I will begin by saying that if the first book was good and I almost had a heart attack, this one killed me all the way. I enjoyed reading this book even more than I anticipated. Harlan Coben will never be overrated. This man delivers an amazing story with such ease and every chapter packs a punch in them that you never see coming.

The only characters you can trust are the ones we already knew from the previous book and even then we get a surprise that I don’t think anyone was expecting. I did not see that coming. If you know… you know.

The beginning of the story is exactly where we left off. It is so refreshing having a character like Hester Crimstein in the story. She makes everything better. She clearly sees Wilde as a son, but she is so direct and straightforward. I think she told him in the first book that it is not because she wants to compensate for not having her David anymore. I mean, talk about a slap in the face. This guy was abandoned in the woods when he was a toddler. The only family he truly knows is David’s and he is no longer with them, even though he is super present in the story.

When Wilde matches with someone on a DNA website and he begins to look for his biological relatives, he was definitely not expecting to be sucked in the mother of all conspiracies. I’m 100% sure that there are some things we’re better off not knowing. Wilde is the type of person that has to see things through. If he starts something, he will finish it. Even when the only thing it brings is trouble, he keeps pushing forward.

If it wasn’t for the support system he has, I don’t think he would’ve been able to pull it off. When I tell you that it is a mess that goes up and down, keeping you on your toes. Not letting you believe anything but at the same time not leaving you confused… that’s exactly what you’re getting out of this.

I loved how the story ended and I’m happy with how much the experience changed him and enabled him to open up to Laila. That was my cherry on top.


Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read another masterpiece. I didn’t even wait to finish it when I was already at Barnes and Noble purchasing the physical book. It’s that good.

The Match picks from where The Boy From the Woods leaves off - Wilde is back from Costa Rica and living in his eco capsule in the mountains of New Jersey. The boy with no memories of his past submits his DNA in search of relatives. Wilde uncovers a tangled web of lies in this fast paced plot. Will there be another book in the series? Not everything is was resolved and left the door open to see what's next for Wilde.

The Match is Harlan Coben's second book that features the man called Wilde. He was introduced in 2020's bestseller, The Boy From the Woods." (But The Match could absolutely be read as a standalone.)

"Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. Three decades had gone by and still no one, including Wild, had a clue about his origin."

I really enjoyed that first book and was eager to read The Match. Will Wilde will find out more about his past and/or his parents? Well, the answer to that is yes - he does indeed learn more about his past.

But that's just one part of this very clever plot. Take a second look at that cover and title - DNA and online ancestry databases figure prominently into this latest. Reality television plays a part, as does a shadowy group of doxxers meting out their own brand of justice.

There's a great group of supporting players including lawyer Hester Crimstein. The lives of these characters are well fleshed out. The interactions and relationships bring in many personal threads that make the characters all the more real.

There's a nice twisty road on the way to the final pages and a satisfying ending. But, their are many question and more in store for Wilde. And this reader can't wait for the next entry.

Wow I'm so happy I read this book! I have loved pretty much all of Harlan Coben's books, but the first book in this series didn't do it for me. However, this book totally redeemed the series. It was a very unputdownable twisted mystery.

I loved all the twists and turns in this book. It kept me guessing who the killer was, who was related to who and how they were related. It was great finding out who Wilde's parents were and why he was abandoned. I hope there is going to be another book in this series!

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Best-selling author Harlan Coben consistently delights readers with fast-paced, action-packed stories replete with shocking plot twists. Happily for his legions of international readers, he has now penned a sequel to The Boy from the Woods, in which he introduced the character of Wilde.

In The Match, Coben melds the dark aspects of reality television and the fame it engenders, social media influencers, online trolling, and the sometimes far-reaching consequences of submitting a DNA sample to an online ancestry database into a cohesive, riveting tale. It is a thoroughly contemporary story that opens with the enigmatic Wilde, now somewhere between forty and forty-two years old, "no more than twenty yards from a blood relative and the elusive answers to his mysterious origin." A few months earlier, Wilde let his curiosity compel him to submit a DNA sample to an online genealogy database. He matched with a second cousin who identifies himself only by the initial "PB." Wilde did not respond to the message he received from PB via the ancestry website because he moved to Costa Rica in an attempt to settle down there with a woman -- who was not Laila, the widow of Wilde's best friend, David, with whom he has long had a complicated, on-and-off relationship. But when he returns to New Jersey, his attempt at domesticity having failed, he tracks down his biological father. Thus, The Match launches with Wilde meeting the man in Las Vegas. Things do not go as expected. His father, Daniel Carter, claims not to know which of the eight women he slept with during one reckless summer was Wilde's mother. Carter was cheating on Sofia, the woman he would eventually marry and have three daughters with. He makes clear that he does not want Wilde to appear in their lives, revealing Carter's long-ago infidelity. With no desire to disrupt the family's life, Wilde flies back to New Jersey, believing the matter closed. It isn't.

