Score: 3.5/5 Bookmarks

Steam Rating: 🍆🍆/5

I received so many glowing recommendations from friends, for The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker, plus it’s rated incredibly highly on Goodreads—all things that led me to assume that I’d really enjoy this one. Maybe it was a case of anticipointment, but while I liked it I certainly didn’t love it.

I kept expecting the characters to gain more depth as the story progressed, or to feel more invested in their lives and outcomes, but I just never got there. Even by the end of the book I still felt that the characters were fairly one-dimensional. Plus, despite knowing it would ultimately have a happy ending (it is a romance book after all) I found the whole book overly expected, predictable, and honestly a little dull.

Perhaps because I’ve spent time, and lived in, places like Alaska, Colorado and the Australian outback, I don’t have any romantic notions about life in remote areas. But I think it’s more than that.

While I felt for Calla and her dad, mostly I was just angry at the both of them for not fostering their relationship. They really had no-one to blame but themselves. Lots of people’s parents split up when they were babies (myself included) and it’s on both the kid and the parent to continue that relationship.

And for Calla’s big revelation to be that she found helping people in a small community more fulfilling than fashion blogging—was that really a surprise to anyone, including herself? Overall, I just wanted more from her, and from the story.

However, I’m not totally giving up on the author and I plan to read the sequel, Wild at Heart, which has also been much talked about and admired on Bookstagram.

I’m curious though, if you read and loved this one could you tell me what you found so appealing. Did I miss something vital that made everyone else love this book?

If you haven’t read it and you’d like to, you can get a copy by clicking the button below.

Synopsis:

Calla Fletcher wasn't even two when her mother took her and fled the Alaskan wild, unable to handle the isolation of the extreme, rural lifestyle, leaving behind Calla’s father, Wren Fletcher, in the process. Calla never looked back, and at twenty-six, a busy life in Toronto is all she knows. But when Calla learns that Wren’s days may be numbered, she knows that it’s time to make the long trip back to the remote frontier town where she was born.

She braves the roaming wildlife, the odd daylight hours, the exorbitant prices, and even the occasional—dear God—outhouse, all for the chance to connect with her father: a man who, despite his many faults, she can’t help but care for. While she struggles to adjust to this rugged environment, Jonah—the unkempt, obnoxious, and proud Alaskan pilot who helps keep her father’s charter plane company operational—can’t imagine calling anywhere else home. And he’s clearly waiting with one hand on the throttle to fly this city girl back to where she belongs, convinced that she’s too pampered to handle the wild.

Jonah is probably right, but Calla is determined to prove him wrong. Soon, she finds herself forming an unexpected bond with the burly pilot. As his undercurrent of disapproval dwindles, it’s replaced by friendship—or perhaps something deeper? But Calla is not in Alaska to stay and Jonah will never leave. It would be foolish of her to kindle a romance, to take the same path her parents tried—and failed at—years ago. It’s a simple truth that turns out to be not so simple after all.