Defiance by Lili St. Crow - review
Defiance 
******
Lili St. Crow
young adult urban fantasy
I did not like the cover of the previous book - because just looking at it, you had no idea that you would be reading an urban fantasy, it really looked like a very blah romance novel cover. The male model in no way resembled the character that I assume it was supposed to portray, and the hair is supposed to be kinky curly, out of control curly on the female, but not in the latest covers. This one is a teeny bit better, though not much. Once again, if I weren't already on the look out for this particular book, or if I didn't already have an eye out for the author, nothing about this cover (except for the blue background) would have caught my eye to even take a look. It's boring, it's blah, and just barely surpasses the last cover. Maybe the publishers have a reason for this, but I think that having a more eye-popping cover would be a better draw for new readers. But that's just me, a person who buys books.....books that have covers, sometimes very interesting covers......I wonder what they were thinking. Hmmmmmmm...
Thankfully, I enjoyed the book very much. I've been a fan of Lilith Saintcrow ever since she first came out with Working For The Devil - one of her adult interest urban fantasies. For me, the trouble with reviewing a book in a series, is that I'm always afraid that I'm going to give away spoilers to those who haven't read the previous books. So while I want to talk about the book, I'm always wary of giving too much away, so sometimes I think my reviews are a bit vague.....
In Defiance, Dru is feeling frustrated with the lack of progress in finding her kidnapped friend. she's also conflicted about her feelings = she feels an intense loyalty and loves Graves (her wulfen boyfriend-though they haven't quite said "I'm yours, You're mine) and yet is having these very intense longings for Christophe - which, for some reason squicks me out...maybe it's something to do with the fact that Christophe KNEW HER MOM WHEN THE MOM WAS A TEEN, and therefore that feels kind of creepy to me. (This is something that's always bugged me a little bit with any fiction containing eons old men dating young women...like the ones who knew a kid during childhood and then starts "dating" them in adulthood.) Maybe I'm being too sensitive about this, but it squicks me out. I was actually glad to read a part where Dru kind of acknowledges this in her thoughts, the almost creepiness of her attraction to this obviously way older man, even though he looks like a teen. Even so, a bit of kissing happens, along with some angry frustrated feelings toward him. Because, she's not so sure how much he's doing to help find her boyfriend.
In the meantime, she's continuing with classes, learning more about what it means to be a female dhampir, or Svetocha. She's continuing to feel changes and her abilities are getting a bit stronger, even though they're not always consistant. She's training (fighting) very hard with Christophe, learning how to fight better. The book starts off with her first foray as part of a team going out to trap and kill vampires. There's one thing about this that stuck in my mind. In the first book, she's been traveling around with her father, rousting out all kinds of "others", and I'm pretty sure I remember mentions of destroying or killing things. As a matter of fact, she ends up having to kill her own zombified father...and yet in this book she has a rather strong reaction to killing a vampire. ??? Not sure about that, although other than that kind of making me go "wait, what??" I thoroughly enjoyed Lili St.Crow's writing.
Lili St.Crow has a very descriptive style of writing. When her characters are running, fighting, or just conversing there is atmosphere permeating all scenes, whether it's a locket growing warmer or colder, bouncing during movement, hair curling and moving on its own, smells coming and going, all aspects of a scene are arrayed, explained, described. I enjoy it when done by her, and yet in another writer's hand it wouldn't be the same. She does this well.
I also enjoy the contrasting speech and speech patterns that her characters display. You know when Dru is talking as opposed to some of the older dhampir. The wulfen teens SOUND like teens, and not forty year old men. (something that happens in stories - you have youngsters using verbiage that would normally come out of well educated adult mouths)
There is plenty of action, and there is this moment when Dru just get's tired of waiting patiently for Graves to be rescued...what a moment. Just pure satisfying defiance. I enjoyed the twists and turns and the surprising actions of a previous character....and I loved the ending. You just know that Dru is not finished being defiant and deciding to make her own way once again. Girl puts her FOOT DOWN!
One of the interesting things about Lili St.Crow, or Lilith Saintcrow is that no matter how popular her books may be, she always has an end in sight. Her series are not going to go on and on...and while it might be sad that you won't read about a favorite character, at least the series doens't end up losing it's original intent, or it's way. She's done this with The Dante Valentine series (five books), the Jill Kismet series and has a last book for this series. The last one will be Reckoning.
