Wednesday, September 24, 2014

BOOK REVIEW: Savor You by Emily Snow

The Book-Bosomed blog's rocker romance festival featuring 10 fictional bands continues for week four. Vote for your favorite and check out the others on our poll posted on the right side bar of the blog and on our Facebook page. 

On Tour with Your Toxic Sequel...this is one moving and emotional show!

Savor You by Emily Snow
4.25 Stars

Seven years earlier we meet Kylie Wolfe at the age of nineteen in a hotel room in Texas, post-divorce from her four month marriage. Enter Wyatt McCrae, dirty blonde bassist for her brother’s band, Your Toxic Sequel. He and Kylie had a fling prior to her marriage and their feelings, despite what’s transpired, haven’t gone away. But hanging in the air between them (and for the reader) is the mystery of “Brenna” and ominous blackbird tattoos that adorn Kylie.

In the present, Wyatt has caught up to Kylie once again in the Big Easy where’s she’s taken a vacation (from his band which she works for) to avoid him.  Their last hook-up was Thanksgiving, over two months prior, where they once again went their separate ways after Kyle told him she loved him.

Kylie and Wyatt have one of those on-again/off-again relationships that time can’t dissolve, but the two of them can’t seem to make work.  Or Wyatt can’t seem to commit. They are both broken and struggle with issues from their families and over their shared past. Kylie in particular struggles with the eighteen mistakes she believes she’s made, some the result of him and some not. But Kylie doesn’t think she can take much more hurt and is resolved to finally get over Wyatt. Knowing he stands to lose her, Wyatt offers her a deal of one last fling before they return to L.A., and seeking closure, Kylie takes it.  

There is an air of finality to their time together—the way they speak, their acknowledgement of the end.  Kylie wants to move on, quit hurting. And Wyatt consents, but he clearly likes the status quo. Or does he?

An unfortunate event plays to Wyatt’s hand and his chance to remind her why she doesn’t really want to give up on them presents itself.  Their time together is extended and they are offered one last road trip to retrace old paths, remember good times and bad, confront jealousies, insecurities, and fears.

Savor You is gripping, tugging at your emotions at times. You can feel the pain that Kylie and Wyatt have been through over the years and all their failed attempts to make what they have together work. They have a vicious cycle of getting together, hurting each other, making up, and repeating, and one that no tattoo can fix. This is one of those tense, angsty love affairs. There have been lies; there have been betrayals; and they are all things that aren’t brushed over lightly or easily forgiven.

Told via Kylie’s point of view, this is one story where the pain is profoundly felt. You ache for her over the women he’s had in the years they’ve been in love with each other and yet you feel their connection and attraction that makes parting once and for all so hard. Wyatt has been far from a saint but it’s also clear he cares deeply for Kylie even when he hasn’t admitted it.  This is not a light-hearted story, but there are some humorous moments and banter between Kylie’s friend, Heidi, and Wyatt’s band mate, Cal. 

By the end, timelines come together—when they had their first hook up, where, what caused the first tattoo, why she got married—and…well the reader kinda has the big picture of their pain and hurt while Kylie finally hears what she needs to, when she needs to, and a glimpse at a possible future encompasses the final scene. HFN; no cliffhanger.

Savor You is a spin-off from the Devoured series that features Kylie’s brother and Wyatt’s bandmate, Lucas Wolfe. It includes a bonus scene from Devoured. However, Savor You can be read as a stand-alone. 

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