Review: Savor by Megan Duncan

Published Date: October 1st, 2011
Finished Date: January 30th, 2012
Publisher: CreateSpace
Format: eBook from Author
Series: Warm Delicacy #1
My Rating: 3.5/5
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Blurb from Goodreads:
When Claire Miller turned eighteen all she wanted to do was celebrate her birthday, but after a night on the town with her best friend she awakes to a visitor she never expected. The rulers of her region, a vampire royal family, have chosen her to be turned as their new heir and vampire princess. Claire quickly discovers the royal family is not what they seem and that she has secrets in her past, she never knew existed.

My Review

I saw that Duncan was having a giveaway for Indulge (Warm Delicacy #2) at her blog, and it was an impulse decision to join that giveaway since I haven't read the first book yet, and when I won the giveaway, I requested a review copy for Savor. And damn if I regretted my choice; I was surprisingly hooked to Savor! I couldn't put it down, till it was 2 in the morning and I was afraid to die by my parents' hands! I genuinely liked this fairytale-ish novel.

SAVOR is about a girl, Claire Miller, who turned eighteen and had to officially start donating blood at the local hospital for the vampire population's needs. Nothing too exciting happened until the day after when a vampire under the ruling vampire family paid Clair and her mom a visit, claiming that Claire's blood is "perfect", and that she is chosen to join the ruling family as their daughter and heiress. Not given much of a choice, Claire packs up her bags and is whisked away to the palace.

I really liked the fairytale element in here. I've been fixating my reading preferences to Paranormal Romance and action for quite some time now, but once in a while, I do love a YA dreams-come-true, commoner-turn-beautiful-princess novel. Not to say that this book is all about the clouds and daisies, there are the dangers and conflicts that Claire has to face as a vampire princess, as the palace houses traitors and jealous hearts.

There was the subtle bits of romance in SAVOR that I thought was really sweet too. The first friendly male vampire that she saw, aside from King Nicolae Noire, Dmitri was friendly and helpful; Although he liked to tease Claire a lot, he's still a good guy. I wouldn't go on much about him, cause he's not the one that I'm rooting for. So the next love interest comes in the form of Arrick. Initially only a shadow in her garden, a mysterious stranger who looked out for her, now Claire's Blood Mate, the one who swears allegiance to her, and also her protector. Not only is Arrick hot, his fierce protectiveness and competence just ups the heat whenever Claire's with him.

Aside from the romance, there's also the twists in plots and curveballs thrown at us. I couldn't fathom who the betrayer was until quite late in the book, although the part where all wa revealed was a little overly-dramatic. However, I liked the second-guessings I had to do while reading SAVOR, and that the storyline flowed smoothly from start to end.

There are three things that I spotted in SAVOR which I found unpleasant:

Firstly is Claire's rather smooth transition from the day-is-night, night-is-day routine where the vamps functioned only at night. She was still a human, and she shouldn't have been able to adapt so quickly. Night time is when our body and our organs start to "recuperate", in a way, and she will tax her liver and other organs too much if she does that.

Secondly, there were the numerous puntuation errors! The first few times I encountered some minor ones, I overlooked it and continued reading. But as the story progressed and still there were errors here and there, I noted it down to be mentioned in my review. Hm, editor, what were you doing when this book was undergoing those proofreadings and editing?

Thirdly, Duncan's style of writing was a little teenager-ish. Ok, this book is under YA Lit, but I'd much prefer reading a more mature writing style.

Apart from those listed above, I thought SAVOR was a really enjoyable and light read that readers can try picking up if you think you're in need of a break after all the intense, dark thrillers or PNR books. Even though there were things that didn't suit my tastes, I was honestly hooked to its pages for most parts of the book.

Random Musings:

If you've read the book, then you'd be familiar with this phrase:

"My last thought of the night was how excited I was that I was finally eighteen and from here on out, everything would finally start going my way."  --Chapter one, page 23 of eBook.

I found it so amusing and ominously obvious that after this phrase that things will most definitely not go her way. Just saying.

My Rating