SAVAGE by L. A. Fiore is the story of Brochan and Lizzie.
Please make sure you understand that this is a Dark Romance and is not for everyone. I happen to like them and this was a really good one. I was happy to find this book.
Both Brochan and Elizabeth (Lizzie) started with a hard and sad life. Their lives never really got better I think until they meet. They both had so much to overcome from their past and present. But when these two halves come together this made into a great dark romance story.
Ms. Fiore writing is new to me but after reading this book I hope to find more of her books.

If you have a choice between listening to the audio version of this or reading the text version?  Go for the text.  This is definitely an instance where the author should not have read his own work.  Think equal parts William Shatner, B-movie hypnotist, and narrator of a 1950s filmstrip designed to be watched by eighth graders when they have a substitute for science class.  I was tempted to quit this book as soon as it started because of the narration--but the topic inspired me to stick with it.  I did check my library's catalog for a text version.  No ebook, and the one print copy they have was due back in April.  So apparently, the patron who checked out this book on overcoming procrastination had been procrastinating on returning it for almost four months.

I think the techniques Fiore describes for transforming from a procrastinator to a "producer" are solid.  Since I've only just completed the book, I haven't been able to implement them extensively, but I've already begun to apply some approaches, such as doing 30-minute chunks of focused work.  I really wish I had this book before I undertook my doctoral dissertation.  I would have used his "unschedule" to build in recreational and restorative activities and realistic blocks of work time, instead of living under the thrall of "I should be working on my dissertation" at all times.

Although there are useful approaches to be gleaned from the book, at times I felt the author was being overly repetitious.  And as an example of the disadvantage of listening to this in audio format, there was a section where he went through a few different guided relaxations, one right after another.  They were all very similar (read REPETITION) to one another--and one feature a SOLID TWO MINUTES OF SILENCE.  I even checked my player to make sure the battery hadn't died.  At the conclusion of the two minutes, he came back with, "Did that feel like two minutes?"  Nope, it felt like an eternity.  I really think for the purposes of the audiobook, that part should have been moved to the end as an appendix.  

Saffron Mills has lived all of her almost thirty years in Harrington, Maine—a small town where fishing is plenty, but available men are far too few. Yet it’s not just her dating dry spell that draws her to recent arrival Logan MacGowan. Tall, dark, and handsome, with emerald-green eyes and an impossibly hot body, Logan is a gorgeous enigma whose silence she takes for indifference…until one unforgettable chance meeting, when pent-up attraction ignites into the most intense encounter of her life.

In this quiet, quirky town, no one knows that Logan’s alter ego is famous sculptor and tabloid darling David Cambre. In New York, he had all the wrong kind of attention, but in Harrington, he’s found peace, privacy…and Saffron. She’s witty, forthright, and so much sexier and stronger than she knows. But how do you protect the love you’ve been waiting for when your own lifestyle could be destined to rip it apart?

What a sanctimonious piece of cooking advice. I could really not deal with the author's passive-aggressive "hints" and opinions about everything in a person's home - from the clutter of non-cooking essentials in the kitchen to which pots and pans are acceptable for use. I picked this up from the library because I want to make vegetables and grains more a part of my diet, moving them from side dishes to main events. I did not need a lecture on the morals of animal-based diets or farming. And for someone who insists that her love of cooking made her unsuitable to go to cooking school or become a chef, the author sounds like any other foodie when she harps on only using fresh herbs or a thousand ingredients for her dishes.

The author has a cooking show on public broadcasting television, and you can feel the NPR/PBS-smugness coming off in waves during the introduction sections of the book, which included her background, what kitchen tools and supplies are needed, and what to stock your pantry with (hope your budget can take all her "good" suggestions). What the book lacks in pictures or descriptions of techniques, it makes up for with trying to complicate dishes such as tomato bruschetta or mashed potatoes. The fifteen pictures found in the middle of the book were of the aforementioned bruschetta and asparagus spears dressed in lime juice....nothing from the more complex dishes. There is an abundant reliance on tofu, tempeh, and TVP based dishes, none of which interested me. The very small desert section featured either fruit with honey/maple syrup or some kind of tofu pie. She mentions all the different grains in the stocking the pantry section, then uses pasta for almost every dish in the entrée sections. Bulgar and quinoa each gets one recipe.

I will say the one dessert I liked was a Basmati Rice Pudding (made without dairy or eggs). The recipes I want to try come from the salad and appetizer sections, along with eggplant meatballs (so I can make a vegetarian version of Italian Wedding Soup). Nothing new or original, no pictures, plus condescending tone equals a lackluster effort.