The Epic Conclusion to The Boy & His Ribbon
“What do you do when you write down all your secrets? No…that’s not enough. What do you do when you write down all your secrets and the one person who should never read them does?I’ll tell you what you do.You hope.”RENRen didn’t know the meaning of love until he took Della for his own.To begin with, he hated her, but as the months bled into … his own.
To begin with, he hated her, but as the months bled into years, he learned the opposite of hate, dedicating his life to giving her everything.
Every sacrifice, every gift, he gave wholeheartedly.
But then love turned to lust and ruined everything.
DELLA
I was stupid to write down my secrets, but I’d been stupid before, so it was nothing new.
I couldn’t blame him, hate him, fix him.
I tried to move on without him.
But no matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to delete the secrets I’d written.
Until something happened.
Until he came back and read my stupid secrets.
And nothing was the same after that.
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I have really struggled with writing a review for this book. How do you write a review for a book that makes you feel emotions so deeply you can’t find words. how do you review a book that leaves you feeling lost without it. How do you review a book that encompasses everything in life that we all at some point will face, that will devastate us and leave us forever changed. How do you review a book that is written so perfectly that the “characters” never feel anything but real people you know and love. How do you live without the one thing that give you a reason to breathe? How do you write a review for a book that has you in so engrossed you don’t even feel the tears sliding down your face and at times have to walk away to regroup and put yourself back together again, and absolutely love, I MEAN LOVE every single word and moment of it !!! Della and Ren grew from horrendous beginnings, yet they had love and caring that would put the best to shame. They struggled, life was never easy, yet they made it work. This is a book you will never forget, I want to say thank you to this author, this book is EVERYTHING !! and I feel honored to have been on this journey with Ren and Della!! This book is LOVE !!!
My heart is full and hurting all at the same time. The journey for Della and Ren was all consuming for me. When this duet started, I thought how could a ten-year-old and an infant captivate me as a reader. I had no idea how masterful Pepper Winters truly is as a writer. She let the characters breathe and life and grow in natural ways. This story shattered my heart at times then put it right back together at others. This is love story but it is also a life journey with all the highs and lows we all face and I felt like I was living this with Della and Ren. I’m truly glad I found these books and had the chance to be consumed and brought into this beautiful world of bravery, love, loss and courage.
Five touching-poignant stars! Della and Ren’s story is unforgettable. Best read on 2018!
For God’s sake! I still feel a tight knot in my throat and fresh tears run down my face while writing this review. I am left painfully drained. The Girl and Her Ren is a brutal and heartbreaking book, a raw and emotional journey that made me feel a lot. I lost my mind and cried like a little baby. This finale has definitely been worth the wait. A soulful prize and masterpiece! This book is a punch direct to your heart.
Pepper Winters plays with our feelings, undermining our soul and our sensibility in each chapter, not hesitating to put her characters in real situations to make our heart flinch in each page.
But despite everything she manages to embark us on her story with stunning ease, we focus on her characters, we laugh with them, we cry at their side, we shudder with them, we discover at their pace and it’s beautiful because Della and Ren’s story is an exposition of true love.
Carried by strong and emblematic characters, the story unfolded before my eyes eager to learn more and discover with Della and Ren the journey of life where their love was stronger than anything.
Bewitched by the raw pen and emotional moment of this story, you will not be able to detach you from these characters, this desire to see them love each other, help each other, and surpass themselves! It’s refreshing and funny as well as exciting and heartbreaking.
Not to mention the sensuality of this text that will not leave you indifferent, because before anything there is a powerful love story that will make your skin break in goosebumps.
The plot is unique and too real to be true. The pacing goes smoothly and the alternation of the points of view of Della and Ren allows you to discover them little by little, while at the same time you feel their love and feelings during their journey. Each page tormented my romantic heart.
How far can love go to break a person’s heart?
What would you be willing to do to save your soul mate?
Would you have the strength and courage of Della?
This book deserves billions of stars, five are not enough to rate such a perfect read. The conclusion of Della and Ren’s story will leave you breathless. I recommend you to have a box of tissues next to you because tears will run freely like a river on your face. The Ribbon Duet is a MUST READ that every reader in the world should not miss.
I honestly have no words. I’m still trying to repair my heart. The writing in this book was written beautifully. Pepper has outdone herself with this duet. Ren and Della’s love story, is nothing but pure and true love. I personally feel, what true love should be. They fought through hell and back to be together until the end. Absolutely beautiful.
I’m not gonna lie, I’m still recovering from the ugly crying. I don’t think my heart has been so destroyed or broken ever before this way. This story ripped my heart out. In a good way. It’s definitely a story that will live forever as being a favorite. Ugh…i just love Ren and Della so much. But I’m still glad, Della got her happy ending, no matter how sad and heartbreaking it was. True love never dies!!
