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read_game_stitch 's review for:
Defend the Dawn
by Brigid Kemmerer
Defend the Dawn is book two in the Defy the Night trilogy by Brigid Kemmerer. It picks up shortly after the events of Defy the Night and continues with the main dual POV of Tessa and Corrick, with additional occasional POVs by a third character, The Outlaw.
One of my main issues with Defy the Night was how long it took to get going, to the point that I almost DNFd it. With Defend the Dawn, it did get into the new plot events quite quickly since the world building and character set up was all done in book one. So that was a definite improvement for me. I enjoyed the plot and that the world opened up.
However, I didn't think Tessa contributed an awful lot to the plot of this one, and one of my personal bugbears is "wet noodle" female protagonists - naive, bland and weak-willed. And unfortunately a lot of Tessa's spirit and fire from book one is absent here, which has ramped up her wetnoodleness, and honestly I found her very irritating in this book. At one point she even says "Maybe I am naive." And I was like "YES! YES YOU ARE!" I swear she wasn't this daft in book one. I just wanted her to have a backbone, and to trust in and defend Corrick, but she just didn't. Instead, she was actually quite awful to him which he didn't deserve. I didn't feel anything for the new player in the love triangle in this book either so it was all a bit infuriating for me.
The only redeeming quality for me was the Corrick and Outlaw POVs which drove the story forwards, and the strong ending. Tessa could have been pitched off the side of the ship she was on in this book and I wouldn't have shed a tear, but I was rooting for Corrick and The Outlaw. I'll still read the final book to see how it all turns out, because there is an interesting plot here. It's just been lessened because of the desire to put unnecessary angst between the two main characters and has made one of them weaker as a result.
One of my main issues with Defy the Night was how long it took to get going, to the point that I almost DNFd it. With Defend the Dawn, it did get into the new plot events quite quickly since the world building and character set up was all done in book one. So that was a definite improvement for me. I enjoyed the plot and that the world opened up.
However, I didn't think Tessa contributed an awful lot to the plot of this one, and one of my personal bugbears is "wet noodle" female protagonists - naive, bland and weak-willed. And unfortunately a lot of Tessa's spirit and fire from book one is absent here, which has ramped up her wetnoodleness, and honestly I found her very irritating in this book. At one point she even says "Maybe I am naive." And I was like "YES! YES YOU ARE!" I swear she wasn't this daft in book one. I just wanted her to have a backbone, and to trust in and defend Corrick, but she just didn't. Instead, she was actually quite awful to him which he didn't deserve. I didn't feel anything for the new player in the love triangle in this book either so it was all a bit infuriating for me.
The only redeeming quality for me was the Corrick and Outlaw POVs which drove the story forwards, and the strong ending. Tessa could have been pitched off the side of the ship she was on in this book and I wouldn't have shed a tear, but I was rooting for Corrick and The Outlaw. I'll still read the final book to see how it all turns out, because there is an interesting plot here. It's just been lessened because of the desire to put unnecessary angst between the two main characters and has made one of them weaker as a result.