Clipped Wings by Helena Hunting

Hey everyone,

I thought it'd been a while since I’d read a New Adult romance and decided that needed rectifying as soon as physically possible, therefore I dived straight in Clipped Wings by Helena Hunt this weekend.

The book:

An emotional love story that follows the touch-and-go relationship of Hayden and Tenley; two young people who desperately want to love and be loved but are afraid to completely let go of their pasts.

As Hayden and Tenley navigate their newfound but slightly unstable relationship, they want to trust each other, but Hayden is hiding a dark and shameful past that he doesn't ever want Tenley to find out about. And Tenley has secrets of her own that could make Hayden run away forever.

When Tenley asks Hayden to put a beautifully elaborate tattoo across her back, the two form what they thought was an unshakeable bond. But when Tenley's past shows up on her doorstep, will Hayden stand by her side...or run?

My thoughts:

It was okay. I didn’t loved Clipped Wings but I certainly didn’t hate it. I think my major problem with it was I didn’t understand why the characters acted the way they did. Particularly Tenley, I understand she lost everyone important to her and that would be beyond horrible but some of her actions just didn’t make sense. Unless the author was just using her actions to move the plot along.

A lot of the situations Hayden and Tenley found themselves in just didn’t work for me. These two need to learn to communicate more and essentially all their problems would be over. And I know communication is an easy word to write but an incredibly hard one to do, but these two need to figure it out.

‘I shouldn’t have kept it from you.’ I shouldn’t continue to keep things from him. And that was it, the horrible truth underneath it all’.

In many ways it was a typical New Adult romance, high emotions, dark pasts, instant sexual attraction and some seriously bad decision making. I just never felt invested in the characters, especially towards the end. There were so many different threads happening in this story, Tenley and Hayden’s relationship, Tenley’s past, Hayden’s past, The Dollhouse, Sienna, Damien, Tenley’s academic advisor and the ex-brother in-law. It was just too much drama in one book for me.

‘Typically wings were symbolic of freedom, but with Tenley’s, the consuming fire and decimation of the wings would make flight painful. As though gaining freedom had been the cause of great agony. But even through the pervasive darkness, there was still a hint of light’.

I really enjoyed Lisa and Jamie, friends of Hayden’s, and to be honest I would love to read their story. I also loved the Tattoo Parlour setting, especially as it felt like the Helena Hunting knew what she was talking about from a technical perspective. The descriptions and conversations around Tenley’s tattoo were some of my favourite scenes, although her first tattoo was just a bit random in my opinion.

Perhaps this is just a sign I’ve become disinterested in people in their 20s having super dark pasts. I would have much preferred this book if Tenley had just been a student at university who met a brooding, slightly damaged tattoo artist or vice versa. Also just a slight note this ends on a complete cliffhanger with no HEA in sight so prepared to buy more than one book if you do love Clipped Wings.

My rating:

Happy reading and see you next time!