My rating: 4 of 5 stars
SAVAGE is the final installment of Aldo’s journey in the Healer series. The series started with a young, naïve, impulsive Aldo and ends with a warrior queen. SAVAGE is the culmination of everything Aldo has learned and experienced and is the time for her to finally be the woman she was always destined to be.
While it would be a disservice to not read each book in the Healer series in order, even readers of the entire series have a lot to remember about the world B.N. Toler has created. In that regard, Ms. Toler did an amazing job recapping all the important details about the paranormal world Aldo lives in at the beginning of SAVAGE without it feeling like a summary.
After being abducted by Bridge in HYBRID, Aldo endures unimaginable horrors as a doctor tests out every way to almost kill a Hybrid. She is tortured within an inch of her life each time; only to have her body heal itself and the doctor begin again.
Daniel is willing to turn the entire world upside down and utilize every resource he has to find Aldo, but he has no idea how damaged she might be when he finally recovers her. Nor does he know just what the tests on Aldo have turned up and how valuable she may have become in the process.
I was so glad to see Aldo shed her immaturity from HYBRID and really start to consider the repercussions her decisions might have on the people around her. In her youth she had been so impulsive that she would leave mass chaos in her wake. She was so determined to accomplish her goals that she never considered whether she was adequately equipped to fight her opponents. I always felt like I was screaming through my kindle at her to wake up and realize she wasn’t all-knowing or all-powerful and to find someone she could trust and actually lean on them. But in SAVAGE, when Aldo has not only the power to back up her threats but the right to seek retribution for those who have wronged her, she also has the willpower and maturity to hold back and consider the whole picture.
The action scenes were detailed and at times almost gory but it added to the strength of the paranormal aspect of the story. The sex scenes are smoking hot and firmly place SAVAGE in the romance genre as well. When it comes to the romance though, I just don’t know that I’m the best one to judge since I’m still trying to figure out how Aldo could leave Rhett. I think part of my reservation is a combination of Aldo not seeming desirable enough to have three powerful, amazing men so smitten over her and my wishing Ms. Toler had made Rhett a little less perfect or Daniel a little more, whatever it took to help me move into clear-cut team Daniel. Instead, I’m always waiting to see if Aldo changes her mind so I’m not able to fully immerse myself in the love scenes.
While for me the series was most perfect in the initial book, HEALER, I still think Ms. Toler accomplished a lot of what she promised in the conclusion of the series. I rated SAVAGE 3.5 stars because for me, it never quite reached the wow factor I had with HEALER and at times I found myself losing interest; but for reviewing purposes I rounded up to 4 stars because I think B.N. Toler still managed to set a high learning curve for Aldo and, through the series and especially in SAVAGE, helped her evolve into the woman she needed to be.
**Complimentary copy provided by the author/publisher for an honest review.
**Reviewed by preppea on I ♥ Bookie Nookie Reviews.
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A big thank you to BN Toler for providing us an e-copy set of the Healer series to run as a giveaway in December and congratulations to our winner, Sophia!
