REVIEW: Taste by Kate Evangelista

 

Author: Kate Evangelista

Pages: 259

Genre: Young Adult – Paranormal

Publisher: Crescent Moon Press

Amazon: Taste

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Synopsis. (Goodreads)

At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans. When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn't realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.

Review: 4 out of 5 stars

Taste was kindly provided to me by the author, Kate Evangelista in exchange for my honest review.

I have had my eye on Taste for a while now so I was quite excited when the opportunity came up to read and review it and I am so pleased it didn't fail to disappoint, it was a book which had me riveted and wanting to know more from the very first page.

Phoenix McKay broke the one rule at Barinkoff Academy - no students on campus after curfew, and the rule exists for a perfectly valid reason as Phoenix soon finds out. Residing on campus is a mysterious group known as night students but she is thankfully saved and returned to her dorms by a gorgeous, enigmatic but evasive guy named Demetri.

Phoenix is a character who truly lacked self-preservation, I wouldn’t say she was careless as much as I would call her extremely curious with authority issues, but I absolutely adored her! She had spunk, was witty and humorous and her knack for needing to know everything made her an enjoyable heroine, she was also extremely selfless.

We find out a lot more about the night students after Phoenix agrees to partake in an experiment in which she will be injected with a formula that will allow her body to mimic a flesh-eater or Zhamvy as they are known and will enable researcher Dray to study her in the hopes of finding a cure for his people who are dying out.

We also have two love interests, Demetri who just happens to be a Crown Prince and is the more serious and emotionless of the two and Luka who was flirty and fun; despite them being so different I did prefer Phoenix’s connection to Demetri. I found Luka’s background to be quite intriguing but I saw him as more of a best friend or brotherly figure for Phoenix. Although I am not a fan of love triangles what so ever, I never felt there was much of a choice between the two, it worked out well.

The well constructed world Ms Evangelista has created was enthralling, I liked the unique paranormal twist and despite the creepy species they were I am thankful there wasn’t much flesh eating going on and they weren’t depicted as being gruesome in any way besides their diet, they were actually all extremely beautiful and their customs although unusual made for an interesting read.

The side characters were well-developed, bad guys included – I especially liked Dray, Demetri’s brother and crazy scientist as well as Luka’s sister, Yana who was fun and snarky.

I enjoyed Ms Evangelista’s writing, the fast paced plot, wonderful characters and mesmerizing setting; I love books which take place around schools/academies etc. and Barinkoff was no exception.

Overall, Taste was a fun and enjoyable read and a nice twist on the Zombie/Human relationship. I am definitely eager to read more books written by Kate Evangelista.

(Book provided by the author through ARR #32 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)