Savage by Tana Stone

4 Stars

*This review contains spoilers* The writing and editing of this novel was super clean, with no typos that I caught in the ARC version of this manuscript. The world building was vibrant, with the desert and tiny oasis coming alive for me. The characterization was very good, with both hero and heroine being vibrant, sympathetic individuals. The development of the romantic relationship was good, though I did not like that the hero never acknowledged that kidnapping is wrong, and the heroine and the tribe let him off the hook with no punishment for his dastardly deed. That seems to be the one glaring weakness of this author. She does not tend to do any kind of satisfying groveling and atonement scenes for her heroes who do dastardly things. The plot and pacing was exciting, with the scuzzy tribe leader finally getting his comeuppance at the end. There was surprisingly little angst in this novel considering the hero KIDNAPS the heroine, and there were very high stakes, which I tend to prefer in my romance novels. This novel used the Fated Mates trope, the Mars Needs Women trope, the Barbarian Hero trope, the Kidnapped Heroine trope, and the Enemies to Lovers trope. The world building, plot and pacing were five stars. The development of the romantic relationship and characterization were also five stars. However, I took one star off this novel's final score because of the lack of groveling and atonement on the hero's part for his dastardly deed. I love a kidnapping plot, but I enjoy it largely because it sets up the hero for some major groveling and atonement, when it is done right. This novel has a Happy Ever After ending instead of a cliffhanger, which is a huge plus for this whole series. I recommend this story to readers who enjoy trope heavy sci-fi romance adventure romps. I plan to buy myself a keeper copy of this novel. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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