Score: 3.5/5 Bookmarks

Steam Rating: 🍆🍆/5

Forever Wild by K.A. Tucker is book 2.5 in The Simple Wild series and a holiday novella. If you read my most recent review before this one you’ll know that I haven’t loved this series nearly as much as everyone seems to. I just never fell in love with the main characters, although I will say that I find the supporting characters enthralling and always find myself wanting to know more about them instead.

In this installment of the story Calla and Jonah are living together in their log cabin in rural Alaska. They’ve gotten into a rhythm with their neighbors, and life in general, and are expecting quite a lot of family and friends to visit them for the holidays. The first half of the book is really just them getting everything ready, which I didn’t enjoy all that much. I never really enjoy the storyline when it’s just Calla and Jonah. But it got a lot more interesting once other people started to arrive.

I can’t tell you what, without giving spoilers, but there was a spot of drama around the 80% mark that seemed unnecessary to the story and almost thrown in as an afterthought. On top of that, there was a whole secondary storyline that felt a bit ‘tacked on’ and could have been fleshed out a little better in my opinion. Overall, if there wasn’t sex in this series I’d be inclined to label them as family drama rather than romance.

This one also gets a 3.5/5 from me, although I liked the second half of this book more than I’ve liked any of the other books so far in the series. I’ve heard on the grapevine that there will be a third (and possibly final?) book in The Simple Wild series but it won’t focus on Calla and Jonah. Perhaps I’ll really enjoy that one, seeing as they’re my least favorite characters in the books—I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Synopsis:

From the international bestselling author of The Simple Wild comes Forever Wild, a novella that continues the story of Calla’s journey to the Alaskan wild and a life she never imagined for herself.

The holiday season is upon Calla and Jonah, and with the mistletoe and gingerbread comes plenty of family drama. Jonah is bracing himself for two weeks with a stepfather he loathes, and while Calla is looking forward to her mother and Simon’s arrival, she dreads the continued pressure to set a date for their wedding … in Toronto. Add in one bullheaded neighbor’s unintentional meddling and another cantankerous neighbor’s own family strife, and Christmas in Trapper’s Crossing will be anything but simple.