10 August, 2013

#BookReview and #TopTenList :: Stubborn Love by Wendy Owens

Even a broken heart has trouble resisting a Stubborn Love.
Emmie Hayes loved the beautiful Ashton Stirling deeply; nobody could deny that. She had given him her youth, and all he gave in return was misery and pain. She was ready for a new beginning, but Ashton wasn’t about to let her go so easily, even if it meant destroying both their lives in the process.
Three years later Emmie convinces herself she is ready to leave all of that heartbreak in the past and find a little piece of normal for herself. She heads to New York City to pick up where she left off, determined to finish art school. Emmie is determined to focus on school and not let anything distract her, but life has a way of throwing curveballs.
Paige, Emmie’s new roommate, brings Colin Bennett into her life. His smoldering eyes and lean muscular body are difficult for any girl to ignore. Only thing is, Emmie isn’t any girl. Her past makes her resistant to his charms. Colin isn’t one to give up easily, and just when he thinks he may have found a way to her stubborn heart, her tragic history may have found a way to tear them apart.



For Emmie Hayes everything happens very quickly. She falls in love early, gets married early and then at 26 she finds herself as a widow. She had given up her dreams and the best years of her life to Ashton and in return all she had was an abusive relationship. She had finally had the courage to walk out on Ashton with him threatening her to kill himself. What she hadn’t expected was Ashton to follow through. And now she feels the burden of it all – the lost years, the abuse and the suicide. Finally she decides that it was time for her to try and move on, and so she moves to New York to follow her dream of finishing art school from there. She is determined and focused about what she wants and doesn’t want in her new life till she meets Collin Bennet!

Emmie is a character that is both annoying and admirable. She shows great strength by walking out of an abusive relationship on her own. It is a very difficult thing to do and she did it with her head held high. But then the rest of the story takes over and she starts to be annoying. I understand that it is impossible to walk out of such a situation without some emotional scars and initially I did feel for her. But then with time when she continues to refuse to believe in the people around her who try to help and convince her that Ashton’s death wasn’t her fault she starts to irritate me. After a point it even feels like Emmie actually enjoys pitying herself and wallowing nature. Colin on the other hand is what every girl dreams of… Handsome, caring, patient and not a nonsensical bone in his body. I loved how he was always direct about everything. The characters compliment the plot which pretty simple and straightforward. The author’s style of narration is pretty easy to like. 

Overall, it was an entertaining read!



Meet the Author
Wendy Owens was raised in the small college town of Oxford, Ohio. After attending Miami University, Wendy went on to a career in the visual arts. After several years of creating and selling her own artwork, she gave her first love, writing, a try.
Since 2011, she has published a young adult paranormal series, The Guardians, which will contain five books total, as well as a novella.
Wendy now happily spends her days writing—her loving dachshund, Piper, curled up at her feet. When she's not writing, she can be found spending time with her tech geek husband and their three amazing kids, exploring the city she loves to call home: Cincinnati, OH.

Top Ten
Hello, my name is Wendy Owens and I am the author of the new adult romance novel, Stubborn Love. As a guest on b00kr3vi3ws I am honored to write a blog post for you all. I wanted to do something different so I decided to make a top ten post that was a bit different than most. I hope when you finish reading my list you will comment with some of your favorites.

The top 10 villains or douchebags in books you just love to hate or sometimes hate to love:
1. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi - did anyone else want to strangle Warren?
2. Everneath by Brodi Ashton - Cole is oh so clever and sneaky.
3. Half Blood by Jennifer Armentrout - Oh Jennifer, I don’t know if I pity Seth or if he just annoys me. Love to hate! I need to finish this series so bad.
4. Harry Potter by JK Rowling - alright, I know this dips into more YA but Draco Malfoy. You hate him but then you know he has serious daddy issues so you kind want to fix him.
5. Harry Potter by JK Rowling - I can’t help it, she is really good at writing villains you love to hate. Oh Delores Umbridge, how I hate thee.
6. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - Obvious, everyone loves to hate The Lannisters.
7. Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith - Damon Salvatore, oh my the most delicious of villains.
8. The Turning by Jennifer Armentrout - Do they get any more evil than Cyrus Kerrick?
9. Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion - so zombies are inherently the villain, I mean come on, they eat people. Somehow in Warm Bodies we find ourselves sympathizing with them... how confusing, a villain we hate to love but be can’t help ourselves.
10. I leave number ten to you all. Do you have villains you love to hate or even hate to love?

Excerpt 

“Let’s just say the restaurant was great, but the company, not so much,” I offered, wanting to make sure she understood the evening was not as dreamy as she seemed to be imagining.
“What happened?”
“When we got there he had already ordered for us ahead of time. He told me he had asked the chef to prepare something special. At the time I was kind of amazed, but now, looking back on it, it was really annoying. The food was great, but it would have been nice if he had let me pick for myself,” I explained.
“That doesn’t sound like too terrible of an offense,” Paige argued.
“Oh, just wait. So by like the millionth course he had had enough to drink to put down a buffalo, and he started talking about himself in the third person.”
“No! He didn’t!” she exclaimed.
“Yup! And it gets worse; he calls himself by his last name, which is Stryker. He proceeds to tell me about how ‘Stryker has trouble with ladies getting too attached,’ and ‘Stryker always gets his man.’”
“Oh my God! I think I just vomited a little in my mouth.”
“I know, right?” I squealed. “I ended up getting drunk just to be able to put up with him.”
“So, why were you out so late? Where did you go?” Paige was clearly puzzled.
“Oh, this guy was a piece of work. He wouldn’t let me leave. I told him I had to get up early, I had a headache, and at one point I even told him I had to wash my hair.”
“Ouch.”
Taking another bite I chewed, swallowed, and started laughing. Looking back on the night it was funny now.
“He didn’t seem to take a hint,” I added.
“Why didn’t you just get up and leave?”
“I didn’t want to be rude. I knew the place was expensive, and I had agreed to go on a date with him,” I said, defending my actions.
“Oh, honey, you’re a New Yorker now, you better learn to get rude.”
I couldn’t believe in only a week’s time I had come to absolutely adore Paige. I was certain I couldn’t have picked a better girl as my roommate. She always made me laugh, and I admired the way she lived her life exactly the way she wanted.
“I guess I do need to figure that out. Ugh, he seemed like such a nice guy when we were at the park. And he was hot, so damn hot!” The story felt even more ridiculous as I retold it.  Paige was right; I could have saved the entire night by just getting up and walking out.
“The douchebags always are.”
“He ended up dragging me all over the city, one club to the next, most of the night was a blur. He even flirted with other girls right in front of me, but I really didn’t care by that point. I just wanted it to be over.” 
“At least you got a free dinner out of it,” Paige said, attempting to point out the brighter side of the evening.
“Yeah, apparently if you pay a lot for dinner that must mean you will get laid. When he dropped me off he started groping me and trying to stick his disgusting tongue down my throat.”
“Gross!”
“I know! I barely got out of his clutches; thank God we have a security door. I think he would have followed me all the way into the apartment had it not been there.”
“No worries, I would have kicked his ass,” Paige reassured, sticking up two fists and give me her best vicious facial expression. A deep belly laugh erupted from me at the image of her petite frame in the stance.
“I bet.”
“I’m serious!” she defended her capabilities. “Okay, maybe I would have called Christian and Colin, and they would have come down here to kick his ass.”

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1 comment:

  1. Thanks so much for your review and taking the time to participate in the blog tour. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete