This is another book that has left me in a bind emotionally. Tethered is so well written and the story is full of heartache & sorrow with brief glimpses of joy and stolen moments of ecstasy. However, it is basically the story of a very young girl who is forced to experience and navigate the world as an adult. It is so sad that she has to fight to save the tatters of her own pain riddled innocence. Donya is not afforded the luxury of just being a child despite the love and support that she finds in her "adopted" family. I didn't want her to need to have the maturity that she displayed, but unfortunately if she hadn't she wouldn't have survived as successfully as she did. Donya experiences the fallout caused by her mother's mental illness and her father's apathy with the resilience that no child should have to posses. Fred & Sam Grayne gave her the family that every child deserves with security, stability, & unwavering support-proves that accidents of birth such as blood relations, sex, or race does not define what a family is supposed to be.
Emmet, on the other hand, makes the mistakes and choices of many teenagers although he is more mature than most he isn't on the same plane as Donya. Emmet also feels the tether that binds him to Donya from an early age. However, he tries to write it off as something other than what it ultimately is. He recognizes the age difference between them and the fact that she is his pseudo sister plays a big part in the guilt and confusion they both feel when their feelings for one another emerge. Emmet ultimately makes a mistake twice that at the very worst should only be made once by anyone. Even with his mistakes, I couldn't help but root for these two to one day make things work out despite the myriad number of obstacles that they faced. Even when some of those obstacles were self inflicted I wanted them to figure it out.
The description of the tether that binds them is truly one of the most beautiful means of describing the connection between two people that I have ever read. When this love affair is started Donya is so very young and I didn't like that. Yet, with that being said, if she had been even 5 years older the story couldn't have been told and experienced the way that it is. In order to get the full scope of Donya and Emmet's relationship Donya needed to be this young, it just doesn't make for a fully comfortable experience. I have daughters at the ages and stages that she is in the majority of this book so the love affair that she has makes me a little squeamish. What Donya and Emmet have together is truly, deeply, and meaningfully a love affair, it is just experienced too soon and some of the problems Donya and Emmet face are direct results of their immaturity. Their experience of love is all consuming and beautiful, but it is definitely not one that I would wish for my own children at such a young age. Yet, the ability to feel and experience what she does at such a young age is precisely what makes Donya unique, it just makes my heart ache for her that she had the life that lead to it.
If you are looking for a read that you can completely immerse yourself into and emerge from it at the end a little bit tattered and weathered around the edges for having read it go grab a copy of Tethered. This is a book that will take you there and more. This is going on my favorites list immediately!
My favorite line maybe of all time:
"I think I loved you the moment you were born into this world even though I didn't know who you were yet."
Yep, pass the tissue...
Happy Reading!
Monica
Synopsis:
From the New York Times Best Selling Author of the Accidentally On Purpose trilogy…
“You were born to be mine and I was born to be yours.”
Donya Stewart’s chest filled with the soft beating wings of butterflies when she first met Emmet Grayne’s green eyes at the ripe age of five. Unable to identify the tugging pressure within her when in his presence, Donya moved through the first several years of her life addled by her feelings for the boy who was her best friend’s brother, and very much like her own sibling. But one cool autumn night in her mystifying teenage years, Emmet erases any ideas Donya has of him being anything like a sibling.
Donya and Emmet, unable to deny the invisible cord that fetters them together on an incredibly visceral level, begin a long journey on a road abounding with challenges, hurdles, and destructive forces. Their love for one another is absolute, and the emotional link between them is strong, but when they make a series of painful decisions and mistakes that pull them apart, the strength of that tether is challenged.
Donya’s career as a model took her around the world and away from Emmet who was working hard for his law degree. When Donya makes a hard decision for both of them, the tether between them stretches beyond what seems possible.
“The tether contorted and quivered and groaned in protest.”
With age comes maturity and hindsight. Will Emmet and Donya have to live apart and with the consequences of their choices? Happy endings aren’t always a guarantee, even for two people who were born into this world for each other. Will the link between them bring them together or prove to ensnare them in heartache?
If you are in search of an angst-filled romance novel, get tied into Tethered…
Note From Author: Tethered is meant for mature readers over the age of 18. This is a standalone novel - reading my other published novels is welcome, of course, but not necessary.
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