Forbidden love is never easy to escape. What do you do when that love is the focus of your very existence? The catalyst that drives your every need and desire? For Della and Ren – life never held the typical facets of growing up together. Both led a life filled with turmoil, sadness, and unexpected journeys. How they handled those trials and tribulations strengthened their resolve, and drew the pair closer to one another than most would believe they should be.
Della has show a depth for knowledge that astounds everyone around her. Ren has dedicated his life to providing for the little girl that was stowed away in his backpack that fateful night he escaped the farm. Together they have endured hunger, homelessness, and the simple joys in life. Now the two face their biggest hurdle in life….the love that has grown between their hearts.
Whew….what a journey that Pepper Winters has taken her readers upon. The depth and soul searching that Ren and Della will provide fans with their life choices will leave you weathering a storm of emotion. A catalyst that will leave you thinking long and hard about the way events unfolded between the two. A desire to allow both characters a ‘happy ending’ in spite of the circumstances they will endure. However – if you have read a Pepper Winters book in the past, you know that things will be unpredictable and there will be no ‘easy road’ for Ren and Della to follow.
Both books in the Ribbon Duet are so eloquent and full of moments that make you search deep within your heart for the ‘answers’ that will aide Ren and Della’s relationship. When the first book ended, readers knew one thing…..no one could doubt the devotion that Ren and Della felt for one another in spite of the trials they faced in life.
The Girl and Her Ren is nothing like you would expect. It is a promise to the old saying ‘we are all on borrowed time’. A reality that is hard to swallow for many. Ren and Della will travel the road that is ‘less traveled’ and their experiences will shape a future that is unpredictable, emotional, and full of ups and downs. It is a love story that is full of devotion and worry. A love that will be picked apart, judged, and ridiculed by those that encounter Della and Ren. It is a tale so unforgettable you will want to read this duet time and time again.
Pepper Winters always has a way of cultivating unique stories that leave you questioning right and wrong. Those stories that are hard to tell because the message held within the words will haunt you like no other story. Ren and Della will tempt you with their devotion, loyalty, and unforgettable love. This duet is truly a masterpiece that must be read to understand the depth of the beauty contained within the pages. A testament to holding on to the little pieces of happiness and joy that each of us can find in these oftentimes unforgiving trials in life. A devotion that will leave you breathless and thinking about your own happy moments in this journey through life.
It’s been almost 24 hours since I finished this “book”. And I put book inside “” because simply this is more than a book. It’s a whole another level that words can’t even describe and the human mind can’t reach. And for the last 24 hours, I’ve been 1) in a state of purgatory, shattering, crumbling down and everything in between and after, 2) seriously thinking that my heart seriously went through a heart attack, 3) in pain everywhere, 4) trying to avoid thinking about it (one of the hardest things I ever had to do) and reading all the teasers that exist out there – even though I know how it ends – because I can’t just take it and 5) trying to find the courage and the words to start, continue and end this review.
A few months ago, I have written in my Crave: Part Two review that E.K. Blair had given me the biggest book hangover of my life with Adaline & Kason’s love story. And in part, that claimer still stands since it was the first time I bawled so hard over a story & I couldn’t function for weeks afterward. But now, things have changed drastically. No matter how many books I have read in the past or I will read in the future, NONE will ever be able to reach the level of destruction, shatterness, pain, book hangover The Ribbon Duet, and especially The Girl & Her Ren, caused me. My system has completely shut down and my whole existence has been ripped into shreds.
How do you rate something that can’t be rated? Something that no one will ever be able to top no matter how many times s/he tries? A story that breaks you just thinking about it? Whose creation reminds you of the 7 days God spent to make this world? How can 5 stars or 10 Million or 10 Billion or 100 Gazillion stars ever be enough?
I know that some of the things I said and will say in this review will probably sound too much and ridiculous since it’s just a book. But, just like I said in the beginning, this is more than a book; in my mind, Pepper created the top form of perfection and masterpiece. The Ribbon Duet is a whole galaxy of its own, not just a literature’s duet. And only if you enter this galaxy you will be able to understand the overwhelming feelings that me and every other reader who was freaking lucky to read Ren & Della’s true love are still experiencing. A love that gives meaning to Pain, Love, Heartbreak, Passion etc.
I feel and I KNOW that I have too many things to say about this story that broke me, put me back together & will haunt me for the rest of my life. My blood is mixed with all the things I want to say. My heart is beating in the erratic rhythm Ren & Della set. But my mind can’t find the words in any vocabulary that match those things so it can express them in paper. This is the first time in my blogger career that I feel that our languages and world are lacking and that words are just symbols we created meant to express and communicate all the things that don’t really matter in life. No words to describe the pain, despair, shatter I felt when Ren got sick. No words to describe how broken I was in that fateful chapter when Ren was gone. No words to describe the epic love and epic pain tangled together into one perfect sunrise & sunset.
