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nadaabouelnasr's review against another edition
4.0
My heart is still aching .. it’ll take me awhile to be able to read anything after this
vynix's review against another edition
5.0
you know it's good when the book makes you cry real tears
myloveoflit's review against another edition
5.0
I want to know if Pepper ugly cried while writing this story as much as I did reading it because it’s only fair.
This is not going to be a review where I tell you about the plot of the book because this book…this duet really, just can’t be summarized with a few sentences. It was so much more. An incredible story of life, love, pain, loss, and everything in between. It was a journey.
So I can only tell you how this book affected me. The Ribbon duet, to date, has been the most unique, beautiful, and sweetest love/life story I have read. It has also been the most gut wrenching and hardest book I’ve read. It’s constantly in my thoughts. Ren and Della live in my heart. I have never been so captivated by a storyline and characters as I have with these two books. So just know that my answer going forward to any question pertaining to what my favorite book is, it will most certainly be this duet until another such story affects me just the same.
After finishing The Boy and His Ribbon, I went right into The Girl and Her Ren broken, and I came out of this book still broken, but in complete awe. Together, this duet is about 870 pages in print. It took me a whole month to get through the second book because I wanted to savor it. I wanted to give it my full attention each time I picked it back up, but I also didn’t want it to end. These books were beautiful and brutal. I am still in my feelings and I am sure I will continue to be in my feelings as I make my way through The Son and His Hope next.
A little advice: if you know anyone starting this duet, check on them periodically. Make sure they are doing okay. If you decide to start this duet, tell your friends or family to check in on you.
This is not going to be a review where I tell you about the plot of the book because this book…this duet really, just can’t be summarized with a few sentences. It was so much more. An incredible story of life, love, pain, loss, and everything in between. It was a journey.
So I can only tell you how this book affected me. The Ribbon duet, to date, has been the most unique, beautiful, and sweetest love/life story I have read. It has also been the most gut wrenching and hardest book I’ve read. It’s constantly in my thoughts. Ren and Della live in my heart. I have never been so captivated by a storyline and characters as I have with these two books. So just know that my answer going forward to any question pertaining to what my favorite book is, it will most certainly be this duet until another such story affects me just the same.
After finishing The Boy and His Ribbon, I went right into The Girl and Her Ren broken, and I came out of this book still broken, but in complete awe. Together, this duet is about 870 pages in print. It took me a whole month to get through the second book because I wanted to savor it. I wanted to give it my full attention each time I picked it back up, but I also didn’t want it to end. These books were beautiful and brutal. I am still in my feelings and I am sure I will continue to be in my feelings as I make my way through The Son and His Hope next.
A little advice: if you know anyone starting this duet, check on them periodically. Make sure they are doing okay. If you decide to start this duet, tell your friends or family to check in on you.
beckyrendon's review against another edition
5.0
***Edited to tell you that this book is absolutely 10 stars, no fluff***
Pepper Winters lied. There is no choice. There is only acceptance or denial. But there is no choice. Pepper Winters is destroying my day one tear at a time.
I'm not sure I'm going to survive this book but damn it I already know my heart won't let me stop.
I spent the last few hours in utter agony. I was a sobbing mess of aches and horror. My head hurts, my eyes are swollen shut and I’ve been reduced to mouth breathing. My heart aches. My lungs are fighting to capture breathe. My face, tear ducts, and nose hurt from wiping and crying. I am an absolute mess of epic proportions. I am devastated, lost, and so madly in love with their love that I would voluntarily go through the heartache all over again- once I build up the walls that Pepper Winters smashed into dust.
In a twisted example of the destruction of my soul I wanted to walk you through the painful, most intense quotes that are sure to destroy even those that opt against reading this duet. But then I remembered I hate spoilers and that I could not in any conscience jeopardize the intensity of the authors words to make myself feel better. So once you have been demoralized, destroyed, and left in tatters by this book, please PM, message, or email me. I need the release valve of shared agony as much as you will.
You want to know my thoughts. I F@CKING LOVED THIS DUET!!!!!!!!!!! I know most sites won’t let those words be stated as is so I will add ridiculous characters to emphasize their meanings. Pepper Winters has been able to get emotions from me since I read my first of her books. She has never not gotten visceral responses from me. I just never knew that she had this duet in her! There are no real words to describe the kind of story that this unless I use hers:
“It is based on life. A life that everyone must endure.”
You see Della warned as all along. You may not remember or you may have brushed it off as I did. But the truth of the matter is that she warns us that this is no fairytale- or at least not the Disney kind. Its real and raw and so very beyond words. Its heartache, bone deep despair, and love filled with longing only some of us will ever experience. It is soul branding love, spine bowing intensity, and 110% loss. Loss of innocence, love, and spirit. The Girl & Her Ren is loss of hope, light, and sanity. But as you start to think of me as Debbie downer, The Girl & Her Ren is everything. EVERYTHING you could ask for in a life story. Unconditional love to a degree no one has ever put to words. It is hope intensified to epic need. It is simply the best/worst book I have ever read. I have never cried, sobbed, and shut down as hard as I have reading this book. There have been tons before this that made me cry, weep, and mourn but they have all been pushed of the pedestal of pain. The new crowned book: The Girl & Her Ren. I don’t know if Pepper Winters set out to destroy, demolish, and obliterate every known reader in the world but she is off to a fantastic start.
So take it from this reader with the puffy eyes, snot stained tissues, and oppressing headache- you have never read a life story like this one and you will never read another one either!
Once upon a time, there was a boy and a baby…
Reviewed for Sweet Spot Sisterhood
Pepper Winters lied. There is no choice. There is only acceptance or denial. But there is no choice. Pepper Winters is destroying my day one tear at a time.
I'm not sure I'm going to survive this book but damn it I already know my heart won't let me stop.
I spent the last few hours in utter agony. I was a sobbing mess of aches and horror. My head hurts, my eyes are swollen shut and I’ve been reduced to mouth breathing. My heart aches. My lungs are fighting to capture breathe. My face, tear ducts, and nose hurt from wiping and crying. I am an absolute mess of epic proportions. I am devastated, lost, and so madly in love with their love that I would voluntarily go through the heartache all over again- once I build up the walls that Pepper Winters smashed into dust.
In a twisted example of the destruction of my soul I wanted to walk you through the painful, most intense quotes that are sure to destroy even those that opt against reading this duet. But then I remembered I hate spoilers and that I could not in any conscience jeopardize the intensity of the authors words to make myself feel better. So once you have been demoralized, destroyed, and left in tatters by this book, please PM, message, or email me. I need the release valve of shared agony as much as you will.
You want to know my thoughts. I F@CKING LOVED THIS DUET!!!!!!!!!!! I know most sites won’t let those words be stated as is so I will add ridiculous characters to emphasize their meanings. Pepper Winters has been able to get emotions from me since I read my first of her books. She has never not gotten visceral responses from me. I just never knew that she had this duet in her! There are no real words to describe the kind of story that this unless I use hers:
“It is based on life. A life that everyone must endure.”
You see Della warned as all along. You may not remember or you may have brushed it off as I did. But the truth of the matter is that she warns us that this is no fairytale- or at least not the Disney kind. Its real and raw and so very beyond words. Its heartache, bone deep despair, and love filled with longing only some of us will ever experience. It is soul branding love, spine bowing intensity, and 110% loss. Loss of innocence, love, and spirit. The Girl & Her Ren is loss of hope, light, and sanity. But as you start to think of me as Debbie downer, The Girl & Her Ren is everything. EVERYTHING you could ask for in a life story. Unconditional love to a degree no one has ever put to words. It is hope intensified to epic need. It is simply the best/worst book I have ever read. I have never cried, sobbed, and shut down as hard as I have reading this book. There have been tons before this that made me cry, weep, and mourn but they have all been pushed of the pedestal of pain. The new crowned book: The Girl & Her Ren. I don’t know if Pepper Winters set out to destroy, demolish, and obliterate every known reader in the world but she is off to a fantastic start.
So take it from this reader with the puffy eyes, snot stained tissues, and oppressing headache- you have never read a life story like this one and you will never read another one either!
Once upon a time, there was a boy and a baby…
Reviewed for Sweet Spot Sisterhood
groovygirl858's review
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
1.0
Spoilers:
"The difference of loving someone and being in love, Ren, is loving someone can be full of obligation and self-denial. But being in love makes you selfish and greedy and hungry. It turns you into a self-serving monster because you can’t breathe unless you have the one person you need.”
No, honey, that's lust. This made me roll my eyes because Ren was the one who understood love all along and Della is accusing him of not loving her because he wasn't selfish? Being IN LOVE does not make one selfish. You put the other person before yourself. Was sad to see that so many people highlighted this nonsense in the book.
Response to Author:
Ms. Winters, I am sorry you are under the mistaken impression you are brave. You think a love story ending in tragedy is brave? Surely not, as that is not unique in the slightest. We can even go all the way back to Tristan and Isolde and move forward, if you like. There are countless examples. Or do you think it's brave because a HEA is required in the romance genre? If that's the case, then the ending of your story isn't brave. It is a betrayal. This book is categorized as a romance novel and, as such, should have a happy ending. The Romance Writers of America state, "two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Your book has one, but not the other. I even checked your website to make sure I wasn't the one mistaken and this book wasn't marketed as romance, but sure enough, it's marketed as romance on your website. You're not brave. You're manipulative. Romance sells books. You know it. Instead of marketing your book under the appropriate genre, you took advantage of romance readers.
