Natalie Bennett

Calista "I am the monster they created. I'm the whore they're ashamed of." When life tried to break me I grabbed that b*tch by the throat and squeezed. I thought I could overcome anything. I swore I could handle him, but after being forced to play at the Devil's playground I ended up craving his touch. One taste of his poison made my loyalties begin to waiver. Romero "I'm a living nightmare, I'm everything they fear." I've been called the Devil, deranged, and a savage. I lived by a code created by rebel souls. We were sinners and thieves that made no apologies for taking whatever the f*ck we wanted. Saving a girl in the woods was never part of my plans, but when I saw the crazy in her eyes I knew it was a match made in hell. Now secrets are piling up, the bodies are rotting, and time is running out to finish what I started. Forewarning, our story is more than a little f*cked up. Authors Note: 18+ I am not going to put a long 'warning' on this book. I will say that Savages is a VERY cautionary tale that has no regard for hard limits. Reader discretion IS highly advised. *This book contains dystopian elements*

Savages

Noble Savages

Megan Lowe

Brutal Prince by Logan Fox - DNFed at 49%.
This book was just SO long and to be honest, a bit boring. I really liked the relationship between Briar and Indi but there just wasn’t enough of it. So much of the story was focused on other things, which is where it lagged for me and lost interest. Also, some of the language choices were not in line with the setting, British as opposed to American.
I’m looking forward to reading the other stories within, but this one was not a great one.

Cruel Prince by Rina Kent - 4 stars.
I liked this story much more than Brutal Prince. It had much more romance, which was great. 
I loved the relationship between Levi and Astrid. Levi is a great multidimensional character and I loved seeing all the different sides of him.
I did have issues with some of the language used. It’s supposed to be British English but yet, some terms used weren’t. Also, there were technical errors with the football aspect of the story, as well a general hilarity with Arsenal’s involvement, up the Chels!
Anyway, this is a much more solid contribution to this collection.

Vicious Knight by Nicole Cypher 4.5 stars.
So far this is my favourite book of the collection. I absolutely loved Camden and Eden’s story and them as characters.
Eden is a great character. I loved how she never backed down or shied away from what was happening with Camden.
I loved the complexity to Camden. I loved how he struggled, but i would’ve liked to have seen more issues with his parents.
At times i felt this moved a tad too slowly, but I still really enjoyed it!

Merciless Knave - Esme Devlin DNF at 48%.
I had to DNF this one, I couldn’t get into it. I was so unsure about who Michelle was supposed to be. Was she a snob? A victim? Someone standing up to Tommy? It just didn’t work for me.
I also felt this book moved too slowly. I wanted more progress to be made than he did something then she did something back over and over again. The mobster/gypsy thing didn’t appeal to me either, sorry.

Lawless King - Natalie Bennett 3.5 stars.
I wanted to love this story, but it was kind of all over the place. Things weren’t explained, characters came in unannounced and unintroduced and it was a bit of a mess.
Story wise, things just happened just because. Nothing was fully formed or fleshed out.
Rhiannon was confusing as she obviously had a dark side, which wasn’t mentioned until it was convenient. I needed her to be definite.
I did like Judas. He was a solid bully character even if I thought it weird an almost 20 year old still being in high school.
As I said, I wanted to love this book, but it wasn’t put together enough for me to do so.

JoLee

5/5 Amazing

Romero and Calista from Savages (Badlands #1) by Natalie Bennett are one of my top favorite twisted characters. She is perfect for him and she just might be more insane than he is. Loved how one moment he was normal and the next a psychopath. Plot and characters unpredictable. 
.

Kristen Gillis

“You let the devil inside you, baby. And he isn’t leaving anytime soon.”

Let me start by saying, this book is definitely not for everyone. Please check trigger warnings before you dive in. It is dark & twisty, graphic, raw, demented and savage. Now if those thing sound like it would be up your ally then by all means, READ THIS BOOK. 

Calista and Romero and both brutal, demented and just all around insane. They are two halves to a whole. 

There are some relationships that still have to be brought into the open, and some relationships that get thrown at you in a killer plot twist. And that cliff hanger? Leaves you immediately wanting to dive into book 2!

Monri

Review/Reseña en Español/English 


  Español


Honestamente pueden decir que son fan del genero dark si no han leído algún libro de Natalie, porque lo dudo mucho, todos sus libros son tan retorcidos e intensos que me encantan, y por supuesto que el primer libro que recomendare de ella es de la serie Badlands. Para comenzar este es un mundo donde las personas ricas y normales viven separadas de las personas locas y enfermas que viven en Badlands donde TODO es posible y la anarquía es la ley. 
Este libro trata la historia de Calista y Romero, quienes intentan encontrar a un hombre que arruino sus vidas y que tiene un culto donde pues abusan de mujeres, niños y todo básicamente. Ahora diré porque es Natalie una de mis autoras fav, para comenzar me da lo que quiero en mis protagonistas y eso es que sean igual de locas y violentas que los protagonistas masculinos, porque en serio ya estoy un poco aburrida de leer protagonistas que no se saben defender y que odian la violencia, como por favor no quiero niñas buenas, me gustan pero quiero algo diferente, fin del comunicado.
Calista es tan loca como Romero y está harta de ser utilizada y abusada por los hombres, por lo que, ahora solo busca venganza de el hombre que arruino su vida, es por esto que acude a Romero para cazarlo y vivir por fin como ella quiere, sin ser juzgada por querer cometer actos cuestionables. Mientras que Romero tiene sus razones para odiar al culto y querer acabar con él. Cabe destacar que su relación es simplemente explosiva e intensa, desde que se encuentran mientras Calista escapa de unos caní*bales, si así se encuentran, ambos se complementan tan bien y son lo que necesitan, fue increíble, me encantaron. 
Definitivamente fue un buen comienzo para esta serie, obvio por temas de abuso extremo, satanismo y gore no se lo recomiendo a cualquiera, sin embargo, si les encanta el género de horror y dark como a mí de seguro les gustara este libro, este es solo el comienzo de su historia la cual continua en el 2do libro para que lo tengan a consideración. 


  English


Can you honestly say that you are a fan of the dark genre if you haven’t read a book by Natalie, because I doubt it very much, all her books are so twisted and intense that I love them, and of course the first book I will recommend from her is from the Badlands series. To begin, this is a world where the rich and normal people live apart from the crazy and sick people who live in Badlands where EVERYTHING is possible and anarchy reigns.
This book is about the story of Calista and Romero, who try to find a man who ruined their lives and has a cult where they basically abuse women, children and everything. Now I will say why Natalie is one of my fav authors, first of all she gives me what I want in my female protagonists and that is that they are just as crazy and violent as the male protagonists, because seriously Im already a little bored of reading protagonists who don’t know how to defend themselves and hate violence, like please, I don't want good girls, I like them but I want something different, fin.
Now back to the book, Calista is as crazy as Romero and is tired of being used and abused by men, so now she only seeks revenge from the man who ruined her life, that is why she goes to Romero to hunt him down and finally live how she wants, without being judged for wanting to commit questionable acts. While Romero has his reasons for hating the cult and wanting to end it. Their relationship is simply explosive and intense, from the moment they meet while Callista escapes from some canni*bals, yes that’s how they meet, both complement each other so well and are what they need, it was incredible, I loved them.
It was definitely a good start for this series, obviously due to extreme abuse, satanism and gore I do not recommend it to everybody, however, if you love the horror and dark genre as me, you would surely like this book, this is just the beginning of their story which continues in the 2nd book if you want to read it.

Savages

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