Review: I devoured STRIPPED.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 16, 2013
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.It was no surprise when I devoured this book in less than 12 hours. It was a pizza night at my house because I couldn't put my kindle down.Let us start at the very beginning. The dedication was priceless."A friend is like a good bra: hard to find, comfortable, supportive, always lifts you up, makes you look better, never lets you down or leaves you hanging, and always close to your heart."This was my laugh and a good start to Stripped. Most of us have seen this quote and know that it hold real meaning to us women. We all have that special friend that we hold close to our hearts. Lets face it ladies we take care of each other.Grey a small town preachers' daughter lives the life her parents have planned for her, but she has a true passion and seeks it out to feel free and alive.Grey loves to dance and has a remarkable talent for it but according to good old dad it's a sinful display that can only lead to more sin and the downfall of his daughter."No daughter of mine will engage in any such lewd and sinful behavior as dancing,""Grey, I don't approve of dancing. God does not approve of dancing."Grey's mother on the other hand feels different about Grey's natural talent and encourages her to pursue her dancing."Our daughter knows right from wrong, and you know it. She just wants to bring glory to God by using the talents He's given her."Jasinda's description of Grey's solo dance was entrancing. Sharing in the love of dance myself I was able to see Grey's dance step for step in Jasinda's artful description. It's powerful, beauty left me in tears.Grey also has a second passion "film" which she knows in her heart will someday lead to a career. But once again Grey's dreams are shattered by hers father religious point of view that Hollywood if full of sin."I expected better from you, Grey.""I really did. Film school? That's worse than any lewd dancing. You would be working with the scum of the earth. People who think it's okay to glorify murder and dishonesty and sexual perversion."My heart just broke for Grey. How could a parent be so cruel?? But Grey has a stubborn streak and a strength inside her I am not sure she is aware of yet.Grey suffers a great loss not only in her life but in her faith."Those words are the worst lie. I don't believe them. I don't believe in God. Not anymore."She gathers her strength and makes her way out into the world on her own. She is going to L.A. to fulfill her dreams regardless of what her father thinks. This is her dream and she will succeed with or without his help."If you leave this house, you've made your choice. If you leave, you'll be willfully choosing sin.""He won't accept what I want to do, and I ain't-- I'm not gonna let him run my life anymore."The story of Grey's life really starts once she reaches L.A. and begins college. Jasinda takes this part of the story to expand on Grey's inner feelings of herself and others around her. She has been immersed into a world she has little understanding of but she manages to make it through her day to day without to much difficulty. Grey begins to struggle financially though and finds herself in the last place she expected.Desperation to succeed can make you do some very desperate things and Grey is at that point.Gracie is born -"I grasp the lapels of the shirt and rip it open, scattering buttons with a dramatic flourish"."I'm officially a stripper."Wrestling between what's morally right and wrong to sin or not sin. Grey meets and begins to fall in love with the actor Dawson Kellor. He is everything she is not and everything she should stay away from. But he sees her, the real her.I must have had a swoongasm every time Dawson kissed Grey. The inner struggle of emotions these two continue to fight made me want to scream but it was all so worth it. The explosive love they realize they have for each other and need from one other is breath taking and oh so heartbreaking."I want you, and you're right that I don't want to want you. You scare me.""He knows exactly what I need, what I want, even if I don't."In the end her struggle was really worth the love that she found. Not only does she learn to love and be loved by another but she has learned to love and except herself. Stripper or not she is Grey Amundsen and she is a dancer of life, strength, passion, happiness and love.I can always depend on Jasinda to break my heart and turn me inside out. Her stories always provoke an intense emotional reaction within me. When you pick up a Jasinda Wilder book and I strongly suggest you do, you not only get a phenomenal read but a meaningful story with deep emotional characters. At the end of her books you feel like you just took the ride of your life. I guarantee you will laugh, scream, ugly cry and swell with so much emotion you just might burst.