REVIEW: DEFIANCE BY CJ REDWINE.

Title: Defiance
Author: C.J. Redwine
Series: Defiance #1
Edition: Paperback
Publication: August 28, 2012 by Balzer + Bray
Pages: 403
Source: Won from Amaterasu Reads
Category: Romance, Dystopia, Fantasy

Synopsis:

While the other girls in the walled city-state of Baalboden learn to sew and dance, Rachel Adams learns to track and hunt. While they bend like reeds to the will of their male Protectors, she uses hers for sparring practice.

When Rachel's father fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the city's brutal Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector: her father's apprentice, Logan—the boy she declared her love to and who turned her down two years before. Left with nothing but fierce belief in her father's survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself.

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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Defiance knocked my breath out of my lungs!

I won this copy from Amaterasu Reads' giveaway sometime last year and I wasn't able to read it immediately after all those gushing blurbs about it. I kept getting and buying books that it got buried deep into my ever growing TBR pile! But it deserves all praises nonetheless.

Rachel isn't the girly type. In amid of growing up in a town called Baalboden where girls are all excited for their Claiming, she's different. She is taught by her father James to track, fight and be independent. One day, when her father didn't come home after a mission and is announced dead by the Commander, she is put under the protection of Logan, her first love and first rejection. She's decided to go and find her father with or without Logan's help. Along the way, since they are both being watched by the Commander, they are tasked to find a package her father didn't deliver and were eventually pushed to their limit, engulfed with raging pain from loss and devastation. She has to avenge the people she loves and kill the Commander.

I cannot contain the FEELS Defiance brought to my life. From the first few chapters of it, I knew I would love it. I just knew. Baalboden and the Wasteland are alluring that I wanted to see it myself plus add that scary-looking, acid-spitting Cursed One. The novel took me to different heights and really picqued my interest. The plotting is one of a kind. The adventure of finding out what package wasn't delivered while tracking the best Tracker around is very electrifying! Absolutely impressive!

The pain, rage and loss Rachel experienced can never be measured. I sympathize during those times she almost chose to succumb to numbness. It was like her emotions were directly ripping my heart out and I wanted to picjk her from the book and comfort her. I cannot blame her for being irrational and for defending herself even though her impulsiveness added to her guilt. The strength she conveys is admirable and her loyalty to her loved ones is unquestionable. She could be an assassin if she chooses to be but deep inside, she's just a broken girl who almost have nothing left. Thankfully, there is Logan. Her first and only love. Without Logan's intelligence and ability to think, analyze and strategize under pressure, she would be lost all together. I adored Logan's organized thoughts and how he plans. He's responsible, always have back up plans, skilled and logical. His Worst Case Scenarios are all cleverly brilliant. The part I loved most is that he learned to love Rachel on his own merit and not because he knows she feels something for him. If I am going to compare the Commander to anyone else, I always picture the Governor from The Walking Dead. They have similarities and their characters deserve torture and slow death! I am turning morbid somewhere around here but I can't help but be mad about how ridiculously evil the Commander is. Especially when I think about James and Oliver.

Defiance is a stunning debut novel that captures one's undivided attention! It is magnificently laid out and gravely consuming! I let it give me emotions I never thought I would ever feel again and the adrenaline rush every page turn is terrifyingly addictive! I was at the edge of my seat the whole ride!

"I need Logan. Not because I need saving. Not because he could plan our way out of this. But because on some basic, soul-deep level within me, he is the solid ground beneath my feet. The one who will move mountains to keep his promise. The one who looks at me and sees. I can't imagine my life without him. Everywhere I look, he's there. A constant thread binding my past, my present and the future I want so badly to have with him. With him. My eyes fly open. I'm in love with Logan."