Tour Stop {Review/Giveaway}: Wounded by Jasinda Wilder

Wounded
by Jasinda Wilder
Kindle Edition, 277 pages
Published December 16th 2012
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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.

When you join the military fresh out of high school graduation gowns, one of two things happen that’s the norm.  You either die young or you retire in uniform.  Very infrequently do you simply walk away without a battlefield notch.  Hate to sound like the cliché old vet, but I’ve seen some things…done some things.  While I’m used to disbelieving looks people get in their eyes when I say I fought in Iraq; I’m sure I’ll get even more when I say not only did I fight, but 10 years post first boots in the sand, I read a romance about a U.S.Marine and Iraqi prostitute and loved it.  Well I’d be dammed!  Not going to say I knew beforehand what Wounded was about and agreed to review with the twisted notion of knowing I would hate it.  Nope!  I’ll admit that the cover drew me in and I didn’t even glance at the synopsis until one paragraph in when I began to dread the tell-tale signs of a war setting novel.  It was at that point that I looked up the novel’s teaser.  That didn't tell much so I scanned through a few review first paragraphs of fellow reviewers.  From those tidbits I assumed this was going to be a sick twisted cheap porno version of a lonely soldier’s fantasy, and almost vomited in my mouth.  I apologize for the graphic visual, but it’s the truth.  I had to convince myself that not giving this a chance was the wrong thing to do.  My word is my bond.  I’m glad I soldiered up. 

Wounded is told from two points of view.

Rania is an Iraqi citizen whose know the hardships her whole life.  War has claimed her family.  During the Gulf War, she and her younger brother have an experience that changes them both.  From that point in the story things get even more dire. Another war comes to Iraq.  Desperation takes hold as she struggles to survive with her past decisions looming over her. 

Hunter is an American Marine.  He is deployed to Iraq.  When his platoon is ambushed.  He goes missing in action and is consequently a prisoner of war.

Wounded is a story about love blooming in the most unlikely of places and the most unforeseen characters. 

Note to the author:

Reading Highlights:

The lows of the highs:

While I wanted to give Wounded an "EPIC" rating, there were a few nagging issues.  There were scenes where I believe the author was sugar coating.  I find it hard to believe that the drunken soldier was coherent enough to coerce tween Rania into quid pro quo.  I believe that was probably meant to be a heinous scene but rewritten as a means to not offend.  In real life that would have been just another hazard of being a vulnerable child in a dog eat dog world. Having served in Baghdad, I've also seen many children on their hussle selling everything from Iraqi currency, bottled water, to used tennis shoes.  So I'm pretty sure selling *clearing throat* wasn't an "only means".  Poor Rania was naive and obviously lived a very sheltered life to not know how to fend on the streets. On another note, there was  a whole lot of Lazarus activity, if you know what I mean. There were loop holes here and there of which I would love to ask Jasinda Wilder to elaborate on outside of this review.  

Sum:

Over all this was the type of story to touch on a lot of emotions within the reader.  It’s neutral on the American/Iraqi cultural stand front with not much propaganda.  It definitely stuck a cord with me.  Much of the scenes I can vouch were realistic enough that I associated them with my real life experiences.  Which made the story more real to me and I could overlook many of the smaller flaws.  I definitely plan to recommend Wounded to my battle buddies in hopes that they too could overcome their reservations to give it a chance.

*Big thanks to the author for entrusting me with an honest review.

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