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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4.25/5 stars ⚓️
I really enjoyed this one, but I didn't love it as much as the first book. I think the biggest difference for me was that I wasn't as exited about the plot (I'm not that big of a pirate storyline fan) and I also felt like the romance wasn't as present and fun as in the first book. That being said, I still love this world, the political intrigue and all the characters and I can't wait to read the final book in this series to see how it will all be wrapped up in the end.
I really enjoyed this one, but I didn't love it as much as the first book. I think the biggest difference for me was that I wasn't as exited about the plot (I'm not that big of a pirate storyline fan) and I also felt like the romance wasn't as present and fun as in the first book. That being said, I still love this world, the political intrigue and all the characters and I can't wait to read the final book in this series to see how it will all be wrapped up in the end.
Such a cliffhanger ending! Cannot wait for the third.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thoroughly enjoyed Defend the Dawn! I get frustrated trying to get invested in certain books at times because I really prefer fast paced books, but they seem to be a dime a dozen.
That wasn't the case with Defend the Dawn; it was fast paced from beginning to end and it was truly refreshing. Intriguing, a true page turner, and I couldn't stop devouring it even it to the late hours of the night.
I wanted to give this book 4 stars for the excellent pacing, as well as the way the author kept me hanging on every word just to try to confirm whether or not my suspicions were correct - that this whole adventure was an underhanded scheme from Captain RIan!
But there are several spoiler-free reasons this book was not a 5 star read like the first in its series.
I gave Defy the Night a higher rating because it was the first book I've read in a long time that didn't romanticize the daily lives of royalty. It gave me a true view into the veiled threats behind niceley packaged words, the piles of research and paperwork and round table debates that had to be done between the king, the prince and their consuls - leaders of each territory in their kingdom. Although it wasn't as exciting as the adventure in Defend the Dawn, I truly admired the author for painting this imperfect, more realistic view into the life of a prince. I also loved the premise, the danger of what the characters set out to do, the love, deception, and the way each character grew one step at a time or in the case of antagonists, devolved into true deviants.
While this second book in the series is certainly more exciting, kept me up late into the night because I was hanging on the author's every word.... I can't look past some of its enormous flaws, which brought the rating down from a 5 (I always give a book a 5 at the beginning, almost like a innocent until proven guilty thing LOL) down to a 3.75.
The first reason for the low rating - the lack of life-changing growth for the main characters, which they definitely had in the first book.
King Harristan grew the most, with Prince Corrick a bit behind him as his growth was not as drastically quick, but instead slow and very subtle.
Tessa, however, and a lot of the other main characters didn't grow at the same rate, or any rate, if at all. Tessa and the other MCs stay stagnantly unchanged until a drastic event at the end of the book forces them to see the world in a different way. One could say it was just Tessa being Tessa and wanting to see the good in everyone and every action so badly that she seemed to be digging her heels into this mindset, but the way she just goes from 0 to 100 within the last few chapters of the book nearly gave me whiplash and felt unevenly paced; unlike Corrick's growth.
My second reason for taking another few points off of 5 starts, down to 4, down to 3.75 was the nearly offensive way the author finally decided to take a stab at having more diverse characters in her book.
It only bothered me slightly that it was nearly as if every character in Defy the Night had red hair and blue eyes or some variant of that hair and eye color... But it almost feels like the author tries to sprinkle in more diversity in the second book in places that made it feel like she was just tossing in diversity just to have some differences in skin color, eye color, hair color, between her characters.
Tossing in the fact that Erik Rocco had brownish skin within the last 4 chapters of this book was not only jarring, it felt like it was too little too late! I may be forgetting his description from the first book, if this description was even mentioned, but if it was not - why would you wait until you were nearly at the end of the second book in a trilogy to add this detail? It feels like a forced afterthought.
I love books with a diverse range of characters, but I came to terms with the fact that I wasn't getting that with this series because well into this second book, many of the characters ranged from pale to "olive skin tone." I didn't have a problem with it, or I would not have continued the series, but then we're thrown another curveball in the second act.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not someone who won't admit their mistakes...but this is the part where we find out one of the important figures among the king's council is actually dark skinned. WHAT???? And now that this is revealed, oh by the way, they're a villain.
I don't mind having diversity even among the villains, but the reveal of this character's heritage/complexion (a character who was also in the first book!) while dropping the bomb that they are a villain just rubbed me the wrong way. Now the author is really trying to prove the diversity in her books is not an afterthought, while also using the ancient dark-skinned = villain trope.
I hate that trope; and I especially hate the author's use of it, considering all of the protagonists were clearly described as fair-skinned from the start. Tessa's best friend, Karri, is also finally described as olive skinned in this book and it's just... OK you don't have to have diversity in your books, no one is holding a gun to your head... But don't add it in halfway through the second book of a trilogy like you forgot or wanted to appease a certain target audience.
The whole "olive skin" trope is over done in the literary world too, and I would just love to not see it in books anymore. Just say the person is still of the fairer complexion, but happens to have a tan. It's not diversity; never has been and never will be.
Finally, the rating dropped once more when it took until the last 2 or 3 chapters of the book for the grand villain monologue to finally occur and explain away the whole point of the story and adventure.
I want to say, villain monologues are also an ancient trope that needs to disappear...and this author did not need to use it in this book to wrap it up for us.
It was also a very lazy approach because the mystery and intrigue of the first 30ish chapters is just suddenly unraveled in the last 2-3, and explained away paragraph by paragraph in this monologue. No one forces the villain to give up their logic, their reason for doing what they did; they just word vomit their whole life story from beginning to end and in doing so, also explain why the MCs were dragged into it.
That was truly disappointing.
