May this book serve as early 2014's warning against faux-feminist YA literature. It terrifies me to consider the deeper implications of how a book with such an unbelievably wrong heroine is being marketed as "strong female lit." Because DEFY is no feminist work at all--it's chock-full of well-meaning but insidious interpretations of such terms of empowerment. I love a rollicking girl-disguises-herself-as-a-boy read as much as the next person, but when it's done incorrectly (to be explained in a moment's time), it becomes not a fun and freeing read, but rather a disturbing revelation into the bonds of patriarchy that still bind so many of us, both male and female.

When is a gender switcheroo story done in the wrong mould? When it becomes little more than a superficial opportunity for the protagonist to mouth off or for love interests to fall for her. Such is the case with what's-her-name in this book. (Okay, fine, her name's is Alexa/Alex. I would go through the entire review using just what's-her-name and what's-his-face, but there are two what's-his-faces that I have a problem with, so this is going to get too confusing too soon.) When it comes to Alexa hiding her true sex, there is disappointingly little urgency to the matter: we readers are told that's it's practically a matter of life and death for her to not reveal that she's a girl, and yet she does such a poor job of it that I'm left feeling incredulous about the fact that she actually survived years in her role. More times than I care to count, Alexa’s narration veers into an ogling description of a nearby man’s face or body. Not only do I not want to read about chiseled jaws and flashing dark eyes and twitching biceps, but Alexa’s objectification of the bodies of the men around her pretty much eradicates any possibility of my believing that she’s actually a competent guard on the most elite guard crew. There is little said about Alexa’s natural talent for swordsmanship, nor the discipline of her guard duties, nor the hierarchies of an army-like job—descriptive elements I would expect to give me a rounded sense of world-building…because Alexa’s too busy thinking about men’s bodies.

Nor do the other characters’ interactions with Alexa befit those of people who believe they’re actually speaking to a guy. Witness a random interaction that I highlighted on my Kindle:

Rylan laughed. “So you do have a weakness after all! I have to admit, I’d never have guessed it would be snakes.”
I shoved him hard enough that he had to check his balance so he didn’t topple into the river. “If you tell anyone, I will shoot you in the mouth without hesitation.”
“Whoa.” He held up his hands in mock surrender. “You have my word. I’ll never mention your mortal fear of snakes to anyone.”


To my eyes, Rylan speaks to Alexa as if he were speaking to a tomboy, not a boy. He’s flirting, not making small talk. Big difference. Big mistake in a book where the protagonist is supposed to be disguising herself as a guy. And Alexa’s retort is so over the top in its viciousness that it again doesn’t ring true to me. If her comrades actually thought she was a guy, they probably would’ve steered clear of the aggressive psycho a long time ago, not poke at the dragon’s eye. This doesn’t feel like two guys talking to each other at all.

In another encounter with another man, Alexa snaps,

“I’m perfectly capable of moving on my own.”


Even a quick dash of a line like this causes me to shake my head in disbelief. There’s something about the…cadence of the dialogue that conjures up images of Austenian characters wearing corsets and twirling parasols in my head, rather than, uh, what I’m supposed to think of. She sounds to me like a girl trying to sound tough, and her male peers respond to her as if to exactly that, humoring this girl who’s desperately trying to earn her leather jacket of toughness.

It comes as no surprise, then, what with the number of times Alexa’s caught looking at her fellow guards or at the prince, and the joking, inconsequential way with which they respond to her psychopathic behavior, that about a third of the way through the book there is the revelation that Rylan, her loyal best buddy in the guard, knew that she was a girl all along. Oh em gee! This would bother me more had I not been so unsurprised, due to how poorly Alexa disguises her sex herself, but it also pisses me off because—Antifeminist Lesson #2 (number one was somewhere back there)—this means that Alexa never even had the opportunity to be anything more than her sex to her loyal best buddy. Because Rylan’s clearly one of the points on the Love Triangle That Will Down This Ship (it says so right there on the jacket synopsis, no spoiler alert), and this revelation just seems to indicate that he never stopped seeing her as a girl this whole time. In other words, Alexa never had to try to charm the guy with actual friendliness, because he was CLEARLY in love with her all along. Wish fulfillment at its most dangerous: be rude, lash out at your male buddy, but he will still love you after all that because You Are Woman.

So I’m left with at least two messages on heterosexual flirtations:

1. The “one of the guys” girl is just the cleverest, most manipulative bitch this side of Medusa, because she’s not actually being “one of the guys,” but rather taking liberties in voyeurism among their company. Hate this woman, women, because she’s just out to get all available men.

2. Guys like it when you’re rude and abusive to them. When you’re rude and abusive to guys, they know it’s actually because you’re in love with them.

