Review: Defiance

Defiance by C.J. Redwine

Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Publication Date: August 28th 2012
Pages: 403
Source: Bought
Genre: Dystopian/Fantasy, Romance
Goodreads

Within the walls of Baalboden, beneath the shadow of the city's brutal leader, Rachel Adams has a secret. While other girls sew dresses and obey their male Protectors, Rachel knows how to survive in the wilderness and deftly wield a sword. When her father, Jared, fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector, her father's apprentice, Logan--the same boy Rachel declared her love for two years ago, and the same one who handed her heart right back to her. Left with nothing but a fierce belief in her father's survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. But treason against the Commander carries a heavy price, and what awaits her in the Wasteland could destroy her.

At nineteen, Logan McEntire is many things. Orphan. Outcast. Inventor. As apprentice to the city's top courier, Logan is focused on learning his trade so he can escape the tyranny of Baalboden. But his plan never included being responsible for his mentor's impulsive daughter. Logan is determined to protect her, but when his escape plan goes wrong and Rachel pays the price, he realizes he has more at stake than disappointing Jared.

As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can't be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.

Defiance is a story filled with action, suspense, and a bit of romance as it tells the story of a dystopian society with a fantasy feel. Defiance is told in two perspectives, Rachel's and Logan's. The story starts as Rachel's father is declared dead when he doesn't come back from a trip to a neighboring city-state. But Rachel and Logan don't think he's dead. The two decide that they must go out and find Rachel's father.

This book is kind of in a weird place for me. I liked this book. It was a nice story with a very interesting idea and all that stuff. But I can't really pick out much that I really liked about it. When I think about it, everything just felt. Good. Average. Nothing stuck out or made me feel like it was something I should keep with me. Sure, I thought the romance was cute, but it too wasn't all that magical. It just was.

The biggest thing that bugged me in this book was how it was classified as dystopian. The world that Defiance takes place in seems to make much more sense as a fantasy setting. In the world that the characters live in, they live in "city-states" that are surrounded with tall protective walls to keep a large dragon like creature they call the "cursed one" out of the city. The way they told the story of the this creature is that the cursed one had been living in the ground for years and years and when people were looking for oil, they ran into this creature. People calling this a dystopian book just bugged me, it felt like it was fantasy!

The characters in the story really didn't connect to me very well. The two main characters, Rachel and Logan are two very different people but neither of them seemed that interesting to me. Though Rachel is a very kick-butt character who can fight and all that, she still didn't seem all that though to me, I don't know. Logan on the other hand is much more of a technical person and... it was kind of cool at times. He was very smart and always knew what to do. But that's the problem. He ALWAYS knew what to do. He seemed like some sort of perfect guy (not physically... but in a more intellectual sense) and it felt like he couldn't make mistakes.

I know this is a really short review, but I truly don't have much to say about it. Overall, this book was okay. It wasn't great. There were some things that bugged me, and I'm not really interested in continuing the series at all. I'm really left very confused.