Wilde learns that "PB" stands for Peter Bennett, who gained fame as a contestant on a "Bachelor"-type television show titled "Love Is a Battlefield." He married Jenn, the woman he met on the show. They had a very public wedding and marriage, and lived a lavish life as social media influencers until it was revealed that Peter was unfaithful to Jenn . . . with Jenn's younger sister, Marnie. For Peter, fame became a nightmare when his formerly adoring fans turned on him. In an email, Peter asks for his help, telling Wilde, "Everything I knew about myself and my upbringing turned out to be a lie. You're my cousin." But before Wilde can answer the email (which disappears from his inbox), Peter disappears after posting a photo on Instagram captioned, "I just want peace. I want it all to go away." His family, including his sister, Vicky Chiba, who served as Peter's manager, fear he committed suicide. Because Peter reached out to Wilde, he uses his security expertise to investigate. But first, he has to have "Love Is a Battlefield" explained to him. He tries to watch it with an open mind, but finds it completely irredeemable.

Coben describes the workings of Boomerang, a vigilante group that exacts vengeance on bullies. Their "mission is about punishing cruelty and abuse . . . " Their motto: "Karma is like a boomerang -- what ever you give out will come back to you." The members meet to decide which cases should be accepted, rating them as Category 1 - 5, with punishments ranging from ruining credit ratings, emptying back accounts, and blackmail to "total annihilation" for Category 5 offenses. The Stranger, a well-known Coben character, is the founder and leader of the group, the members of which conceal their identities from each other and have instituted numerous measures to ensure that if one of them is caught, the rest will remain anonymous and protected. Wilde discovers that Peter was the victim of cyberbullying -- he received compromising photos and threats. Did those messages come from someone operating on the authority of that highly secretive group?

And, of course, dead bodies are piling up and Peter becomes the prime murder suspect. Coben introduces a series of seemingly disjointed stories and characters, but do they somehow intersect? And if Wilde figures out how the lives of the various characters intertwine, will he find his mother and finally learn how he ended up in the woods alone all those years ago?

High-powered celebrity lawyer Hester Crimstein has appeared in a number of Coben's prior novels, but never as a major character until now. Her son, David, was Wilde's best friend and died tragically. David and Laila's son, Matthew, is Wilde's godson and, as noted, Wilde and Laila have long had a complicated relationship. Coben's inclusion of a romance between two older characters is touching. A widow, Hester has begun dating Oren Carmichael, the retired local police chief. The sometimes caustic, no-nonsense Hester provides a distinct contrast to the quiet, reclusive Wilde who lives in his movable, technologically advanced Ecocapsule in the woods. Their investigative collaboration is one of the story's highlights, showcasing their deeply respectful, admiring, and affectionate relationship.

In typical Coben fashion, the plot is intricately and quite ingeniously constructed, and the story moves at a steady, unrelenting pace. Coben's characters are always fully developed, multi-layered, and intriguingly complex. He also injects sardonic commentary about social issues, including the potentially far-reaching and destructive consequences of quick fame achieved through appearances on reality television.

Readers may accurately surmise bits and pieces of the puzzle, but will be kept guessing about the details until the very end of the book. And the conclusion of this absorbing tale is both extremely satisfying and very surprising. Fortunately, Coben, one of America's premiere storytellers, never rules out the possibility of publishing another novel featuring his beloved characters. Hopefully, The Match is not the end of Wilde's story.

Wilde grew up alone in the wilderness, but now he has been matched with someone on one of those ancestry matching services who may be his father. However, when he meets his father the mystery only deepens so he goes in search of another alleged relative he has matched with to get some answers. Throw in a bunch of reality show contestants, some vigilantism, and a few murders and you have another great book by one of the masters of the genre. This book with its focus on reality show contestants is not only very original but in an age when our television lineup is overflowing with a plethora of reality shows, it is very timely as well. The main character and his background are extremely unique and interesting. The plot is exciting and keeps you guessing. The resolution to the story is satisfactory. All in all, it's a very enjoyable book.

