Taming Savage

Tales Reimagined, Book 1

By: RS McKenzie

Narrated by: S.R. Thomas

Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Abel: After the death of our parents, I was taken in by my brother, who has been taking care of me more out of obligation than love. When he doesn’t come home from a job—if burglary can be considered a job—I discover he’s been taken by a beast of a man with soulless eyes. Even with his scars he’s hot as hell, but his cold eyes chill me to the bone. My brother is the only family I have, so I do the only thing I can to make sure my brother is free: I offer myself to the beast for a year instead. When I find out who he is, I fear I may be in over my head.

Savage: The first word that comes to mind when I see Abel? Beautiful. The second? Untouchable. He’s much too beautiful for the likes of me, with my shifting moods and damaged body. What if I spend this year trying to win him over–mind, body, heart, and soul? It would be possible if my enemies weren’t a constant threat. If I were a regular guy, I could have someone like Abel. I have these scars because of who I am. These scars that scare everyone away. Could a beauty like Abel ever see beyond the beast to the man underneath?

Taming Savage is Beauty and the Beast reimagined as a dark and steamy gay romance with heart-pounding action, forced proximity, age gap, found family, a naughty virgin, first times, kink exploration, a mild D/s dynamic, and features a cold, damaged crime boss and the snarky beauty who will finally tame his beast.

Trigger warning: Discussion of past parental and animal death that happens off-screen, torture and violence, murder, and the sale of drugs, weapons, and dubcon. Explicit sexual content not suitable for anyone under the age of 18. If those are triggers for you, please do not listen to this audiobook.

©2023 RS McKenzie (P)2023 RS McKenzie

A mafia fairytale

I'm a huge fan of fairy tale reimaginings and my favorite is Beauty and the Beast. Here we have a criminal setting where Abel uses himself as payment when his brother is caught attempting to steal from the mafia Don. Their time together has snark, steam and some genuinely touching moments that make it clear why each is attracted to the other. The mafia background is nicely developed and I'm looking forward to more in this series. S.R. Thomas was a new narrator for me and I really enjoyed the performance. Just the right emotional notes without ever going over the top.

Fun, enjoyable retelling of a classic fairytale

This was my first book both by the author and narrator. ‘Taming Savage’ is a modern day, MM mafia take on Beauty and the Beast. I enjoy a good retelling of a fairy tale and this was highly enjoyable. Abel is 22 and lives with his older brother Cris. Cris is a truly awful excuse of a human being who took full custody of Abel after their parents were killed in a car accident when Abel was 12.

Savage is 36 and is the rude and distant head of one of the biggest crime families in the city (there are warring factions) who was horrifically scarred after an attempt on his life 7 years earlier.

Cris is caught attempting to break into Savage’s house one night and despite how horrible his brother is, Abel offered himself to Savage for 12 months in exchange for saving Cris’ life, which he agrees to. Things are tense at first as they find a groove being in each other’s space all the time, and Abel is not afraid of calling Savage out for his rude behaviour which shocks him at first, but he also admires. They figure out how the other one’s mind works and a tentative friendship is brokered between them and an eventual relationship develops. Both of them are slow to trust in their growing feelings for the other for various reasons but want things to work. The showdown was well down and had me cheering.

I enjoyed the ending and how it will set up books 2 and 3 which will both be retellings of another 2 different fairytales focusing on Savage’s 2 most trusted friends and bodyguards which I will definitely be reading as I liked them a lot. The story was well developed for a fairy tale story and was choc full of steam!

I didn’t fully resonate with the narrator but he did an okay job.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this audiobook.

The narration was bad

I enjoyed the story. It was hard to get past the narration. I know you have to start somewhere but this was over the top and I almost didn’t finish the book. I sped up the story to finish faster. Great ending.

Fantastic! Absolutely Loved It!

*** Audiobook Review 6.21.23: ***

So I read the Taming Savage ebook a couple months ago and completely fell in love with the storyline and the characters- both the main couple, as well as the supporting. I even mentioned in my original review how I wished it would be made into an audiobook someday. To say I freaked out when I found it in audiobook version is an understatement!

S.R. Thomas did a fantastic job narrating. I loved his commanding voice for Savage, and he portrayed Abel's sassiness and personality well. Some of his Abel lines in that tone of his made me laugh as I can just picture his face as he said it. It was easy to distinguish between their voices, as well as supporting characters Quin and Michael, and Janet and her son Adam.

Listening to this in audiobook format made the whole experience feel brand new. Absolutely loved it!

Overall: 5 stars
Performance: 5 stars
Story: 5 stars


*** Original Ebook Review 4.6.23: ***

"I haven’t wanted emotional intimacy in years, haven’t really had the desire to let anyone get close to me. But I want to get closer to Abel. To see what it is about him that makes me want that in the first place."

"I want to get to know him and talk to him, but I don’t know how to do that. My defense mechanism is to put up a wall because I’ve been burned before."

I absolutely love this book! What a fantastic read! I saw a blurb about it on Facebook a few months ago and made note of the title, knowing it was definitely a must-read for me. It was worth the anticipation! Beauty and the Beast was one of my favorite fairy tales growing up, so I enjoy retellings- and this mafia retelling is the best one I've ever read! Great world building and I loved the characters. The storyline completely hooked me from the start. Savage and Abel have such amazing chemistry. I loved the dynamic between them. I also liked how feisty Abel got under Savage's walls in the best way. Loved how he opened him up as Savage developed feelings for him- something he's definitely not used to. I also loved how Abel stood up for Savage- who has scars, and never expected it. I couldn't get the smile off my face during certain scenes. The story had excitement, danger, and suspense. I really hope this will be made into an audiobook someday. This is the first book I've read by this author and I'm so excited for more in this series/world. Fantastic! 5 stars.

Great Story

I read the book and was so excited to see it on Audible. The story is a really good story. It is a better read than audible. I could not get with the narrator. You already have to suspend belief to enjoy these stories - no problem - but an over the top narrator is not a good fit here.