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Clipped Wings (2014)

by Helena Hunting(Favorite Author)

4.22 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1476764298 (ISBN13: 9781476764290)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Gallery Books

series

Clipped Wings

review 1: Alright, I just finished Clipped Wings by Helena Hunting, first book I’ve read since I finished Nanowrimo and I’m just like… “duuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……” My brain can’t process the amount of feels I have. I’m not just talking about your typical sad or emotional feels, I’m talking about feels you don’t know how to process. This is the kind of book that gives you so many feels you don’t know what to do with yourself or those feels. You can’t sort them, you can’t understand them, and you can’t reason with the, you just have to let them happen. Hm, kind of like Tenley and Hayden when you really think about ;) I can’t believe it took me so long to pick up this amazing book by an AMAZING CANADIAN AUTHOR~ God, my hear... moret is still pounding. LOVE writing reviews right after I’m done the book, the emotions are just so fresssshhh.No one has piqued tattoo-artist, Hayden Stryker’s interest more than Tenley Paige. He’s dangerously attracted to her and has no idea why. Hayden is everything Tenley’s never had or considered wanting in a man. He’s covered in tattoos, pierced everywhere, has a very strong personality and clearly won’t take shit from anyone. Haunted by a past and nightmares she can’t escape, she finds peace in Hayden’s company and his help by asking him to tattoo a memento all over her back. Although these two are dangerously attracted to each other, they can’t help but hide the secrets to their dark pasts that might ultimately destroy what happiness they’ve found in each other.Let’s get serious, or semi-serious. I FREAKING LOVE TENLEY AND HAYDEN. I’m pretty sure I say that about a lot of couples, but I LOVE THEM. I mostly love Hayden because he’s so different, than what we’re used to seeing. Sure there are lots of Alpha males with tattoos and bad-ass attitudes who are possessive of their girls, but Hayden is like…legit decked out, just covered in tattoos….TATTOOS EVERYWHERE and piercings everywhere! Can you imagine because I can’t!!! I haven’t hung around that crowd much and to be honest they do/did intimidate me but now (since getting my own tattoo) they’re all cool! (Maybe a little judgemental…at least the ones I’ve met, but cool).Hayden is a bad-ass. If I met him I’d sure and he’ll be intimidated by him. But he challenges the stereotype and is rough and tough on the outside but damaged and broken on the inside. And when I say broken I’m like…traumatized, nightmares broken.Tenley, I think, is someone I aspire to be, in a sense. Just like Hayden, she is damage beyond repair on the inside, but on the outside she seems to be holding it together – just. What I like about Tenley is her determination to try to move on, to try and be as normal as she possibly can despite her problems, her anxiety, her nightmares. She bakes, she goes to school, she works, and even falls for the bad-ass in tattoos just like any rational girl would. I’m not saying she’s a bubbly ray of sunshine or that she looks like she’s doing her best to move forward, I’m saying that she’s trying. Even on the outside she may look damaged, is shy, quiet, timid, but she makes an effort.“You made these?” I held up the perfectly decorated, professional-quality miniature cake. “Yup. I used to bake all the time with my mom.” She cleared her throat before she continued. “So what’d you think?” “That I’m going to lure you back to my place and keep you there forever so you can bake those cupcakes every day for the rest of my life.” I left out the part where I would eat them off her naked body. Tenley was like a wet dream. Hot, feisty, into body modification, and she made cupcakes.These two have serious chemistry, the kind of chemistry you wish you had with your significant other. Even if you don’t have someone it’s the kind of chemistry you know you wish you had. It’s wanting, all the time, to be with them, to be near them, even doing the simplest of things. Both Hayden and Tenley are so broken that they find solace and peace with each other and enjoy each other’s company more than most. Some people might think that’s being too clingy, but I think if people are so broken like these two are, after finding something or rather SOMEONE that brings you peace you wouldn’t want to let it go either.I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book. It’s so different. It’s so dark, and funny, and complicated and messy. But it’s also so raw and emotional. This book is so good at emotionally breaking you down, building you back up, and breaking you down all over again. It’s just a complete rollercoaster and you love it because you want to see these two lost and broken souls get back together. If only there was someone for everyone and we could all find that person just like Hayden and Tenley found each other…5/5 Hearts of Love
review 2: I remember reading this book back when it was still a fanfic and enjoying it quite a bit. However, times have changed and there are different standards I set when reading a fanfic and when reading a book. So, this being said, here is what I thought of this book. This time, in a list:What I liked: The dual POV and that the characters actually had distinct and unique voices: I have seen many authors try, crash and burn whilst trying to pull that off. Ms. Hunting actually managed to do a great job at giving Tenley and Hayden their very own voices, so kudos for that. The tragic back-story (to an extent.): I really, really, really enjoy reading contemporary romances where the characters have been through something. I like reading about how damaged they are, the problems they are facing and how they are fighting through them. Hayden and how he was portrayed. I loved him. Sure, there are some troubles which I had with his character, which I will analyse below, but overall, I loved him. I liked how he had a bad-boy edge but at the same time was a total softie on the inside. I would have preferred him a little rougher around the edges, especially considering all he has been through, but he was just so sugar sweet, one can't really complain about it. Added bonus: his hotness. I actually looked up a bunch of the piercings he has and... ouch. But I can see why people would get them. ;) The ending. I know. It was a