Review: I absolutely love Jasinda Wilder.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 4, 2013
I was sooo excited to read it and I was given my ARC but only just gotten round to reading it. And it did not disappoint. You guys need to go one-click it right now.I absolutely love Jasinda Wilder. I always love her storytelling, her characters. And this was no exception.When I found out she was writing a book about a virginal stripper who meets a playboy movie star, I was stoked. What a brilliant premise for a contemporary romance. And I knew Jasinda would execute it fabulously.Stripped is all about Grey Amundsen, the pastor's daughter from Georgia. She's an untouched virgin and has lived by her Daddy's rules her whole life, until she decides enough is enough. Fleeing to LA to pursue an education and career in the film industry, Grey finds herself struggling to pay her way through college. And that's when she finds herself taking a job a stripper. And if she thinks her life has taken a turn around already, when Dawson Keller walks into her strip club and requests a dance from her, he flips her world on it's axis."I want to kiss you whenever I feel like it. I want to tell you when you're being ridiculous. I want to make love to you. I want to f*** you. I want to hold you. I want to be yours."I love these kinds of stories. The desirable, powerful alpha male who falls for the innocent, unworldly girl. Some readers might think they are overdone, but I can't get enough of them. There's something endlessly swoon-worthy about a strong male lead who whisks his damsel in distress off her feet. And that is exactly what Dawson does. Literally.I really enjoyed reading Grey. I wasn't totally in love with her at first. She's prissy, a prude, naive and childlike. But it's easily forgiven, given her up bringing, and as the book progressed, I liked her more and more.'I'm the girl who's off-limits. I'm the pastor's daughter.'I loved Dawson. Totally. From the very beginning, I was head over heels.This book introduces us to Dawson after his womanising, playboy days. When we meet Dawson, he's turned himself around and he's trying to be a better person. So we don't need to start off hating and grow to love him, we can just fall hard from the get-go. I'm pretty easy to please, really... if an author can give me a fantastic hero and have me fall hopelessly in love with them, they're well on their way to a 5/5+ star review, from me."You know I've put on, like, fifteen pounds of muscle since I met you? Because you get me worked up and then I can't get off on my own because if feels wrong, and I need to let it out, so I work out. You turn me on, just breathing."And Dawson really does play the true hero. He wades in and saves our poor Grey, in every way possible. Emotionally, physically, financially... He's yummy, he's totally `alpha', he's rich, he's successful. He's perfect. He brings her breakfast in bed, he massages her feet and he gives her a Range Rover. Men could learn a whole lot from Dawson Keller, right there!"I'm a guy. I pee and I miss the toilet. I take sh**s. I eat cheeseburgers. I watch baseball and drink beer."So, then there's the sex. Wooowwww, anyone got a fire extinguisher?! For a book about a virginal pastor's daughter, this book is loaded with scorchingly steamy sex scenes. Yeh, I loved that, too! It takes a little while for Grey and Dawson to get it together, but once they do, these two are like rabbits. But hey, wouldn't you be if a sexy movie star was trying to woo you into bed?"You're so f***ing gloriously gorgeous that I literally cannot stand it. I'm having to remind myself to keep breathing, because you take my breath away."At the beginning, I couldn't imagine how Jasinda was going to write sexy scenes in the POV of this innocent young girl. Grey couldn't even think the word `cock', and she never wore her skirt above the knee... I just didn't see it being possible. But she totally nailed it! It worked. And then some. And that's what makes it all the more sexy.Grey's journey was a great read. She went from her sheltered childhood, to the what she hoped would be the glitz of LA, but was, in reality, the hardship of making it on her own. The struggles she faced as her job as an `exotic dancer' definitely got me on side. I wanted to have her back. Where she would have seen herself as weak, she was showing strength and survival instincts. That part of story is sordid, emotional and raw.'My name is Grey Amundsen. But Grey, she doesn't exist in here, in this slimy, smoky, sex-hazed hole. In here, I'm Gracie.'And then Dawson offers her security, and you witness yet another change in her. She finds herself, finds who she wants to be, finds who she's capable of being. And he does the same, but in a different way. I loved how he nurtured her, gently, patiently coaxed her, drew her personality out, overcame her insecurities, loved and protected her and allowed her to grow. Absolutely adorable."You make me feel alive, Grey. And... I love that feeling."I'm so confident in recommending all of the Jasinda Wilder books that I've read. She comes up with great, original story-lines, builds characters brilliantly, creates delicious, sexual tension, draws on passionate emotion and executes the whole thing flawlessly. Her books just seem to draw me in and make me want to put everything on hold. I adore that feeling. And 'Stripped' is just another example of this.What are you waiting for? Go out a buy it, ladies!Stripped StatisticsSteam Rating (out of 5): ♥♥♥♥♥Ending: HEASeries: ✗Can this be read as a standalone? YesThemes:Virginal heroinePlayboy movie starGood girl/bad boyWarning. This book includes...Sexual content, attempted rape, anal sexWriting: GreatReview by Smitten's Book Blog