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A review by fitzsbeloved
The Savior's Champion by Jenna Moreci
4.0
The Savior’s Champion is one that I struggle to put a graded rating on because, while I do have a plethora of issues with it, it was damn fun to read.
Let’s start with the positives.
This book is extremely past paced. There was never a moment where I felt the plot was dull, and I was never once even remotely bored. It kept me on the edge of my toes pretty much the entirety of the book.
Most of the (side) characters were also really enjoyable–on a base level. I did have some issues with them (which I’ll touch on soon), but I think that the biggest goal is to make your characters fun to read about, which I found they were.
I especially loved the women in this book. They were all such a joy to read about.
Overall, you can tell how much Jenna had fun writing this, so it made it equally as enjoyable to read.
However, as I said, there are a few glaring issues I found while reading this. And I think the best way to go about it is in bullet points, so here we go:
Tobias Kaya, our main protagonist.
I noticed right off the bat that Tobias was going to be an especially “good” man. However, it didn’t start to bother me until about maybe the half-way point, when the romance started. It was at that point that I found him to be rather stupid. His biggest motivator then became his love interest and he would do basically anything to be with her, which led him to make several very dumb decisions.
Lots of characters, very little development
It should go without saying that characters die in this book. In fact, most of them do! As I said earlier, a lot of these characters were fun! But for most of them, you don’t get any backstory or development. Heck, some of them died before I even got to remember their name.
There are a handful of the competitors that I wish we got more backstory on. Namely characters were more morally bankrupt. I just wanted to know where they came from to get some insight on why they’re so messed up and on their motivations. I’m hoping The Savior’s Sister touches on that a bit more.
Oh, also, the lack of Pippa is inexcusable. She is my daughter and I want to see more of her.
The f*cking language
This is pretty straight-forward, and I’ll admit to being a bit of a sailor myself, but I swear “c*ck” no longer looks like a word. There comes a point where the overuse of curse words (AND vulgar names for genitalia) makes it hard to take the characters seriously. It almost makes them sound like twelve-year-olds who just discovered a dirty word.
World-building
Or, should I say: lack thereof. I’ll admit that the whole thing with the Savior is pretty neat. However, it felt less like world-building and more of just a backdrop and excuse to have this super bloody tournament plot. I really never got a sense of what the world was like. Except that everyone worshipped this one woman. I hope the later books build on that a bit more.
Predictability
Another one that doesn’t need much explanation. But I feel like I spent the last chunk of the book waiting for the big reveals and rolling my eyes every time they were put off more.
All-in-all, if you are just looking for a fun read, you’ll probably enjoy this. Even with all the problems with it, I still couldn’t help but give it a high rating, and I definitely will be giving the sequel a try.
Let’s start with the positives.
This book is extremely past paced. There was never a moment where I felt the plot was dull, and I was never once even remotely bored. It kept me on the edge of my toes pretty much the entirety of the book.
Most of the (side) characters were also really enjoyable–on a base level. I did have some issues with them (which I’ll touch on soon), but I think that the biggest goal is to make your characters fun to read about, which I found they were.
I especially loved the women in this book. They were all such a joy to read about.
Overall, you can tell how much Jenna had fun writing this, so it made it equally as enjoyable to read.
However, as I said, there are a few glaring issues I found while reading this. And I think the best way to go about it is in bullet points, so here we go:
Tobias Kaya, our main protagonist.
I noticed right off the bat that Tobias was going to be an especially “good” man. However, it didn’t start to bother me until about maybe the half-way point, when the romance started. It was at that point that I found him to be rather stupid. His biggest motivator then became his love interest and he would do basically anything to be with her, which led him to make several very dumb decisions.
Lots of characters, very little development
It should go without saying that characters die in this book. In fact, most of them do! As I said earlier, a lot of these characters were fun! But for most of them, you don’t get any backstory or development. Heck, some of them died before I even got to remember their name.
There are a handful of the competitors that I wish we got more backstory on. Namely characters were more morally bankrupt. I just wanted to know where they came from to get some insight on why they’re so messed up and on their motivations. I’m hoping The Savior’s Sister touches on that a bit more.
Oh, also, the lack of Pippa is inexcusable. She is my daughter and I want to see more of her.
The f*cking language
This is pretty straight-forward, and I’ll admit to being a bit of a sailor myself, but I swear “c*ck” no longer looks like a word. There comes a point where the overuse of curse words (AND vulgar names for genitalia) makes it hard to take the characters seriously. It almost makes them sound like twelve-year-olds who just discovered a dirty word.
World-building
Or, should I say: lack thereof. I’ll admit that the whole thing with the Savior is pretty neat. However, it felt less like world-building and more of just a backdrop and excuse to have this super bloody tournament plot. I really never got a sense of what the world was like. Except that everyone worshipped this one woman. I hope the later books build on that a bit more.
Predictability
Another one that doesn’t need much explanation. But I feel like I spent the last chunk of the book waiting for the big reveals and rolling my eyes every time they were put off more.
All-in-all, if you are just looking for a fun read, you’ll probably enjoy this. Even with all the problems with it, I still couldn’t help but give it a high rating, and I definitely will be giving the sequel a try.