Something Wilder

 

Something Wilder - Christina Lauren

Gallery Books

Release Date- May 17, 2022

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Growing up the daughter of notorious treasure hunter and absentee father Duke Wilder left Lily without much patience for the profession…or much money in the bank. But Lily is nothing if not resourceful, and now uses Duke’s coveted hand-drawn maps to guide tourists on fake treasure hunts through the red rock canyons of Utah. It pays the bills but doesn’t leave enough to fulfill her dream of buying back the beloved ranch her father sold years ago, and definitely not enough to deal with the sight of the man she once loved walking back into her life with a motley crew of friends ready to hit the trails. Frankly, Lily would like to take him out into the wilderness—and leave him there.

Leo Grady knew mirages were a thing in the desert, but they’d barely left civilization when the silhouette of his greatest regret comes into focus in the flickering light of the campfire. Ready to leave the past behind him, Leo wants nothing more than to reconnect with his first and only love. Unfortunately, Lily Wilder is all business, drawing a clear line in the sand: it’s never going to happen.

But when the trip goes horribly and hilariously wrong, the group wonders if maybe the legend of the hidden treasure wasn’t a gimmick after all. There’s a chance to right the wrongs—of Duke’s past and their own—but only if Leo and Lily can confront their history and work together. Alone under the stars in the isolated and dangerous mazes of the Canyonlands, Leo and Lily must decide whether they’ll risk their lives and hearts on the adventure of a lifetime.

From the author of the “heartfelt and funny” (Publishers Weekly) sensation The Unhoneymooners, this page-turning adventure full of second chances, complicated relationships, and the breathtaking beauty of the American Southwest will take fans on one wild ride.

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Something Wilder is a delightful new Christina Lauren (The Honey-Don't List) romance: a desert adventure turns treasure hunt with Leo and Lily getting a second chance at life and love when neither expected it and both might be exactly where they need to be for it. Ten years after they first meet, Lily is down on her luck and leading tourists on desert adventure trails to make ends meet. Leo, a NYC computer coder, is going on a vacation with friends and gets the surprise of his life when he sees his old flame Lily again. The trip takes a turn sideways and Leo and Lily find themselves in a race for hidden treasure against some people definitely prepared to kill to get it first. 

Lily is fantastic: she needs no help from anyone, has learned not to expect help, or in fact anything, from anyone, and to stand stubbornly on her own two feet as her world crumbles around her. Her mother abandoned her, her father would rather look for treasure and play with codes, and the one guy she thought was hers took off and never contacted her for ten years. She and her friend Nicole are fully capable of being the only women in this part of the 'man's world' and holding their own, standing up for each other, and too bad for anyone who says otherwise. Her dreams of buying back the family ranch and having a life that is her choice and not the result of other people's poor choices is admirable, and you feel terrible for her as we go through the book and learn that maybe her father kept things from her that he really should have shared. I did like how Christina Lauren explained that in the end (I'm not giving anything away with spoilers here so will be purposely vague!) but I still felt bad for the emotional trauma Lily's father caused her. Poor choices, poor planning, and Lily was left thinking neither of her parents cared for her at all and she had to face the world by herself. No wonder she tries to protect herself from loving Leo when he comes back into her life!

Leo blossomed into a man you could count on in the worst of circumstances and trust to have your back through thick and thin- just what Lily needs. He loves codes and puzzles, works with computer codes in NYC and only realizes when he's out in the desert how empty his life has been without Lily in it. Fortunately, he's also brave enough (and smart enough) to figure out quickly that he wants Lily in his life and he's willing to be flexible enough to do whatever she needs so he can be part of her life.  He's so completely and simply in love with Lily (not again, not back, but always) that you melt with it and want to beg her to give him another chance even while the other part of your brain is agreeing with her that how in the world do they work?

This is definitely one of those books where the less you talk about the plot the better for the next reader- the fewer spoilers the more fun!- but let's say it is both like and unlike any other Christina Lauren book I've ever read and I loved it for that. Action, adventure, beautiful and deadly deserts, possible treasure and potential disaster. The higher the stakes the more we see the best and the worst that can be seen in people. Somehow Christina Lauren manages to pack in high-stakes adventure and fast-paced plot while also expertly unwinding enough insanely complicated emotional bombs to make a team of therapists weep. Lily and her obviously complicated emotional relationship with bother of her parents, her trust issues; but also Leo and his parent issues, being a parent to his little sister, having to grow up faster than he expected; and friends with let's just say some issues of their own. How that can all fit into one book and work really well I don't know, but it it did.

Something Wilder is fast-paced, witty, and entertaining, with sparkling writing, delightfully quirky characters, and just the right level of slow-build, smoking hot romance. Just the sort of fun, rom-com adventure to read over the summer (or winter, or on vacation, or ever, and really one you'd love to see on the screen someday . . .) that makes you appreciate true friendship, the occasional gun to the head moment, and outwitting the bad guys who deserve it in so many ways. Possibly my new favorite Christina Lauren book, Something Wilder is a second chance romance full of action, adventure, surprises, friendship, and love.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review