I was a huge fan of Defy The Night. I hadn’t been that excited in a long time to start a new series, and I really wanted to find the next thing to get obsessed about. So I picked up Defend The Dawn as fast as I could, and as much as I wish to not admit it, and I do kind of get what Brigid Kemmerer was aiming for, this follow-up didn’t land the mark the same way as the first.
This series takes place in the kingdom of Kandala, where a mass disease is slowly killing the entire population off, except for those who can afford the astronomical fee that the elites are charging for the only known working medicine – Moonflower petals. Tessa and her masked friend-in-crime Weston Lark were doing what they could, manufacturing the medicine and bringing it black-market style to families in desperate need, but a lot’s happened since then. Wes was revealed to actually be Prince Corrick, little brother to King Harristan. You know, the rulers of the land. What’s more, there’s a group of rebels called Benefactors, led by big-lug Lochlan, who took siege on the palace and held the rulers hostage not too long ago. Oh, and Consul Sallister, who rules over most of the territory where Moonflower Petals can grow, is a big dickweed and has been holding the flowers hostage, but now he and Corrick have a rocky agreement.
Well, Tessa and Corrick are now hard at work together trying to make a good final cure, with the clock ticking like nobody’s business. But then this boat called the Dawn Chaser arrives on Kandala’s shores, and a young captain called Rian Blakemore says he’s from this far-off land called Ostriary, which has a surplus of Moonflower petals. But his land is desperately short on steel, which Kandala has more than they know what to do with. So he proposes that Prince Corrick and a small bit of his crew come with him on a voyage to the land, which hasn’t had communication with Kandala in years, primarily because of some very rough waters known for shipwrecks. And the goal of this voyage? A possible trade agreement. Win win, right? We’ll just see. Tessa and Corrick set out on this Dawn Chaser, and surprise surprise, so is Lochlan of the Benefactors, to try and give a sense of cooperation.
So, before I go any further, if you want to avoid spoilers, come back when you’ve finished the book. The big thing that took me for a loop in this sequel that’s in the square middle of a trilogy, is its choice of setting. To my surprise, it does the story almost entirely on this one ship, a kind of Pirates of the Caribbean where everyone on board is distrustful of each other and itching for a brawl. Actually, come to think of it, that’s exactly like Pirates of the Caribbean. But to develop this entire world in the first book, full of intricacies and heartbreak and rebellion and then put it almost completely aside, when there’s only one more book after this…it made me feel like it was holding itself back. If there were four books in this series instead of just three, I may have forgiven this.
Also on the negative, it gets a little repetitive, with Tessa and Corrick constantly doubting that everything’s all it’s cracked up to be on this ship, and trying to explore feelings, and throughout the whole thing, I was hoping for more progress on the actual journey. There’s a new side character called The Outlaw, whose identity turns obvious fast, and there was a chance at an LGBTQ+ romance that stops too abruptly. Some of the side characters are too underutilized.
Now on the more positive side, Brigid Kemmerer knows how to keep us invested, even if she throws us for a loop. As time goes on, we feel this could really be the beginning of the end, and she’s simply getting everything ready for it. I’ve done that before too. Also, I still deeply care about this story and what’s going to happen next. Like the last book, the politics are fascinating. The ending is pretty epic. And thanks to the ending being epic, with some special twists by the end, I do admit that even though I’m not sure I would’ve gone with the story route Kemmerer went with, I could ultimately buy into it in the end.
I was disappointed I didn’t like Defend The Dawn more than I did, but I’m still looking forward to the last book, Destroy The Day. Brigid Kemmerer has a lot left to do in that one final book. It was released in 2024, so I can get it now. Hope she hits a home run.
My grade: 2 and a half stars out of 5
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