Review: Otherwise Alone by Shay Savage

Title: Otherwise Alone (Evan Arden #1)
Author: Shay Savage
Date of publication: 14 Dec 2012
Genre: Romance, Male POV, Novella

Author's links:
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My rating: 4 stars

Goodreads Blurb

Lieutenant Evan Arden sits in a shack in the middle of nowhere, waiting for orders that will send him back home - if he ever gets them. Other than his loyal Great Pyrenees, there's no one around to break up the monotony. The tedium is excruciating, but it is suddenly interrupted when a young woman stumbles up his path. 

He has two choices - pick her off from a distance with his trusty sniper-rifle, or dare let her approach his cabin and enter his life.

Why not? It's been ages, and he is otherwise alone...

My Review

Otherwise Alone is a novella which serves as a prequel in the Evan Arden series. It's completed in itself  and can be read as a standalone, though I would recommend to continue with the rest of the series.

I am usually not a fan of novellas but I really enjoyed this one. It was told from the POV of the hero, Evan Arden, and I liked his voice a lot. He is a professional sniper - very observant, distanced, cold-hearted, yet chanced meeting with Lia in the middle of nowhere breaks his barriers in just 24 hours they establish a strong connection. There was nothing ordinary about their meeting and it proved fateful for both of them. T

Both Evan and Lia are well developed characters and their encounter was super hot and sexy but also emotionally intense and a sort of revelation for them both. Despite the short length of the story I was quickly involved in the characters' lives. The short length of the book doesn't allow for a full fledged romance to develop but there is a lot of passion and super hot sexy times which ultimately lead to a deeper emotional connection between the characters.

What liked most in this novella besides Evan's voice, was the completeness of the story. It doesn't have a happy end, it is more of an open ending but it fitted perfectly. 

It is a promising beginning of an interesting series which offers an intriguing combination of psychological thriller and romance.