Teehee! I love the cover! Yes, I'm a cover slut, we already established that way back. :P And I'm excited to present you my review about this book. You see, this was my first book of Kate Evangelista. I have heard of her in the past, though I haven't got the time to read her books because I'm trying to catch up with my series then. But thanks to Paranormal Cravings Book Tours, I got the chance to read it. :)
Title: SavorSeries: Vicious Feast #1
Author: Kate Evangelista
Genre: New Adult, Paranormal Romance
Release Date: 2nd December 2013
Publisher: Crescent Moon Press Inc
Rating:
Review Copy: Paranormal Cravings Book Tour
Book Blurb:
Mature and explicit content. Not recommended for readers below 18-years-old. Yup, you’ve got to be that old to read my story. Consider yourself warned.I’m Dakota Collins, a tough talking, eye patch wearing, workaholic photography student. Why am I important? Well, maybe because I get to spend an entire month with Vicious, only the sickest indie rock band out there.You see, I needed a subject for my Spring Showcase introspective in order to graduate. During a chance encounter at a club I’d been sent to cover for the Daily Gossip, our ironically named college paper, the features writer I usually teamed up with introduced me to the band—by accident, I might add. It involved a run in with a scary, bald bodyguard. Anyway, long story short, I signed a contract to take pictures of Vicious.I should have known their handsome yet way too serious for his own good bassist, Luka Visraya, wouldn’t be able to keep his hands to himself. He’s gorgeous and all, but the way he smiles spelled trouble with a capital L. I’m in for a long month with him around.Crazy shit happens and then some. So, if you want the skinny on Vicious and the events revolving around my stay at Lunar Manor, read my story.Again, refer to the warning above.
REVIEW
First of all, I am thankful... like really thankful to be part of this tour and to know Kate Evangelista (a fellow Filipina! Woot! Major added points!) and to read her book, Savor. Some may say I am exaggerating. But no, I'm totally not.
I am not expecting anything before I read this book. I just started it blindly. You all know how, sometimes, I forgot things. So yes, I forgot about the blurb of this book when I first read it and didn't bother rereading it cause in my mind it's an added surprise for me. And boy, was I surprise. I FREAKIN' LOVE IT! ABSOFREAKINLUTELY. 200% of my being are saying I LOVE THIS BOOK. So yes, I just had to give it a FIVE stars it so deserved to have!
I'm not biased, just because she's from the same country as I am, I'm giving her highest rating. NO. It's not about that. I love everything in Savor. Even Luka's weird habits and personality. The whole time I was reading it, I could totally picture EVERYTHING. It was delivered so good, right to my taste. It is so not boring. The descriptions are just right and not over described which was one of the things I loved about it. Remember, I hate boring description of things in the books I am reading.
I really really really enjoyed reading it because I see myself. Not because I experience same things as the MC, Dakota experienced. This was how I picture my own story will be. I mean, if I had decided to continue writing stories. I tried writing stories, in fact, I still have it somewhere in my laptop. The story was titled as 'Photographs', yes, yes, yes. Totally boring title but I suck at that. LOL. Anyway, the MC in my story was a girl photographer for rock magazine. The story was materialized because of my obsession with thE GazettE, a Japanese Rock Band, back in 2009, I think. I wrote it back in 2010. :) And I haven't finished it. I was stuck at the beginning of Chapter 6. :P
Enough of me... back to the review... as I have said, I love how the photoshoot was described. I can totally picture what Dakota has in mind whenever she got idea of how she'll do their photoshoot. And I am so in love with Dray. I love him. He's so freakin' cute and adorable. Yes, I love him more than Luka. LOL. And honestly, I love all of them. Love that they are in a band, that they are uber talented. That they are actually down to earth guys.
