A review by alexreviewsit
Saving Verakko by Victoria Aveline

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The series feels like you could read most books as their own standalone, but this book had a lot of Lily’s start of her story in books 2-3 if you want the full context. 

About 65% of the book is more survival focused with Verrako and Lily together in nature trying to survive. I feel like this book is for the Ice Planet Barbarians girlies who love the survival trope. I really needed that after the second book let me down a little. But this book really brought my interest back. 

I really liked that Lily was self-sufficient and could take care of herself. Verrako was fun but I just didn’t feel that much connection to his character. He didn’t seem to have too much depth other than being super into Lily.

The main conflict near the end of the book makes sense, but is a little flimsy to hold up the story. It really didn’t feel like that big of a deal since both Verrako and Lily have feelings for each other by the time they end up back in civilization. As if Lily would ever let Verrako go off to another planet for years as punishment to avoid having their mate bond known for them to be forced to be together. It just felt like the solution was so obvious that the ending didn’t feel that tense as the final conflict was resolved. I probably would have liked it more if Verrako didn’t get his mating marks so early since that took away from how tense the final conflict could be of Verrako breaking his contract.