Defy by Sara B. LarsonNarrated by Rebecca Mozzo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Let me start out by saying that I was expecting a fantasy. This was recommended to me as a book I read because of several of the fantasy books I'd previously read. This is a romance with fantasy elements. Even the description promises a powerful female lead in a fantasy environment. I was pretty disappointed from that perspective because it was not what I was expecting.
Alexa Hollen is in hiding as a boy in the prince's guard. She and her twin Marcel joined the army and then the prince's guard after their village was destroyed and they were orphaned. In an attempt to keep Alexa out of the breeding houses, she pretended to be a boy and join the military. The breeding houses are horrid places where women are raped and mistreated by the men of the land in order to have children to feed the kings fighting forces and create more women for the breeding houses. It's as awful a concept as it sounds. Alexa becomes Alex and she is a formidable soldier. She has earned her place in the guard by beating pretty much every man in the guard. No one can beat her including her brother. Alex has a level head on his shoulders, but as soon as people begin to admit that they know that Alexa is a girl she starts to act flighty and second guessing herself. This was irritating. She played her part as a boy for years, then as soon as a boy bats his eyes at her everything is all heart all aflutter, and blushing, and swooning for the rest of the book. Alexa is supposed to be this strong, warrior but she is suddenly worried about her appearance and letting her emotions lead her every move when she didn't do so as Alex. Its like she got a lobotomy when the dreamy prince and her best friend told her she was pretty. I'm all for my heroines keeping their femininity, but they can keep their wits about them too.
Onto the boys, Marcel is pretty much a non-player in the story. Her best friend Rylan tells her that he always knew she was a girl and that he's madly in love with her. The prince, Damian, who has also been putting on an act as a spoiled brat prince, reveals that he's known her identiy all along as well and wants her to know his secrets. Rylan doesn't stand a chance and she and Damian have a love at first sight kind of connection. This is where hearts start beating out of control and Alexa loses her mind. The love triangle is awkward because Rylan keeps pushing even though Alexa isn't interested. Alexa and Damian have all kinds of issues, but you know they will end up together. There isn't even a moment when you think Rylan will get the girl. So much of the plot focuses around the romance that you forget that there's a war going on and that there is literally bad magic going on that's causing trouble in the kingdom. Once that is resolved everyone thinks things will be good for a while and perhaps peace will reign for a bit.
There wasn't much world building in this, they live in a jungle where there are snakes and panthers. There's a war going on but we don't really know why. The characters aren't very well developed. We don't know much about the magic system other than there are sorcerers and black sorcerers. The plot is weak and overshadowed by the romance. I wanted a fantasy, I was expecting a fantasy, I got a romance novel. On a bright note, the audiobook isn't very long and is well narrated.
Ignite by Sara B. LarsonNarrated by Rebecca Mozzo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I'm happy to say book 2 is much better than book 1. It is still heavily focused on the romance, but there is more plot to this one and the characters are a little more developed.
I found Alexa's denial of her feelings for Damian to be quite irritating. She bases everything on her looks which a strong female lead shouldn't do. Damian wants her for his queen and makes it very clear that he doesn't care that she has battle scars, he loves her unconditionally. She pushes him away, yet her inner monologue is childish and immature. Just as things in the kingdom seem to settle after Defy, an emissary from a neighboring kingdom named Vera shows up. Curiously, Damian's ally's begin to attack his borders as she arrives. Alexa is jealous of the way Damian acts with Vera, he is quickly captivated by her beauty. When the visitors taster is poisoned and Damion's brother Jax suspiciously disappears, Alexa rises to the occasion to uncover the mystery and save the boy. Rylan goes with her to save the boy, but they both get captured. The weak love triangle tries to resurface, but not with much success They find an unexpected villain in the camp where the boy is being held, and Alexa and Jax eventually escape while Rylan is left behind injured. Damian and Alexa have a new enemy, and new challenges to face one of which is how to get Rylan back.
Again, not much world building or development of the magic system. The plot is better as is the character development but its still weak. I had my expectations set from the first book, so this was entertaining for what it was. It is a fluffy romance with some fantasy elements. I did appreciate the bonus scenes on the audio book.
Endure by Sara B. LarsonNarrated by Rebecca Mozzo with an appearance by Steve West
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The finale was the best of the 3 books in this series. It was much more plot based and was much more fantasy focused. While this is still a romance series, this particular installment focuses more on the magic, thought we never fully understand it, and the actual plot and I enjoyed it much more than the other 2. The writing and character development is still lacking, but it made for a decent audio book. This is one of those guilty pleasure reads, you roll your eyes the entire time but find yourself enjoying it.
I will say I was disappointed that we got Steve West to narrate Damian’s perspective, but it was just a tease. I did appreciate the extras that were added to the end, they did add to the story and were a nice bonus. I would have liked more of Damian's perspective and more of Steve West's narration.
The pacing of this book was slow, and some of the scenes could have been edited down as they didn’t really add to the plot. This book is one that a very slow build, then everything happens in the last 25% of the book and the end feels rushed. The book is filled with Alexa running into situations head first without much thought. I often found myself rolling my eyes at her dumb decision making throughout. She’s supposed to be this amazing warrior, but she doesn’t have a bit of sense or battle strategy that came with her gift of fighting. She gets captured trying to rescue Rylan, who if you remember from book 2 was taken hostage by the enemy. This part of the plot line felt unnecessary, especially because it had no meaningful outcome to the story, it was just long and unimpactful.
In the mean time, Damian is preparing to go to war and trying to protect the source of magic in the lands. We never fully understand the magic system and why it’s worth going to war over, but we do get more about it in this book. I would have liked more about it, but I felt like we got enough. If this were a series more heavily based in fantasy I would have expected much more and wanted to understand it much better, but given how little this series was actually centered around the fantasy elements I’ll let it go.
As far as the romance goes, Alexa is still head over heals in love with Damian and not quite sure why he loves her. Eventually she accepts his proposal to be his queen. Damian is always asking her not to do things because he may lose her. He’s selfish that way throughout the series, but you just know they are going to live happily ever after in the end. Rylan never stood a chance, but I think the love between Alexa and Rylan was addressed well. She never led him on, but he held on to something that was never there to begin with. I think there was decent closure there.
Something unexpected that you don’t see much in books that Larson managed to pull off is that she killed off several of the main side characters. Some of them are fairly prominent throughout the series while others aren’t as significant. You don’t see authors kill their darlings off in books very often, but in Endure we see most of the players die by the end of the series.
Again, this series wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst either. It was entertaining as an audiobook. I will say again, if you go into this thinking it is a fantasy series, it is not and you will be disappointed. The series gets better as it goes on, but its not a favorite.
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