Book Review: Defiance Rising (The Rising Trilogy Book 1) by Amy Miles

Title: Defiance Rising
Author: Amy Miles
Series: Rising Trilogy Book 1
Pages: 328
My Rating: ❤❤❤❤❤

Illyria has never known a life without the Rebellion.
Instinct.
Survival.
Nothing else matters…until she ventures out into unknown territory and is faced with an enemy that proves even more fierce and determined than she ever thought.

Bastien is infuriating, dangerous and annoyingly gorgeous. Eamon is familiar, comforting and turning into a man before her eyes. Both want her heart...but she is torn between duty and desire. When her choice affects all of mankind, how can she allow herself to be selfish? There is a power within her that can change everyone’s fate…but she underestimated the most potent force on Earth—love. Illyria must discover if she has the strength to sacrifice her heart to save mankind.

I love it when a book that I got for free turns out to be something that I would have willingly paid for. I get carried away sometimes and will just sit at my computer and buy a ton of free books. Days later, some of the purchases are actually appealing. I consider these appealing free books "little gems" (corny...I know). Defiance Rising by Amy Miles turned out to be one of these.

Post apocalyptic worlds are very popular at the moment, and it is in such a world where Miles chose to tell the story of Illyria. After being raised in the resistance, Illyria has learned to be a warrior. Not only is she skilled with a blade, but she is also very curious and defiant. She does not know much about what the world use to be like before the aliens invaded. Now though, the world is overrun with these aliens, Caldonians, who are hunting down the remaining humans. Illyria was born into the resistance and she wants to defeat the Caldonians, but is it possible? Can her friends defeat a whole army?

This book was amazing!! There were several twists and turns that I was not expecting, and each one had me going "What does this mean? What is going to happen now?" Illyria is such a strong person and endures so much. I know I would have cracked under the pressure, but she truly is a warrior. Miles does a fantastic job of creating these characters with many different sides. The book is only 344 pages, but in that amount of writing, I felt that characters were able to develop and grow.

Bastien has to be my favorite character. There is so much more to him than meets the eye. He is definitely not just the tough handsome guy that everybody sees. Books do not always make me cry, but there were times where I actually started to tear up (the part with the teddy bear, if you read it then you'll understand).

I cannot stress enough just how descriptive Miles' writing is! One review I read actually said all the description was a bad thing, but for me it just made everything seem so real and it was perfect! I highly recommend this book and am so thankful that I came across it!!