I also liked that Dakota says whatever in her mind, she's gutsy, one talented photographer, confident. Love the way she thinks during photographing someone. Gaaahh! This is such an addictive book. I just need book two! I love Luka especially when he... (No, Lex, you can't say it! Don't spoil it!) Sigh. Just... he's so talented. But he's also like me. So freakin' moody. LOL. But he takes it to such an extent that I am glad for Dakota. :)
I am definitely waiting for Book two! Kate says she's working on it right now. She knows that most of the readers are so eager for this second book. Such a cliffy book one. BUT I love it. It just makes me want more of it. And woot! I'm gonna have my own paperback copy of this one soon!!! Plus Taste which I haven't read. It's like the Prequel of Savor. :)
Oh, it says it's Paranormal right? Well, yes, but it is mostly contemporary with a tinge of mystery which in this case is paranormal. But you will not know if someone is a vampire, werewolf, zombie, or whatever you could think of. I'm still thinking what are they. LOL. I haven't read Taste so no, I don't know. >.< I will read that one as soon as I have my paperback. :)
Grab your copies NOOOOW!!! Definitely worth your time and $$$! :)
PURCHASE LINKS
EXCERPT
I lowered my camera. The use of my full name never came with good consequences. I blinked my vision back at her even if I wanted to spend the rest of the night taking his picture. Sweat rose over my upper lip. I may just have found my subject for the Spring Showcase.
The only problem?
I had to find a way to convince him to be in my project. Something told me this wouldn’t be easy. By the way my heart beat in my ears, drowning out the music and Silvia having a fit in front of me, I wanted it too much. I wanted him too much.
“This the guy you were saying?” I showed Silvia the picture I’d taken. This seemed to pacify her because she sidled closer, mesmerized like a moth to a flame.
“Luka Visraya,” she said with a moan like she’d just tasted the most luscious chocolate before taking a long gulp of her cocktail. The name didn’t register. Silvia must have noticed my blank expression because she continued. “He’s the bassist for Vicious.”
Still no pings of recognition in my head.
She slapped her thigh. “Where have you been? It’s weird that you haven’t heard of them. Their songs are on the radio like every second.”
Of course I hadn’t heard of them. I liked listening to country and I hardly kept up with current events.
“Name one?” Okay, I had a name. Luka. Exotic. A bassist. Part of a band I should know about. So he’s famous. I slowly felt my chances of asking him to be my subject slip from my grasp. If he was someone famous, fat chance he’d say yes to a graduating photography student like me. I just about deflated when Silvia mentioned one of their songs. “Oh, I know that one!” By accident. It played in the radio of the cab I rode in to Sacrifice. I stared at the picture of him then lifted my gaze to where he sat. “He’s gone.”
“What?” Silvia whipped around in time to come face to face with a wall of man. “Whoa!” She pushed at him. “Watch it, buddy!”
“Give me the camera,” he said in a threatening tone.
Big. Beefy. Bald. The three Bs that made up the quintessential bodyguard.
I clutched my DSLR closer to my chest and looked up at him with my good eye. “And why would I do that?” The patch didn’t seem to intimidate him because he just reached out. So much for my Bond villain aspirations. I moved away from his grubby hand. No one touched my camera but me.
Despite her size, Silvia came between me and the mountain. “We’re here to cover Sacrifice for our college paper. You don’t have the right to take away my colleague’s camera.”
Yeah! You give it to him, Silvy.
Not that I couldn’t take care of myself. But if Silvia wanted to play hero, I wouldn’t stand in her way.
“What seems to be the problem here?” a soft, authoritative voice chimed in.
The bodyguard moved aside to reveal the Gothic Lolita. She stood at just about the same height as Silvia, but she possessed an older aura even if she seemed to be our age.
“She’s been taking pictures,” Baldy said.
Lolita’s kohl eyes landed on me then shifted to my camera.
“As I was saying to the big guy,” Silvia explained. “My colleague and I are covering the opening of Sacrifice.”
“For what paper?” Lolita asked without taking her eyes off me. I clutched my camera like an extra appendage. In some ways it was. After losing half my sight, I relied on my camera like an extra eye, seeing the world through its lens. I would rather die than lose it.
“The Daily Gossip,” I said before Silvia could answer just to relieve some of the awkward tension building in me under her gaze. “We study at Wexler U.”
She tilted her head, crossing her arms.
“Okay,” I quickly stammered out. “I get that the name of our paper sounds like a tabloid, but the Daily Gossip is a cool campus paper.” The last part maybe only I believed since Silvia raised her eyebrow at me, but Lolita and the mountain didn’t have to know that.
