The Light in the Wound by Christine Brae

Genre: New Adult, Romance
Page Count: 372
Publication Date: July 23, 2013
Rating: 0/10
Price: $9.90
*Source: Netgalley*

Goodreads Blurb: 

Affected by her parents’ highly publicized divorce, Isabel grows up isolated and alone, with a resolve to never fall in love and repeat their mistakes. 

When Jesse Cain enters her life, she falls hopelessly in love with him, and every sadness she’s ever felt is washed away by his intensity and passion. But people change as they grow up. Things can never stay the same forever.

Jesse and Isabel fight to stay together, determined to hold on to what they once had. Isabel wonders if a second love can ever be enough to make her forget her first.

Review:

One word - BAD!!!!!! This book was horrible. The only comparison I can give you is a really bad soap opera.

First thing: I am a strong feminist. So to me, the blurb sounded really needy. All that "I need him" stuff. Gives me the shivers. But still, the problem sounded interesting enough for me to go "why not?
". And I really really really REALLY regret that decision.

So the start of the book was like the end-ish part of the book. Like the aftermath of the big problem. I usually love those because they literally spell:



But this want was just a:



I should've taken that as a warning. I really should've.

So after that it was ok. I mean kids...they're great. You can't help but love them. It was a great start, stated the problem, introduced the characters. Great. But then it turned into Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The only way I can describe it is looking through a canvas through sheets of flash paper. It's dopey, you can sort of see, but it's like looking through a trance, but not in a good way. It made me feel drowsy reading it and worked better than any sleeping pill(not that I use them). Isabel goes here, then there, goes home, sees disturbing stuff, goes ok, continues on. You feel nothing because there's nothing for you to feel. You know why? Because the character ain't feelin' nothin' either. She says she does, but does she? And here I thought Kristen Stewart was a bad actor.

Just when you think it can't get worse, it does. Suddenly the flash paper flies away and you see the canvas. But the canvas is covered with streaks of colour just thrown on there non-stop. Ya know the source of that? Jesse Cain. He'll have to wait though. All of a sudden the character wakes up like Sleeping Beauty and starts feeling. Only her feelings are magnified by a thousand and her hormones are going on big roller coasters inside her. I look out in the field, I cry. First day of school and I don't know anyone, I cry. Yes, Isabel, everyone should just happen to know everyone and makes friends on their first day. That's totally how the world works. She cries over freaking everything! I mean, I'm not heartless, I know Isabel went through some trauma. Family issues, yes, I know. I understand. I do sympathise with her. But not if she's acting like a spoiled brat and expecting everyone to do things for her. I mean, who has time for responsibilities, right? Who cares about homework if there's a shoe sale going on? Jesus! This is basically her:

One word, train-wreck. And I'm just standing here. Do I want to help her, heck no. I feel as much towards her as I do towards Shailene Woodley's short hair. And worse? She realises she's a train-wreck and what does she do to fix it? Abso-freaking-lutely nothing. And the wall she keeps hitting has a name, Jesse Cain.

Personally, I dislike him, has throughout the whole story. But I don't hate him like the author wants the reader to. Mainly because Isabel chose to keep hitting that wall that is Jesse Cain. Did Jesse help, no, but he didn't exactly do anything either. He's an ambitious guy, wants certain things out of his life. Has goals. How horrible. He had the right mindset to his future, that at least I can respect, especially since Isabel doesn't. I don't think she even knows the concept that money doesn't just fly from the sky and land into her bank account. However, I do agree that he doesn't know the proper way to treat women. Which is with respect, even if the person doesn't deserve it, and not like a property. If you wanted a property, buy a dog. And yes, Isabel has treated him with nothing but support. Yeah, the word support, let's talk about that.

Dear author, there's a difference between support and submission. Support means you encourage the person to go whatever he wants to and know you're there to help him. Submission means I will just go along with whatever he decides because I can't think of another way. Can't say Isabel had a really bright future ahead of her, but she had a decent one. And the minute she meet Jesse Cain all she wanted out of life is to be a trophy wife, an arm candy, just a pretty face. She was willing to give up everything, including herself, to 'support' Jesse. You know what's really funny about this? It's the fact that Jesse didn't ask her to give it up. She CHOSE to trade herself in, willingly, for no very good reason. 

And later in life when she looks back, guess what she feels? Blame. For Jesse. Maybe not in words but she certainly didn't think she could've done anything about it. I would slap this girl if I wasn't so entertained by this. Oh yeah, anger. Buddy, sorry for ignoring you. For the whole train-wreck part, anger was just coursing through me again and again. When she ditches the train-wreck, what does she do? Immediately get on another train because she doesn't know how to steer her own self. Trust me, it doesn't get better, just slightly less wreck-y.

I'm a strong feminist, so the anger I feel towards Isabel is..... there are no words. Through the whole book,even when she felt like she grew up, she still can't and won't stand without a man. This book should be called "The Girl Who Threw Feminism Out the Window". Because that's what she did. She wrote feminism on a LV bag and:

Don't get me wrong, I'm not someone who think leaning on someone is not acceptable. But I am a strong believer on co-dependency in relationships. You can't just lean on someone, it's 'an eye for an eye'. So I was really frustrated with this book because guess what message the author is trying to convey? If you have a guy, why even try? If you cry, all your problems will fly? Seriously? If I wanted to know that I'd watch the Disney channel. Given the author of this book is also of the female species, I am HUGELY disappointed. I regret reading this book and I wish I could take back all the time I spent on it. Which is a lot, because the book is actually quite long(or at least it feels long) and 60% of it is completely repeating the same thing and could definitely been cut out. There are so many books in this world and I feel extreme remorse that I could've been reading any other book instead of this. Christine Brae, please, no more. 

On Goodreads, the book rating was actually pretty good. Really makes me wonder. And when I heard there was going to be a second book called His Wounded Light, this was me:



Like fixing someone? Fix yourself first, girl. And when I saw the rating on Goodreads for the second book was 4.42, this was me:

And then:


Will I read it? WILL I READ IT? Heck to the no. You know why? Because I'm afraid if I read another book like this I will end up in the mental hospital. It's that bad, people.

Overall, I wouldn't wish this book on my worst enemy.