Let us not speak more than a little of the utter trope-iness of the romance(s) in DEFY: Damian, the verbally abusive elite whose assholery is absolved because he’s secretly “sensitive,” only he can never show it for fear of puncturing his manly reputation; and Rylan, kind-eyed plebe who’s the not-so-silly Ducky to Alexa’s Molly Ringwald, who’s loved her since before she knew him and who will stand by her forever while she wails in agony about the truth of her feelings for Damian.

And yet, despite all of this, I already know that DEFY’s going to be a bestseller. How do I know this? Because the love triangle is the point of the story. The rest is just fanciful decoration pretending to be necessary. As goes so many of the tales of YA bestsellers nowadays.

The “strong female” potential of DEFY fails at its onset: its premise is not to display the main character’s fortitude of character, but rather to “ingeniously” put her in an environment full of guys and have them fall in love with her. Again, wish fulfillment at its most dangerous: attempts to satisfy the heteronormative patriarchy masquerading as feminism.

I mean, by all means, fans of Tammara Webber, Aimee Carter, and Leigh Bardugo, knock yourselves out with this one, it’s perfect for you. I got 40% of the way through and decided to stop wasting my time blowing my brains out.

Overall, it is a cute story that had its own charm which I genuinely enjoyed, but this one won’t be a love for a lifetime book.

I received this free eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

This has been on my TBR pile for so long, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. I really enjoyed the storyline and seeing the characters change throughout the story was a great character development. The plot was great and kept my attention. I'm glad I got the chance to read this and will be on the lookout for more in the future!

When Alexa's mother and father are killed by an evil sorcerer, to avoid being used as a breeder (yep, that's a thing), she cuts her hair off and poses as a boy, and she and her twin brother, Marcel, join the king's army. Because her father has been teaching her to wield a sword for years, she is better than most, and is appointed to the elite prince's guard. For three years Alexa has gone by Alex and has pretended to be a boy, but she's 17 now and is finding that fact harder and harder to conceal, and events are about to make that even more difficult..

I have mixed feelings about this book because I liked Alexa alright, but when her gender is revealed, her actions are harder to understand, I don't want to give anything away, but it's this fact that makes the love triangle that follows harder to connect to. I just didn't feel the heat. The plot was enjoyable, and I loved the action scenes, it was just the romance I didn't engage with.

Because I liked more about the book than I didn't, I'm giving this book a 3.5/5 star rating, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

3.5/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, Scholastic Press, and Sara B. Larson for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book was requested when I was young and requested more books than I could possibly read. Sadly, I no longer have access to this book and my tastes have changed. Thus I will not be able to give feedback on this title.

This book unfortunately did not work for me. The gender dynamics at play in the book rubbed me a bit of the wrong way when I initially read it. The whole aspect of girls being used simply to breed just isn't really for me.

The plot also didn't feel like anything super original as there are a lot of similar YA novels, particularly from this era that feel very similar.

There also is a love triangle which I'm not a big fan of and that seemed to take over the plot of the second half of the book.

While I can respect what the book was trying to do with the characters and the plot, it just didn't fully work for me. It felt predictable and I wasn't engaged while reading it.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Be used as a breeder, or cut off your hair and pretend to be a boy and join the army. Except she is really a good fighter and makes the princes' honor guard and the story continues from there. Love triangle, that really isn't. Several predictable plot twists. It is an easy Sunday afternoon read to escape into.

he Defy series had been on my radar a long time. The first book, Defy, was a NetGalley ARC that I had received during the height of my requesting more than I could possibly accomplish, hence why it's taken so long to catch up. I ended up binging the series by alternating between print and audio.

I enjoy a good story where the main character is doing something to protect themself as Alexa does by pretending to be a boy and entering the guard with her brother. It makes me root for them even more as they show their promise.

The plot seemed predictable at times and there were some repetitive thoughts from both Alexa and Damian, but overall I still enjoyed the story. The series worked as a whole and is a good beginning for a reader that's new to the fantasy genre.

Alexa's character was my favourite in the first novel, but I switched to a Damian as my fave by the end of the series because Alexa changes once she's outed. Most people keep the same traits, so it was odd to me. Damian's character grows more throughout the novels and changes from the predictable prince to an endearing individual.

I enjoyed the action scenes in the story once it got going. And learning about the magic system and the different cultures represented in the story.

The audiobook version was well narrated and that made it truly enjoyable

I think a three star is fair, because the book wasn't bad it was just super derivative and I feel like it brought nothing new to the table.

description

The characters aren't that interesting.

The plot is forgettable.

The magic system is... there.

The romance is super annoying; two words: insta-love...and for those who hate or love them (I usually love them but in this case it is a miss) love-triangle. I guess that was more than two words. My bad.

