Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Something Wild & Wonderful

Title: Something Wild & Wonderful
Author: Anita Kelly
Series: Love & Other Disaster #2
Genre: Romance
Rating: 5.00
Pub Date: March 7, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Untamed • Affectionate •

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Alexei Lebedev’s journey on the Pacific Crest Trail begins with a single snake. And it is angling for the hot stranger who seemed to have appeared out of thin air. Lex is prepared for rattlesnakes, blisters, and months of solitude. What he isn’t prepared for is Ben Caravalho. But somehow—on a 2,500-mile trail—Alexei keeps running into the outgoing and charismatic hiker with golden-brown eyes, again and again.

Ben has made his fair share of bad decisions, and almost all of them involved beautiful men. And yet there’s something about the gorgeous and quietly nerdy Alexei that Ben can’t just walk away from. Surely a bad decision can’t be this cute and smart.

💭 T H O U G H T S

When a trusted book friend described and raved about this book, I instantly added it to my TBR and placed a hold through my library. When my hold finally came through I dropped everything to jump in. At the time, I was in quite a reading slump and Something Wild & Wonderful definitely changed that. I could not put this book down and fell absolutely in love with this story!

As an outdoor enthusiast myself, the Western wilderness of the Pacific Crest Trail was immediately transporting. The imagery - from the desert to the mountains, from the trees to the birds - all of it came to life. At times I even felt like I was taking the journey alongside Alexei. And as other readers have said, it certainly made me want to go hiking and see parts of the PCT.

But it is the characters that truly make this book shine! While I can safely say Alexei and Ben are opposites, they both are facing their respective life challenges. The heartbreaking reality of Alexei's reason for embarking on the journey evoked great emotion and I just felt an instant connection to his quiet, introverted character. The two men come together to help each other in ways they weren't even aware of and in the process being to heal. Ben's family and friends were also just wonderful.

The writing comes together in a tender and compassionate manner creating a purely magical story. The plot just made me heart happy. And even though the romance does happen fairly quick, yet it felt believable and sincere. There's no doubt Something Wild & Wonderful will be on my 2023 favourites list. It took me by utter surprise just how much I adored this book and it definitely made me was to explore more of Anita Kelly's work. I'd also be completely okay if Alexei and Ben got a sequel at some point.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• M/M romance enthusiast
• fans of Allison Cochrun
• readers who likes adventure

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Being still was powerful."

"There will also never be anyone else to take the place of my parents. Some parts of myself will always be missing. But you taught me I can find people. That there will be other people I meet in my life who will understand me. Who will love me. Who will show me how wonderful and surprising the world can be."

"Moving forward was different from running away."

Content Warnings

leahkarge's review against another edition

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4.0

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imstephtacular's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

sarrie's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

Something Wild and Wonderful by Anita Kelly might be in the running for my favorite romance of 2023, and it’s only March. This is the story of Alexei and Ben, both of whom are hiking the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail). They meet early on their solo adventures when Alexei stops Ben from accidentally stepping on a rattlesnake. From there they cross paths repeatedly till they begin to hike together - and they begin a relationship along the way.
For a short book I would call this a slow burn, and wow was it worth it and beautiful to watch. Alexei, who I felt was the most developed of the two main characters, reads very neuroatypical. He’s also struggling with the loss of his family. After coming out as gay his very conservative Russian parents cut him off. He meets Ben, who is a happy and lovingly wonderful person. Ben is attempting to put his life back together after a string of hearbreaks that lead to an abusive relationship and the fall out from that.
The little things are what truly made this for me. Alexei’s love of ornithology, and the inclusion of a Tamora Pierce book. Ben’s soft and constant humming and singing, all of it made the characters feel rich and real to me likely because those are all habits and loves of my own. The third act breakup as well was something that felt believable and warranted. Real life can get in the way of a dream romance, and this showed that well.
And have no fear! The story, while it takes place on a long hike up country does not feel so much like a hiking story. The setting is perfect, and we do get descriptions - when appropriate, of the hike but it is only the vehicle in which our characters are traveling. We are not swamped with details or focused on the trail.
Overall this is a powerful new romance. There are heavier moments and topics, and I’ll list those below, but for the most part it’s inspiring and uplifting. I’d recommend this to any fan of romance. Anita Kelly is quickly climbing my list of favorite authors - I expect more fantastic work from them!