cliff-hanger. I know most people hate them. But I love them. I live for them (as long as there is a next book I can devour immediately). And this book had that, making me a very very happy reader. Also, I liked how it ended. I liked the heartache and everything surrounding it. Even if most of the book didn't have a wow effect to it, this part gave me all the feels. I actually might or might not have shed a few tears. Don't judge. The copulation galore. So Tenley and Hayden did a really, really long dance of I really want to jump your bones but I can't 'cause I am broken and you are broken too and I don't want to ruin this thing between us whatever it is (boo-fucking-hoo you guys), but once they actually got over it? Hot damn. The cat. I want to love that cat.What I didn't like: Hayden's cupcake obsession. I know this sounds silly as a point to rate a book on, but hell, I couldn't stop rolling my eyes whenever either Hayden or Tenley mentioned cupcakes and how Hayden devoured them. Cupcake tattoos, cupcake charms (though that one happens in the next book), cupcakes in every single chapter and in every variation really. No. Just. No. How dependent Tenley and Hayden were on one another. I understand needing someone. I understand needing to pull strength from someone, having a healthy support system, liking someone's company and depending on them to an extent. But this was overdone. If you read my review of Breaking Nova by Jessica Sorensen and maybe even happened to read the book, then you know what two people needing each other but at the same time knowing that they have to face their own shit before they can start truly sharing themselves with someone else should behave like... what a healthy "unhealthy" relationship should look like. Those two on the other hand were just plain needy. What a special snowflake Tenley was. Tenley must be some kind of brainiac. She is twenty years old, well, ok, twenty-one by a few days, and already in a graduate programme and even holding classes herself, whilst her adviser doesn't trust her and her thesis as far as he can throw her. She also went through a life altering accident not even ten months ago. So sure, all that makes sense. Tenley's double standards. I'm sorry, but you can't expect Hayden to open up to you and at the same time refuse to do the same with him. You can't get pissed when he is keeping things from you, whilst at the same time hiding things from your own past which pale in comparison to the things he isn't telling you. You just can't. That's not healthy, and quite frankly it was pissing me off. Yes, you are hurt. Yes, you have walls. But so does he and you have no right to demand of him to let his down when you are not ready to do the same, and actually acknowledge that you won't. All the drama they went through. No two people ending up together ever suffer that much individually. Not unless they meet at a support group or something. That's just another part that seemed unrealistic. The will they won't they in the beginning. There is no way around this and no way to sugar-coat it. The beginning of this book dragged. And dragged. And dragged. It was a huge will I won't I dance from start to finish, with a major dose of avoidance and some serious hots for one another added to the mix. It just wasn't realistic and Tenley was way to timid half of the time. The monotone settings. Were there any other places they went to or spoke about other than Serendipity, the tattoo shop, the coffee shop, the Dollhouse and Tenley's apartment? I can't remember. Probably not. How much Hayden was reading into the tattoo without even knowing Tenley. Dude, you are a tattoo artist. Lots of people come into your shop and want tattoos, who don't even know what the heck you are tattooing on them. You all should shut your traps and stop asking yourselves so many questions about the meaning of the tattoo behind Tenley's back and do your job instead. What she wants on her body is her business. What that tattoo means to her is her business as well. You don't get to decide if the tattoo is too dark for her or not, and you don't get to change it just because you think the darkness of the tattoo doesn't reflect the brightness of her being. Guess, what? It reflects the darkness of her soul, so suck it up and do your job instead of trying to extort the meaning of it all out of her. That hooker Hayden used to do on a regular basis. As you can see she was so inconsequential and just misplaced in this story, that I can't even remember her name. She was just so stereotypical with her long bleached hair, tiny waist, long legs, ginormous fake boobs and overall attitude. Come on people, come on. Haven't you learnt anything in all those years? Those characters don't attract readers. They don't help them sympathise with the heroine who has to compete with such a "bombshell". It's just off-putting. How the book didn't lose its fanfiction vibe.The meh parts: The side characters. They could not have been there and it wouldn't have made a difference whatsoever. I can tell you exactly which character used to be whom in the original book. That is not good story writing and quite disappointing. What was the point of throwing them all in when their sole purpose was to tease Hayden whenever Tenley came into the shop and pierce various body parts of Tenley's? The prose. It was neither good nor bad. It just was. It was ok, but not spectacular. There were a few sentences where I had to do a double take to make sure I had read correctly, and some of the descriptions surely were weird, but it wasn't anything that would make me love or hate it.Overall, as you can see, one might say the bad parts outweighed the good parts. BUT, that is in retrospect, after I had a chance to distance myself from the book for a few weeks after reading it and really think my thoughts and opinions on it through. Truth is, that whilst reading it, I did enjoy the story. I did enjoy reading about the characters and I did want to find out more about them. I wanted to know what is going to happen, if they'll end up together (which, I'll admit was obvious) and what hardships they had to face to get to that point.It's most definitely not a book everyone will enjoy. But if you like into contemporary romance and haven't gotten tired of the storyline "broken boy meets broken girl and they fix each other" then you are good to go. Twilight fanfics always were steamy, so have fun. less

Download links for: Clipped Wings

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