Review: I love Bastian...and Evan...oh my!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 23, 2014
Bastian’s Storm: Surviving Raine Book 2By: Shay Savage5/5 starsI was super excited when Shay Savage announced the sequel to Surviving Raine. I really loved Bastian, the big old alpha-jerk-hole! I truly felt sorry for him when he and Raine were rescued, because I knew how hard it would be for an alcoholic to adapt back to society, which Raine was eager for and so ready to do.Then I read the blurb, and heard that Evan Arden would be in this last death tournament that Bastian was going to be forced to be in. Now, I hadn’t read those books, but I knew of them. So I went on a one-click buying & reading spree (come on, it wasn’t like I could go wrong, I love Shay’s work!) Knowing how the death tournaments work, I was devastated!! Why would Shay pit two of her heroes against each other?! This is Bastian’s book, so he has to live, doesn’t he?! Since they will be competing in a tournament, then that means there can only be one victor, one person left alive! NOOOOO!!! I was about to have a conniption throughout the book!So anyways, at the end of the first book, Landon confronts Bastian and lets him know that since he’s made the news, he won’t be able to hide anymore and that Franks will either be coming after him or will be forcing him out of retirement from the death tournaments. Of course, Bastian keeps this information away from Raine.I will say that I was annoyed at Raine for her treatment of Bastian in the beginning of this book. Knowing his background of being an abandoned orphan, shuffled through the foster care system, meeting up with Landon and learning how to kill people, then fighting in the death tournament’s, becoming an alcoholic who lived on a ship because he hated interacting with people, she just didn’t seem to care that living back in the city, in civilization would be an everyday struggle for him.JP convinces Bastian that he needs to get back in shape, using cardio and the building’s weight machines, to be better prepared to take care of Raine, in the event that Franks decides to come after him. JP is a great secondary character and really had me laughing during this book.When Bastian is called upon to fight in one last tournament, Landon is able to stress the importance of everything that Bastian will lose if he doesn’t comply with Franks’ demands. So, Bastian comes clean and tells Raine everything, especially since she knows his past. At first Raine wants to run and hide, but there is virtually nowhere they can go where they won’t be found. And Bastian is going to hold Landon to the promise that this is his last tournament.He will have to work fast during the tournament though, since it is being held in the Arctic and the participants are just as likely to die from exposure and hypothermia as they are to be killed by another opponent. I don’t know if there are more books in this series, but then again, I love all her characters!!