Defy the Stars - Claudia Gray - 4 stars

This book to me falls into YA Sci-fi pretty much. I do have trouble with science Fiction unless it is YA. So I got lucky with that. I have not heard a whole lot about this book in the past, but I have had it for a little while and finally decided to read it and put it on my Great list challenge. I found that it flowed very well, was pretty engaging and had some great characters in it. I did kinda figure though that it would just be another space book, but it surprised me. I really enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of the Illuminae series, which I loved.

The plot was pretty exciting despite the fact that it seemed to have a slow start, but once it took off, it took off. Of course while most the solar system was fake in the story it really made you believe that all of these planets really do exist, from one being a party and vacation planet to another be a very desolate and dry planet. You get to travel among the stars in a huge ship called the Daedalus. It is equipped with everything you would need to survive especially when your goal is to save your own home planet with a very intelligent life-like Mech named Abel as your companion.

The characters were probably my favorite part of the story. I enjoyed Noemi and Abel the most of course. I thought they were pretty well thought out when they were being written. I would have liked a little more back story on them, but maybe that will come with future books. Noemi is very strong and I liked how she thought things out, also how she kinda goes with the flow. Abel is very patient and learns quite a bit more about himself than he bargained for I think, once he gets with Noemi. Great, fun, exciting characters in this story.

I was not aware that this book was the first of a series and I look forward to the other installments of this series because the ending of this book was not what I wanted, but was what told me there were other books, and I was pretty thankful for that because I would have been extremely disappointed otherwise. I recommend this to others who like science fiction, and even if you don't. If you enjoyed the Illuminae files you will surely enjoy this one.