Clipped Wings (Clipped Wings #1) by Helena Hunting

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: Clipped Wings (Clipped Wings, #1)
Author: Helena Hunting
Series: Clipped Wings #1
Published by: Gallery Books
Release Date: March 4th 2014
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 352
Genres: Romance
Reading Challenges: CC's Goodreads Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

An emotional love story that follows the touch-and-go relationship of Hayden and Tenley; two young people who desperately want to love and be loved but are afraid to completely let go of their pasts.

As Hayden and Tenley navigate their newfound but slightly unstable relationship, they want to trust each other, but Hayden is hiding a dark and shameful past that he doesn't ever want Tenley to find out about. And Tenley has secrets of her own that could make Hayden run away forever. When Tenley asks Hayden to put a beautifully elaborate tattoo across her back, the two form what they thought was an unshakeable bond. But when Tenley's past shows up on her doorstep, will Hayden stand by her side...or run?

My Review:

Favorite Quote: I spent my entire life trying to color inside the lines, only to wind up restrained by them.

This book was pretty intense. It’s not what I was expecting from Helena Hunting. I’ve read a few others by her and they were way more sexual in nature than this one.  This one was more emotional.  And while I enjoy internal emotional conflict more this one drug out more than I wanted and I found myself losing interest towards the end.

Also, the ending was a bit over the top and not very consistent with the rest of the story.  I was a bit upset at the ending and I’m still on the fence if I want to read the next one or not since there wasn’t really any resolution for the plot. Other than that the characters were well developed and had some great origin stories.

I like Hayden more than Tenley because he seemed be more self aware.  I couldn’t really identify with Tenley because looking in from the outside I could see how her trauma was eating her and she couldn’t or wouldn’t see that she needed professional help. And the whole self hatred thing felt like it went on for far too long. The big bad was a total douche and a great evil character, I get why he blamed Tenley but I felt he was holding on a bit too tight.  While I could see how her guilt got in the way of defending herself from him because she felt that she deserved to be treated that way, I still had a hard time with her refusal to accept help.

The tattoo was a great healing idea. I get exactly how cathartic it can be.  I’m gonna wait a bit and maybe check the second book out later.