War has taken everything from me. My family. My home. My innocence. In a country blasted by war and wracked by economic hardship, a young orphan girl like me has very few options when it comes to survival. Thus, I do what I must to live, to eat, and I try very hard to not consider the cost to my soul. My heart is empty, and my existence brutal.
The one impossibility in my life is love.
And then I meet HIM.
War is hell. It takes a chunk out of a man's very soul to do the kinds of things war demands of you. You live with fear, you live with guilt, and you live with nightmares. If you haven't been through it, there's no understanding it. War leaves no room for love, no room for tenderness or softness. You gotta be hard, closed off, and ready to fight every moment of every day. Lose focus for a split second, and you're dead.
Now the only thing that can save me is HER
Review
Reading this book was at times very hard. My heart was in my throat, I felt Raina's panic and her utter desperation. I felt angry at the world that let a young girl face an existence like this, even though I know that this happens, it was a harsh slap in the face to read about it.
This book starts in 1993, the first Gulf War, the war that took everything from a 14 year old girl. Raina is starving and is forced to do the unthinkable to survive, if you could call it surviving. She leads a bleak existence, surviving day to day, no friends, no love. She is outcast and she hates it.
I thought what the author did and how she made Raina cope was very clever. I can see how it would work and see that it would definitely be a mechanism I would adopt if, god forbid, I ever ended in a similar situation.
This is about survival, I remind myself. Not about pride
and
I am not Raina, the woman; I am Sabah, the whore. Now and always.
It is comments like that, that make my heart bleed for her.
Raina's character is immensely brave, I am constantly awed by her will to survive..
Lance Corporal Hunter Lee, explodes into her life 10 years later. She saves him and they form an amazing bond. Hunter even though he is the enemy and his kind are responsible for her families deaths and her current existence, is like no other man she has ever met and just what she needs.
"Do you kiss them?" I ask, gesturing to the mosque.
She flinches at my words."No. Never".
"Do they kiss you?"
"No." She looks confused. "Why are you-------"
I'm not them. I;m not one of them. I don't want you like they do."
His patience and understanding and acceptance of Raina and her life was truly admirable, I really like his character.
I was scared out of my mind for these two throughout this story, I was totally anxious, but I just couldn't put this book down. Jasinda Wilder has written a very interesting and different love story. She has been game enough to write it based around a war that is still going today and that many people have mixed feelings about. It shines a light on the casualties of war and puts a face or a personality, although fictional, to the people that are sometimes forgotten, the innocents.
I am well aware that this won't be for everyone, but to me it was a very worthwhile read.
Interview With Jasinda 1.It has just been brought to my attention, after seeing Wounded, that you write an entire series called "Big Girls Do". As a writer do you often get sick of only the overly perfect woman finding love, sex, and fun?
Is this why you started this series? Oh god, yes. Absolutely. There are no perfect people. Everyone has flaws. Hollywood and mainstream media, from ads to movies to shows to magazines, all portray this so-called “ideal” woman or “perfect” man. No such thing exists, and it’s not a healthy benchmark to set for our society. That being said, we need to be healthy and take care of ourselves. Big Girls Do It started as an attempt to show that women and men of all sizes and shapes can, should, and do find love and sex. You don’t have to be a size 3 or have rippling abs to be attractive to someone. Be confident in who you are. Take risks. Love with all your heart, mind, body and soul. And also…don’t let assholes give you body image issues. You’re beautiful just the way you are. Get your sexy on!
2. What do you do for inspiration for your stories? You hear from other authors that they have muses, or they can't write unless they are in their special places, some just have ideas pop into their heads out of nowhere. How does it work for you?
Stories come from everywhere. My muse is life. Sometimes ideas just pop into my head, but really, this is a complicated thing. When an idea just zips whole cloth into your head, it’s coming from a variety of sources. A character may be based on someone you saw at Starbucks or the supermarket, the storyline may be an amalgamation of something you read and something you saw in a movie. It all comes from somewhere. I watch people, I dissect novels and the plots of my favorite shows and pull elements from it all. Most of my stories come from one basic idea, an interesting character idea that I then come up with events to put him/her through.
3. I see from your bio that you like to bake. If you could have any of your fictional men over and bake them a cake, who would it be? Yes! I mean, all of them? I could really picture Jeff, Chase, and Shane all in my kitchen, baking me cupcakes in aprons (and not much else! *wink wink, nudge nudge*)
4. What has been your favourite book/ characters to write about? And do you think about them in your head as real people?
Each book, each character is special. I’ve spent the most time writing about Jeff, Anna, Chase, and Jamie (from Big Girls Do It and Rock Stars Do It), so they’re probably the most like real friends. I don’t sit around having imaginary conversations with them or anything, but they are unique people with their lives beyond the written word.
5. Who is your all time favourite sexy hero you have read about in a book of another author :)? Whatever I’m reading at the moment is usually my favorite. I’m very into my sexy heroes, so I’m not sure I could pick one. I recently finished Beauty from Pain by Georgia Cates, so Jack McLachlan would be at the top of my list of sexy heroes—especially since he’s an Aussie, and what girl doesn’t love a hot accent?
6. What is your favorite cupcake?
Do I have to pick just one? Red velvet and cherry chip are my go-to favorites.
7. Wounded is very raw and gritty, were some of the scenes uncomfortable for you to write?
The scene where Rania first makes the awful choice to sell her body for food was very difficult, very emotional. When Derek and Hunter are both wounded is also a difficult, gritty scene.
8. Favorite book that you have read so far this year?
I’m really not sure I can pick just one. So many incredible books came out this past year, and they are all wonderful and moving and intense in their own ways. To say I have just one favorite would be doing injustice to the other hugely talented indie authors that make this burgeoning industry so fun and rewarding to be a part of. Some names that come mind as favorites, though: M. Leighton, Jessica Sorrenson, Tara Sivec, Colleen Hoover, Liliana Hart…see what I mean? All talented and wonderful women writing daring and sexy stories.
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