Thursday, October 09, 2008

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)

16 comments:

LesleyW said...

Considering I don't like historicals I'm finding it hard to believe how obsessed I've become about getting a copy of this book. :)

I've ordered a copy from Amazon UK, but currently it's at 9-12 days. So looks like I'm going to have to learn some patience. :sigh:

KT Grant said...

Historical romance is my favorite genre and I love the name Gabriel! Hopefully everyone will be able to find this book and we can discuss! :D

Janicu said...

Really weird. I see this post and the initial morning post is still in google reader. So.. well I guess it's too late to just copy and paste what was saved in google reader.

Ciara said...

I can't wait to read it!

Brie said...

I've had no luck finding the book early, and I really want it!! Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait till November, I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

Brie said...

I've had no luck finding the book early, and I really want it!! Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait till November, I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

Anonymous said...

After reading the post about this the other night I added it to my Amazon order and the box arrived today. I came home from work at 5p, started reading out on the deck on this beautiful, sunny afternoon. It's almost 6:30p, I'm 150 pages in and...Ohmygod, can this woman write!

I get the feeling I'm going to have my heart broken by this story before the end and...there had better be a HEA! What a story she's telling, it does just grab you by the throat. I hope I'm not going to stay up all night - but I probably am, geez I'm going to feel like crap tomorrow at work and I've got a meeting at the Corporate office to boot!

I love a new author, a new beyond good book and am so often disappointed by recommendations - but so far, NOT by this one.

Thanks so much for both of the posts about this book, gotta feed the damn dogs and then back to it!

Kristie (J) said...

When Katie said she found this one, I begged her and begged her to post what she thought of it so far. She didn't tell me too much in the emails - so I'm so glad she did this post :)

Peggyp: *Clapping hands in absolute delight!!!!!*
You're loving it I take it! And yes - he's going to continue to break your heart. And I'm not going to give away the end - that would spoil things for others, but let's just say I HATE, HATE, HATE books with bad endings. So if I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a book, chances are pretty good that...........
And can't she just write though!! I was awed. I hope you come back when you're done - and if you want to do a guest post - you're more than welcome - just email me:)

Brie: Delayed gratification can be a bitch can't it? But it IS worth the wait. Oh yes, it is SO worth it!

Ciara: Hopefully you will be reading it soon!

Janicu: I don't have any kind of google reader. Katie emailed me to say it was up - but when I FINALLY got a chance to check it out it was all wonky.

Katie: Now I have to put mitts on my hands so I don't start talking it all up with you!! Have to save that for the 'Chat' portion of The Quest - heh heh heh.

Lesleyw: They say patience is a virtue - but what the heck do they know??? It's damned annoying is what it is!! But 9 to 12 days doesn't sound too too bad.

Kristie (J) said...

As for the covers - my first thought is it looks like the poor guy on the right has a very sore looking, very big zit on his chest!! Don't you hate the way they always pop out at the most inopertune times?

Anonymous said...

Mine came in today's mail. Saving it for our long car trip these weekend! Can't wait!

Kristie (J) said...

Squeeee! Now it will be a real exciting weekend!! Katie finishing it, Peggyp finishing, you reading it!!
*shivering with excitement* Love it!

Amy said...

You can also have your posts emailed to you which is what I do, to avoid such a catastrophe again. :)

J said...

Hey there.

Your blog is a great source of information about love and romance. I would be glad if we could exchange links with my blog:
http://lifelemonsisnom.blogspot.com/

I usually update my blog at least everyday and I try to maintain the niche of my blog.

Please let me know if you want to exchange links. Send me an email: j.haguisan@harvestseo.com or just leave me a comment at my blog.

More power to you!

Cheers.

J

Anonymous said...

OK, it's Friday morning and I'm at work now but I did finish the book last night. What a ride! Thought the descriptive process was well done - details but not so much to slow the story down. Loved the protags...how could you not?

When everybody's ready we have to talk about the last 75 pages or so - I have some quibbles with that part of the book.

Overall, an A++ and a keeper, yowza that was a good read!

Kristie (J) said...

Peggp: An A++ - Sqquueeeee!!!
Now I can hardly wait until more people read it so we can talk about it!!! 'Cause now you have me curious as to your quibbles *chuckle*
And I hope your day isn't too rough today *g*

Chilbi: Thanks, I checked out your blog - it's nice. Mine is 90% romance book focused though *g*. I love to share the highs and lows of the genre.

Mia said...

I'm going to look for this over the weekend, I'm all for this crusade! =)