I understand lots of readers are happy with this book and, hey, that's great. Doesn't change the fact this book is NOT a romance and shouldn't be promoted as such. All the people that are mad at you for the ending because they expected a happy ending since this is a ROMANCE, they are 100 percent in the right. I stay away from love stories in the fiction section because I prefer the guaranteed happy ending of the love stories in the romance section.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying you should have written this story any differently. I'm saying you should have categorized it appropriately. In your acknowledgements, you say, "this was never a romance." Glad you admit it. Shows me you DELIBERATELY marketed this as a romance, knowing full well it's not. Oh, and don't thank me for "allowing" you to hurt me. I didn't allow you to hurt me. You sold me a lie by marketing this as a romance, something you knew it wasn't.
But thank YOU for allowing ME to add you to my "never read a book by this author ever again" list.
Review: With all that being said, I deemed the author of this work as unfit to be a romance author and rewrote the ending of this book in my head to actually align with the RWA's definition of a romance novel. Ren and Della live long, ridiculously happy lives, raising their child, experiencing the kind of joy most people only dream of, because that's what Ren fucking deserves.
"The difference of loving someone and being in love, Ren, is loving someone can be full of obligation and self-denial. But being in love makes you selfish and greedy and hungry. It turns you into a self-serving monster because you can’t breathe unless you have the one person you need.”
No, honey, that's lust. This made me roll my eyes because Ren was the one who understood love all along and Della is accusing him of not loving her because he wasn't selfish? Being IN LOVE does not make one selfish. You put the other person before yourself. Was sad to see that so many people highlighted this nonsense in the book.
Response to Author:
Ms. Winters, I am sorry you are under the mistaken impression you are brave. You think a love story ending in tragedy is brave? Surely not, as that is not unique in the slightest. We can even go all the way back to Tristan and Isolde and move forward, if you like. There are countless examples. Or do you think it's brave because a HEA is required in the romance genre? If that's the case, then the ending of your story isn't brave. It is a betrayal. This book is categorized as a romance novel and, as such, should have a happy ending. The Romance Writers of America state, "two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Your book has one, but not the other. I even checked your website to make sure I wasn't the one mistaken and this book wasn't marketed as romance, but sure enough, it's marketed as romance on your website. You're not brave. You're manipulative. Romance sells books. You know it. Instead of marketing your book under the appropriate genre, you took advantage of romance readers.
I understand lots of readers are happy with this book and, hey, that's great. Doesn't change the fact this book is NOT a romance and shouldn't be promoted as such. All the people that are mad at you for the ending because they expected a happy ending since this is a ROMANCE, they are 100 percent in the right. I stay away from love stories in the fiction section because I prefer the guaranteed happy ending of the love stories in the romance section.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying you should have written this story any differently. I'm saying you should have categorized it appropriately. In your acknowledgements, you say, "this was never a romance." Glad you admit it. Shows me you DELIBERATELY marketed this as a romance, knowing full well it's not. Oh, and don't thank me for "allowing" you to hurt me. I didn't allow you to hurt me. You sold me a lie by marketing this as a romance, something you knew it wasn't.
But thank YOU for allowing ME to add you to my "never read a book by this author ever again" list.
Review: With all that being said, I deemed the author of this work as unfit to be a romance author and rewrote the ending of this book in my head to actually align with the RWA's definition of a romance novel. Ren and Della live long, ridiculously happy lives, raising their child, experiencing the kind of joy most people only dream of, because that's what Ren fucking deserves.
faith99's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Child death and Trafficking
Minor: Child abuse
treparker73's review against another edition
4.0
Good read
Heart wrenching and at the same time a lovely story. It does seem so based in reality. Life doesn’t always provide a HEA.
Heart wrenching and at the same time a lovely story. It does seem so based in reality. Life doesn’t always provide a HEA.
karrrlii's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
jackiemcee's review
5.0
This is how age-gap, forbidden, heartbreak, and love that transcends time should be written. I am amazed how this book and the author ripped my heart out, put it back together, then destroy it again and again. I'll never be able to move on from this. This exceeds my 5-star rating. This made me view how happily-ever-afters work, that no matter how we got to the end, or the epilogue with sunshine and rainbows, life still happens until it doesn't. For the first book, I adored Ren. For this second one, I admired Della. And I know that even though the ending was not what I was hoping for, I'm so glad Ren got everything he deserves before he died. I'm so happy that he felt content before life took him. He was at peace and somehow that was everything.
kellyyoungbl's review against another edition
5.0
5 stars
I'm not sure how to write this review and fully explain my feelings without spoiling anything, but I'm feeling so much right now. This duet was a journey, and you need to experience it for yourself.
I'm not sure how to write this review and fully explain my feelings without spoiling anything, but I'm feeling so much right now. This duet was a journey, and you need to experience it for yourself.