Saven Deception by Siobhan Davis

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Title: Saven Deception
Author: Siobhan Davis
Series: Saven #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 15, 2015
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 437
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Romance, Young Adult
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Dystopia Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

A girl with a hidden past. An alien prince. Their unlikely attraction could save two worlds… or doom them all…

Sadie Owens desperately needed a do-over. When she’s chosen for a six-month residency in a government-run undersea city, she willingly drops everything to participate. After all, the experiment could be a huge step forward for her overcrowded planet and her life.

The instant Sadie crosses paths with a hot guy with ocean-blue eyes she’s drawn to him in a way she can’t explain. But Logan gives Sadie mixed signals, and she can’t figure him out.

Logan Chandler has kept a lot of secrets for his species. If humans knew the real reason the Saven were on Earth, then their coexistence would be anything but peaceful. Logan has vowed to stay away from human girls, but he can’t help falling for the different and beautiful Sadie. Unfortunately, protecting the girl of his destiny could destroy his own kind…

As the mystery of the Saven starts to unravel, is it too late for Sadie to save her heart and the human race?

My Review:

2 stars — This one wasn’t a match for me, and I don’t even know why I continued reading it.  There was so much leading me to DNF it, but my curiosity got the better of me and I kept going to try to get some answers…I kept wanting it to be better than it was.  It has a truly intriguing premise, and obviously the mystery was enough that I wanted to know what was going on.  But in the end it just hit a bunch of my little buttons, and so it didn’t work for me.  I might get a bit exasperated explaining the things that didn’t work, so feel free to skip the rest of this review.  I know lots of people who enjoyed it, my opinion is truly only MINE.

Things that bothered me:

• Slut shaming/sex negativity.  At one point Sadie says she hasn’t had sex because she “respects her body”.  And she shames herself for *staring* at a guy.  And it pervades in little ways throughout the book.
• Not great editing.  Not the worst I’ve seen, but my stupid brain picks up on the weirdest things and I can’t let them go.  For example, the book is set in the US (well, dystopian future, but still), and yet the author’s natural Irish versions kept creeping in (vest for tank top, carriage for a subway car).  And strange word misuses.  I try to let some of those go, but at one point the heroine’s blood pressure accelerated.  Uh no.  But such is the way of early indie books, and sometimes I can gloss over them and sometimes I can’t.
• The author’s writing wasn’t all that polished in general, or at least it felt that way to me.  She kept trying to use bigger words, but I don’t think she used them correctly.  Basically she found a thesaurus, and made something fit, but it wasn’t the best.  Like puissant.  I had to look that up.  It’s an adjective meaning “having great power or influence.”  It was used “he looks at me with puissant derision.”  *shrugs*  Maybe that’s right.  But it’s felt overly complicated to me.
• The characters are inconsistent and one-dimensional.  I don’t get Sadie AT ALL.  I don’t feel anything for her, because everything we learn that’s happened to her in the past feels unbelievable and without depth.  She’s seemingly mentally/emotionally abused by her family, but we’re given basically no details.  But it affects her personality greatly.  She makes the weirdest conclusions because of it.  We’re constantly told how she keeps to herself, doesn’t speak up, forms a wall around herself.  But almost immediately her actions dispute that.  All she seems to do is speak up.  And break the rules/buck the system (our first glimpse of her she’s not going to make curfew for the 3rd time!).
• Sadie forms attachments almost immediately.  She bumps into Jenna and apparently that’s enough to make them best friends, regardless of not knowing a thing about her, or seeing if their personalities are a match.  She falls in love with Logan upon seeing him.  Neve asks to be friends and she’s all “okay!”  Honestly, it’s fucking crazy.
• The whiplash is real folks.  The back and forth in this book is WAY TOO MUCH.  “She loves Logan, he’s her soul mate!  He made some vague remark about girls liking being told they’re beautiful, OMG he’s a player!  Oh he apologized, I love him again!  Neve’s a great friend!  OMG she callously laughed when a guy was beating another guy to a pulp, that’s crazy!  Oh well, she’s still cool, I’m still going to be her friend and completely forget about it!  My friend is being abused and tortured, I must save her!  I can’t save her, oh well, I’ll keep her company so at least she’s not alone.  Oh wait, Logan!  Abandon friend!  Oh damn, Logan treated me like shit again, I hate him.  Oh hey, Logan’s looking at me again, I love him!”  I wish I was exaggerating.  I just can’t.  That shit bothers me.
• The answers were sparing, and came after a lot of misdirection, which apparently I don’t have tolerance for right now.

Honestly?  I thought this was a 2 book with a bonus novella series, b/c I have a box set that contains exactly that.  So I figured, ah well, I’ll keep reading, and get some answers, it’s not a huge investment.  Except, no.  Apparently it’s a 5 book series.  So yeah, totally abandoning this.

Again, I’m so sorry for the negativity of this review.  I really don’t rant very often, and I so try to be fair in my reviews.  But this one just hit my buttons, and then kept pressing them.  *rolls eyes*  And apparently I needed to get it off my chest.

COYER Summer Hunt: Read a book with water/or the ocean on the cover — 3 points.