Review: Defiant

Jamie and Eva are both on the hunt for Father Peter.  The priest has been kidnapped by a man commissioned by rebels to relieve King Henry of the throne. Jamie is one of the king’s men and is trying to get to the priest to bring him to Henry. Eva wants to rescue Father Peter, because he helped raise her and she believes she owes him her life.

Even though they want him for their own reasons, Jamie and Eva end up working together to find the priest.  Jamie has a dark reputation as a powerful soldier, but there are secrets behind his recklessness and violence.  Eva is wily and street-wise. She had to be, since she practically raised herself and her young ward Roger over the past 10 years.  While the two start off as oil and water, an attraction is constantly growing between them.  And the more they fall for each other, the faster the secrets between them unravel.

I had some serious issues with the language in this book. I’m not even sure how to describe it.  Let me give you an example:

“Yet not withstanding all these sensible notions, Eva was engulfed like a wick by the bright, burning knowledge that the more Jamie knew of her, the more her life would become… irrevocable.  Eva lived for revocability. Decisions were nothing but footprints in the sand: everything could be washed away. At need, Eva revoked opinions, plans, pennies, entire personal histories.”

It’s verbose.  And it feels a bit pretentious.  I suppose, for a historical, I can understand why the characters might need to talk in an affected manner, but in the narrative, it was too much.  On several occasions, it took me out of the story, because I was spending more time thinking about the words than their meaning.

The story itself was middle-of-the-road.  There was adequate action and intrigue. But hands-down, the best thing the book had going for it was the love-scenes.  Here, the author leaves any cumbersome language behind and wraps you up in a thick layer of hotness.  (Two thumbs up on the sex!)   The ending is both solid and satisfying.  3 stars.

*ARC Provided by Simon & Schuster