Content Warnings

winds0fchange19's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

This was my first book of Anita Kelly’s and honestly, they’ve blown me away and I will read every book they ever write from now on.

This book was captivating from the very beginning. Being told from both Alexei and Ben’s POV was definitely a good decision and I’m glad we got to see this story told from both of their perspectives. It was beautiful and thoughtful and I absolutely fell in love with both. At this point, I don’t know which character I love more! They’re both unique, have their own voices, and have well fleshed out personalities. I loved that they’ve included cultural references for both of their respective cultures as well as the inclusion of both Russian and Portuguese language that feels immersive and doesn’t break up the text. It does not feel as if it were included for the sake of diversity, but that the author truly took the time to get to know their own characters and share them with the reader in ways that makes you easily fall in love with them.

Another thing I absolutely loved was how well Alexei was written especially. I was not shocked at all to find out about the

autism diagnosis.

The way the author has taken the time to lovingly craft this character, to understand how his mind works, and show us who he is was beautiful.

Waiting until the very end of the book to reveal this to us, and to Alexei, was a decision I can fully stand behind. I am so happy to have been able to learn and love Alexei as he is and understand exactly who he is without it being explicitly stated right away. As someone with similar diagnosis's, it means the world.

On top of it all, Anita’s love for nature and hiking was so obvious throughout. This was so beautifully written, so inspiring, and you can tell they’ve got the knowledge to back up the story. It’s real, they’ve not made it out to be an easy walk in the park, but instead a challenge. The way these characters have grown both together and apart during their respective journeys was inspiring to read and honestly, it left me wanting to hike the PCT myself. I loved this book and I can’t wait to pick it back up for a reread already.

Content Warnings

spaghettireads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective 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

Content Warnings

decklededgess's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

5.0

trigger warnings: alcohol, death of family member, dementia/alzheimer's, emotionally abusive and toxic relationships, grief, homophobia and slurs, depression and anxiety, physical injury, religious bigotry

How do you explain a book that made you properly sob for the first time in six years... Like fully ouch my feelings were wrecked.

Anita Kelly takes on religious trauma and unlearning internalized homophobia in a very physical journey to self discovery as Alexei decides to walk the Pacific Crest Trail. His emotional development through the stages of grief of being disowned by his parents paired with him finally allowing himself the freedom to fall in love was the perfect emotional concoction of bittersweet. I found myself deeply relating to his journey of self acceptance, finally allowing himself to feel love and explore his sexuality in a way that wasn't formulaic or squirreled away like a dirty little secret.

Ben was also such a sweet lead. I didn't expect a POV for him because Alexei's story was the core of the book but Ben's path to healing from emotionally manipulative ex boyfriends was also a tender storyline that complimented Alexei's so well. In fact Alexei's story to accepting his softer self and Ben's story of accepting love that strengthens him were perfectly complimented in ways I didn't expect. I also really loved reading about Ben's family, his struggles with academics, and his nurturing tendencies that made him who he was.

Ben and Alexei are also both neurodivergent, which was delightful to come across. It's a new habit of mine to pick out traits in "grumpy" characters that code them as autistic (although the grumpy part is not always the case). So I was right on the money in figuring out Alexei is autistic. It isn't a central part of the story, but it's a central part of his personality that does get acknowledged later in the book. It was good to read neurodivergent plot lines that weren't the central part of the book. They make us who we are but they do not declare our whole selves. Same goes for Ben and his ADHD. That isn't explored explicitly in the story but the markers are there for anyone who can recognize the behaviours.

I love this book with all my heart. Anita Kelly has written some of the most exquisite books I've read in the past few years and I cannot wait to read everything else they put out in the future.

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