Surviving Raine by Shay Savage

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.

Let me start out by saying I really did enjoy the book. It was very well written and flowed pretty well. My only two real hang-ups with the story were; it being written from the male characters point of view and his crassness, and that the epilogue kind of felt like it came out of left field. If Shay’s epilogue is a set of for a second book, then it makes sense.

So to discuss the first issue... Bastian is a very crass character that mainly thinks about his dick. Which is true of most men, but because I deal with WAY too many men in my daily life, and use reading as my escape, it became an issue for me. Now please don’t take this as a negative, if that is something you enjoy or are not bothered by then I highly recommend you read this. Again the crassness of the way Bastian thinks is only a turnoff for me.

The story overall is quite fun to read. You want to pull for them to be rescued, and once they are you just want them to be back to being the two of them again. The growth of both characters throughout the story is natural and does not feel forced in anyway. The way Shay’s written the story makes you want to be in that raft with Bastian and helping him rid himself of his past demons.

Raine’s need and desire to learn not only more about Bastian, but his link to her past, as well as her will to survive is what makes her strong enough to deal with Bastian. Her determination is very honorable.

I give the story 4 flowers because my personal feelings on the male point of view should not take away from the good job done on the story over all. And on a side note, my inner nerd chuckled for at least 5 chapters because every time I read the name Bastian I had the theme song to The Neverending Story playing through my head.

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