Defiance Falls Revolution

OMG!!! Ali Dean hit this out of the park. If you thought Defiance Falls was good, then get ready for a revolution. Revenge is best served hot and this book is fire.

First off it’s the second book in a series therefore you must read the first book. Since the first book didn’t have much information regarding the plot, this book had information overload. It explained a lot of what is going on. It was a bit much at times but with the addition of Cruz’s POV I think helped decipher that information. I’m still in love with my girl Hazel. She’s strong and loyal and fierce. She’s just a great heroine. Love the guys and the war is about to begin can’t wait!!!

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

*contains spoilers of Book 1*
I really, really love this series!
DFR picks up right after the events of Defiance Falls, and it doesn’t take long to ramp up the action. I really love the bond between this group of friends, and especially Hazel and Cruz. They really are a perfect couple , and I always dig the first love being a forever love kinda deal. You really feel how much they care for each other, and how they want to protect each other.
We learn a lot more about the Malone’s, and all the history between the two groups, and Hazel exacts some serious revenge for her kidnapping in book one.
I really like the way Hazel and Cruz have progressed in their relationship. I find Cruz's(technical) virginity really refreshing. In the vast majority of novels with a virgin character, it’s always the heroine. The hero tends to be super experienced (to put it nicely) in all areas. So even though his virginity is “technical”, I feel it’s keeping with what the majority of the American population consider virginity. I found it endearing.
This one ended on another cliffhanger, and I know the action is about to kick up a couple dozen notches and I’m really looking forward to the conclusion to this story.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book

Go check this book series out! seriously! right now! This is the second book in the series and it goes into even more depth and uncovers so many details and details of the love story ( my favorite part) in the book! I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next book to come out!!! Any book by Ali Dean is always one I will read and you should too!!!

I absolutely loved this story!! It was a fantastic read! This is the second book in the series and I do recommend reading the first one prior to this. This is part of a trilogy and the first two books do end on a little bit of a cliff hanger as things are not resolved but not a life and death moment. This series does cross over the young adult/new adult genres. The first book is more young adult and this one is a more new adult as there is a little bit of sex in it. It is not explicit at all, but you do know it is happening and get a little, little, detail. I loved getting to know these characters even more. In this installment we get to know the reasons behind these boys distancing themselves from Hazel. We get to learn some of what they have been up to. These boys might only be 17/18 but they are definitely acting more like men. I love the alpha and protectiveness in Cruz. He does try and temper it with Hazel to keep her happy and not take away all independence. I loved the balance with this and that he is aware of it. This story is very well written and while this one is heavy on the intrigue, more comes to light and there is some action. I had to love Hazel's way of getting even at the end of this one! This story definitely sets up the next book and I can't wait to read it and see how everything ends up playing out. I love that this series (and each book) follows Cruz and Hazel, along with the other boys. I love that their group is such a big part of the story and I am hoping that we will get the other boys' stories as well.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

Love love love it! ❤️❤️ The excitement, thrill, passion, adventure, loyalty and trust all wrapped up into one book! I read this book in one setting, spent 5 hours on the couch just reading. Ali, girl you know how to make me blush just by reading your books. Lol I seriously can’t wait until the next one!!!

This is book 2 in the Defiance Falls series. In the first book Hazel was unaware of the things that are going on around her. She finally makes the decision to be in the know and she is all in. Tensions are rising between the Malones and Hazels squad, especially after they make a move against Hazel at her college visit to Harvard. Now its time for the squad to decide if they are going to hold out for the truce with the Malones or if they are going to unleash everything they got against them. This book is a page turner and I can’t wait to see where book 3 takes the Hazel & Cruz along with the rest of their crew.

I really enjoyed seeing Hazel become stronger in this book. After everything she went through in the first book, she’s stronger and more bad*ss.

Cruz is hot. He’s got the whole possessive alpha thing going on and you can feel the love he has for Hazel.

Overall I enjoyed the book. I can’t wait to see what comes in the next one!

So much is packed into the second installment of the Defiance Falls trilogy. There is A LOT that is revealed in this book and a lot happens in just a few short days. I devoured this book in one sitting and was left both satisfied but eager for the next part. The transformation that Hazel begins in the first book blossoms in this one. Now that she knows the truth about Cruz, the Malones, her father, and the town, she's able to become a player in the game. I won't reveal too much here, but compare the end of this book to the beginning of the first and try not to be too shocked. Hazel's a bad ass and we really shouldn't have been all that surprised.

