My Initial Impressions of Broken Wing **The Quest**

Let’s try this again…
This morning I wrote a very insightful post about my initial impressions about Broken Wing, which I was able to locate before its release date. A few hours later. I received a few friendly emails telling my post went MIA. After some breathing exercises, where I have calmed down, I will try to the best of my ability to remember what I wrote the first time around. This is a small lesson- save your post in a Microsoft Word document!

*head hits desk*

When Kristie wrote me about a new book that had her jumping for joy, to the point where it would over take her number one favorite book and hero of all time, I was intrigued. Since Kristie is such a big, big fan of Lisa Kleypas’s classic Dreaming of You and Derek, the hero, I would have never expected another author to come along and change Kristie’s mind. New author, Judith James has some pretty big shoes to fill with her book, Broken Wing, and her very tortured hero prostitute Gabriel St. Croix. I was lucky enough to find a copy of Broken Wing a few days ago when I went to Barnes and Noble looking for a different book all together. I wasn’t surprised I couldn’t find the book I was looking for because B&N has this habit of not shelving new books on their release date, but I didn’t want to leave empty handed. To leave a bookstore without a book is simply not done, well at least in my mind. *G* As I roamed the Romance section, which is not a surprise at all, guess what I came upon? Not only did I find one copy of Broken Wing, but two copies, and before its November release date. I left with my bounty, a very happy reader.

*Har har my pun on the word bounty. Bounty = Pirate Romance*

I am right in the middle of Broken Wing and I can say that Gabriel is TORTURED beyond belief! He is one of the most abused heroes I have ever read. This man has undergone every horrible thing you can think of, and if Judith James wanted to, she would have thrown the kitchen sink at him also. This is a man who knows so much about giving physical pleasure and experiencing both emotional and sexual pain but has no knowledge of the word love and what it entails. Until he meets Sarah Munroe, Gabriel is a shell of a man ready to do something to end his suffering that no person should think of. Sarah changes all of that and she becomes his savior and his angel. She gives him his soul back and teaches him about love and respect. Respect is so important here because Gabriel has lost all respect and Sarah does something so very simple, she gives him the respect that all humans deserve. When Kristie mentioned that Gabriel is very innocent in some ways, that is true. Sex and love are two totally different things and Sarah teaches Gabriel about love through a kiss.

A kiss you say? That is correct. I won’t go into great detail about what Sarah’s kissing has done to Gabriel, but it changes everything between them and about Gabriel himself. If you have read the fairy tales where the prince awakens the princess with one sweet kiss, you already know what will happen between Gabriel and Sarah. This is reversed in Broken Wing because Sarah awakens Gabriel that same way the prince awakens his sleeping beauty.

The enjoyment in reading this novel is experiencing the journey a tortured character goes through to find happiness and redemption, essentially their happily ever after. Judith James’s Broken Wing is perhaps one book that has done this so very well. But since I have not finished, I cannot say if I will reach the same opinion Kristie has. I truly hope I do.

I will try and finish reading by the weekend so Kristie and I will have one of our world famous AIM review chats and discuss in full detail what we both like or perhaps dislike about Broken Wing. This is a really great blog event and with everyone on board with the quest, it will be an amazing thing to discuss a new book for weeks or perhaps years to come…

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But for those who don’t have Broken Wing in their possession, I will give you some food for thought. Notice the two covers down below from Avon that will be published this month. Do you see something very familiar about both of them? Me thinks the Avon cover department is running out of ideas, especially when they have two books, with almost the same exact covers coming out the same exact time.

What do you think?

Katiebabs (KB)