Score: 3.5/5 Bookmarks

Steam Rating: 🍆🍆🍆/5

Wild at Heart by K.A. Tucker is the second in The Simple Wild series. Contrary to popular opinion I didn’t love the first book, The Simple Wild. It was ok, but I wasn’t swept off my feet by Calla and Jonah the way everyone else seemed to be. I was on the fence about reading this second one, but when the third in the series came out Forever Wild, which was also a holiday novella I thought I would give this series another chance.

In this book Calla has returned to Toronto, but Jonah arrives on her doorstep and asks her to come back to Alaska with him. They end up buying a log cabin in rural Alaska, and Calla is forced to compromise a LOT to be with Jonah. On top of that she ends up spending a lot of time alone, and with the cold, dark, winter months ahead this doesn’t seem like the future Calla envisioned for herself.

I’m not sure what to say except that while I love all the supporting characters, I find the leads so uninteresting. They’re immature, one-dimensional, and I don’t feel like they’re a good match at all. And I don’t mean that in an opposites-attract sort of way, I mean they just don’t feel like a good fit to me at all, and I can’t seem to buy into the two of them together, as hard as I try. Their relationship feels a bit like a long-term boyfriend I had in my twenties. Sure I loved the guy, and we had fun, but ultimately we wanted different things and weren’t suited for each other so would often butt heads. And for those reasons he’s not the guy I ended up marrying. As I’ve worked my way through this series I can’t help but wish Calla and Jonah would go find partners better suited to themselves.

There are instances in the book where Jonah is clearly manipulating Calla and bulldozing her into long-term decisions that she doesn’t seem to want at all. It all feels so one-sided, which is not a true relationship in my opinion, or at least not a strong foundation to build a lasting one.

Plus the sex scenes are a bit cave-mannish for me and I just frankly don’t find them appealing at all. For instance, Jonah seems to ‘throw Calla down’ a lot, and at one point wakes her by just ‘sticking a finger in her’. Um, no thanks. But hey, we all like different things I guess. It sure seems like the two of them resort to sex when they don’t know how to communicate with each other properly.

Anyway, despite the problems I mentioned, it wasn’t completely horrible. As I said, I really enjoy the supporting characters a lot, and the visuals of Alaska are interesting too. If you haven’t read this one yet and would like to, you can grab a copy via the button below.

Synopsis:

Calla Fletcher returns to Toronto a different person, struggling to find direction and still very much in love with the rugged bush pilot she left behind. When Jonah arrives on her doorstep with a proposition she can’t dismiss, she takes the leap and rushes back to Alaska to begin their exciting future together.

But Calla soon learns that even the best intentions can lead to broken promises, and that compromise comes with a hefty price—a log cabin in interior rural Alaska that feels as isolating as the western tundra.

With Jonah gone more than he’s home, one neighbor who insists on transforming her into a true Alaskan, and another who seems more likely to shoot her than come to her aid, Calla grapples with forging her own path. In a world with roaming wildlife that has her constantly watching over her shoulder and harsh conditions that stretch far beyond the cold, dark, winter months, just stepping outside her front door can be daunting.

This is not the future Calla had in mind, leaving her to fear that perhaps she is doomed to follow in her mother’s fleeing footsteps after all.