What Lies At The Heart of Man
Big Week
This week is a big week for me as I release Sabotage: Beginnings, a full-length novel in the Savage Souls Outlaw MC Series.
The story came quick, but the higher the intensity level of writing, the more complex and complicated the characters became. In an author’s world – they became real. Very real.
I’ve learned that’s the point when you slow down the writing, and it becomes an experience, more than an effort to craft a novel. The characters come to life and you find yourself becoming parts of who they are in as much as they manifest their creator.
Early Reviews
I invited a group of readers to review an unedited draft of Sabotage: Beginnings earlier in the year. I didn’t know them personally, so there was no bias or obligation to slant comments toward a positive light.
The feedback was critical in refining the story to ensure it met actionable items I felt needed to be included in the work. Their comments were encouraging and they’ve begun posting reviews at Goodreads and various vendor sites.
I invite you to check them out. Once you read Sabotage: Beginnings I’d ask that you too take a moment to leave an honest review. Reviews really do help the author’s chance for success and helps improve the writer’s skill.
Examples
Goodreads Review 1:
I was very lucky to receive an ARC of Sabotage. Firstly, let me just say that in my humble opinion – the book was epic! I have been chomping at the bit to read about how Justice became the man he is and LS Silverii certainly didn’t dissapoint.
The story starts with our hero (Justice Boudreaux) and heroine (Israeli Mossad covert operative and serious badass Batya Cohen) on a government mission out on the outskirts of Pakistan – the mission: to retrieve Ben Ford (aka Grayman). The author descriptions of the terrain and surroundings were brilliant and helped set the scene. I could picture the sight Batya and Justice would have looked from their travels, ravaged skin from the baking sun etc, it made the story ‘real’.
I loved Batya. She was the very definition of empowered woman. She is the best of the best in her work and deserved the respect of her partner. I thought the banter between her and Justice was funny, it just seemed effortless, like they were kindred. When things took a dark turn for her in Afghanistan, my heart bled for her.
Justice was just so layered from the devoted softness towards his wife and daughter to the strong Alpha set on completing his mission and later to defending his family. He was larger than life and not one to mess with in the SS Series, in the beginning however he was all that but with a side of boyish humour and a lot of love to give to Batya.
Gray man…. he was deliciously complex. I simultaneously found him scary, funny, warped, intriguing…. the list is endless. Is it wrong that I felt compassion for him? This book explains how Ben ended up the way he has, in fact in this tale he is still on the path to becoming what we have seen in the Savage Souls series. It certainly gives food for thought on what makes a cannibal serial killer tick! The story travelled a long way and gave us some insight into the International Chapter President of the Savage Souls MC and his nemesis. I can’t wait to see what LS has in store for us next!
I was also lucky enough to receive an ARC copy of this book.
It took me a couple of chapters to get into the book – I found it a little dry setting the scene of Justice and Batya in the desert, but after chapter 3 it seemed to flow and move a lot quicker.
I HATED Justice in the Savage Souls series.
In fact I don’t think in all my reading I have hated a character as much. Could not stand him or what he did in the book and how he treated people. I just found him hateful….then I read Sabotage: Beginnings and well now I love his character and hate what he has been through. What he has been turned into because of what he has gone through.
He is a man that has gone through hell..more than once and come out the other side completely changed. This book is only the beginning of what he has gone through and what he will become.
I still think he is violent and hateful but I now know why he is like he is and that breaks my heart.
The connection he has with Batya is based on work ethic and ability to begin with – watching it develop makes you see Justice as human and not just a rogue CIA agent. The first real test of that connection is when you realise that that there is more to Justice than meets the eye.
Learning more about Ben and the CIA handlers and team behind Justice and Ben’s creation as such put Justice’s behaviour in an entirely different light. Ben is still really creepy and totally psychotic but very amusing.
All in all I loved the book. It really changed my perception of Justice not so much Fury and Sue but most definitely had me seeing Justice in another light.
Fantastic story and I am really looking forward to what the next book will bring and how it will meet up with Savage Souls. There seems to be a lot between then and now and I can’t wait to read how it unfolds….and if Scott can make me hate Justice again knowing his back story.
Goodreads Review 3:
Gritty and dynamic. To switch from the military/rebellious view of Justice to the psychotic serial killer Ben throughout the book definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. Lots of details, to which I was grateful for since I’m not used to this genre.
Goodreads Review 4:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was lucky to have received an ARC of this read.
I read the Savage Souls series and loathed Justice. Just reading about him and his characteristic traits enraged me. Then I read Sabotage: Beginnings and my heart softened. To know this man was tortured as a child by the one man who should have shown him and taught him love and compassion. Then to see what a government he trusted and loved did to him after serving his country so selflessly and bravely was heart breaking and while it doesn’t cause me to like his actions in Savage Souls series it at least softens my opinion of his character.
More so than the characters themselves and even in knowing that this is a work of fiction, it also makes me wonder what we as ‘civilians’ really know about what goes on or rather the lack of knowledge we truly have.
And I cannot end this without mentioning ‘Gray Man’. I work with mentally ill patients and Silverii has this ability to put the reader into the mind of this very disturbed being. I think only a person with experience in dealing with this type of profile could pull this off.
The talent of this author to transport you into his book’s plot and settings are unbelievable. This is a must read for anyone who has a tough stomach and heart! Be prepared it will have you on the edge of your seat and wanting more.
Highly recommend reading the Savage Souls series first.
Savage Nation
To the Savage Nation faithful, I hope you’ll grab Sabotage: Beginnings right now.
To the uninitiated, I always offer the warning that this isn’t a typical MC romance. There’s plenty of hard-core reality with huge doses of clashes between strong characters who come to realize that black and white isn’t always so black and white.
If you’re new to the Savage Nation, I’d suggest you begin with the first book in the series, BROKEN – it’s FREE. Once you’re hooked, then pick up SAVAGE SOULS – The Complete Collection – It holds all five books in the initial series.
SF / FS,
Scott
