Book Review: Teasing Xav

If you are a fan of the Benedict brother Xavier from Joss Stirling's Savant books just like me, then today you are in luck.

Teasing Xav (2016) is a free eBook which is based on the novel Seeking Crystal (2012).

While Joss Stirling's novel, Seeking Crystal looked into Crystal Brook's personal view of her experiences before, during and after she met her soulfinder Xavier Benedict, Teasing Xav takes on the opposite approach and allows the reader delve into Xav's past along with his first experiences of meeting Crystal.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novella for the same reasons that I enjoyed Challenging Zed (2013) and Burning Yves (2015) - because you get a closer insight to each of the Benedict boys, their personalities, their past experiences along with their relationship to their other family members.

I've always known Xavier Benedict had a soft side, ever since the moment in Stealing Phoenix (2012) when Xav walks in on Zed with his soulfinder Sky and Yves with his soulfinder Phoenix and briefly looks sad. While in this moment Xav was happy for his brothers to be paired with their soulfinders, he couldn't help but to feel sad that he had not yet found his own soulfinder.

Xav Benedict is known for being the joker of the family, always laughing and teasing his brothers in a loving way and while he likes to have a laugh in general, this is also the way that he sometimes hides his sadness.

In Teasing Xav we are first introduced to the 15-year-old version of Xav - the one who enjoyed competing in snowboarding competitions and had a real talent for it.
It was interesting because the reader gets to find out how much Xav enjoyed snowboarding and didn't care for anything else - not even researching into becoming a doctor.
Joss Stirling created a gripping couple of chapters that introduced us to the turning point of events: what happened to Xav to make him want to become a doctor and why he had to quit the snowboarding competitions.

Meanwhile, further into the novella, the story turned more humourous and romantic as we are introduced to the 18-year-old version of Xav. The one who is working hard completing his work experience at the hospital and who was hoping to meet his soulfinder during the savant conference that his brother, Trace asked him to join in with.
I was always curious why Xav acted so jokey around Crystal to begin with and it was revealed Xav actually acted this way because for him, it was quite honestly love at first sight and he didn't quite know how to act around her, therefore resorted to humour.

For anyone who has read the soulfinder series and wants to find out a bit more about these fantastic boys, or who want to read a short story that can be read within the day, then I would definitely recommend you give this book a try!

While Joss Stirling has not officially announced that she will be writing any more of these eBooks, I am remaining hopeful that we will get to read about the rest of the Benedict boys or maybe even the soulfinders to Misty, Angel and Summer? Let's keep our fingers crossed for next year!