who is actually a really nice person but who never gets the girl because she is all over the dark and mysterious bad boy! The whole freaking book was filled with stupid sentences like Alex’s heart “pounds”, it “constricts”, “beats erratically” and my favorite one “skipped a beat”. Her cheeks “grew warm”, “flamed”, “felt flushed”. Well that’s dandy it results that the best kick ass girl ever acts like a 12 year old girl with her first crush.   

Now going back to control. Alex is supposed to be a soldier of the ELITE army that serves for the prince. She is the best soldier the squadron has, I mean she is so BAD-ASS that she could beat her older brother and the whole squadron, as a matter of fact she could also beat the captain who is older and has more experience! Well what a great soldier she is! She can’t even control her emotions! Exhibit A: Read the paragraph above. Exhibit B: when she and her brother, Marcel, go to the breeding house (By the way WHAT THE HELL?) she runs away crying when she’s surrounded by the KING’S guards who are savages! Yeah cause men always run away bawling their eyes out, you’re NOT suspicious at all Alex. I get that it was something traumatic but she had already gone there before, and in the book the author never mentions that she also ran away screaming. So why would she do it the second time when she already knew what to expect? And the thing that annoyed me to no end was that poor Marcel took the blame and got punished in the place of Alex. Because the girl has no control whatsoever!

 And also the inclusion of the rape/breeding house makes no sense to me! I get that it was mentioned to instill fear and portray the king as evil but it was only mentioned one time, as a matter of fact if the author wanted to show that everyone feared the King why not do more scenes with the king acting evil? I mean for a king who was fearsome he sure seemed evil staying in his room all the time. The king is supposed to be one of the main evil characters including Iker but they are mentioned in total three times! There’s an evil king and a black sorcerer but instead of focusing in that let’s bore the readers with shirtless guys running around coated in sweat and let’s make the girl cry and run away because she can’t decide which boy to choose!

Another thing that I felt the book was lacking was background information. We have these awesome kingdoms but we don’t know anything about them. We’ve got magic and sorcerers, as a matter of fact there are many different kinds of sorcerers and they have their own history. But do we hear anything about that? No! There’s no time for a history lesson because Alex has to save the whole kingdom while she runs through the jungle, and at this point she’s kidnapped but it doesn’t matter apparently, because her lovers are fighting for her.  

So if you want to read a book about love triangles and guys running around shirtless and sweaty this book is great for you. But if you want action and an actual kick-ass women being bad-ass I recommend you to watch Mulan, because this book will disappoint you.