Book Review: Something Wilder

I’ve had Something Wilder by Christina Lauren on my tbr since it came out basically and I didn’t get to it last year and then put it off til now because I figured it was more of a summer book.

The novel follows Lily Wilder and Leo Grady. Lily grew up on her family’s ranch, taking care of horses, and loving the land while her dad was always off an adventures and looking for the long lost treasure of Butch Cassidy. When Lily was 19, Leo Grady spent a summer working at Wilder Ranch and the two fell in love. Leo, this city kid, intended to stay with her at the ranch, but when he got a call about his mom being in a bad accident, he had to go back to New York.

And then Lily and Leo didn’t see each other again for 10 years….

Fast forward and Leo goes on an annual vacation with his college friends. They take turns planning the trip and this year it was his friend Bradley’s turn. The friends head to Utah to go on a guided adventure through the desert and red rock canyons to go on a fake treasure hunt. Little does he know that the tour company is Wilder Adventures and is run by Lily. Now the two who were once in love (maybe still in love?) have to spend a week together in the wilderness after not seeing each other in 10 years.

I thought going in to this novel that it would be a rom com that takes place in the wilderness, but it really is an adventure book with romance in it. The treasure hunt for the tour has always been fake, but when Lily stumbles across some clues her father left behind for her it turns in to a real treasure hunt. Should be fun, right? The only problem is her father, Duke Wilder, was a really famous treasure hunter and other people suspect he found Butch Cassidy’s treasure and want to find it too.

I really enjoyed this book and the love Lily and Leo still had for each other after all these years. There is the miscommunication trope which kept them apart for so long, but I was happy to see that it was cleared up pretty early on in the novel and then it was just a matter of them getting to know each other again and figuring out if they could have a future together.

“He wondered if, looking down, the stars ever felt like falling, lovesick, onto the planets. The instinct was in him when he was over her, moving, unable to believe that she was real and her quiet sounds were real and the way she looked up at him was real. Just fall. It’s okay. She had to see the truth tattooed in his eyes and scrawled across every feature: that he had always loved her, was loving her still. Leo would love Lily Wilder forever.”

This was a great second chance romance with forced proximity and a little bit of spice.