Young Adult Review: Defy by Sara B. Larson

Defy by Sara B. Larson

Hardcover, 336 pages

Expected publication: Dec. 7th, 2014 by Scholastic

Source: Gifted from friend

A lush and gorgeously written debut, packed with action, intrigue, and heart-racing romance.

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?

Defy teeters on that edge of liking and disliking with my emotions going in both directions.  While writing a very clever review in my head immediately after finishing, I was quite sure I balanced right in the middle of likes and dislikes but as time has gone on I have realized that maybe my dislikes were a bit more numerous then I originally thought and maybe rating this one is harder then I believed it would be.

Fantasy is one of my favorite genres and being immersed into a new world and new customs is a lot of fun.  And this world wasn't really any exception, the world is cleverly brought about even if not completely unique feeling, it was was adequately so to not be a negative.  I particularly liked that it's set in a jungle, which I did find quite unique, though it was a little hard for me to imagine, maybe because it was something new.

The world with the magic and the court issues and all that was done well.  I like the background of the issues when they were finally revealed and I think it was a nice beginning to what is sure to be a very interesting (possibly fascinating) new series.  I feel like we've only barely touched what it could be, and may become as things haven't yet been developed quite enough to say I'm completely enthralled with it.  But it's something I may become enthralled with in the future.  I would certainly be willing to continue the journey to see how things develop.

I'm on the fence about Alex/Alexa.  I like that she's a girl who's hidden as a boy in the Prince's guard and is indeed the best fighter.  I liked that there's a girl who is stronger then all the boys.  Even if they don't know it. ;)  I felt for her when she felt her more girly moments (who can blame her, spending all that time with those men?) and wished for her to finally have someone to reveal herself too.  As this story long progressed I was happy with how her character developed and grew.  I wouldn't say I connected with her, but I enjoyed her character well enough.

The romance was incredibly frustrating for me and was probably the biggest downside.  There's a love triangle; of the annoying sort.  I can deal with love triangles sometimes, but this one I just didn't feel.  I didn't understand how either of these boys liked her so much.  Especially since she'd been living as a boy for so long.  I didn't like that there was so much hot and cold on all sides and wished they would just communicate already and figure things out.  She cares about one boy a lot, but not romantically and is constantly apologizing for that while he's constantly sulking.  The other she does care about romantically, but I don't fully understand why.  He's not always open for communication with her and other moments he's attempting to kiss her.  We needed to see more moments between them to develop that relationship a bit more.  And the L-word came out much too soon.  Though time wise it may have been fine, technically I think two people can fall in love in a day (depending on their situation), but we need to be convinced of that, and I wasn't.

The end of the book was very good.  It happened quickly, but I don't think it was too fast.  I was eager to see something progress finally and it did.  And it left things at a good spot, I think that the next book could likely be more to my taste, as long as that darn love triangle can be figured out here soon.

I'm on the fence about this one and have debated the 2 stars and 3 stars.  I would say 2.5 is probably just about accurate for this one, but I'm bumping it up to 3 because of the great ending and the world created was done quite well.