SPECIMEN by Shay Savage Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads
Published by Shay Savage LLC on February 24th 2016
Genres: Adult, Dark, Dystopia, Erotica, Military, Mystery, Romance, Suspense
Purchase links: Amazon
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Source: Purchased
I awaken in a laboratory.
I don’t know who I am.
I’m inexplicably drawn to the doctor who cares for me. She tells me I’ve been altered, that I’m stronger and faster, that I’ll be a key component in a war between corporations. She says I volunteered for this. She says I volunteered to be transformed, but I have no way of knowing if what she says is true.
Something isn’t right. My memories have been taken, wiped clean, but dreams begin to slip into my conscious mind. I can’t let anyone know when that happens, or they’ll remove my memories again. Somewhere inside of me, I know I need to remember something important.
I’m fighting a war I don’t understand, and the one woman I rely on can’t be trusted.
We received this book/audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect our opinion of the book or the content of our review.
book review: 10 stars!!!
I want to devour her. I want to punish her for putting me through such agony. I want to scream and cry and fuck.”
One of the few books I had the chance to read during the past 3 years which has made me feel so so so so so much and, at the same time, not just leaving me speechless, but most importantly, incapable to put my thoughts and feelings about it in a review that will make sense and will cover every aspect.
Actually, every book that I have read by Shay Savage had the same impact on me. I was left speechless and with a blank in my brain. It’s like she has magic powers. Honestly! It’s borderline insane……
SPECIMEN is a book like no other. It’s a category of its own. It may be about the love story of STEN and Riley, but it’s more more more more than that. And even their love is a whole different level. From the blurb, already, I saw that this book, not only will about to be MAJESTIC, but also will get engraved in my heart, my brain and every tiny cell that my body possess. And I was R I G H T!!
STEN and Riley.
“Patient” and doctor.
But there’s more………
She’s my doctor, my friend, my lover.
Sten is a guy that wakes up suddenly in a lab, naked and striped down to a hospital bed. He has no memories and no idea where he is, what is the place he woke up at and what he is doing there. Until, Dr. Riley Grace makes her appearance. She is his “doctor” who made him what he is now, a Specimen. Or, better a super soldier. And since nothing about them, the story or the book is the usual, the bond between them isn’t also the usual. Although, the love they share is undoubtedly REAL, there is a more complicated history behind it. So, little by little, Sten is adopting to that environment while coming closer and closer to Riley. He gets trained, learns how to fight and how to…….. satisfy both him and Riley. Soon, though, everything is going to get upside down.
I’m not going to say anything else about the plot because I will totally spoil the whole experience that this gem provides to every lucky reader that will read it. Because any praise said about it, it will never be enough to make you feel it deep in your bones.
But, Shay, except from an extremely addicting book and out-of-this-universe story, she gave me a BBF who went straight to the Top 1 to keep company to my other No. 1: STEN!. He is pure magic. I have never met any other character like him, no matter the sex. He may be Riley’s “submissive” but he is doing it with a glory and a way that makes him much more unique – if that is possible -, unforgettable and stuck to the heart forever. Also, the fact that he wakes up a new man in the story without a past doesn’t mean anything because Sten is a fighter and a totally different Specimen with more layers, inner resistance against anything that is forced on him, will power than the others. I simply cound’t get enough! As for Riley, she at first seems “simple” but she is anything but. She has also many layers and inner strength beneath her which makes her the ideal match and the other half of Sten.
Our bodies may be connected below, but our souls are joined in our eyes.
Shay Savage didn’t left me once again speechless and brainless. This time, she did something that I have never seen to any other author I have read. What that is? Well, she……. made a standalone novel has a CLIFFHANGER!!!! Honestly, I was left open-mouthed for over 24 hours after I finished it. The shock that I went into, was one in a lifetime. But, that being said, I have to happily admit the end she gave to this story was a masterpiece and quite suitable. “Irresistibly Unpredictable” in every sense. I might became a bit frustrated and angry because of the way she ended it, but after I dwelled on it, I saw clear-as-day how awful would be if she had given them the “normal” end of almost every love couple. I would probably be more disappointed than satisfied if she had done that, simply because, with that, she would diminish every unique-ness and magic that Sten and Riley fought to create through the pages of SPECIMEN.
I don’t simply recommend it to ANY reader out there, but I say that it’s a MUST because it makes enter a totally different field of literature.
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