โ ๐พ๐๐ค๐๐๐๐จ ๐ฃ๐๐ซ๐๐ง ๐จ๐๐๐ข ๐ก๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ค๐๐๐๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ค๐ง๐ก๐ ๐ค๐ฃ๐ก๐ฎ ๐ค๐๐๐๐ง๐จ ๐ช๐จ ๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ฃ๐๐จ. โ
- Defend the Dawn by Brigid Kemmerer
Genre: YA Fantasy / Retelling
Overall rating: 5/5
# books in series: currently 2, however there is an untitled book 3 in the series on Goodreads
Tropes: found family, friends to lovers with a side of betrayal, everyone's parents are dead (is this even a trope? It feels more like a fantasy staple), hurt/comfort, morally gray love interest, love triangle (in book 2)
Song: "Broken & Beautiful" by Kelly Clarkson
Synopsis:
The kingdom of Kandala is on the brink of disaster. Rifts between sectors have only worsened since a sickness began ravaging the land, and within the Royal Palace, the king holds a tenuous peace with a ruthless hand.
King Harristan was thrust into power after his parents' shocking assassination, leaving the younger Prince Corrick to take on the brutal role of the King's Justice. The brothers have learned to react mercilessly to any sign of rebellion--it's the only way to maintain order when the sickness can strike anywhere, and the only known cure, an elixir made from delicate Moonflower petals, is severely limited.
Out in the Wilds, apothecary apprentice Tessa Cade is tired of seeing her neighbors die, their suffering ignored by the unyielding royals. Every night, she and her best friend Wes risk their lives to steal Moonflower petals and distribute the elixir to those who need it most--but it's still not enough.
As rumors spread that the cure no longer works and sparks of rebellion begin to flare, a particularly cruel act from the King's Justice makes Tessa desperate enough to try the impossible: sneaking into the palace. But what she finds upon her arrival makes her wonder if it's even possible to fix Kandala without destroying it first.
My Review:
Defy the Night was such a beautiful, terrifying, heartwarming ride. You know when you go into a book knowing absolutely nothing about it except that itโs fantasy and has a pretty cover, only to be sucked in from the first few pages and snapped up by the fast pacing, and not come up for air until youโve finished it two days later? Yeah, thatโs what happened to me with this book.
Turns out itโs a Robin Hood retelling with Zorro vibes (really, I dare you to find me a better combo). All the building blocks for an amazing story are there: good pacing, well-written characters, gorgeous imagery/atmosphere and an engaging plot, all wrapped up into a perfect little bundle of 133,952 words. The world-building, too, was on point, gradually constructing the world through the charactersโ eyes without any major info dumps. The chapters are dual POV, which is always delightful in a romance. Itโs a slowburn friends to sort-of-enemies to lovers, with slowly but surely built up chemistry. Tessa and Corrick have their own unique voices, which was especially helpful since we donโt have a huge cast of characters.
A cool thing about Defy the Night was that it literally had the same basic plot as The Prison Healer, and youโre probably thinking โโฆWhy is that good? Doesnโt it make it boring and unoriginal?โ Honestly no, I loved TPH so much that I enjoyed the parallels.
So, onto Defend the Dawn, the sequel: I'm going to start this by establishing that I also enjoyed this book very much, and acknowledge its flaws from a place of love.
The main issue I had was that it felt like Corrickโs character development - particularly Tessa and Corrickโs relationship- throughout Defy the Night was disregarded in Defend the Dawn. The whole I-want-to-be-better note Corrick ends on goes out the window when he proceeds to treat Rian like a traitor before even meeting him, and barely gives him a fair chance to prove his loyalty. And the tension in Tessa and Corrickโs relationship felt kind of unnecessary. Obviously there has to be conflict for development, and Iโm all for a little drama, but there was really no need to include Rian in a love triangle.
Anyways. now that weโve got the complaining out of the way, I was so excited to get Harristan POV chapters! The way Kemmerer writes multiple POV is so unique, because besides actually having different voices, the characters all actually have different perspectives on the challenges faced, and interior struggles, that would have been much more difficult to communicate through less POVs. It just adds so much to the story.
The pacing did feel a little off - it was quite slow at the beginning to then throw seventy-nine twists in the last three chapters. But overall, I really liked this book and thought it was a good sequel to Defy the Night!
Add Defy the Night to your Goodreads TBR here (and Defend the Dawn)!
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