Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Something Wild & Wonderful

Largely enjoyable. I like books where not that much happens and it's mostly hanging out with the characters; I'd say this is about 50% that, and 50% angst.

As a nature lover, I love the idea of a romance set on the Pacific Coast Trail. It is a romanticized view, but that is what you are here for in a romance!

The romance is sweet, and the characters are likable and complement each other well. Both characters are painfully earnest and endlessly tender. The main problem I suppose is that it's difficult to imagine why these characters who genuinely adore and want the best for each other would have a book-level of relationship conflict, and as a result Kelly has given them both a level of insecurity and angst that it is actually pretty difficult to deal with (both in technical/authorial terms of being able to resolve it by the end of the book and for me personally as a reader). It sort of felt like Kelly was resolving on "he walks on the trail for a long time and then feels like a different person" to do a lot of work.

Random Observations:

* Alternating POV is one of my romance pet peeves but it's SO common.

* I can't confirm this, but the appearance and demeanor of Alexei led me to imagine he's modeled on the autistic-coded CEO character Evan Speck from Freeform's "Good Trouble" - the softer version of the character who loved turtles, before the soap opera wiped his memory.

* Feels like there was a missed opportunity for Ben to patch up an injury of Alexei's and engage in some hurt/comfort.

* I like that the pining portion of the book isn't the whole thing and they actually move onto a relationship which is more interesting.

* The book contains scenes of sexual tension and sex scenes; I am not sure if I am just bringing my graysexuality to this book, but the sexiness didn't really land with me. It just kind of felt like the tone of scenes randomly shifted between sexiness, tenderness, angst, etc.

* The two major conflicts in the relationship both occur when Alexei abruptly walks out on Ben, once on the trail and once by disappearing mid-visit to his family. As a reader, these events felt a bit samey, but also I feel like the relationship pattern created made me really wary on Ben's behalf about continuing to pursue Alexei because obviously he has a tendency to bail when things get hard, which is exactly what Ben doesn't need. And I'm not convinced he won't do it again after the end of the book! The book's attempt to turn this into a lesson for Ben about how he needs to be vulnerable and put his heart on the line actually felt kind of toxic and victim-blamey. I don't think Alexei is a bad person but I was pretty convinced by the book that he is not in a place for a relationship right now. And the ending also made me feel that perhaps Ben is not either: When Ben shows up to meet him at the end, although we know from Alexei's POV that it's welcome, it didn't seem like Ben had enough information to know that it would be, and his other grand gesture of getting a tattoo of Alexei's favorite bird felt like a real red flag to me.

What kills me is that there are COMPLETELY genuine romance conflicts you could put in the book without having the two characters be this messy. Ben's job could have created a serious roadblock even if they had been open and communicative about it. Alexei's relationship inexperience and/or neurodivergence could have created communication barriers or expectation gaps. The book could have covered the difficulty of translating an intense trail experience to the real world. I suppose I just felt that Alexei's second abandonment of Ben crossed the Relationship Feasability Event Horizon, so by the end I didn't even want them to get together.

* Dark-eyed juncos are pretty?? Compared to TANAGERS?????

Content Warnings

kellyallenpoe's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

daisy1_f's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

andi_mush's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i loved this! such a sweet story, and beautifully written.

tho i’m still divided on the necessity of alexei leaving again. i mean.. it was foreshadowed and framed well, but i can’t tell if the ripples it makes in the water matches the waves?

Content Warnings