Things that will immediately make me want to read a book: Harlan Coben authoring it, the character Wilde, and stories about the drama that can happen when DNA testing sites reveal a family secret. This story, obviously, has all three. Wilde gets a huge surprise when he finds out that he has a DNA match on one of these sites that can really only be his biological father. Decades after being "the boy in the woods" media sensation, he really didn't think he'd be meeting blood relatives. As it turns out, Wilde's search and the results set in motion events and connects him with people readers won't see coming. I thought this was quickly paced and had both plenty of time for action and some introspection. Wilde is a fantastic character and I can only hope for more.

Wilde has come back from has stint in Costa Rico when he discovers a match in DNA from a website helping him to find his biological father. Not knowing if he wants to meet him or not he goes through with the initial meet and greet, but still comes away with very few answers. His father wasn’t the only discovered match and when he decides to go further he finds a message from a likely cousin, one that needs help. There’s only one problem ... the message is four months old and said cousin is now missing and presumed dead. As Wilde digs deeper his investigation uncovers a string of murders. Are they somehow connected to his quest to find his family? Will Wilde finally get the answers he seeks? Coben keeps us completely engrossed throughout and in bringing back the beloved characters of Wilde, Laila, Matthew and Hester Crimstein it’s definitely one you wont want to miss!

From one of my favorite authors comes an unusual mystery which is a follow up to a previous work, the Boy in The Woods. I did not read that first one featuring Wilde, a boy that was abandoned at a young age in the woods and when he was discovered was regarded as feral, having survived on his own with no humans around. In this follow up he is a grown man and interested in his biological roots. Taking a DNA test at an ancestry site, he uncovers he has a living bio-father and cousin.

The story has sub-plots, and seems to be all over the place at times, touching on reality celebrities, social media and more. It can be read as a stand alone without much trouble as details about Wilde’s young life are revealed. I found it interesting, but not gripping or intense, nor of the type I couldn't wait to get back to.

My thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review with my honest opinions of this work. A 3.5 rating from this reader.

4-4.5 stars

I loved The Boy from the Woods, so I was really excited to read the second installment of this series, The Match.

We are reunited with Wilde, who was discovered as a child living a feral lifestyle in the Ramapo Mountains of New Jersey. Now as an adult, he knows next to nothing about his family or his own identity. A DNA website reveals a match for Wilde, and he’s surprised to discover that it’s his father but even more surprised that his father never knew about him. From there, Wilde falls down the rabbit hole of searching for more relatives, but in doing so, he becomes tangled up in a community of online doxxers who are suddenly being murdered one by one.

This was an intriguing read and I’m always impressed by the tangled web Harlan Coben weaves. Wilde is such a fantastic character and I can’t wait to read more from this series. Highly recommend!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4481700037

You can always rely on Harlan Coben for a suspenseful, well-crafted and “stay up late” thriller! His latest novel unfurls around the latest in the DNA testing databases, especially on the controversy of surprise revelations about parentage, and what could happen when the DNA match gets revealed.

Here Wilde, a literal “wild” feral child discovered abandoned in the New Jersey woods since toddlerhood, has finally at age 40 has submitted his DNA to a genealogy site. (Of note, Wilde first appears in Cohen’s earlier novel, The Boy from the Woods, but you can definitely read this book as a standalone novel.) Wilde has no idea who his parents were or what led to his abandonment. Wilde first gets pinged from a “PB” about a possible second cousin relationship, but never responds as he’s distracted returning to where he grew up after living abroad in Costa Rica. Wilde returns home to live on his own in a remote woods hut, very much a loner with only fragile ties to his stepsister of the family who adopted him as well as his deceased best friend David’s son Matthew, mom Laila with whom Wilde has had a past romantic relationship, and grandmother Hester Crimstein, who’s a famous intrepid defense lawyer.

When Wilde gets pinged with a message identifying a DNA match to his biological father who turns out to be living in Nevada. Wilde heads out to do surveillance before making direct contact. His Dad, David Carter, has no real answers other than saying his parenting Wilde could have been a fling while serving overseas in the military. Wilde in hopes of finding out more reaches back out to his second cousin PB, who turns out to be troubled reality TV star Peter Bennett who has vanished while on vacation. Suicide or nefarious?

A twisty set of reveals running alongside Wilde’s investigation into his parentage drags Wilde into all sorts of trouble. Coben digs into the ugliness of internet trolls and most intriguingly a secret circle of online citizen vigilantes who use their cyber skills to impose justice on these internet trolls. There’s also Hester’s boyfriend and mentor of Wilde’s who turns his name over to irate police officers looking for vigilante justice after a colleague was killed, which seems unforgivable.

