Something Wilder
by Christina Lauren
Published: May 17, 2022
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.
So this definitely doesn’t go down as my favorite Christina Lauren book. I appreciate the effort but it just wasn’t it for me.
I’ve read a handful of their books and this was really different. Usually I find there to be a really good mix or plot and romance and this really focused on the treasure hunting aspect of things more-so than the romance which is totally fine, but going into this, I kind of expected more of what I thought a traditional Christina Lauren book to be like. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun part of the book, I really did enjoy it and it kind of makes me want to take a dive into more western style books, if they were done like this.
My big issue was the romance. Lilly and Leo haven’t spoken in TEN YEARS. That’s a long ass time for someone you supposedly were so in love with. To just leave and never talk to them again. So I felt like the reconciliation of the two was really short and weird. Like, I get that that kind of attraction doesn’t go away so quickly but I also must argue that you can’t just have a quick conversation and/or pretend like everything is OK when clearly it isn’t. It takes a LOT to resolve a ten year ghosting, I felt like that whole chunk of time and long term pain was just glossed over in the grand scheme of things.
There were a few good spicy scenes, I’ll give Christina Lauren that. And I do enjoy their spicy stuff, but for some reason within this whole book, I couldn’t give a single damn about any of the characters. They all fell flat and I felt so indifferent about all of them.
So overall, not atrocious but still not an absolute favorite. It felt a bit rushed to the end and not really anything like what I enjoy about Christina Lauren books.
Rating: 2.75/5 Stars
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