Julia Defiant

I distinctly remember enjoying the first book in this series but I struggled to get back into Julia's fictional world. I struggled to recall who many of the supporting characters were and there was not enough recapping to pique my memory. The setting, which is clearly meant to be China before the Boxer uprising, feels fake and forced to me, likely due to unnecessarily specific details which do not serve any purpose but to prove, “Hey, they went somewhere foreign!” Basically, this book needs more story and less scene but I hold out hope for the next book's awesomeness.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.