Ash Wednesday's Reviews > Wounded

3.5 Stars

I had to pause before actually rating this.

I really like stories that are set to occur in situations such as this. Mostly because you run the gamut of human emotion that you won't likely find in fictional Homecoming Dances or a filthy bar where the heroine works. I loved how the author depicted war-time Iraq with believable grit and vividness it was hard to not pay attention. When she describes Rania's clients and when they are doing their business, you can SMELL the place AND the person.

However, this is not my first Jasinda Wilder read and the one I read before this one, didn't really spark my interest. She has this way of telling a story that sounds... telegram-ish (for lack of a better term) in my mind. Sometimes it comes out really muddled:

He will let me touch him because he thinks, correctly, that I am doing what I believe he wants, expects. So instead he shows me what I want. He knows what I want, even though I do not. How strange.

So when the story involves a Marine who has been a soldier since he came out of high school and an Iraqi prostitute who doesn't speak English, and the story comes from their alternating perspectives, that halting inner dialogue ('Me Tarzan, you Jane' sort of thing) sort of worked. I usually like alternate POVs but here, some of the scenes overlap: like a scene would happen from Hunter's perspective and the next section is the same scene from Raina's. Not a fan of those (especially in sex scenes), unless one of the characters have some secret evil plan. Speaking of the sex: (view spoiler)[ there was one scene where Hunter was GOING DOWN on Rania (hide spoiler)] and all I can think of was:



Not to be all Judgy McNuggets here but she IS a prostitute. In war-time Iraq. That can't be the most EPIC idea.