Ames’ review of Defiance by Stephanie Tyler.
Rebelling against her legacy as the MC’s princess, Tru Tennyson escaped the ruthless, male-dominated culture of the Defiance motorcycle club. Three years later, her newfound freedom is ripped away, thanks to a massive hybrid storm that killed millions. Now, in the post-Chaos world of semi-darkness and near-total anarchy where gangs rule, she discovers the dangerous world of Defiance may be the one thing that can keep her safe.
Tru is at the MC’s mercy when she’s dragged back to her former home … and to the only man she’s ever pictured a future with. Caspar is the bastard son of the club’s leader, her safe haven when life got rough — and her onetime lover the night she left. When Tru refuses to trade sex for power and be claimed by a rival club leader, she also dares to announce she wants Caspar instead, throwing the MC into turmoil.
Tru’s brazen revolt could start a gang war and destroy the club from within. Now both Tru and the MC must wait for Caspar’s response … and the inevitable fallout.
I haven’t read Stephanie Tyler before but I was intrigued by the motorcycle club premise and how it could be adapted to a quasi-apocalyptic world.
The Chaos was a series of storms that hit the world and resulted in a collapse of the way everything works. There is a blanket of ash and dust in the atmosphere which has disrupted everything. Sunlight is a rare thing in a post-Chaos world. The violent world of motorcycle clubs has been especially adept at dealing with the fallout. And Tru used to be part of that world. But she left shortly before the Chaos. It’s been three years and now she’s back. The reason she ran away is dead. But women need to belong to a man in the Defiance MC and Tru’s old flame is married. And the man they want her to bond with is unacceptable. So is the man she truly wants. Caspar, the bastard son of the MC president, a man who wants to set the club back on the right course.
So there’s a few things going on with this book. Tru likes to run away. When it comes to fight or flight, she’s flight all the way. She ran away from the MC when things at home got real bad, she ran back when the crap hit the fan after the Chaos. So Caspar is extremely leery of bonding with Tru. Plus there is so much history between them. Before Tru ran away, she was with the president’s son, his legitimate son. She’d always been drawn to Caspar though. Caspar is tolerated in the MC, but his father definitely gives preferential treatment to his two legitimate sons. Caspar wants to take over the club because he knows his half-brother isn’t a strong enough leader to take over when their old man dies. And their old man, the president? He’s rotten. Things have gotten bad and it looks like it’s going to get worse. The club was able to survive and even thrive after the Chaos because of the underground tunnel system they built. And they made a profit selling the underground tubes to other survivors. But now that things are somewhat settled down, the demand for the tubes is going down and the club needs a new money maker. Caspar doesn’t like the direction that’s going to take the club in.
I wanted to like Defiance more than I did. I thought the world-building was interesting. What didn’t work for me was the lack of internal dialog. I didn’t know what was going on the characters’ heads and so a few of the interactions left me feeling like I had whiplash. I don’t like feeling like that. Plus it kept me at a distance from our hero and heroine and I didn’t really connect with them.
Another thing was the ending. The big showdown between the old rule and the new was a big letdown. Anti-climactic.
Despite those issues, I do look forward to reading the second book. I want to see how things in the club work out. 3 out of 5.
This book is available from Carina Press. You can buy it here in e-format.
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