I read this book back in 2018 but then forgot to review the story, and now I remember why on my second read through. It was just not very interesting. This kingdom is run without a council, the king is basically doing whatever he wants--including putting all the girls into breeding houses so they have a ton of babies which can then be put into either the army or into more breeding houses... what... and you want to tell me because of this alone no one has stood up and said enough before now? Our MC pretends to be a boy because she doesn't want to be sent into one of these houses (which, YEAH) (view spoiler) and because of her sword fighting skills she gets to pass up as a boy and join the king's army, eventually being promoted to the Prince's personal guard. Stuff happens, the prince gets kidnapped along with her and her best friend, and then we spend the rest of the novel laser focused on the ROMANCE.

The romance is basically just a bunch of hormones thrown together. The prince spends the entirety of the novel lying to our MC, but omg he doesn't seem to be a huge prick and he is kind of hot so I guess I must love him? But on the other hand... eh? He was okay, just run of the mill love interest.

There is also a love triangle, which doesn't quite end in this book because the other guy REFUSES to give up! It isn't much of a love triangle here, but maybe in the next book it will have more of a chance when the MC ultimately convinces herself to give him a go because this is a three book deal and we gotta figure out something to keep the interest in the romance department .

I enjoyed the MC at the beginning of the story. She was all about duty and her brother and being the best she could be. Then, when everybody ultimately figures out she is a girl (I mean, THEY HAVE TO) she spends a lot of time and energy either being annoyed that they figured her out, or batting her eyelashes at the prince. By the end we get a return to the duty bound girl of the first few pages, but by then I was pretty much tapped out of the overall story.

The whole thing is super predictable--I will not be picking up the second book because I am 100% positive I will not be missing out on anything extraordinary.

Awesome book! I read this book a while ago, but I really loved it and the characters. It was a very refreshing read after a long book slump. Great plot, fierce characters and very engaging. Can't wait to read the next ones :)

It was a Mulan-esque story that had a swoonworthy romance with two amazing main characters. I just wished the writing fit the world building more, as I was a little disappointed with Larson's writing. I was also wondering why there was a love triangle at all, it seemed a little unnecessary.

There were a stream of feminist novels in the mid-2010s that featured a particular kind of kick-ass heroine (see also: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo). She had something important to fight for and she was not afraid to go after it full steam ahead. Undoubtedly, there were also romantic entanglements or triangles, but that still didn't stop her from kicking some enemy ass. Defy is one of those novels and on the one hand, I'm sad that it took me five years to read it, but on the other hand, this is exactly the kind of book I need in my life right now.



Alexa is an amazing character; she's tough and everyone around her knows it, but she's also hiding herself as a boy because of a severely misogynistic ruler. But is there anything more feminist than a woman-kicking-ass-while-hiding-as-a-male's secret being revealed and then her continuing to kick ass as a female? I love it. The only thing that bothered me about Alexa's transformation, so to speak, is that she and everyone else around her shed tears much more frequently towards the end of the novel than in the beginning, when the guard was entirely stoic and hid all emotion. There's nothing wrong with anyone having a good cry, but what made everyone change?



This book has all the aspects of a good fantasy, including magic, healers, sorcerer's, a good kidnapping, and of course, fierce battle. There was also a love triangle between Alexa, Prince Damian, and another guard, Rylan. It was a pretty one sided triangle for most of the book but it certainly opened up at the end! Yikes!



I love that the book didn't end with an earth-shattering cliff-hanger, but I am still inspired to continue on with the series. In the beginning of the novel there were dozens of women and girls being abused by the king and while they were mentioned throughout the novel, their tragedy was never wrapped up and I need to know how they're doing.



Overall, I really loved this book and if you loved the series I mentioned above, or Graceling by Kristin Cashore or A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, I think you'll love this series as well. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing my review copy (in 2014, oops!). The opinions in this review are all my own.

(Welcome to #rereadandreview2019! This year, I'm finally making the time to review e-copies sent my way the past couple of years that I have yet to review because... well... life happened. Enough excuses!)

I just recently reread Defy a couple of days ago, and my general sentiment remains the same - this book is ridiculously entertaining. We have one badass female MC, one "cool' and 'broody' male MC, an action-packed plot, amazing supporting characters, and just fun moments that made me smile or laugh out loud. Also, in this story, our female MC is pretending to be a male soldier to save her life, and of course she is the best soldier in the prince's guard! All pretty fun to read!

After a quick prologue detailing Alex's (real name Alexa) past and why she had to pretend to be a guy, the first chapter starts with Alex already in the Prince's Guard for three years. In that time, she has established herself as a strong fighter, and no one is in the know of her real identity (well, other than her twin brother, Marcel). Early on, we find out that the Guard themselves are not that big a fan of the Prince because he's lazy and downright terrible to almost everyone, but there's also chemistry between Alex and Damian (highlighted by long, probing looks) that's hard to deny. The plot picks up with assassination attempts on the Prince and the palace in chaos, and despite Alex's confusing feelings towards the Prince, there's no way that she's not going to do her job.

