Defy is a book that hardly went the way I expected, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. We are introduced to a new world where Alexa must hide her true gender to survive and be free, all the while protecting the prince and fighting a war. It has some tender moments as well as some emotional ones, making it a pretty decent start to a series. Defy in a nutshell is: easy, fast and different. When it comes to high fantasy I expect world building and am incredibly passionate about extreme detail. However this is where Defy started to worry me, the world building is minimal. I really liked that it was set in a more tropical place where there's humidity and rainforests, rather than the typical temperate zones I usually read about, but I didn't feel the immersion that I'm used to in novels like this. We don't get many details about the world of Antion or Belvon that would have made these places "real" in my mind. But I see it as a great high fantasy novel for beginners, where someone who isn't used to the immense detail can wet their palette with wit....