I will still read the final book in the series - can't leave a guy hanging, right? But I hope it brings the level of quality back to the same standards held by the first book.
That wasn't the case with Defend the Dawn; it was fast paced from beginning to end and it was truly refreshing. Intriguing, a true page turner, and I couldn't stop devouring it even it to the late hours of the night.
I wanted to give this book 4 stars for the excellent pacing, as well as the way the author kept me hanging on every word just to try to confirm whether or not my suspicions were correct - that this whole adventure was an underhanded scheme from Captain RIan!
But there are several spoiler-free reasons this book was not a 5 star read like the first in its series.
I gave Defy the Night a higher rating because it was the first book I've read in a long time that didn't romanticize the daily lives of royalty. It gave me a true view into the veiled threats behind niceley packaged words, the piles of research and paperwork and round table debates that had to be done between the king, the prince and their consuls - leaders of each territory in their kingdom. Although it wasn't as exciting as the adventure in Defend the Dawn, I truly admired the author for painting this imperfect, more realistic view into the life of a prince. I also loved the premise, the danger of what the characters set out to do, the love, deception, and the way each character grew one step at a time or in the case of antagonists, devolved into true deviants.
While this second book in the series is certainly more exciting, kept me up late into the night because I was hanging on the author's every word.... I can't look past some of its enormous flaws, which brought the rating down from a 5 (I always give a book a 5 at the beginning, almost like a innocent until proven guilty thing LOL) down to a 3.75.
The first reason for the low rating - the lack of life-changing growth for the main characters, which they definitely had in the first book.
King Harristan grew the most, with Prince Corrick a bit behind him as his growth was not as drastically quick, but instead slow and very subtle.
Tessa, however, and a lot of the other main characters didn't grow at the same rate, or any rate, if at all. Tessa and the other MCs stay stagnantly unchanged until a drastic event at the end of the book forces them to see the world in a different way. One could say it was just Tessa being Tessa and wanting to see the good in everyone and every action so badly that she seemed to be digging her heels into this mindset, but the way she just goes from 0 to 100 within the last few chapters of the book nearly gave me whiplash and felt unevenly paced; unlike Corrick's growth.
My second reason for taking another few points off of 5 starts, down to 4, down to 3.75 was the nearly offensive way the author finally decided to take a stab at having more diverse characters in her book.
It only bothered me slightly that it was nearly as if every character in Defy the Night had red hair and blue eyes or some variant of that hair and eye color... But it almost feels like the author tries to sprinkle in more diversity in the second book in places that made it feel like she was just tossing in diversity just to have some differences in skin color, eye color, hair color, between her characters.
Tossing in the fact that Erik Rocco had brownish skin within the last 4 chapters of this book was not only jarring, it felt like it was too little too late! I may be forgetting his description from the first book, if this description was even mentioned, but if it was not - why would you wait until you were nearly at the end of the second book in a trilogy to add this detail? It feels like a forced afterthought.
I love books with a diverse range of characters, but I came to terms with the fact that I wasn't getting that with this series because well into this second book, many of the characters ranged from pale to "olive skin tone." I didn't have a problem with it, or I would not have continued the series, but then we're thrown another curveball in the second act.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not someone who won't admit their mistakes...but this is the part where we find out one of the important figures among the king's council is actually dark skinned. WHAT???? And now that this is revealed, oh by the way, they're a villain.
I don't mind having diversity even among the villains, but the reveal of this character's heritage/complexion (a character who was also in the first book!) while dropping the bomb that they are a villain just rubbed me the wrong way. Now the author is really trying to prove the diversity in her books is not an afterthought, while also using the ancient dark-skinned = villain trope.
I hate that trope; and I especially hate the author's use of it, considering all of the protagonists were clearly described as fair-skinned from the start. Tessa's best friend, Karri, is also finally described as olive skinned in this book and it's just... OK you don't have to have diversity in your books, no one is holding a gun to your head... But don't add it in halfway through the second book of a trilogy like you forgot or wanted to appease a certain target audience.
The whole "olive skin" trope is over done in the literary world too, and I would just love to not see it in books anymore. Just say the person is still of the fairer complexion, but happens to have a tan. It's not diversity; never has been and never will be.
Finally, the rating dropped once more when it took until the last 2 or 3 chapters of the book for the grand villain monologue to finally occur and explain away the whole point of the story and adventure.
I want to say, villain monologues are also an ancient trope that needs to disappear...and this author did not need to use it in this book to wrap it up for us.
It was also a very lazy approach because the mystery and intrigue of the first 30ish chapters is just suddenly unraveled in the last 2-3, and explained away paragraph by paragraph in this monologue. No one forces the villain to give up their logic, their reason for doing what they did; they just word vomit their whole life story from beginning to end and in doing so, also explain why the MCs were dragged into it.
That was truly disappointing.
I will still read the final book in the series - can't leave a guy hanging, right? But I hope it brings the level of quality back to the same standards held by the first book.
*squee!* More outlaws, more tension, more political intrigue, more will-they-won't-they, all leading up to more deaths and heartbreak in an explosive conclusion. I need the third book ASAP !
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Still love this world with Tessa and Corrick, but the cliffhanger is killing me! I need the next book to come out soon.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2024 Review
3.5 stars
The turmoil between Tessa and Corrick was incredibly grating, and I am not entirely sure that I see the true need for the path that they are on. Almost seems as though she dug herself into a hole and came up with a crazy solution out.
2022 Review:
4 stars
3.5 stars
The turmoil between Tessa and Corrick was incredibly grating, and I am not entirely sure that I see the true need for the path that they are on. Almost seems as though she dug herself into a hole and came up with a crazy solution out.
2022 Review:
4 stars