Title: Isolated
Author: Shay savage
Release Date: March 9, 2015
Isolated Summary
Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome. The mantra is good enough for the
Marines; it’s good enough for me. Improvise
. . . Near the top of the world, I fight for my life against my opponent,
Sebastian Stark. He has the upper hand
in strength, but I have the cunning to turn the tables on him. I battle the elements, my demons, and him
until Stark and I manage to strike a deal to ensure freedom for us both—and the
women we love.
Adapt . . . Being alone comes naturally to me. I’ve spent most of my life alone. Sharing my experiences,
opening up to another human being, developing a relationship—all these things
are foreign to me. Sometimes I wonder if it’s even meant to be.
Overcome . . . I’ve been away from Lia for far too
long, yet I still have commitments I must keep. When I make my way home, I will
tell her I have decided to end the life I have led and move on to become the
man she needs. I can overcome my demons;
I must. But will Lia be willing to wait?
Isolated
Excerpt
I
sigh as I look down the side of the snowy ridge and swing my legs over to start
my own descent. I need to find a good
hiding spot until anyone who might be looking for me is gone. As I make my way slowly down the rocks, I
wonder how long it will take for them to decide I’m buried in the snow.
There
aren’t a lot of options for hiding, but as I hear the whir of helicopter
blades, I duck behind a ridge and press my back against the rock. The movement jars my dislocated shoulder, and
I have to grit my teeth against the pain.
All things considered, I’m lucky to be alive. I know it, but I don’t feel it. Just an hour ago, I was ready to die. It would have been a relief. Giving up, even briefly, had felt good.
I
probably just need a decent night’s sleep.
A
vision moves beside me, and as much as I want to ignore the specter, he stays
in my sights, looking over at me with dark hair hanging in his innocent eyes.
He’s not there. I know he’s not really there.
Even
with the intense cold, his presence makes my palms sweat. I let myself look in his direction even
though I don’t want to. The kid looks
the same as he always does—disheveled, dressed in a simple cloth shirt and
trousers, no shoes. There is fear in his
eyes as if he knows exactly what is about to happen to him.
“Don’t
you have some other poor asshole to harass?” I ask aloud.
The
kid tilts his head but doesn’t speak. He
rarely does.
I
use the back of my glove to rub at my eyes.
The snow melts on my skin, causing a chill as the wind hits my
face. I need to stay dry, so I use the
strip of cloth covering my mouth to wipe the melted snow away and then yank up
my gloves.
The
helicopter passes over my head and out of sight. I glance over my shoulder at the icy mountain
behind me. Mt. Windsor is the only
actual land formation that makes up tiny Buckingham Island in Canada’s
unorganized Nunavut territory. On a good
day, the temperature might reach zero, but it’s not a good day.
Soon,
it’s going to be a really shitty night. I don’t think I’ll live through it.
Shuffling
away from the rock, I rub at my sore shoulder and start down the side of the
mountain again. It’s slow going. Balancing with one arm basically out of
commission isn’t easy, and the terrain is rough. The wind is at my back, trying to push me
over, but I manage to stay on my feet.
The
vision of the kid, occasionally kicking at rocks that don’t move, follows me
all the way down.
My
head pounds along with my heart. I close
my eyes and shake my head, but he’s still there. It doesn’t seem to matter what I do
anymore. I can’t get rid of him. When I first started seeing him, before I
realized what he was, he would disappear soon after I first saw him. Now he lingers, taunting me with the memories
of the boy I killed overseas.
He
doesn’t bother to hide when the helicopter passes over again, but I have to
duck underneath a rocky outcropping.
When I drag myself back out, he still stands there, staring at me. Maybe he’s feeling bolder since I told Stark
about him.
“Fuck
you,” I mutter.
I have followed the series
since the beginning. I fell in love with
Evan from the get go. The guy cannot get
a break in life. He has his demons and he
knows it. He goes through a lot to find
a way to overcome them in order to live a more peaceful life, not just for him
but also for the women he loves. He will
be the first to admit that Lia deserves better, but he will move heaven and
earth to ensure that she is safe.
This story takes up at the
end of Bastain’s Storm during the tournament.
This is in Evan’s POV and what happens to him on the mountain and also
more details about the promise he made to Bastain. He finds some troubling information about his
competitors, but as we have come to know Even he will not let that get to
him. He will do whatever it takes to get
back to Lia. But the question is, is he
too late? Will she accept him? And has
he overcome his demons to be what she deserves? Read and find out.
This book has you on the
edge of your seat. I loved reading this,
even though the angst levels were high by the end. If you have not read the
series you may feel lost a bit, so I do recommend that you read the series. But
the end has me itching for more. Have been
a fan of Shay Savage for a long time.
Just when I think she cannot top what she has created, she knocks it out
of the park. I want more Evan and cannot
wait to see what Savage come up with next.
Bio:
Shay Savage lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her family
and a variety of household pets. She is an accomplished public speaker,
and holds the rank of Distinguished Toastmaster from Toastmasters
International. When not writing, she enjoys science fiction movies,
masquerading as a zombie, is a HUGE Star Wars fan, and member of the 501st
Legion of Stormtroopers. When the geek fun runs out, she also and loves
soccer in any and all forms - especially the Columbus Crew, Arsenal and Bayern
Munich. Savage holds a degree in psychology, and she brings a lot of that
knowledge into the characters within her stories.
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