I know that I need to say something about Ren & Della and what happened between them in this book, and trust me I want just that so damn much, but I feel like if I start I will both never be able to stop and will break down harder than I did when I finish it because I have been holding off my tears for the sake of my heart which I will surely stop if that happens. The only thing that I can say about these two is that are honestly THE BEST OF THE BEST couple ever created in the literature world and that, no matter the book hangover and the pain you will undoubtedly experience, it’s a MUST MUST READ with all its meaning and everything is worth it.
Since I first read The Monster In The Dark series, I instantly clicked Pepper Winters as my Top #1 Author in my mind, heart, and library. And that truth only grew an deepened with every new book of hers I read. This time though, her coming up and finding the same incredible powerful courage & braveness that was living, breathing and flowing in Ren’s veins to write this story and truly kill us in the best way possible, not only made gold the Top Author label in my heart, but skyrocketed her into the top best of the best and most brave authors that ever existed. And if writing this beautiful, destroying, painful, perfect love wasn’t enough, adding that masterful NOTE FOR THE READERS after the end that left your heart in pieces and bleeding all over the floor and universe, was the biggest cherry on top. I have no words to describe how much this woman gets me and how much of a powerful impact she has every time in my life with her stories.
I cried. I bawled. I stopped breathing. I stopped reading because I needed desperately the break for my heart to calm down. I was devastated into reading death. I was shattered and still am. I crumbled like the Twin Towers in a matter of seconds. I did all that multiple times and another 1000 of those. But no matter the pain, just like with Ren & Della, the overwhelming, ground-shaking, universal, epic, T R U E love I feel for this couple, story, book duet makes everything worth it 100000000 times and for eternity.
I don’t even know how to begin reviewing this book… It moved me in ways that no other book has done in a very long time. I feel like I have been hit over the head with a sledgehammer. Even though as you progress through the book you know how the story is going to go but nothing can prepare you for this authors words. They have sliced through my heart like a warm knife through butter. I feel broken, lost and no clue how I’m going to pick up another book anytime soon!
The book continues in dual POV; the first half of the book I felt didn’t really progress in terms of plot but it did develop Ren’s acceptance of Della’s feelings and moved forward. I don’t think it needed to be quite so long but I know from previous books that this author has a penchant for detail making sure the reader is fully immersed in the lives of the characters. The second half of the book everything started to come together; their past is accepted and dealt with and together they move forward in to a future filled with heartache and sorrow. I want to say I longed for a different outcome but I knew that would just be poetic license and I don’t think as a reader it could have gone any other way. I have never been as tempted as much as I have to take a peak at the ending (I didn’t) but I wrestled with myself throughout the whole book!
Whilst this is different to anything this author has written previously I think it has been the one book that has impacted me the most. If you don’t read anything else this year you need to read this duet. It will stay with me for a long time and it will take something exceptional to beat this. Definitely a top read!!
The best book of 2018 no question, I know that’s a bold claim considering we’re only in June but I’ve never ever had a book affect me this way.
This in my opinion is this authors best work todate the story is addictive reading the writing is sublime both books are absolute perfection.
Ren and Della are two characters who will never leave me, I have no idea how to describe their relationship. Don’t get caught up on the age difference, how they met or the bond they formed when Della was younger. Focus on the love that jumps from every word the author wrote, separately they exist together they are one, soul mates most definitely. Every hardship they endured was for one reason and that was to bring them together.
This book wrecked me, I’ve cried before at books but I’m done spent emotionally raw, staring into space with tears running down my face. Oh to find a love like theirs an all consuming passionate jealous unconditional everlasting love.
The story made my heart heavy with injustice, pain and despair just as much as it was filled with joy and love. If any books need to be a film these should be at the top of the list.
I’m left with one question how do I move on now?
reviewed by Sweet Spot Sisterhood
This book.
What do I say about this book?
It was real. It was visceral. It was touching. It will probably rip you apart with no regards to your feelings. I feel like this was the most real Pepper Winter’s book I’d read. Is that weird?
We once again meet out main characters Della and Ren. They’ve been torn apart and put back together. They both realize pretty early on, that life without each other is just not going to work for either of them. Ren in this book, finally put aside his qualms and embraced his sexual feelings for Della. It was hard because he had in all honesty been the only parent she’d had for a long time. Della had mosre maturity, but she was also vulnerable. Alot of the relationship she was the aggressor, and all little Della wanted was for Ren to want her as much as she wanted him.
