Review: Wounded by Amy Lane

Wounded (Little Goddess, book 2)
Amy Lane
iUniverse
January 26, 2006
ISBN: 0595379141

Green: "If someone gives their life for you, it is because they can not bear to live in a world without you. This is a great gift and a terrible burden, and if you are going to live, you need to be grateful for the gift and prepared to bear the burden."

Cory: "I do fearsome things, when I'm touching people who love me..."

Cory fled the foothills to deal with the pain of losing Adrian, and Green watched her go. Separately, they could easily grieve themselves to death, but when an enemy brings them together, they find out what a great and terrible force love can be.

Cory's now a college student in San Francisco. She goes to class, she eats, sleeps, hangs out with Renny, her roommate, and her new friend, Nicky, but she isn't really living. Ever since she escaped home after painfully losing Adrian, she's been going through the motions but not really caring. She's always wanted to go to college but losing him changed everything.

The only time that she feels okay is when she's with her elf love, Green. They both need time to grief their loss but when Cory's horribly attacked by someone who she considered a friend and Green hears her call for help, he can't help but to answer. That sets off a series of events that will forever changed both their lives. A new enemy is rising but so are new alliances and Cory and Green are right in the middle of it.

It's hard to describe how Wounded made me feel. I actually cried a lot more than I did with Vulnerable. In this book, Cory's a completely new person, it seems. Her grief has shaped her in such a way that physically and emotionally, that's all she is. And while she's still dealing with her pain, all these things start occurring that causes a whirlwind of emotions in her. While she finds new love in a unlikely friend, she finds herself and I think that was the most important aspect of the book. She's grown in a lot because she has gone through a lot but in Wounded, she finds a way to move on and like I said, finds herself again.

Bracken's my absolutely favorite character. He's insanely protective of Cory and what I loved most about him is he is just hers. He's her rock. And it would have been great to be able to read his point of view but the story focuses on either Cory's or Green's. I'm still not sure how I feel about Green. He's their protector, their leader but it's painfully obvious that he wants Cory to himself and he just can't have that. I felt that the matter with Nicky was really not okay at all. That's the one thing that I did not like about Wounded. He's so young and he's basically trapped in a loveless marriage now. And I'm torn between thinking that while this definitely could have been avoided, I'm really hoping that it doesn't turn into some kind of three-people marriage.

Much of the storyline takes place in San Francisco, mostly centered on the war that is going on between the elves that live there and the new evil guy trying to take over that area. While there's plenty of action and great fights, Wounded is mostly focused on Cory's relationships but it doesn't completely eclipsed the plot at all. There's a nicely written balance between these two aspects that make Wounded a great read. As always, I'd like to mention that Mrs. Lane is a self-published author and as such, there's a number of grammatical errors in the story. But I'd also like to mention to mention that while they're noticeable, they, in no way, take anything away from this wonderful story. I absolutely enjoyed this rollercoaster of events and emotions with Cory, especially with Bracken, and I'm so looking forward to see what the future brings for these two in Bound, the third book in the Little Goddess series.