Kari's 5 Star Review of Savaged by Nacole Stayton

This is NOT your ordinary Hearts and Flowers Romance

Summary:

The twist of a knife shredded Niko Kincaid’s world all around him, leaving him with two choices—accept his fate and die, or fight to live. 
He chose to fight, but the aftermath became a daily reminder, carved into his once flawless flesh. 
Despite years of self-imposed solitude, Niko hungers for companionship and suffers from an aching loneliness that the darkness cannot satisfy. He temporarily soothes his pain with women, hired women, whose only purpose is to service him. Easy. 
He didn’t expect a complication like Cambree Evans, but desperation corrupts even the most innocent.
When emotions blend with lust, will Cambree's softness and ability to look past Niko's flaws be the one thing that releases him from his own personal hell?

Will the monster in the dark prove that his savaged heart is worth saving?

What I loved:
The message of Savaged is an extraordinarily powerful one for me. Niko is beauty in its greatest form: scarred, broken, and darkened.  Many times we read stories about a guy who meets a girl and they fall in love, only to live happily ever after. This is not that story. This story is raw, emotional, and heartwrenching.  Niko struggles to emerge from the depths of a dark life, because he sees himself as a monster. He struggles and has inconsistent thought processes due to his perpetual self-loathing. 
Cambree, (Love your naming capabilities for your characters BTW!) comes into this darkness unsure of her life and has her own life lessons and strife to bring to the table. Together, they may just prove to them selves they are each other’s light. (I do NOT want to give anything away sorry!!)
This work of art can’t be compared to Nacole’s prior works. This story shows her growth and her ability to dig deep and explore something a bit more edgy, even if the cut is deep at first, before being bandaged up. 

What I didn’t Love:
Plain and simple, NOTHING. There was not a thing I didn’t like. 

Overall:

Nacole has shown such a deeper dig into her psyche to bring us Cambree and Niko. Only someone who has seen some type of darkness, can express it quite like this.  This story kept me invested right to the last page. I knew Niko’s struggles and connected tremendously to him. No one knows, unless they have been that low what it takes to make the simplest of steps forward. I loved your work before Nacole, but you have a fan and friend for life. Thank you for your talent and for this gift of Savaged. 

Are any of us really innocent?