Review: ☆Surviving Raine☆ by Shay @Savage7289

As the captain of a schooner catering to the elite on the Caribbean Seas, Sebastian Stark does his best to avoid any human encounters. Interacting with people isn’t his thing, and he prefers the company of a bottle of vodka, a shot glass, and maybe a whore. There’s no doubt he’s hiding from a checkered past, but he does well keeping everything to himself…

…until the night his schooner capsizes, and he’s stuck on a life raft with one of the passengers.

Raine’s young, she’s cute, and Bastian would probably be into her if he wasn’t suffering from alcohol withdrawal. As the days pass, DTs, starvation, and dehydration become the norm. Even the most closed person starts to open up when he thinks he’s going to die, but when she realizes their traumatic pasts are connected, it’s no longer the elements that have Bastian concerned.

He has no idea how he’s going to Survive Raine.

4.5 I guess I really do love the assholes after all Stars

I’m not…a nice guy, Raine.” I didn’t know how to make her understand that there wasn’t anything else to me despite what she wanted to believe. I was what I was- violent, crude, and utterly unlovable.”

First, if you haven’t yet read any books by this author, you need to get out from under the rock you’ve been living under and GET ON IT. Really. Shay Savage is the queen of male POV and this book just further proves it.

Meet Sebastian Stark:

Alcoholic

Chain smoker

Killer

And a grade A asshole

Intrigued, aren’t you?

Bastian is trying to put his past behind him, but the only way to drown out the voices of demons past is with alcohol and countless faceless women…even if he has to pay for them

He doesn’t want to know anyone, and he certainly doesn’t want anyone to know him. So he spends his days a the captain of a schooner that caters to the rich and elite, and his nights drinking himself into a oblivion

But then he wakes up to a storm, a sinking ship, and finds himself stuck on a lifeboat with one of the passengers who also happens to temp him in two different directions

Toss her overboard or stick my tongue down her throat? I couldn’t decide and it fucking ticked me off.

Now me being the huge fan of the assholes that I am, I fell head over heels for Bastian from the very firs page. But if you’re the sort that needs convincing, allow me to present exhibit A:

I told you before. I’m fucking tense”
“Well, is there something I can do to help with that? Or are you just going to yell at me all this time?
“Yeah, there is something you can do,” I said coldly, turning my glare at her. “Come here and blow me. That would probably ease a bit of my tension- especially if you swallow.”

or exhibit B

…my cock was in danger of busting right through the buttons of my shorts and maybe taking a little trip all on his own. I had the feeling he was already contacting “AAA” for a Triptik and probably trying to book a hotel in pussyland.

Stuck with a woman that equal parts soothes his damaged soul and reminds him of everything he can never be is a constant state for Bastian. Your heart will absolutely break for him. He may be a growly, vulgar asshole, but beneath all that is the heart of man that is just begging for love.

I didn’t want her to touch me even if my brain was screaming for it. She shouldn’t want to have her hands on me. I was fucking toxic- ask any woman who knew me.

Little by little Bastian begins to open up to Raine and divest more and more of his past. And holy shit, his past!

Raine, in her understated way slowly chips away at all his defenses and walls. And let me tell you, when this man finally allows himself to fall? Damn.

I felt everything as I let her take me- mind, body and soul. I did’t know if she wanted it or needed it like I did, but I gave it to her anyway.

But don’t worry, even when he falls and his possessive and sweet side comes out, he never quite loses that edge of vulgar asshole that I’ve come to love about him

Vulgar?” I mocked surprise, placing my hand over my chest. “You’re implying my speech might include vulgarities? You fucking take that shit back right now!”

Surviving Raine is told solely in Bastian’s POV and it’s a book that you’ll be unable to set down. Or at least I wasn’t. Shay Savage has this way to her writing that never fails to suck you into the story and keep you riveted until the last page. She also writes some of the best anti-heroes I’ve had the pleasure of reading about.

I can tell you I’m very glad I waited until book two was out to read this. The cliffhanger isn’t terrible, but it is there, and it’s obvious there’s a whole lot more to be found out. And I. Cannot. Freaking. WAIT!