I like Alex, and I enjoyed reading about her. It was pretty evident from the beginning that with her pretending to be a boy and and her consciously adopting male mannerisms and characteristics, she's not exactly sure how to be a girl, and all this is heightened by her blossoming feelings towards Prince Damian. Add in the fact that she is terrified of her secret being exposed! Alex may be the strongest warrior, but I love how that is paralleled by her not being really sure of who she is, and how she can be both Alex and Alexa. I love how relatable she is.

Defy also explores several relationships between Alex and the people she is surrounded with everyday - Alex and Marcel; Alex and Damian; Alex and the fellow members of guard; and Alex and her best friend, Ryland amongst others. In true YA fashion, of course we have a love triangle! Ryland and Damian don't really hide how much they care about Alex, and as the story progresses, we get more and more instances of both guys doing everything they can for her. Personally, I don't think this love triangle is as intense as other YA love triangles. Both guys are still respectful of each other, and Alex makes her choice pretty early - no drawn out angst at all!


Like Alex, Damian is a character with so much depth. As I turn the pages (or press my kindle), more and more of Damian's layers are exposed, and we learn who he really is along with Alex. (I also live for half-naked Damian asking guard Alex if she likes what she sees I caaaaan't I live for moments like these!!!)

All in all. I would definitely recommend Defy to light fantasy and YA fans! Time to put Ignite and Endure in my TBR!

I loved this book so much! So much so that I've told everyone I know to go out and get a copy and read this one. The plot is just perfection and I couldn't get enough of this book.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I was not able to review this title. I ended up loosing interest in the concept and the book turned out to be something that I could not get into unfortunately. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I really do appreciate it.

I loved this book! This is right up my alley: fantasy with a girl who is better than the boys around her.

This book has so much that caught my attention...
Adventure.
A heroine who needs to prove her worth and therefore disguises herself as a boy to get into the King's army - rather than being treated as a girl with only breed value. And she becomes a really good soldier.
Friendship.
And the classic scene when she is discovered as a girl.

I don't like a love triangle, but I admit that sometimes this works on the plot.
Alexa - Alex - after entering the Army, ends up being kidnapped, as well as her friend Rylan, and Prince Damian.

Among fights, attempts at escape and discovery of why they were taken captive, the story begins to get lost.
Although the book is full of clichés, the narrative might have helped to be more interesting.
The question that does not want to shut up: did Alexa/Alex choose the right man?

There are two more books in the series.
I loved the covers, but I won't read the next books.
3 stars

There were things I loved about this book and things I hated about this book.

Things I liked
*I loved the main character, Alexa! I have read several reviews comparing this book negatively to Throne of Glass , but my problem with that book was that I didn't like the main character, Celaena. In my review of that book, I mentioned that I needed more of Celaena's back story in order to care about her. In Defy , Sara B. Larson gives us a character to root for. We are shown her previous life and why she has been forced to be a fierce warrior. She fights and kills to defend her prince, whose guard she is on. She never glories in the killings.
*I loved so many of the characters! Alexa's twin brother, who took care of her and protected her. The prince's guard, who shared a wonderful comradery. Lisbet and Jax, and even Tanoori. There were many people to care about in this book.
*I don't usually appreciate a love triangle, but I really liked both Rylan and Damian, so it was easy to sense Alexa's confusion.
*There was a lot of action and excitement.
*Secrets, secrets everywhere!

Things I hated
*Probably just this one thing, but it is deserving of a whole section. The breeding houses and the continual references to them were very disturbing. There was a whole chapter at the beginning of the book that was so horrific I almost stopped reading. I felt like I needed to take a shower or something to wash the yuckiness off of me. I'm not happy that I have purchased this for my middle school library because that one chapter alone is too intense for middle school. I read several reviews that called this a "clean read". Yes, as far as the romance goes, it just involves kissing. However, references are made throughout the book about all of the rape that goes on to propagate the army. No, no and no.

There were so many things to love about this book, but I find it hard to recommend because of the violence and the breeding house references. I'm thinking the next book won't have as many concerns for me. I did love the moral at the ending of the book,

"“True beauty is what lies inside of us, not what the world sees. A beautiful shell that houses a vile soul becomes sullied over time. But an outer shell, imperfect as it may be, that houses a beautiful soul shines with that beauty, radiating it for all who have eyes to see.”

Areas of concern:
*The above-mentioned rant.
*A couple of the characters are incredibly sadistic, and there is a lot of horrifying violence.
*Kissing while lying in a tent together.
*I don't remember any bad language.

A well-written and enjoyable book, I am glad I requested this title and will be more than happy to pass the title along to my fellow library purchasers.