Book Review: Savage One (Born Wild #2)

Savage One
Donna Augustine
4/5

Overview

Honestly, I thought this book was better than the first. The major problem for me though was pacing. We have this big villain, the Magician, who was tormenting the characters at the end of the last book, and he's like not that big a deal. We get a new villain immediately, so that felt a little too quick on the switch. The whole time I thought this was going to be a trilogy, so I was ok with the way things were moving. The romance was a bit too slow for me, I was so sick of all the arguing- we already spent an entire book on that so why are we still going. It felt with every step forward she took ten steps back. I can understand how that would happen, the last six years or whatever haven't been great to her, but Callon is equally annoying about it. I'm all for characters that are protective of each other, but they should act like they actually like each other? I need at least a couple of sappy monologues and love professions before I'll deal with that.

Teddy's parentage is brought up, kind of glossed over as well. Again, felt like it was a trilogy so I was ok with it until the end when I realized that this is a duology. Just felt slow at some points and then bam extremely rushed. I loved the characters and I loved the plot, I just wish the events had been spread out a little better. Especially when, (spoiler), he was all over her at the end about how he should have protected her and her father was all roasting him about it. You guys are just jumping straight into that? A lot of build up for a lot of what felt like instant gratification.

Feels like I went a little too hard on the roasts, but I actually do genuinely enjoy the plot and characters which is why I gave it four stars. I feel like there was a lot that Augustine could have expanded on, but it's perfectly acceptable for her to draw the line and decide to end it rather than keep it going unnecessarily long.

Would I Recommend?

For sure! It was a great sequel, most things were tied up, and we had great closure for Teddy and Callon. I'm happy I finished the duology, and I look forward to what Donna Augustine does in the future.