One Savage Knight is the first book in the Demon Knights series by Holly Roberds and it starts off with a bang. 

We get a fascinating introduction explaining that monsters have been unleashed upon the world.  Some of these monsters have been caught and are being experimented on.   In this setting we are introduced to one of our two main characters, Betsy.  I love Betsy.  She is genuinely kind.  The author wrote her as a genuinely kind and caring character that was loud, and scattered, and passionate and it was amazing.  Especially since the author did not feel the need to give her any sinister undertones.  She is just legitimately nice. 

And right after our introduction to Betsy, we are introduced to Leo. With our Leo introduction, I have to take a moment to tip my imaginary hat to the author, because it is a genuine talent to take only a few paragraphs and a few speech patterns to make a character so hot you feel like you are going to burst into flames.  Don’t get me wrong, Leo comes with a bundle of problems I would NOT want to deal with, but for a fun one-night stand?  I could be interested. 

On top of making, you lust after an imaginary character with only a few paragraphs, the author also is amazing at giving us information.  As events happen, Holly could have easily info dumped on us. But instead, she manages to give us just enough information to keep us curious yet sated, and then moves on with the plot.  I never had a moment where I didn’t feel as though I knew what was happening, but I was also left intrigued and curious and almost in suspense I want to say.

Not that I am circling back in my love my for Betsy, but I also want to take the time to talk about something else incredibly important in this book.  Trauma.  Betsy has undergone a lot of trauma in her life and because of that she has turned into a nurturer of sorts.  Her family takes advantage of her, her neighbors, her friends, and it is heartbreaking to witness (especially if you have ever gone through anything like it).  Holly could have easily gone over the top with the trauma and made it feel less important than what it was, but she touched upon it so nicely, and showed Betsy’s healing so nicely, that at the end of the book, you kind of just want to wrap Betsy in a tight hug and tell her how proud of her you are.

We have our hero and heroine of the Novel, but what about the villains?  There are essentially three villains in this book, but I am only going to talk about two of them.  First off, is Betsy’s ex-fiancé Jeremy.  I have never been so sure that an author has also dated my ex-boyfriend.  Because the only other alternative is there is more than one man like my ex.  Or should I say, man child?  Jeremy only wants to be with Betsy because she mothers him.  She sets his outfits out the night before, she cooks him breakfast before work, she takes care of his every need.  I want to kick him in the shin so badly.  He was a wake-up call of a character that I did not need to regret my past decisions.  And if you read his character and he also reminds you of one of your ex’s, please know you have my sincerest apologies that you also dated someone like that.

The second villain of this book is also, ironically, the only true bad part of this book.  Dr. Sterling is running the hospital/lab that Betsy is working at in the beginning and she really only makes an appearance at the end of the book, which honestly is not a bad thing.    For all of the originality and interesting characters that Holly wrote in this book, Dr. Sterling fell a little flat.  Her motives were just typical of evil doctors (read that as “I want to take over the world”) and when you get rid of her not too long later there is no sadness or happiness that the villain was defeated.  Honestly the entire book really could have happened without more than a mention of her and nothing would have changed.

Overall – I really enjoyed this book and I am anxiously awaiting book two.  Since One Savage Knight was released in February of this year (2022) I do not expect to see it come anytime soon.  However this book really does not end on a cliff hanger so if it sounds like something you are interested in reading, I highly recommend picking it up.

Plot – 10/10

Characters – 9/10

Originality –  10/10

General Joy of Reading – 9/10

Overall Score – 38/40

One Savage Knight (Demon Knights Book 1) – Holly Roberds

Cost* – $3.99 for Kindle. Paperback is $14.99 This book is included with Kindle Unlimited

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published