I’m a horn dog most of the time. If my main characters aren’t having sex by the mid book mark, someone’s gonna be a real mad. For the Boy and His Ribbon everything was secondary to the story itself and I couldn’t even bring myself to be mad when the main characters didn’t bone (plus Della was WAYYY too young). In the Girl and Her Ren when they finally get together, the sex is once again secondary to the relationship. This story isn’t as much what Della and Ren do once they get together as much as it is about how LIFE happens to them. It happens when you least expect it. It happens when you haven’t planned for shit. It happens and leaves you fucking scarred. But you persist, and you go through it.
If I hadn’t known that Pepper Winters was a dark romance author, I would’ve thought that writing these kinds of her books were her norm. She has successfully created a world totally different from her previous books.
I won’t say anything about the ending. That’s for you to read and find out. And for you to judge.
5 stars.
“Because I can promise you, the ending… it’s better than you think.”
While dripping with some of the most beautiful heart-achingly beautiful romantic tableaus described in any book in the romance genre, Pepper Winters has written a duet of books that goes beyond the tropes of the contemporary romance and challenges the reader to consider the very nature of love…true, fated and redeeming love. If you listen closely as you read, you will also hear her challenge to consider your beliefs concerning the nature of existence. Do you believe that everlasting love is the purpose for everything?
The Girl and Her Ren is an answering to the questions posed by the first book of the The Boy and His Ribbon. We were left with the agonizing separation of Della and Ren at the end of the first book. Despite their lack of early guidance or reasonable adult care and escaping an intolerably abusive situation, Ren and Della developed into honorable and wholly decent human beings whose love changed complexions as Della grew into womanhood. Ren was only a boy of ten when he found the baby Della in his backpack as he ran from the terror on McClary’s farm. He chose to keep her, care for her, provide for her, love her, raise her and sacrifice everything for her.
As decent as Ren is and perhaps because he is so decent, he was terrified of having corrupted Della with his lustful and indecent urges. He was ever cautious around her, always wanting her to feel safe and comfortable with him. It wasn’t until he read her manuscript that he had the epiphany discovering she desired him as much as he did her. Still it took some careful processing for him to feel comfortable with their new-found reality. In this careful writing about how Ren makes peace with himself and his feelings, we soon abandon any idea that their relationship is the least bit taboo.
“I was kissing my goddamn soulmate, and who [effing] cared how we’d met or how long we’d known each other? Fate had decided to throw us an unconventional beginning by giving her to me the moment she was born.”
Actually, I can’t believe I am being so calm when what I truly want to do is find a way to scream at all of you about the moving…beyond angst…it’s just too simple a word, heart-filleting read this second book in the duet is. Every important aspect of love was examined through these two indelible characters…including the burden inherent in any perceived or actual separation from the one you love whether emotional or physical.
Their couplings were the heady stuff of unleashed, near violent emotion and tender, sweet ministrations. They often retreated to the forest, their true home of their early days and a sacred place for their wild longings and desire for isolation.
This is the type of story that grabs ahold of you and will not let go…it did me. This review is my urgent need to let some of my turbulent thoughts and emotion out, begin to let go and trust in my own deep-seated belief that the supreme being pervasive in all the universe and creation and all of us is “love” itself. He/She has been sending us signs, messages, prophets, a Messiah who even told us through John, the Revelator who He was…and that was…Love. “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” He wasn’t talking about his outward appearance y’all.
Which brings me back to my personal answer to the question asked in the beginning of this review. Because I believe in “Almighty and Everlasting Love”, this book ended touchingly and beautifully, albeit bittersweet, for me. For indeed it is “Love” which is the purpose of everything. All is well with my soul.
Alternatively, if the limits of your belief only extend to that which can be observed or empirically known, then it may be perhaps quite a different story for you. Beyond feeling love is knowing love. Love can only be known in experience and the wholesale belief that you are loved (and the love you share) will exist with you and your beloved forever, eternally, beyond the veil of this world into the next ad infinitum.
As I thought long and hard…this is what Pepper Winters said to me in this duet. Living in love is a choice to believe in the immortal, the infinite and the divine. To choose to do otherwise is simply to exist.
“It was about love. True love. Love that spans decades, infects souls, and turns you immortal because, when you love that deeply, nothing can ever die. It transcends time, space, distance, universes.
A love like this isn’t confined to pages or photos or memories— it’s forever alive and wild and free. Love. That is what our story is about. Romance comes and goes, lust flickers and smoulders, trials appear and test, life gets in the way and educates, pain can derail happiness, joy can delete sadness, togetherness is more than just a fairy-tale… it’s a choice.
