I am a part of the Shift Blog Tour (my post goes up Friday!), and Defy is book 1 in the Firstborn series by Raine Thomas. My post Friday, for Shift will be all about the new book 2. I thought it would be important to read the first book in the series before doing a blog stop for book 2…And I’m so glad I did.
What really makes Defy
stand out is the intricately thought out world it takes place in. The
characters all live on the Estilorian plane, a world filled with Estilorians
(creatures that mostly look human except for markings that most of them have
and none of them look older than forty and could pretty much live forever).
They also can all fly and most seem to have other special abilities (such as
the ability to turn into a panther or to make water out of nothing). And they
are all divided up into classes that define what they look like (eye color!)
and what they do (protect, travel to the human plane, lead, create, etc.)
This book mostly centers around Kynzesti, the newest class of
Estilorians. They are half Estilorian and half human and not a lot of knowledge
exists about what they are all capable of. And because their parents don’t
really know what they are capable of either, the Kynzesti survive in an
enclosed protected area with no contact with the outside world until they come
of age at 18 and develop their wings. Tate, the main character, is tired of
living in a protected world and when her cousin, Sophia, gets to leave to
practice flying, Tate follows closely behind.
Unfortunately, Tate does not know a lot of things. For
starters, her overprotective parents have been dreaming about her death that’s
to take place that day. Also, after she escapes, her close-knit extended family
is visited by elders who explain that there have been some brutal attacks and
murders of young Estilorian women. It really isn’t Tate’s day because while
spying on her cousin, she’s attacked by a Kragen (a dragon-like creature) and
taken far away.
After some time passes, Tate’s family assumes her dead because
they know how serious a Kragen attack can be and they have searched for her to
no avail. Fortunately for Tate, her twin brother, Tiege, refuses to give up on
her when he still feels mentally connected to her. He, along with Sophia, and
some other family and friends then go off to find her, using the twins’
connection to help them. Tate is brought to a cave by the Kragen, and luckily
something goes right for her when she is healed by Zachariah, friend of the
Kragen. Zachariah has been living alone for decades, away from other
Estilorians because of something that happened to him and refuses to stay in
any one location for too long a period of time because he doesn’t want anyone
to know he’s alive.
He leaves with the Kragen, but when Tate wakes up in the
cave after being healed, she and Zachariah develop a sort of telepathic bond
even though technically they have never met. Tate survives the wild by using
everything she has learned from her protective home. She is trained in
fighting, in fishing, in strategizing, and in surviving. She uses what she
knows and heads out hopefully in the direction of her family home. But when
Tate’s story combines with the stories of the young women who are brutally
attacked, and a group of Mercesti (the evil Estilorians) who are after an
ancient, powerful scroll, and the whole world seems to be in danger, Zachariah
goes against his instincts and does everything in his power to help protect
Tate.
There’s murder, torture, adventure, survival skills,
fighting, some sizzling romance, magical abilities, flying, growing up, and
just so much fun in this book! Everything is so well thought out. I found the
Estilorians fascinating! I loved the point of view shifts! At first I hated the
point of view shifts because I would get so wrapped up in Zachariah’s story, I’d
be pissed to leap right into Tiege’s story. But eventually, I grew to learn
that each character’s stories were equally amazing, especially Tate’s. I could easily
have read an entire novel in any of their points of view.
I loved how confident and strong Tate was! And I love how
well matched she and Zachariah are (though he is so much older than she is…) I
loved the other characters. I loved reading about the flying and the powerful
scroll. There was some definite military type strategy happening here. And
pretty much all out war was happening by the end! There was never a dull
moment, and I read the whole thing in a day.
The only thing that got to me was all the new terms and long
names I had to learn so quickly. I didn’t know that this book was an extension
of a whole other series written by Raine Thomas. And you don’t need to read
that other series to enjoy this book; I’m proof of that. I just have a feeling
this book would be a lot easier to read right away if you had read the other
series. There is a glossary in the beginning, which helped a little bit. It’s
just that a glossary in an eBook is relatively irrelevant if you have a lousy
memory. It took me some time to build up a general understanding of all these
new terms, classes, and traditions.
But once, I got into the story a little bit more, it really
didn’t matter to me. Like I said, I totally enjoyed and loved this book despite
not having read the other ones. I’m already reading and loving the sequel! Look
out for my blog tour post! And I have a feeling, I will be reading her earlier series soon too. I give this one a 9/10, and I highly recommend it to
fantasy fans who love a good, strong female protagonist.
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