A review by sabs_bookrecs
Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer

5.0

I bought this book for the cover. I have stopped reading YA because it was getting repetitive and honestly I hate when the characters are like barely legal age. But oh my god this was so good. Yes the main characters are 18 and 19 but their interactions and inner-monolog don’t feeling annoyingly YA. I was able to pretend they were actually in their 20’s. With that being said, this is still definitely a YA book and has YA themes. It is not as dark as an adult fantasy book and has the typical YA, good with always win over evil, and if we are good then good things will happen optimism. Like the conflict was resolved way too easily and honestly everyone was being way to reasonable and I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes. that being said this is a 5/5 for a YA book. Not 5/5 for all books in general. If I was rating this compared to some of my favorite adult fantasies I would still definitely give it a 4/5.

This is absolutely a high fantasy book but the world building was fantastic. Normally with high fantasy the first 100 pages are confusing word building that’s shoved in your face. With the it flowed so naturally with the story. I was complete invested after not even 30 pages.

This was an incredibly unique Robin Hood retelling that was great from the get go. World building 5/5, character development 5/5, romance was an extremely well written subplot that was never cringe but enough to keep those who strictly read romance fully interested. I believe there will be a second book, at least I hope there will. Highly recommend.