A choice to love, cherish, honour, trust, and adore. A choice to be there when arguments occur, and agony arrives, and fate seems determined to rip you apart. A choice to choose love, all the while knowing it has the power to break you. A choice, dear friend, to give someone your entire heart. It’s not easy. No one ever said it was. Some days, you want it back, and others, you wish you had more than just one heart to give. Love is the hardest thing we’ll ever have to do because love, as miraculous and wonderful as it is, is also cursed and soul-breaking. Because of love, life is a war of moments and time and bargaining for more of everything. But in the end, love is what life is about. And love is the purpose of everything.” – Prologue, “The Girl and Her Ren”
“I wanted you, so I stole you. I loved you, so I kept you.”
I have no words. Literally no words to completely portray how I’m feeling right now.
Pepper has, for the first time ever, completely broken me. Left me as a big speechless puddle of emotions, with no way of recovering.
Ren and Della’s story is EPIC!!
It is the ultimate love story and a testament to what love is.
The highs, the lows and everything in between she shows us everything without holding back.
The writing is phenomenal and the story is out of this world.
It’s emotional. It will absolutely gut you from the inside out, leaving you with tears streaming down your face. But by god are the tears worth it.
“They say love can be the worst test of all.
I tend to agree with them.”
Bravo Pepper. Bravo!!!! What you have delivered is a poignant story that will touch the hearts and souls of every reader. One that I urge everyone to read. And for someone to pick this up for a movie!
This story is so much bigger than the pages it’s written in. It NEEDS to be brought alive!!!!
Pepper Winters’ Ribbon duet is one of the finest pieces of prose that I’ve read in quite some time, and there are a number of reasons for that assertion, but what it comes down to is the fact that Ren and Della’s story expands over decades, so readers are a part of their entire lifetime together, which means that we experience every single emotion they feel towards each other as well as their reactions to a multitude of events and situations that not only transform them both but also cause their relationship to ebb and flow, changing in ways they never thought possible.
In The Boy and His Ribbon, Pepper Winters introduced readers to the story of an unloved boy who had to endure what felt like a lifetime of abuse until he had the courage to break those chains and escape when he was 10 years old, but as she tells Ren’s story, Winters also must tell the tale of his companion, a little innocent baby girl who somehow found herself on Ren’s journey with him, dependent on him for everything regardless of how ill-equipped he seems.
Throughout the pages of Ren and Della’s story, readers witness Ren’s less than welcoming feelings towards his stowaway, but as he learns to coexist with Della and understands exactly what her needs are, she becomes essential to him…an extension of himself, and he refuses to allow anything to taint her life, even if it’s his own feelings towards the girl he raised as his own.
Through Della’s college assignment, she takes us back to where it all began and then moves us forward through time, experiencing Ren and Della’s highs and lows, their successes and failures, their pain and their elation, redefining who they are to one another despite Della’s lie and Ren’s avoidance.
In The Girl and Her Ren, Winters, once again, focuses on the boy and girl from the first story, but he is now an attractive and strong man and the girl is now a beautiful and passionate woman – a woman who no longer sees Ren as merely her protector, her brother, her family, which is why when the second half of their story is told, it begins with them apart, struggling to find their way in this world without their other half and no longer truly living because a part of themselves is missing with really no indication that it will or could be reclaimed.
Once again, readers get the second half of Ren and Della’s story through both of their perspectives – Della’s future self reflects on the events that led to where they were able to get while also allowing Ren to keep readers in the here and now, so that we understand exactly how everything occurred and how they endured everything that they faced.
Ren and Della’s story started in quite an unusual way…it continued amidst a path of trials and tribulations, and it ended on their own terms surrounded by more love than they ever thought possible, and while some readers may question their ending and might strongly feel it should have been told in a much different way, what we all need to remember is that it’s Ren and Della’s story to tell…it’s their lives that Pepper Winters is gifting readers with, so staying true to how they wanted it to end, regardless of the potential for criticism, honors who these two characters are, how they lived, and what they taught everyone around them about the most greatest gift in life – love because true love – ‘the kind that spans decades, endures heartbreak, and solidifies a bond that started as something other than love’ is the most precious gift than anyone can receive and I’m just so thankful that Pepper Winters gifted her readers with Ren and Della’s love story and allowed us to experience every aspect of it, told through their own voices, in its rawest and purest forms.
5+ Poison Apples
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Mary –
Don’t hate me for what I am about to say but I was not a big fan of The Boy & His Ribbon; don’t get me wrong, I really liked it, but it was not my favorite. I can tell you though, that this story has left me with all the feels of an awesome story and the tears start each time I think about The Girl & Her Ren.
This story begins where The Boy & His Ribbon left off, with Ren leaving Della because he is fighting his feelings for her. He can’t get past the way he feels because he raised her. He watched her grow into the woman she is, and it makes him feel like it is wrong to have the feelings he has towards her. But he has to face the truth – that they were made for each other. That because he raised her, she is NOT his sister and their love is soul deep. He has to go back to what is meant to be.
