I finally got round to finishing Vulcan’s Heart. I was disappointed. It had some good bits, but the Spock/Saavik thing was just wrong, the incest was wrong and Spock, pon farr crazy or not, acted totally out of character. His speech patterns seemed wrong to me throughout the novel.
Why do people keep calling it "incest?" There is no blood relationship between Spock and Saavik. He was her teacher and mentor for a little while, decades before the events of this book.
Charvanek marries her cousin.