Wilde ultimately relies on Hester’s legal rescue, his godson’s internet savvy, a rekindled romance with Laila, and his own highly honed survival skills to get him through the mayhem and murders. After all this is a Coben novel, so of course he does!!


Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an advanced reader’s copy of this novel to facilitate my candid professional review.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I would definitely recommend reading The Boy from the Woods before reading this one if at all possible. You could probably get by with reading this book as a stand-alone but Wilde has such an interesting and unique history that is dealt with in the first book. Of course, Coben does a good job of catching the reader up in this book. I liked this book even more than the first book. I thought that it was exciting with a lot of twists and turns and I love the way it kept me guessing until the very end. I can always count on Coben to keep me entertained.

Wilde puts his DNA into one of those heredity websites and ends up with a couple of matches. His past is a complete mystery so it is a big deal when he is connected with his father and a cousin. Of course, things can never be easy and it turns out that his cousin is missing and Wilde soon finds himself knee-deep in an incredibly complex mystery. I really liked the way that Wilde approached this mystery. He seemed to be able to see the big picture from the start and was ready to deal with whatever outcome turned up.

There were several different threads going at any one time during this novel and I was eager to see how things might be connected. Not only is Wilde dealing the trying to figure out what really happened to his cousin, but he is also trying to decide what the next steps in his life might be. I really enjoyed seeing Wilde work with Hester, Rola, Matthew, and Laila again and love how they all really care about each other. We even get some answers regarding Wilde’s past.

I would highly recommend this book to others. I found this to be a very exciting fast-paced story that kept me turning pages just as quickly as possible. I love Harlan Coben’s style of writing and look forward to reading, and re-reading, more of his work in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Grand Central Publishing.

From the creator of Netflix's Stay Close and The Stranger, the brilliant master of suspense, Harlan Coben makes many readers very happy (myself included) with his latest knock-out psychological suspense thriller, THE MATCH.

RIVETING. ENGROSSING. SATISFYING.

Will Wilde finally attain the pieces of the puzzle of his past?

A follow-up from The Boy from the Woods, Wilde was called "Little Tarzan" and no one ever came forward to claim the abandoned little boy in the woods. He was around 6-8 yrs old when he was found.

Wilde is now 40-42 years of age, and as a boy, he lived alone in the woods. Something horrible happened to him, a dark past, but his memory was blocked out, and he only remembered pieces.

He had a foster father, and now, three decades later, Wilde did not have a clue about his origin until now. But the initial meeting did not go as expected from a DNA online site match.

Of course, if you know Coben, you know it is not simply getting from point A to B. There is so much in between. We get to catch up with Hester Crimstein, an attorney from previous books (love), and other characters from previous books.

Wilde had spent the last few months in Costa Rica, and it was time to return to his remote Ecocapsule deep in the heart of the Ramapo Mountains, in New Jersey, where he belonged in the woods alone.

Wilde is intelligent. He had a successful military career, years as a security expert, and excellent detective skills.

However, now he is about to meet his father, Daniel Carter, from a DNA ancestry website. The man was around 61 and married a woman named Sofia with three grown daughters, who are now his half-sisters and live in Nevada. The guy had a past with other women but does not want to screw up his current marriage and family. But little does he know?

Can Wilde move on with his future until he finds out his past?

Wilde receives an email from PB (Peter Bennett) who claims to be a distant cousin. He reached out to Wilde, who became famous as a popular contestant on a dating reality show until the public turned against him. He was humiliated, his career ruined, and his marriage in tatters. Now Peter has disappeared and may have committed suicide.

Wilde had not answered the email when it came in and now he appears to be missing. Wilde then gets caught up in the middle of a crazy vigilante group specializing in destroying the lives of bullies. All this turns into madness and soon Wilde wishes he were back living in the woods alone where life is simpler.

From mysterious DNA searches, cyberbullying, reality TV stars, and social media influencers, an action-packed suspense thriller with excellent character development.

Coben keeps you on edge, waiting to see if Wilde will learn about his past and connect with his mother and father.

I really enjoyed the mother's past and how it all began. Fans will be delighted with the ending and excited to have all the answers from the previous book. Coben does a great job with background, and THE MATCH can be read as a standalone; however, I am glad I read the first book.

Coben Fans will devour this one! Loved it. Hopefully, we will hear more from these characters in future books. Highly recommend.