This cover, by the way, is far more interesting than the last few.
******
Lili St. Crow
young adult urban fantasy
I did not like the cover of the previous book - because just looking at it, you had no idea that you would be reading an urban fantasy, it really looked like a very blah romance novel cover. The male model in no way resembled the character that I assume it was supposed to portray, and the hair is supposed to be kinky curly, out of control curly on the female, but not in the latest covers. This one is a teeny bit better, though not much. Once again, if I weren't already on the look out for this particular book, or if I didn't already have an eye out for the author, nothing about this cover (except for the blue background) would have caught my eye to even take a look. It's boring, it's blah, and just barely surpasses the last cover. Maybe the publishers have a reason for this, but I think that having a more eye-popping cover would be a better draw for new readers. But that's just me, a person who buys books.....books that have covers, sometimes very interesting covers......I wonder what they were thinking. Hmmmmmmm...
Thankfully, I enjoyed the book very much. I've been a fan of Lilith Saintcrow ever since she first came out with Working For The Devil - one of her adult interest urban fantasies. For me, the trouble with reviewing a book in a series, is that I'm always afraid that I'm going to give away spoilers to those who haven't read the previous books. So while I want to talk about the book, I'm always wary of giving too much away, so sometimes I think my reviews are a bit vague.....
In Defiance, Dru is feeling frustrated with the lack of progress in finding her kidnapped friend. she's also conflicted about her feelings = she feels an intense loyalty and loves Graves (her wulfen boyfriend-though they haven't quite said "I'm yours, You're mine) and yet is having these very intense longings for Christophe - which, for some reason squicks me out...maybe it's something to do with the fact that Christophe KNEW HER MOM WHEN THE MOM WAS A TEEN, and therefore that feels kind of creepy to me. (This is something that's always bugged me a little bit with any fiction containing eons old men dating young women...like the ones who knew a kid during childhood and then starts "dating" them in adulthood.) Maybe I'm being too sensitive about this, but it squicks me out. I was actually glad to read a part where Dru kind of acknowledges this in her thoughts, the almost creepiness of her attraction to this obviously way older man, even though he looks like a teen. Even so, a bit of kissing happens, along with some angry frustrated feelings toward him. Because, she's not so sure how much he's doing to help find her boyfriend.
In the meantime, she's continuing with classes, learning more about what it means to be a female dhampir, or Svetocha. She's continuing to feel changes and her abilities are getting a bit stronger, even though they're not always consistant. She's training (fighting) very hard with Christophe, learning how to fight better. The book starts off with her first foray as part of a team going out to trap and kill vampires. There's one thing about this that stuck in my mind. In the first book, she's been traveling around with her father, rousting out all kinds of "others", and I'm pretty sure I remember mentions of destroying or killing things. As a matter of fact, she ends up having to kill her own zombified father...and yet in this book she has a rather strong reaction to killing a vampire. ??? Not sure about that, although other than that kind of making me go "wait, what??" I thoroughly enjoyed Lili St.Crow's writing.
Lili St.Crow has a very descriptive style of writing. When her characters are running, fighting, or just conversing there is atmosphere permeating all scenes, whether it's a locket growing warmer or colder, bouncing during movement, hair curling and moving on its own, smells coming and going, all aspects of a scene are arrayed, explained, described. I enjoy it when done by her, and yet in another writer's hand it wouldn't be the same. She does this well.
I also enjoy the contrasting speech and speech patterns that her characters display. You know when Dru is talking as opposed to some of the older dhampir. The wulfen teens SOUND like teens, and not forty year old men. (something that happens in stories - you have youngsters using verbiage that would normally come out of well educated adult mouths)
There is plenty of action, and there is this moment when Dru just get's tired of waiting patiently for Graves to be rescued...what a moment. Just pure satisfying defiance. I enjoyed the twists and turns and the surprising actions of a previous character....and I loved the ending. You just know that Dru is not finished being defiant and deciding to make her own way once again. Girl puts her FOOT DOWN!
One of the interesting things about Lili St.Crow, or Lilith Saintcrow is that no matter how popular her books may be, she always has an end in sight. Her series are not going to go on and on...and while it might be sad that you won't read about a favorite character, at least the series doens't end up losing it's original intent, or it's way. She's done this with The Dante Valentine series (five books), the Jill Kismet series and has a last book for this series. The last one will be Reckoning.
This cover, by the way, is far more interesting than the last few.