Going into Defy the Dawn I had really high expectations. A Zael / Brynne pairing was exactly what I was hoping for and I wanted so badly to see their story unfold. The problem is there kind of wasn't much of a story here. I hurts me to say I'm let down at the end of Defy the Dawn. There was so much potential here but just not enough pay off. I would say this needed about 100 more pages to really fill out the story and make it believable. Well, as believable as a story about alien vampires can be... 
 Overall, I would say Defy the Dawn felt a bit threadbare. It was as if there was an outline of events that needed to play out but not enough substance to make the story feel complete. While I liked the overall idea, there just wasn't a lot of payoff. Some pretty major things were going on in their world such as Opus Nostrum is back to fucking shit up and the queen of the Atlanteans (Selene) is threatening war on the Breed. These are MAJOR problems but nothing is really accomplished in regard to them. The only new piece of the puzzle is that we finally get to see the Atlantean colony (view spoiler)[ where Zael and Brynne help to acquire an alliance between the Breed and the Atlanteans against Selene (hide spoiler)]. While this new information is pretty important and will definitely effect future story lines it execution was rather hurried. In an effort to not get spoilery, I liked the idea of how it all went down but it was all just so a+b=c all at once that it felt illogical. (view spoiler)[ Zael and Brynne help stop Elyon from stealing the crystal for Selene and then they earn the Atlantean's trust and an alliance. Great idea but there weren't any explanations given for why things were happening. Also the Atlantean's changed their minds superfast without any real investigation or trial or anything. I felt there was at least a chapter or two needed to give some context the events. (hide spoiler)] 
 I was shipping Brynne and Zael so hard. It was a pairing I was super excited to see. I guess I just wanted more of everything in regard to their romance. Coupled with the fact that several chapters were about the order and the events occurring outside of the relationship it meant that we had even less time with the couple. Which made what I got seem fairly illogical. How long have they really known each other? Like a week? It seems like a pretty big leap to have them fall in love and become mated when they don't really know much of anything about each other. There wasn't enough build to everything. It was just kind of like everything was taken at face value when the story would have benefited from further examination. Now on to the million dollar perv question: Was the smut good? It could have been incredible but ended up being kind of average. I mean Zael is like a couple millennia old. One would think he had some way cooler moves up his sleeve... or in his pants so to speak. There weren't a ton of scenarios and it was just the same thing each time. It just didn't have the heat and passion that some of the other pairings in the series had. 
 Defy the Dawn is the 14th book (if you include novellas it's the 20th) in the Midnight Breed series. If I'm this far into a series it's safe to say I already drank the Kool-Aid long ago and I'm destined to love all of the installments. While I can't say I loved Defy the Dawn I can say that it also won't dissuade me from reading any future stories in the series. I'm giving this one 3 stars since I have a love for the series as a whole but if this was a standalone novel I would have given it 2 stars.