Della tries to move on, but Ren is everywhere she turns, she feels him even when she walks down the street. She feels that she must leave this town but then he returns. When she steps out of the shower, Ren is in their apartment reading her words and she can’t believe that he is back and that he is reading what she wrote.
Can they make a life together living in the woods as they did growing up? Will he get past his guilt and fears? Can Della show him that their love is real and true? Will they be able to make a life together as they see in the future and live happily ever after?
This is the almost perfect ending for this story, the perfect ending, well you will have to read it to understand that. It is full of laughter, pain, love, heartache, and is one hell of an emotional rollercoaster, but keep your hands inside and hang on and enjoy the ride. It is well worth it. Pepper Winters steps out of her usual genre with this duet but let me tell you, she didn’t disappoint. If you are looking for something different, then you NEED to read this duet, it will leave you with all the feels of a great story, and you will be thankful you read it. So sit back and enjoy!
Avid Reader –
M/F Romance
Triggers: Death
Whew, this is an emotional rollercoaster! We pick up after the first book and these characters just seem to grow.
Ren and Little Ribbon, Della, have finally started living.
I don’t want to write too much, as it will give away the story, but these characters show remarkable resilience in the face of what they have endured.
I do think that Della and Ren’s relationship was a little drawn out. There was a lot of description of their relationship and encounters when I think the point would have been made with less pages dedicated to that aspect.
However, the story as a whole is amazing and full of emotion. Make sure to bring your Kleenex box. You can see the story unfold, knowing something is going to happen, but you can’t stop yourself from reading. I loved it!
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Girl & Her Ren (The Ribbon Duet #2) by Pepper Winters to read and review.
The Girl and her Ren is a duet and is the second book. You must read The Boy and his Ribbon first. Pepper Winter’s writing is so often poetic in nature, that you can’t help but get lost in the near rhythmic beat. She writes this story so eloquently. The Girl and her Ren will pull on your heartstrings.
Ren has to face what had been done to him.
“I laughed before I could stop myself. Play? There was no play. I’d been beaten with a piece of lumber, had wall debris smashed over my head, and a hot brand driven into my skin.”
Della was also forced to deal with her past. She has to face what her parents did to her and to Ren.
Della and Ren are forced to face so many things in this story.
“Pressure wrapped around my lungs with black affliction, but then my heart drowned it out with Red affection.”
I was really shocked at the direction this story took. To be honest, It took a really long time to get to where it went and once it got there it was a heartbreaking journey.
I loved this book, but I also was annoyed with this book. For me, it’s pace was too slow. I would start to lose interest and I hate that, however, Pepper is such an amazing writer that I still love it.
“They said love had the power to make you become someone better than you were, but adversity and hardship revealed the truth about who you were at heart.”
I think the duet is one you should read. Be warned you will be in it for a very long haul, but its a journey, often a painful one, but a journey. It is one of the best duets I’ve read, again, however, I wish some scenes were toned down because I wanted to skim, and that wasn’t fair because then I could miss some of the beauty.
Pepper Winters is probably the only author capable of sucking me into stories I’d never really read. I admire her bravery covering topics that our minds just beg us to turn around and walk the other way. They scream, “it’s not right, it’s not okay”. But I knew going into this one, I’d be in for an emotional ride. More emotional than any other book I’ve read. I was on edge the entire time because I knew something big and quite possibly devastating was going to happen. Thinking about it at the time, I wasn’t quite prepared for it, but it was so damn suspenseful reading through every line and just waiting for it.
I’ll be honest, I was worried about this duet because it was the type of read that I rarely delve into. I can’t say that I loved The Boy and His Ribbon, but I can’t fault this beautifully woven story that Pepper had weaved for us. It was just so well done, which shouldn’t surprise us at all. I had trouble with the taboo element of this story and went a little bit into this book as well, but Ren and Della’s story completely overpowered that in a way I couldn’t have imagined.
I found myself completely in love with every little element, even the utterly painful and heartbreaking parts. From the beginning, it’s pretty evident where the story was going to go. And I thought that would give us more than enough time mentally prepares us for what was to come. But it wasn’t the case, not at all. It was a slow burn to a definite outcome that couldn’t be changed no matter how hard we wished we could.
As I was laying there reading, I kept thinking what’s better. Knowing the outcome before the end or having it surprise us? With everything that happened, the journey that Della and Ren went on, I wouldn’t change a single thing about their story.
With all the warnings that Pepper has given us before starting this duet, it was up to us to decide to read their story or not. I pity those that choose not to or read spoilers and decide not to give their story a chance. It’s a story that you’ll never forget.
In my opinion, this is what I expect a duet to be like. It’s not just ONE story, but two. In The Boy and His Ribbon, it was a book of survival, discovery, growth, and understanding a love that many wouldn’t accept. And with The Girl & Her Ren, they’re older, taking the chance to clear their minds and explore their love for one another. With every single hardship they faced, every bit of pain they faced, can I say it was worth it the end? Absolutely, this story was against the grain from the very beginning, there’s nothing cookie cutter about this at all, which made it more real in a sense.