Beyond the major secrets, Cruz and Hazel's relationship advances in both big and subtle ways. With the addition of Cruz's perspective to the narration, we get to see both sides of their relationship, and the toll that their separation took on the two of them. My favorite interactions between the two of them were when they both were honest and worked through their insecurities. It helps to make their relationship much stronger and healthier. Which is not to say that they stop magically making mistakes. They don't. They're both bound to make mistakes, but seeing them work through it all is a nice break from the other darker content aka the potential war with the Malones.

Even though we get answers to so many of our questions, I never felt like the plot stalled or got clunky as Hazel pieced her way through the information. Now my main question is this: where do they go from here? I have a couple of ideas, but for now, I'll keep them to myself....

Defiance Falls Revolution (DFR) is the second book in a trilogy, and it does not stand alone. The first book, Defiance Falls (DF), ends on a cliffhanger, and this book will not make much sense if DF is not read first. DFR begins immediately after the end of DF, and its events occur across the length of less than a week. Like DF, DFR ends in a cliffhanger, but all plot threads will be tied up at the end of Book 3, Defiance Falls War.

DF is written entirely from the point of view of the heroine, Hazel. However, DFR is written in the dual points of view of both Hazel and Cruz, her love interest, which I personally very much appreciate in a romance story. Hazel is almost 18 and Cruz is just turned 18.

In this book we receive answers to all of Hazel's burning questions from DF, and the main conflict with a powerful set of mafia-like villains, who were introduced in DF, is massively increased and complicated in DFR. In addition, Hazel's relationship with Cruz is solidified, and their interactions remain intensely passionate. The same cast of characters from DF are also in DFR, with a few new characters introduced on the evil-villain side of the equation.

I personally would classify this novel as PG-13. It is possible to claim that this book is Young Adult (YA), which is the genre in which this author has always written before now, by asserting that it fits into the YA, social-drama subgenre described by mainstream publishers as “edgy” and “gritty.” Many such YA novels incorporate, as this novel does, coarse language, underage drinking, drunkenness and drug use, moderately explicit sex scenes, and overt violence. However, I believe it might be more accurate to categorize this novel as New Adult (NA) for these reasons: The main characters are either legally adults at age 18, or very close to 18, and in any state in the USA would be tried as adults if charged with a crime. They consistently act with the autonomy of adults, and they illegally carry and brandish unlicensed firearms.

There is a strong focus in this book on aspects of two very popular, storytelling genres. These include: romantic suspense and a subgenre of action-adventure, the revenge thriller, also referred to as a vigilante or vendetta plot. In a revenge-thriller plot, the revenge that the protagonists pursue against their enemies, especially with a female protagonist, tends to be proportionate in an “eye for an eye” type of way. But sometimes the revenge so far exceeds the violence of the original crime committed against the protagonist by the villain, that the protagonist slides away from being “heroic” and into the category of “anti-hero.” A lack of such proportionality is very much the case in the brutal climax of this book.

Personally, vengeful violence, even if proportional, is always a bit much for me to take, because I am rather squeamish. For that reason, a vigilante novel is something I read rarely, and only when written by truly outstanding authors. Which is why I was willing to read DFR, because I am a big fan of Ali Dean’s YA sports romances. Unfortunately, in addition to finding some of the DFR violence difficult to witness, I was personally uncomfortable with the linking of the sexual passion between Hazel and Cruz with their mutual, vengeful blood lust. However, I do realize that this latter plot device can be quite common, and popular with many readers, in romance subplots in the urban fantasy genre, especially in shapeshifter, demon and vampire novels. I also freely admit that true fans of revenge stories might actually consider this novel’s vengeful violence to lie on the “tamer” end of the continuum of the type of violence which routinely occurs in classic vigilante plots.

One last, personal pique of mine is this: I find the unchallenged, pious claim of “virginity” coming from a significant character in this book, who freely admits to having engaged in unprotected, mutual, oral sex with multiple partners, to be the height of self-delusion and hypocrisy. Oral sex is, in fact, sex. It is extremely heteronormative to assume that only the insertion of a penis into a vagina constitutes sex. In addition, though unprotected oral sex does not cause pregnancy, it can definitely spread sexually transmitted diseases. However, once again, I admit that including unprotected oral sex in the sexual history of romance protagonists is a fairly frequent occurrence in NA romances in general, though this book’s inclusion of the “technical virgin” claim is the first I’ve personally seen in a YA or NA novel.

Those personal quibbles aside, however, as always, Ali Dean writes compelling characters in exciting situations in all her books, including this one, and she is an excellent writer in general. Her books are also, without fail, well edited, well formatted, and contain lovely covers, and DFR is no exception in that regard either.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 3 stars
Hero: 4 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars
Revenge-Thriller, Anti-Hero Plot: 3 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars

Note: I received an ARC of this novel from Booksprout.