A special thank you to #NetGalley and #GrandCentralPublishing for an ARC #TheMatch!

Blog Review Posted @ www.JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Pub Date: March 15, 2022

I read The Boy From the Woods a couple of years ago and enjoyed for the most part, Wilde's story. I was stoked to received an arc of The Match as I still wanted to know how exactly Wilde ended up in the woods and who is parents were. As with the other book in this series, there is a side story taking place but this time it's more closely related to Wilde. This book had it all from answers to my questions to reality TV, familial DNA, social media, murder, and a few plot twists. There are still some unanswered and half answered questions so I hope that means that there will be another book in this series. It's rare to enjoy a second book in a series more but I did. I couldn't put The Match down. Read it in one day and still wanted more.

4.5 stars

The Match releases today and is the highly sought after sequel to The Boy From the Woods.

The opening lines set the tone, opening the door for intrigue, mystery and some belief suspending.
"At the age of somewhere between forty and forty-two - he didn't know exactly how old he was - Wilde finally found his father.'
What follows is a journey of discovery with some wonderful characters being revisited. I was gently reminded of things from the previous book in a non-dumping way. It was a twisty story in the sense of lots going on and that feeling of uncertainty with some unreliable characters. I enjoyed getting to know Wilde better, what makes him tick and the same could be said for Hester, how old wounds needed to heal. (I need to read Coben's backlist to see more of her).

The Match could be read as a standalone but I feel for the full experience you should read The Boy from the Woods first. It is a well written, intricately woven story with many layers that all mesh together nicely in the end. As for the ending, it was fitting, it explained a lot and figures cross this series will continue.

My thanks to Grand Central Publishing for an advanced digital copy in exchange for a honest review.

This one was alright. It’s possible I would’ve liked it better if I read The Boy In The Woods first but oh well. I kinda felt like the story was all over the place & I just wanted them to get to the point.

Never read a bad book by Harlan Coben, and I've read them all.

I devoured this in a few hours. It's the second Wilde book and it references another hugely popular Coben book from several years back - I always love tie ins like that.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

The Boy From The Woods + The Stranger = The Match. This book has a lot of story lines going on at once, but I loved the characters and the twists. Harlan Coben is a truly amazing author.

Just who is Wilde? Who is his father, his mother? How did he end up alone in the woods for months or even years as a little boy? Book 2 in the Wilde series by Harlan Coben finds Wilde exploring those questions through the help of DNA testing.

If Wilde can find some answers, will he finally feel free to pursue Laila, the love of his life? As his godson Matthew says, 'We get it--you can't settle down, you have trust issues, you have difficulty with commitment, you can't attach, you need to be alone in the woods. But a relationship is a two-way street. You can't just keep saying it's up to her.'

There are some DNA possible matches. Wilde meets with a man who could be his father and hears from another who could be a cousin. But when he tries to contact that cousin, a man named Peter Bennett, Wilde learns the guy has disappeared and is believed to have committed suicide. It seems Peter and his wife Jenn, known to fans as PB&J after hooking up on a popular reality tv show, are in the midst of a divorce after Jenn's sister publicly accused Peter of rape. Social media has turned on Peter and cancelled him.

Wilde starts looking into this case with the help of his foster sister, Rola. They track down the worst of the social media harassers only to find that person dead. There are several threads to this complicated plot line including a secret group called Boomerang whose mission it is to go after those who bully, harass, and abuse online. When one of their group is the killer's second victim, the leader contacts Wilde. We even hear from the killer in occasional chapters--someone who has discovered they enjoy killing.

As someone who has done some genealogical searching of my own, the plot really intrigued me. Wonder where Coben will take this story next?

I received an arc of this new thriller from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks for the opportunity.

My first Harlan Coben book was The Boy from the Woods after loving The Stranger on Netflix. I was instantly hooked and could not have been more excited to get the opportunity to read The Match (Wilde #2) via NetGalley. If you liked The Boy from the Woods, you’ll love The Match. There is more intrigue, more drama (family and otherwise), and more answers to questions you probably had following the first book.

We pick up with Wilde following the discovery of a DNA match on a genetic genealogy website. He is able to discover the identify of PB and his father with the help of the few he has let into his inner circle. No surprise, chaos ensues and there are several mysteries to be solved along the way. I very rarely figure out the twist and typically fall for every red herring and this was no exception. It was a fun ride of a read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read the book early. All opinions expressed are mine alone.