Review: Clipped Wings by Helena Hunting

Clipped Wings: Hayden and Tenley

(Clipped Wings #1)

Summary:

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

Review:

Clipped Wings by Helena Hunting is the first full length in a new series about two seriously damaged individuals that find each other and if they can get past their guilt they might begin to find some solace in each other. Tenley survived something so traumatic she had to move to get a fresh start and even then she wakes screaming so loud her neighbor can hear her. Most of the time she is quite and timid and her guilt eats at her but then she meets Hayden. Hayden changes her world! She meets someone who is just as damaged as she is that helps her forget if even for a minute all that she lost. In the moments she finds a bit of who she used to be with flashes of defiance and spunk. Hayden has a rough past; his own guilt eats at him. For years he went on a binge of self-destructive behavior, women, alcohol and drugs. He’s finally been able to clean himself up and concentrate on his shop and his art and then Tenley starts working across the street at his aunt's shop and suddenly he finds himself semi-stalking his new neighbor. Instead of his “stalking” being creepy it’s kind of endearing. His stalking mainly consists of paying attention to when she works and mass quantities of coffee purchasing at the coffee shop attached to his aunt’s store. Hayden racks his brain trying to figure out how to capture the timid Tenley’s attention. He can sense that there is more to her then is shown on the surface and he is more intrigued with her then he has ever been in his life. Hayden is a bit of a throwback, he can be possessive and displays some caveman tendencies when it comes to Tenley. It’s more of his insecurities than anything, as if he lets her out of his grasp she’ll disappear into the ether. Hayden also has a few quirks, including some mild OCD. I wish I could find a dude that cleaned up after me! I hate to clean, so his need to clean sounds like a win win to me! LOL. I love little quirks in a character. It’s the quirks that make them more real, more human. Hayden and Tenley’s relationship starts a little slow. Mostly them circling around each other but when it happens it’s explosive. The sexual chemistry is off the charts but it’s not all just sex with these two. Maybe because of their pasts but they hit the ground running but they both have past and both their pasts come back to bite them both in the arses throughout the book. When they manage to get past one hurdle a massive curveball is thrown their way and their relationship may not be able to survive it. I was completely absorbed in this story and could not put the book down. I honestly did not think this book was going to pull me in like it did but something just hooked me, I’m not even sure what exactly it was that snagged me but damn I was in it to win it. This book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and you are left wanting more of Tenley and Hayden! I was seriously stalking NetGalley and Edelweiss hoping the second books popped up sooner rather than later, so I’m so glad it did. My recommendation, wait until they are both out so you can read them back to back, because if you get hooked you are going to want Inked Armor right away!

*ARC was provided through NetGalley for an honest review. No other compensation was provided.