I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect ending despite how unbelievably painful it was. But time and time again, she always one-ups her previous book. And that’s why I’m such a huge fan of Pepper Winters. I love the journey that she takes us with her stories, which leaves us thinking and wondering days after we finished a book.
You’ve done it again, Pepper! I’m in complete awe of this book, it was a long story to get through, but I was consumed by every word and everything that has taken place.
Absolutely amazing!
Five stars are not enough for this well told story that will shake you to your soul and move you. I have no delusions about reading a Pepper Winters book. I know full well going in that I am about to embark on an adventure that will have many twists and turns and will most likely leave me with a battered and tattered heart. What I didn’t expect from this duet was to be sobbing uncontrollably, beside myself with my soul absolutely touched like no other book I have read.
This portion of the duet is a continuation of Ren and Della’s story. You MUST read The Boy and his Ribbon first. When I finished The Boy and his Ribbon I was wounded, no surprise, but I was anxious for more. Nervous energy coursed through my veins while I took this journey with Ren and Della. The ups and downs of their relationship, boundaries, feelings, temptation, jealousy all monumental pieces to their story. One that will spellbind you making you feel as if you are right there with them.
There were times throughout the story I found myself almost pleading with Ren or Della to do something or make a different choice. But I can tell you that the story that Pepper Winters has woven between these pages could not have been different. It is full with such deep emotion that you will be carried away. Ribbon not only being Ren’s nickname for Della, nor the item she has carried with or worn throughout the years but a tether to two souls.
I honestly could go on and on about this book, but I truly believe that this is a story that one must experience for themselves. I am a huge fan of Pepper Winters works. I have read them all and of course I have my favorites but The Ribbon Duet is truly not like any other book she has written. It is MORE….it is uplifting, soul crushing, undeterred LOVE. If you choose to read any books this year this duet should be two of them.
I finished Della and Ren story last night. I am absolutely useless pile of mess today. Pepper Winters finally succeeded to break me. And she broke me in the best possible way. I can’t even express my feeling and emotions right now as I’m trying to write this review. I am going to try and not give any spoilers, but I really don’t know what to tell you without spoiling the story.
Be prepared to go through every emotion known to men while you reading this. You will giggle, cry, scream, grief, smile, be happy and everything else in between. Get yourself some wine (or drink of your choice), lots of chocolate, some soothing, comfy blanket, shoulder to cry and three boxes of tissue. You will need it all, trust me.
It is a very raw, emotional and very, very realistic story. You will need to trust Della as you read through this book as there are few places where she will worn you. At one point she will tell you to stop if you wish, or brave it out and continue. Trust her, trust what she said. Stop there if that is what you need, but continue if you want to be mess like me with the best story ever told once you finish reading it.
I love dark, love stories with happily ever after. To me this story doesn’t really fall into either, but then at the same time it does. It is a weird, strange thing how Pepper wrote this love saga and made it ok. She made me feel ok at the end. She made me accept the story the way it is, and this is totally out of my comfort zone and my liking. But she did it. She made me fall in love with these books and I absolutely hate to say this, but she made it a beautiful, perfect ending to the out of this world love story. The love that last forever, love that never can be broken. It is perfect and I LOVE it!
Pepper Winters you destroyed me, I am crying while I’m writing this. But I am loving every word of these two books. They are the best books I have ever read and they will stay with me forever! I wish there is more then five stars to give, because this book is at least ten. Thank you for writing this unbelievably, amazing tale.
A once in a lifetime love story. As utterly perfect as it’s brutally heartbreaking.
This … This duet. It’s the love story of a life time. Literally and figuratively and in every other way that matters. One of those rare masterpieces that leaves a permanent imprint on your soul.
I always knew Pepper Winters had the ability to break me, to utterly destroy me – and with THE GIRL AND HER REN she did. I can’t really function right now. I’m shaking, sobbing as I write this. There was just one other book that ever shook me as deeply as this one (, having me crying fat, ugly tears during the last few chapters to the point of exhaustion, as the waterworks were simply unwilling to stop even long after I was done. Everything hurts right now, and I’m not sure how long it will take for me to be able to pick up another book and actually enjoy it.
Ms. Winters and her courage to let the story happen exactly as it did irrevocably changed me. I wasn’t prepared. Not by a long shot.
Is the ending everything I was hoping for? Abso-freaking-lutely not. And yet… it was. It’s beautiful and imperfectly perfect in its own right. As Della so blundly put it, it’s a life story, not a love story – although I have to strongly object the second part of her statement, because this most definitely is a love story – one of the greatest every told.
