Review: If it wasn't well-written, I might have DNF-ed this. But thankfully, it worked out for me!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 17, 2013
***4 I-want-more stars!***While waiting for it to go live on Amazon and start syncing on my Kindle since I pre-ordered it months ago, this is me jumping up and down.Once it was on my Kindle, I started reading. The first few pages are kind of sad for me. I wasn't thinking how and why Grey was still a virgin and what made her desperate enough to start stripping so when I read her story, it made me sad. Emotional even. I couldn't say that I can relate with her situation but I've had some friends' parents who act and think just a little bit better than Grey's Daddy. It was suffocating. Unreasonable. Unfair. Even odd. So, I can only imagine Grey's life with a Dad like hers.The sadness didn't stop there.Her mom. Ohmygosh I cried reading about how Grey stood by her mother especially during her last breath."It's okay, Mama. I'll be okay. I'll miss you every day. But... you've fought so hard. I know you have. I know how much you love me and Daddy. I'll take care of him, okay? You... you can go now. It's okay. You don't have to fight anymore."HEARTBREAKING.OverviewGrey's Daddy is a pastor. An old-fashioned one at that. He believes almost everything is sinful - fashion, even movies and dancing - and women are supposed to stay at home and be all prim and proper."All Daddy cares about is his own idea of right and wrong. Everything is in black and white for him, and most things are black. There's more that's sinful and wrong than there are things that are okay."All the while I can imagine a terrible horror movie where the characters live in a haunted, deserted place and haven't seen and socialize with other people for years. Like they're stuck in the 1800's and we're now in 2013. Grey's Daddy is so closed-minded that he expects Grey to "marry a godly man headed for the seminary", she has to ask permission to dance and her Dad checks her steps and routine to make sure it isn't provocative or sinful, she grew sheltered and almost anti-social. It's admirable that Grey didn't turn out to be rebellious even just a little.Grey's Mom is supportive. She can be closed-minded too but it's more on just being agreeable to her Dad than it being what she really is. She was a dancer too but gave it up for Grey's Dad. She supports Grey's dancing but not very openly against Daddy and she still tells Grey to just follow what her Dad says and wants for her because it's for "her best". At the end though, I can feel her motherly love and support until she couldn't anymore."... I know... I know you may not want to be a pastor's wife, and I understand that."Reading about Grey's parents irritated me. I don't know what I expected Grey's story would be but being a sheltered pastor's daughter didn't cross my mind. After her Mom died, she packed up and left for L.A. even with her father somewhat disowning her for it.So she left for L.A. to pursue her college education in film with only $400 dollars in her name.And that's how the stripper story began...Grey AmundsenShe started struggling more after finding out that her grant is running out and she has to either use it all up or have it spread out until she finishes her degree but she has to pay for the remaining fees. So she started to look for jobs and because she was sheltered and have no work experience whatsoever, it was more difficult for her to land a job where she can get paid to afford her tuition, housing, and food expenses.Eyes closed, she decided that stripping is her only choice, she doesn't want to go back to her Dad in Georgia being a failure. She had to stand up for herself. Fend for herself. Work for her dream to be in the film industry. And stripping is the only available option for her at the time. So she goes for it.This part, and the few parts where she performs her strip routine, started to get slightly difficult for me to read mainly because I can feel she really doesn't want to do it, she's vulnerable, scared, alone, and she's trying to hold it all together and be strong."My breasts bounce free, and I stand topless in front of a hundred and fifty men.A single tear drips free to mingle with the sweat on my upper lip.I'm officially a stripper."Jasinda Wilder wrote it in a way where you can feel Grey's pain and struggle in being a stripper. I don't even know whether to feel sorry for her or I just want to say "If you're going to throw up and cry every time you finish your set, please for the love of God, JUST DON'T DO IT ANYMORE!!!"But then again, she's like a 13-year old girl, still lost in the world. Naive. So okay.Thank God for small blessings though because while working as a stripper at Exotic Nights, she met the famous, hot Hollywood actor, Dawson Kellor.There's instant attraction between Grey and Dawson. The way Dawson looked at Grey when she first entered the VIP room and how he asked the other men to leave when she started stripping felt intimate, passionate. And that kiss… sweet but not less hot."His mouth descends to mine, and his lips brush across mine, hot and moist and soft."Their sex scenes are hot, hot, hot but it's too bad it started happening way beyond halfway and almost nearing the end of the book.There were quite a few running, denials, and chasing that happens in this book but Dawson makes it worth it somehow. I like how he took over the job problem and the tuition after their argument about it. I get why Grey refuses to take it and sees it as her "being paid" but she could've handled it better and maybe came up with a compromise on her taking the money. She really doesn't like stripping, right?!After that incident, everything else happened too quickly for me. They were good and in love and Grey and her Daddy made peace, she moved in with Dawson, celebrated Dawson's birthday, Dawson proposed, and the Epilogue.If it wasn't well-written, I might have DNF-ed this. But it did work for me. Thankfully!OverallSo, that .5 is for the part where I want more and the other .5 is because I felt it's short (when it really isn't) and the good stuff happened slow and then fast and then it's done. Hence, the I want more part especially the Epilogue. You know I'm a sucker for those! :)