Review ~ Collared by Nicole Williams

Book Description:

When a seventeen-year-old girl vanishes,

A community is shaken.

Parents turn desperate.

Friends hold vigils.

And the boy who loves her searches.

When a year goes by,

The community is recovering.

Parents feel hopeless.

Friends feel helpless.

And the boy who loves her continues his search.

When ten years go by,

The community has forgotten.

Parents cling to the past.

Friends move toward the future.

And the boy who loves her . . .

Brings her home.

Jade Childs spent ten years in captivity, but now that she’s back, the real battle for survival begins. The media shadows her. Flashbacks haunt her. Her old life evades her. Her so-called new life rejects her. She spent too many years in the dark to recognize the light. She spent too long repressing her feelings to remember how to express them. She spent a decade abandoning hope and cannot dare letting it back into her life. Jade’s not just defined by what happened to her—she’s collared to it.

When the twenty-seven-year-old woman is found,

A community wants to know the story,

Parents want to forget the story,

Friends want to be a part of the story,

And the man who still loves her faces the greatest challenge yet: letting her go.

Buy Links:

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1QM7XUJ

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1pcBv36

Our Review:

Reviewed by Donna ~ 5 stars

“Everyone thought I was dead.”

“Everyone was wrong.”

This was a book that I have been itching to read since release day. I had it pre-ordered, I couldn’t sign up for the blog tour because my schedule was chock solid and I just knew that I didn’t know when I would find time to read. Well, today was the day and I couldn’t put it down and the midnight oil was well and truly burned.

Sometimes, when you finish a book you know you have read a bloody good book and that was how I felt once I had finished Collared. I was lying in bed, husband fast asleep, tears streaming down my face and said to myself, that was an amazing read. I was mentally checking off all my favourite books and I knew without a doubt that this was up there…there has not been a new entry for a long time so I am truly honoured to add Collared to my list of all-time favourites ever!!

This is one of those books where I cannot really talk about the story at all, it is one of those books that you need to go in blind and read the book as the author intended. Experience those highs and lows yourself and all the twists and turns in between. This book will grab you by the heart from the very beginning and won’t let you go until the end and even then it will still have a tight vice grip the following day. I dreamed about these characters last night and now that I am awake, I am still thinking about them and now I have to try to put into words just how awesome this book was. I truly hope I do it justice.

Collared is a powerful, emotional, captivating story about friendship, love, hope, survival and the struggles in finding a new “normal.” It is also about forgiveness and most importantly of never giving up. An epic love story of teenage love and soul mate connection where no matter how dire the circumstances appear to be you just never give up, you keep looking, one day, two months, three years, five years, ten years…you just keep looking.

“You brought me back…when everyone else just kind of left me behind.”

Torrin and Jade were seventeen year olds who were hopelessly and devotedly in love, but not that puppy love or teenage infatuation, it was obvious they had found their perfect match. They complemented each other, they were there for one another, they loved fiercely and they were soul mates. The brief glimpse that we are treated to of them as a couple in the beginning is captured perfectly by Nicole Williams and you believe that these two have that forever love and will stand the test of time and everything that their families and the world could throw at them. Little did they know that this would be tested after the best night of their young lives.

“I’ll never finish falling in love with you.”

Nicole Williams delivers with stunning creativity and originality a story that will captivate you from the get go, a story that centres around life after Jade’s captivity rather than a harrowing account of her past ten years. You do get glimpses as she re-tells her story but this is all about the after affects and a love that would never let go, a man that would never give up and a man that just knew in his heart of hearts that his one true love was alive and kicking and was just waiting to be found.

Torrin, I loved this man, when he loved, he loved completely, where most would have given up he didn’t, his sincerity, his tenacity and his drive to succeed ultimately brought Jade home. He was like a dog with a bone, he never, ever, let go. His love for Jade was bone deep, he couldn’t and wouldn’t forget and day after day, month after month, year after year…he kept going, kept looking and kept hounding the police.

“I’ve got ten years of making up to do. I can’t afford to waste a single day.”

Jade has a lot to deal with once she is found, ten years inside a house with only her captor for company leaves her with a mountain to climb. She hasn’t seen the outside, hasn’t felt fresh air or the sun on her face for ten years, hasn’t been around crowds and the sudden media frenzy that she finds herself in is overwhelming in every way.

“It’s there, Jade. It’s not gone. He took ten years of your life – ten years…don’t hand him the rest of it by believing that shit”

I loved the way that Nicole Williams captures how her family struggle too, how to integrate their daughter back into family life and how to deal with their own insecurities and guilt. This doesn’t just affect the person kidnapped, but all the people left behind too.

“Everyone needs protection from me. There’s something dark in me now, Torrin, and I can’t get it out. It’s growing, spreading, and I don’t want it to infect the people I love.”

Torrin had always been her anchor and never had Jade needed him more than she does now, ten years is a long time, the boy is now a man and a lot has happened. People change, but what Nicole Williams delivered in style was a believable account of a love that never died, a true account of soul mates in every sense of the word and friendships that stand the test the time. She stayed true to her characters and delivered a story that she obviously poured her heart and soul into. A story that will have you in tears at times but one that will leave with an overwhelming sense of hope.

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

This is by far Nicole Williams best book, the emotion, the flawless writing and that all-encompassing intensity make this a journey, a journey that will leave your heart in your mouth and your tear ducts empty. A journey that I was privileged to have taken with these characters and a journey that I will never, ever forget. These are two characters that will stay with me forever. I seriously cannot recommend this story enough.

“I can’t bend anymore. I’m already broken.”