Ren Wild and Della Ribbon shared everything. They’re inseparable. One. Their bone-crushing love and devotion and unshakeable trust for one another is out of this world. Their love shouldn’t be, yet is the most natural thing to ever happen between the boy who survived a terrible nightmare and his little ribbon he unknowingly took with him who would become the center of his whole world. They’re soulmates. Destined for one another, needing only each other for utmost happiness and jealous of anyone else claiming even a fraction of the other’s time. A timeless love like no other, so intense it hurts, defying their age and the years that separate them.
My rambling here feels inadequate to everything this book is. It’s a truly unforgettable and heartbreaking journey that is painful to follow – I know that, I had to pause several times to take a breather –, but too breathtaking to not see to the end. Their story needs to be read by everyone.
Beautiful and gut-wrenching. Fierce and elemental. Honest and true. Agonizing and absolutely delightful. It once again showcases Ms. Winters’ insurmountable writing talent, which is flawless and mesmerizing, her words the most stunning poetry.
Thank you for your courage to tell their story. To give it the significance it deserves. To go through till the very end. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Ever read a book where you think you know the outcome? Or that it gives you what you want and then viciously rips it away…only to give you a little back and then take it all away again. Making you wonder, how is this going to be ok? How is it going to make it right? HOW, is it going to stop being so ridiculously amazing and then the more you read…it just keeps topping itself?
This book, no- this duet, has done things to my heart that I don’t think any other book has before….and I read a ton.
I have craved this book in an almost embarrassing way and thankfully, having finished it, I know that my craving has been justified.
How in the world, Pepper Winters? How in the world do you think of these amazing stories and put them to paper so perfectly that I feel like I’m living in them right along side your characters? Your books should sell stock shares because for me, I would be 100 percent invested.
I cannot gush enough or give justice to what an amazing writer you are.
You are an automatic one-click author for me and when I read a teaser or blurb- it makes me want the book even more.
Not going to go into detail about the book, (even though it KILLS ME NOT TO!) out of respect for the author, the story and the readers out there that have either been waiting for Ren and Della’s story to unfold or are going in with fresh eyes and a mindset that isn’t prepared for what they are about to read.
The angst and love is edible in this one guys. Just as sure as you would taste salt on your tongue.
And I’m writing this part of my review being only 30% in.
Back again after 70% and…….OMG! Omg!! OmG!! I pick it up and then have to put it down! I can’t believe the turns this story is taking! I am in complete awe of this story and my feelings are all over the place. I am a mess right now.
I apologize for the breaks in between but While I would love to spill the beans on what is going on, I refuse to ruin this for anyone and so, I’ll just have to settle on expressing what I’m feeling as I read this. In truth, this is the kind of book that scares you, makes you put it down to take a breather and then pick it right back up because you just have to know what happens next. You become invested in their lives, their love…their story.
I just finished and I truly have no words to explain what I’ve just read or how I can properly express what I am feeling right now. To say that I’m stunned, filled to the brim with love or that I had my heartbroken and then pieced back together…..is just a fraction of what I experienced with this book, this duet.
The warnings for this book were clear. They were given throughout the book even and I thought I had my heart and mind prepared for this..
I didn’t. Not even close.
This book gave me everything I didn’t know I wanted in a story like Della and Ren’s.
It is the epitome of what true love is, despite how others may view it or judge. So many memorable, breathtaking quotes. So many, that my pages have more highlighter color than white.
It is like nothing I have ever read or will probably ever read again.
Easily both books are on my list of best books of all time and ones I will remember forever.
Please do yourself a favor and pick up both books. It will touch you in ways that will live in your heart and stick to your soul.
I would highly recommend this book-the duet.
Thank you Pepper Winters for Ren and Della’s story. It is nothing short of a masterpiece.
Good.
Fine.
When I read the last words of The Girl and Her Ren, I was stunned and heartbroken but somewhat at peace. I’ve never been so connected and emotionally attached to characters as I have with Ren and Della. The love they express for one another is nothing like I’ve ever seen written. Pepper has a way of pulling you into their lives as if you we’re one of them, a part of their soul. Her words are spellbinding often making you forget you we’re reading a book. This is the best book to date Pepper has written. Ren and Della will remain in my heart forever.
”Love transcends time, space, distance, universes. Love can’t be confined to pages or photos or memories—it’s forever alive and wild and free. Romance comes and goes, lust flickers and smoulders, trials appear and test, life gets in the way and educates, pain can derail happiness, joy can delete sadness, togetherness is more than just a fairy-tale…it’s a choice. A choice to love and cherish and honour and trust and adore. A choice to choose love, all the while knowing it has the power to break you. A choice, dear friends, to give someone your entire heart. But in the end, love is what life is about. And love is the purpose of everything.”