No one spoke after that. Even in a noisy club, the silence in our group rang in my ears. Not waiting for the situation to get any more awkward, I plowed forward with my own selfish intensions.
“You know Luka.” I said it more as a statement, but it came out like a question.
Lolita nodded.
“I’m Dakota Collins and I’m graduating this spring. I was wondering if Luka would be interested in—”
“What would I be interested in?” a smooth voice joined our group.
The walls of my throat closed, chocking the rest of what I had to say. All eyes turned to Luka. Silvia dropped her empty glass. It bounced off the bodyguard’s shoe and landed in a clatter but didn’t break. Even with my height, I still had to look up at him.
“What are you doing here?” Lolita admonished. “You should be backstage.”
One side of his lips came up. God. Without the scowl, his face lit up. I had to stop the urge to lift my camera and start snapping away. And his eyes were piercing blue. The kind that stretched over my mother’s farm in the summer. Damn.
Seeing him up close, I knew I’d give any one of my kidneys for a chance to take his picture in a formal shoot.
“We have five minutes. Chill, Yana.” He tugged at one of her pigtails.
“Luka,” Silvia managed. “I’m a big fan. Will you sign my chest?”
Bypassing my petite colleague, Luka’s intensely blue gaze studied me. He reached out and I flinched back. His fingers almost grazed my patch. What the hell was the matter with him? Trying to touch my eye patch was tantamount to poking a bandage over a wound and asking the person if it hurts.
Gothic Lolita—Yana—yanked Luka’s arm down. “I’m so sorry!” Her whole aura changed. She went from all business to panicky. “My brother sometimes forgets his manners. He didn’t mean anything about touching your…” She bit her lower lip, maybe trying to keep herself from saying the wrong thing.
That little faux pas cleared my head of the Luka haze and spurred me into action. “Luka, will you let me take your picture for my final project?” I didn’t know where my courage came from, but I knew if I didn’t take this chance, I’d regret it. I had to have him as my subject.
Still not removing his gaze from my face, like my patch transfixed him, he tilted his head to one side very much like his sister did earlier.
“Luka, don’t!” Yana said, but from the consideration on Luka’s face, she was too late.
“You’re a photographer?”
“Yes.” I nodded, in case the word wasn’t enough.
“And you’d like me to be the subject of your project?”
God yes! This time, I could only nod. I didn’t want him to see how eager I was. And I couldn’t live with myself if I embarrassed myself further.
I waited with baited breath.
It seemed everyone in our group waited with baited breath for what the golden god had to say about my brazen request. I soon realized when Luka spoke, everyone listened. The way he pronounced every word precisely yet still spoke so smoothly, like butter on warm toast, captured everyone’s attention. To say he captivated us was an understatement. Something in me certainly wanted to hear him keep speaking. He could read from an accounting textbook in that voice and no one would get bored.
“I need to know that you’re good,” he finally said.
Something about his words seemed to hold a different meaning. I must have missed the alcohol in the soda Silvia had given me. Maybe I was drunk and this was all a blackout dream.
“What are you saying?” Yana faced Luka all the way now, her petite form all rigid.
He unleashed a full on megawatt smile my way. I almost had to cover my eye from it. At my side, Silvia gasped. Her long nails dug into my arm. Like staring at the sun, I couldn’t take my gaze away from him no matter how bad it was for me.
“We’re about to perform. I want you to take several pictures then send them to Yana. If she approves, we’ll see about your request.”
Then, like smoke, he disappeared into the crowd.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When Kate Evangelista was told she had a knack for writing stories, she did the next best thing: entered medical school. After realizing she wasn't going to be the next Doogie Howser, M.D., Kate wandered into the Literature department of her university and never looked back. Today, she is in possession of a piece of paper that says to the world she owns a Literature degree. To make matters worse, she took Master's courses in creative writing. In the end, she realized to be a writer, none of what she had mattered. What really mattered? Writing. Plain and simple, honest to God, sitting in front of her computer, writing. Today, she lives in the Philippines and writes full time.
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