Defiance by Lili St. Crow

Release Date: 19th April, 2011

Publisher: Penguin / Razorbill

Pages: 259pgs

The Story

The heart-stopping fourth novel in New York bestselling author Lili St. Crow's Strange Angels series.

Now that sixteen-year-old Dru's worst fear has come true and Sergej has kidnapped her best friend Graves, she'll have to go on a suicidal rescue mission to bring him back in one piece.

That is, if she can put all of Christophe's training to good use, defeat her mother's traitor, Anna, once and for all, and manage to survive another day . . .

The Review

From the very beginning of the Strange Angels series, I always thought of Dru Anderson to be the perfect female heroine. She was tough, had that diamond-in-the-rough edginess about her, and had a smart-ass mouth which I loved most about her. Plus, I loved every book that was published in this series cause it had everything you wanted in a YA novel. So when I saw this shiny baby lying on my doorstep, I had a "minor" fangal freakout and went straight to diving into the pages . . . but this fourth installment of the series disappointed me in so many ways. I think it was because the book was way shorter compared to the other three books I've read, and that left me with a big sad face.

Before I get into those "reasons", I just have to say something. The thing I love about St. Crow's writing - both in her adult and young adult books - is all the non-stop action scenes she offers up to her readers: the blood, the gore, the guns, the knive-throwing, and the little hint of danger knocking on every doorstep. Not to mention badass characters. It's the one thing that I know she can write successfully! Her writing is so raw and vivid when it comes to ACTION, and everyone who has read this series will know that she has the amazing ability to write like you're watching an action movie! You gotta love her for it!

In DEFIANCE we get to see Dru developing and reaching into her "blooming" stage (and no it has nothing to do with growing flowers) and of course danger follows her everywhere, no matter where she goes. With Graves "kidnapped" Dru is more than determined to find him with the help of her little gang and the handsome, young, son-of-the-devil Christophe. While it was great reading about Dru becoming a stronger and a more independent young woman, but man, she annoyed me a lot more in this book. That's new for me. I don't know whether it's because she was pining over Graves or that she was just the type of girl who wanted to annoy me in mockery.

In this installment I was reading about how she missed Graves and how she kept pushing everyone away because she was missing him, and it was a tad bit depressing. And don't get me started on Christophe. I loved him in this book because we got to see more of him and we also started to get a glimpse of him as a person, rather than the ghost who appears and disappears now and again. I was totally on TEAM CHRISTOPHE and hoped for some romance to seep into Dru and Christophe's relationship, but instead, when Dru hears a bit of information that seems fishy, she immediately distrusts Christophe and throws him like yesterday's trash. I'm. Upset. About. This.

Christophe. Christophe. Christophe. I love everything about him and while sometimes you don't trust him yourself, but all-in-all he is someone you want on your side. He's loyal to Dru, you can easily tell by his protectiveness over her. Problem for me is . . . Dru can't see him the way I see him. Peeves me off. Anyway, I'm also a big fan of Graves and I was glad we got to see him again towards the end of the book. Good old Goth Boy that we'll always love and adore. Still . . . CHRISTOPHE! <3

Overall - without spoilering everything - I can say the ending was the major thing that made me flick a star from my originally planned four star rating. I kind of felt cheated to be honest. But I guess you will have to be the judge to determine whether you love this book or not. It's kind of a love and hate relationship at the moment. But nonetheless we still have plenty of action that I always love in St. Crow's book and while there were scenes that left me so confused that I had to read it again to actually GET IT, I'm still looking forward to the fifth installment of the series and I just hope it's a much bigger book, one with plenty of Christophe and plenty of Graves, and with a less depressing Dru . . . cause she's more . . . well, badass now if you get my meaning [IN THE END YOU'LL SEE].

The Rating

3 1/2 /5 stars