Review: Defiance by C.J Redwine

  Defiance
  Author: C.J Redwine
  Publisher: Atom
  Publication date: September 6th 2012
  My rating:  4.5 stars

 

Rachel’s world is confined to the protective walls around her city. Beyond them are violent wanderers, extreme terrain, and a danger straight out of legend: a beast called the Cursed One that devastates everything in its path.

When Rachel’s father goes missing, she is desperate to search for him. But her attempts to flee the city bring her to the attention of its overbearing ruler. His efforts to control her make the world within the walls seem as dangerous as that outside.

Her only chance at escape is Logan. Once her father’s apprentice, and now her only protector, he feels that helping her might mean losing her completely. But if he can put his feelings aside, they might be able to save more than Rachel’s father. They might be able to break down the walls, and set their people free.

Defiance was a book that was on my priority to acquire list ever since I first came across it earlier this year. The gorgeous cover and enticing premise instantly captured my attention. I’ve had certain issues with paranormal books where they just haven’t appealed to me, but I had a feeling Defiance would be different and different it certainly was.

The city of Baalboden is under the regime of the Commander and his brute squad. Whatever he says goes, if you step out of line or one of his guards catches you there are always consequences. Rachel finds her back against the wall as soon as her father is declared dead, he went to the wasteland and never returned, and now that it has been 90 days and there is still no sign of him it is up to the Commander to officially declare him dead. But Rachel still hasn’t given up hope. She decides to make it past the Commander and his guards to the wasteland. But the Commander has something up his sleeve, no matter how hard Rachel and her deemed Protector Logan try he always seems one step ahead. He arranges a deal with Rachel which she has to see through otherwise all those closest to her, lives may be at risk.

I’ve been having quite a bit of luck recently with strong independent female main characters and Rachel ends up being another great female character that I can add to this list. At first she did jump into situations without thinking things through consequently putting other people’s lives on the line. But you still have to remember that she is only 16 years old. As the story progressed she grew on me a lot more, I liked the character that emerged, she was still head strong, but there was a fierceness about her which I admired. My original assumptions about her as a selfish 16 year old flew straight out of the window as she matured rapidly.

I liked how Redwine made Defiance a dual pov book, Rachel was an interesting character, but I loved getting into Logan’s head too! He was one of the sweetest gentlemen, I loved how meticulous he was with everything he did; planning, checking and triple checking things, how he put his body on the line for those closest to him, I think he definitely made it to my favourite literary crushes. I hope in the next book we learn a lot more about his back story, he certainly had a shady past, which I’d like to delve a lot deeper into.

The Commander was a right piece of work; he was a character which had a constant buzz around him, as he always had something up his sleeve which would have me stunned or so worked up that I just wanted to punch him. He’s definitely a character you love to hate; I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us next.

Defiance is a brilliant debut novel from Redwine, its pace and endless surprises will be sure to keep you captivated. Logan and Rachel were two characters that brought so much, that it was hard not to form a close relationship with both. I honestly can’t wait to read what Redwine has planned next for these fantastic set of characters.

Final Verdict

Best case scenario; you read this book and fall madly in love like I did.

Worst case scenario; you decide to not read this book and miss out on one of the best debuts this year.