The romantic interests aren’t characterized well, which makes it hard to see them as individuals or even see how there is a romance at all. I don’t know how she managed to keep her identity secret for the most part (a lot of people seem to know anyhow). She’s supposed to be a super soldier, but oftentimes she lets her emotions get the better of her (a notable time being at the breeding house at the beginning of the novel). Alexa especially is hard to symathize with. I wanted to see more character complexity. There is a lot of people getting angry at each other and then making up and a lot of other seemingly convenient realizations that result in instant forgiveness. The characters aren’t well-developed either. After the initial introduction of these things, they don’t play much of a role in the story. The novel missed out on a chance here to use the breeding houses and forced draft to build up the horrors and atrocities that the king has committed in the name of war. And the breeding houses seem to have been thrown in there just to provide a reason for why Alexa hides her gender and joins the army.

Little reason is presented for the ongoing war and why it has gone on for so long, or even why the king wants a war. Sorcery and secret groups are presented with little context on how they operate within the world. In fact, I’ve read paranormal books with more world building. There is little world building in Defy, especially for a high-fantasy novel. However, poor world building and characterization caused the book to fall flat for me.

There was a lot of potential for this book. ◆ A copy was provided by Scholastic Press for review ◆

Defy by sara b larson