Defiance

Book Summary
Within the walls of Baalboden, beneath the shadow of the city’s brutal leader, Rachel Adams has a secret. While other girls sew dresses, host dinner parties, and obey their male Protectors, Rachel knows how to survive in the wilderness and deftly wield a sword. When her father, Jared, fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector, her father’s apprentice, Logan—the same boy Rachel declared her love for two years ago, and the same boy who handed her heart right back to her. Left with nothing but fierce belief in her father’s survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. But treason against the Commander carries a heavy price, and what awaits her in the Wasteland could destroy her.

At nineteen, Logan McEntire is many things. Orphan. Outcast. Inventor. As apprentice to the city’s top courier, Logan is focused on learning his trade so he can escape the tyranny of Baalboden. But his plan never included being responsible for his mentor’s impulsive daughter. Logan is determined to protect her, but when his escape planRachel pays the price, he realizes he has more at stake than disappointing Jared.

As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can’t be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.

Reviews
"'A well-paced, heart-wrenching tale of loyalty, courage and love.' - Romantic Times"

"'Spellbinding, romantic and impossible to put down.' - Julie Kagawa, New York times bestselling author of the Iron Fey series and the Blood of Eden series" "'A gritty, thrilling adventure sprinkled with moments of breathtaking tenderness. I read it in one sitting.' - Rae Carson, Morris Award finalist for The Girl of Fire and Thorns"

Plot
The novel begins with Rachel Adams waiting for her father to come home from a courier job, in which he was sent outside the protection of the gate. She is waiting with hope for him to come home before the guards close the gate, but he doesn't, and Rachel is devastated as people begin say he is dead. With her being a woman in the city of Baalboden, she is unable to live without a protector, and thus her fathers will is read to her, her fathers and family's friend Oliver Reece and her fathers apprentice, and once the boy Rachel was in love with, Logan McEntire. However. In the will, it states that, unlike what they all thought, where Oliver would become her new protector, the responsibility is handed over to Logan, and Rachel throws a fit that lands her with a stern talking to from the commander, and a harsh pull of her hair.

Rachel then rides the wagon with Oliver back to her house, where she packs her things and is moved to Logan's cottage across town. It is also revealed to us that Logan holds a deep hatred towards the Commander, who beat Logans mother to death for breaking the law of going in public without a protector when Logan was only six. A day after moving in with Logan, Rachel hatches a plan, without Logan's consent or approval, to get over the wall separating their city from the wasteland, and then she would track her father down, and she believes him to still be alive. Little does Rachel know, Logan has a similar plan, only he is using technology to follow through with it.

Rachel leaves the safety of Logans cottage after he does, without him knowing, and she breaks one of Baalbodens most sacred laws by setting out into town without a male at her side. She is nearly caught, but she ducks into a tent and lies in order to get a man to walk her to Olivers house. Once at Olivers house, she says a quick goodbye to him before departing to make an attempt over the wall, without knowing Logan is hot on her tail. She is caught by the Commander and brought back to be questioned which is when Logan is brought in right after her. The two of them tell the commander of a package that Rachels father had gotten at a neighboring city on one of his last courier missions, and that he stashed it in the wasteland before returning to Baalboden. It is also revealed that Rachel knew this because her father was illegally taking her with him on courier missions out of the city. In order to leave the commanders interrogation with their lives, they volunteer to get the package and bring it back to the commander, and there is suspicion that the commander knows exactly what is in the package.

Rachel and Logan return to Logans house and begin to make a plan, and the next day Logan drops Rachel off at Olivers while he goes into town in search of supplies. Rachel and Oliver go for a walk, and while the gate is open in the wall, the cursed one appears in front of it, spewing fire at the village, Oliver and Rachel duck and cover. The commander rides by and see's her and Oliver, and at that moment, Rachel realizes what the commander would do to Oliver if her and Logan didn't return with the package he wants. Rachel decides she must take Oliver with them, and simultaneously, Logan decides the same on his own. They meet back up when Logan sees the cursed one for himself and runs off to find them, fearing the worst.

A couple days later, Rachel is dropped off at Sylphs, her best friends house, and her, Sylphs mother, and Sylphs oldest brother, go out to get Sylphs dress fitted for the claiming ceremony that she is in, but Rachel is not due to their age difference. While there, the Commander intrudes and takes Rachel with him into a wagon, where she sees a lump under a blanket next to him, and begins to fear it is Logan. The Commander proceeds to threaten her, and call her and Logan out for confiding against him and forming their own plan. It is not revealed to the readers how he knew this exactly. The Commander tells Rachel that she is to participate in the claiming ceremony the next day, and he predicts that Logan will make an attempt to claim her, and he wants her to turn him down and request to be a ward of the state. The Commander then stabs whoever is under the blanket, and Rachel crawls over, trembling. He removes the cloth, and reveals a near-dead Oliver, who is then stabbed in the throat by Commander Chase. Rachel is then brought back to the dress shop, distraut and in shock, where Sylphs mother sends for someone to get Logan. Logan arrives, and has no idea what to make of Rachel in the way she was, and it is easy to presume she had some form of P.T.S.D. Logan takes her home, not yet sure what had happened to her since she hadn't spoke up, we are told he suspected rape.

In the day following, Rachel tells Logan what happened to Oliver, and he is saddened. Rachel reveals the Commanders plan, and they come up with a new one together. That night, Rachel attends the Claiming ceremony in a gown given to her by the Commander, and Logan doesn't make an attempt to claim her, as he was going to before they came up with a plan. Instead, he accepts the claiming request from a villager named Peter, but the Commander grows furious, realizing they once again turned against him. Rachel makes a last minute attempt to request to be a ward of the state, but the Commander backhands her, and Logan jumps into fight him, in front of the whole village. Rachel pleads with him, and they strike a deal; Rachel will set out the next day with one of the Commanders trackers, Melkin, and Logan will wait in a cell until she returns; the Commander promised he will remain unharmed.

Melkin and Rachel set out into the wasteland in search of the package, and encounter the cursed one when she is yelling at him. Both of them scramble up trees to avoid it, and they are unharmed, but the trees strike fire quickly. They make a break for the river.