Wild About You
by Kaitlyn Hill
My Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: New Adult
Type of romance: m/f
Blurb:
Two total opposites. One race through the Great Outdoors. In this grumpy-sunshine teen romance from the author of Love from Scratch and Not Here to Stay Friends, the trail to true love doesn’t always come with a map.Natalie Hart has always been loud, unfiltered, and unapologetically herself. But then comes her freshman year of college, when she loses her merit scholarship and gains one pesky little anxiety diagnosis.
Hesitant to take out more student loans, Natalie decides to shoot her shot and applies to Wild Adventures, a popular outdoorsy reality show. Sure, Natalie prefers her twelve-step skincare routine to roughing it on the Appalachian Trail while competing in challenges against other college kids, but that scholarship prize money is calling her name. High risk, high reward, right?
Enter Finn Markum, her randomly assigned, capital-O Outdoorsy teammate whose growl could rival a black bear. These partners have more friction than a pair of new hiking boots. Or is it flirtation? Turns out falling in love might be the wildest adventure of all…
My Review
I like books about hiking and nature and I was in the mood to read a book with a nature setting when I remembered this book and decided to read it. This was just the perfect fit my current reading mood and I had such a great time reading this one.
I remembered reading some reviews for it after it just released and that main character Natalie could take some getting used to, but gladly I didn’t really struggle with that. Once she mentioned her struggles and anxiety I could relate to her and it made her feel human and real immediately. And I only grew to like her more the more I read about.
The nature setting was one of the biggest draws for me and I just loved reading a whole book set around the Appalachian Trail and among nature. Natalie isn’t used to camping and being in nature, so that’s an adjustment for her, but her partner on the reality tv show Finn is a more outdoorsy type, so it was fun to see those opposites work together. I had worried the reality tv show plot line wouldn’t work for me, but I thought it worked here, they have challenges to overcome and they film their adventures. What really made this book for me on top of the nature setting was the romance between Natalie and Finn, it was just awesome.
The romance in this book was so well written. It starts off with these two being total opposites and Finn not talking to Natalie, while she desperately tries to engage him in conversation. I was afraid this would veer into enemies to lovers vibes, but it ended up being more grumpy-sunshine vibes until Finn slowly warms up to Natalie. What I loved was the way they really talk and connect, they share not only their hopes and dreams, but also their struggles, grief and hurts. Another thing I loved is how Finn actually apologizes for his behavior. And I liked how once they grow close he is so supportive and encouraging of Natalie. There is a bit of conflict they have to work through later on and while I was a bit afraid of how that would work out, but I thought it was fully in-character and felt realistic and made sense. I liked how it got resolved.
I also liked both Finn and Natalie as characters, they both felt real and realistic. And I liked reading about them, seeing how they dealt with the challenges and seeing them develop and change throughout the book. The epilogue was great and it just left me feeling happy. I already bought two more of this author’s books.
The focus of this book is very much on the characters and their romance and then the reality tv show plot line as a way for them to spend time together and experience things together. There are some nice side characters like some of the other competitors and I liked seeing Harper and Natalie become friends.
To summarize: I had such a fantastic time reading this book. I love nature and hiking themed books and I started reading this one when I was in the mood for that. I really liked the nature setting and reading about these characters surrounded by nature for most of the book. I also loved the romance and characters. I found Natalie relatable from the start with her anxiety struggles and grew to like her even more when I got to know more about her. The romance starts out as having some grumpy-sunshine vibes and I liked seeing the characters grow closer. I liked how Finn’s grumpy behavior makes sense later on and how he apologizes for his behavior. I also liked how these two share their hopes and dreams, as well as their struggles and grief. I really could feel their connection and I loved reading about these two. Finn is so supportive of Natalie and I liked seeing both of them change throughout the book. There are some fun side characters too and I liked seeing Natalie and Harper’s friendship develop. I had such a great time reading this one that I already bought more books by this author.
Leave a Reply