Kimberly's Novel Notes: Review: Defiance by C. J. Redwine

Grade:2 Butterflies
Name: Defiance (Defiance #1)
Author: C. J. Redwine
Released: August 28th 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Page Amount: 403 pages

Goodreads summary

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

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My thoughts

    First off, I want to say that I was really disappointed with this book. I have heard so many glowing reviews for this book. So, naturally I was really excited to read this book and when I read the summary I expected it be about this evil commander who lets his people suffer, these two people go against him, they flee so he won't killed them, and they build a army and declare war or something along those lines.
It didn't live up to my expectations, it wasn't even close.

    The plot had so much potential, but sadly the author couldn't do it good. It felt really choppy in a lot of places and the flow of the plot was really bad. The author wanted to get to a certain point, but the way she went from point A and to point B felt really unrealistic. Besides that, the plot was good. It was really suspenseful and there were a lot of twists and turns that I did not see coming.

   However, I for some reason could not get into this book. It's like I didn't care what happened and sadly, I think it was because of the characters. Some of the characters had the same problem as the plot. It was like the author wanted the character to be like this in the beginning and the character to be like this at the ending. The way the author went about doing that felt really unrealistic. So, the character development in this book was really choppy.

   Now the characters themselves, some I liked and some I didn't. One of my favorite characters in this book was Logan. I felt he was really down to earth and realistic. He also did something a lot of characters in this book didn't do and that was stop and think. He thought about what he can and should do, which I really liked about his character. Even though he was a really enjoyable character I for some reason could not connect with him. Which is a really big thing for me. It doesn't matter if I liked the character; if I connected with them, it was fine. Same thing if I liked a character, but I didn't connect with them, then I wouldn't like the book as much.

    Now on to Rachel. I could go on and on about her but to keep it short, I didn't like her. I thought she was a stupid, naive, spoiled brat. I know she went though a lot, but you would think if a person went though what she did they would gain some wisdom. Rachel didn't. At the end, she kind of did, but not much. She was also very naive and spoiled in the way where she thought everything would be alright, which you can't really blame her for, but what really made me mad at her, was the way she took no one else's life into consideration. She thought she was saving every one, but she didn't stop to consider if the course of action she wanted to take would hurt or kill someone else. Again I didn't really connect with Rachel.

    Last thing I want to say is how disappointed I was with how the author wrote the world. In the summary you are led to believe that life is awful, but the way the author writes the book I don't really see the awfulness. I saw how bad the commander was, but not how awful every one's life was.

This book got....

2 Butterflies

Boring, not really my kind of book.