This book is the most phenomenal book I've read this year - full of heart and honesty, I cried happy tears and sad tears and healing tears. I also want to highlight how Kelly did an amazing job of capturing the beauty of the PCT, the community, and also the solitude that can be healing and harmful. Plus, Tamora Piece!

Disappointingly plodding. I barely made it through the first half of the book. The scenic descriptions were beautiful. Unfortunately that was all there was. It read like like a boring teen journal of a hike. There was no meat to it. I knew in the first many pages were it was going to end up and took a long fairly boring time getting there. The second half of the book got more interesting, but was still a watery soup with a few noodles and pieces of meat. I went from being engaged and empathetic to being overwhelmed by teen angst. There was a core of the story that I could relate to and understand. The weakness was it was overplayed. Maybe that is a standard for a young adult book. Not being in that age range of working with that group of readers does color my judgement. I have read novels in that genre and not found them as weak. I came way, after finishing the book, feeling that it was aiming to hit all the "right" themes for a young adult novel (the man bun, the teen angst, the gender neutral pronouns, the hetero-normative bigotry being corrected immediately by the PC person immediately after Alexei's self awareness, ...) . A subtler hand and more meat would have added stars to my review and made it a fully enjoyable read,.

I LOVED THIS BOOK.
It was so good!!!
This book is about our two main guys, Alexi and Ben, and their journey hiking on the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail). They are both solo travelers, but they meet in the first third of the hike because Alexi "saved" Ben from a snake and from there they start their journey together.

This book was so cozy and I just loved reading about their adventures together and learning more about each other. It's a tender kind of love <3

-dual pov
-queer <3
-hiking adventures off the grid
-D&D references
-birds
-neurodivergent rep
-Alexi + quiet, calm demeanor
-Ben = golden retriever vibes
-Discussions of religious trauma
-letters

This book is SO GOOD!!!!
I absolutely loved Anita's writing and I will be reading more of their books stat!!!

Romcom books - always! Wild and Wonderful is precisely that. Ben and Lex have stuck with me for weeks after finishing my ARC. I’m not sure if it’s the thought of a very sweet and heartbroken Alexei making his way across the PCT and struggling to find the words to make friends that really hit me in the heart or if it was the exuberant and joyful Ben who quietly understands him, that won me over. Nevertheless, this book has had a stranglehold on me. I can’t wait for everyone else to read it. Anita Kelly hit all the right spots with this. Absolute perfection. From the moment they meet, until the end of the trial, I was in love with each unexpected nuance. Told with love and grace, I expect it to be one of 2023's biggest hits.

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) & NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC

What a delightful and fun read. I also really enjoyed the description of the hiking; what an incredible experience that must be.

I absolutely adored this book! I've been describing it to people as "Wild, but in a queer love story". The whole vibe of this book is just magical, and I love how fleshed out the characters are, and how much they grow over the course of the book. Has a great cast of side characters as well. Absolutely love and recommend this. 💞

An absolutely gorgeous slow-burn romance that touches on some very deep emotional themes, Something Wild & Wonderful made me laugh, cry, clutch at my heart and get literally nothing else done until I'd reached the final page. Anita Kelly really has a gift for writing queer love stories that explore serious emotional issues while simultaneously displaying the deep love and joy available when a person wholeheartedly accepts and embraces who they are and opens themselves up to the possibility that they could have everything they ever dreamed of. I can't wait for their next sweet, sexy, incredibly touching love story. What a true joy this book was to read.

AMAZING
BEAUTIFUL
LOVELY
WILD
WONDERFUL
ok so this was one of the best books I’ve ever read. I was told it would be, but somehow it still surprised me. my heart literally feels bigger after finishing this, if you can believe that. alexei and ben are just perfection and this story was so so wonderful.
I would absolutely never hike even a few miles, let alone 2K+ but this somehow made me want to forget my whole life and trek through deserts and coastlines and mountains and lakes to fall in love with the world and myself the way these two got to.

PLEASE pick this one up, you absolutely will love it. ALSO an extra little perk if you’ve read Anita’s Love & Other Disasters you’ll get a little taste of Dahlia and London and where they are now.

This story absolutely stole my heart. I savored every page and teared up so many times. Anita Kelly’s writing in this book is so tender, so lovely and soft, you just cannot help but lap it up.

Ben and Alexei are perfect characters individually and absolutely beautiful together. I loved that we get to see them in so many different scenarios even as most of their journey is literally just the two of them. Watching them fall in love and bring out the best in each other was awesome. I felt a bit like their friends, watching them interact and sighing and thinking “you deserve this”.

One of the highlights of this book for me was Alexei’s exploitation of his faith in light of his upbringing and his parent’s rejection. When Kelly writes “See? This is love. Like I love you. Do you understand?” I cried my eyes out. Because it’s true - every experience of love here is a reflection of God in us. I hope Alexei found that church.

Content warnings: Alexei’s parents reject him after he comes out; there’s a scene where Ben and Alexei encounter folks on the trail who use homophobic language and slurs

I voluntarily reviewed an early copy of this book. All opinions are my

This book was wonderful! So much more than I expected and a real page turner for me. The setting and hiking was really well illustrated in the writing. I loved reading about hiking the PCT and just enjoying the great outdoors while it's currently so cold and windy where I am. Had me dreaming of summer and sunshine.

The main characters in this book are easy to fall for and they have great chemistry. I was rooting for them to figure it out, and eager to know how it would all pan out. I usually struggle with the third act conflict in romance novels, this one made sense for the characters and I really enjoyed how the novel pivoted in it's storytelling at that point. There were also great side characters in here.

The book touched on some heavier themes, but doesn't let itself get bogged down by them. It really takes care to approach the subjects with dignity and not play them up for too much melodrama.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this, and will recommend to people.

This book really got to the heart of me, particularly with Alexei's story. Reading it felt both affirming and healing and I loved every single page! First of all, I adore hiking and being out in nature so reading about Ben and Alexei hiking the PCT was everything I could have wanted and more! I loved Alexei's birding knowledge, Ben's expert first aid/nursing skills, the tent sharing, the other thru-hikers, and the mixture of misadventures, danger, and tedium/pain that accompanies a long hike. Throughout it all are the deeply resonate stories of two men from very different backgrounds slowly falling in love. Anita Kelly fully fleshes out the characters, giving them rich interior lives, histories of both joy and pain, relatable struggles, and a complex yet easy to follow web of friends and family. There's so much truth and beauty in this book, and I especially liked the letter writing. For those who read Love & Other Disasters, Dahlia and London do make an appearance, and Julie's a big supporting character! This book is now one of my top favorite reads and I can't wait to buy a copy!

Alexei and Ben are both hiking the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT), but they are hiking for their own reasons. Alexei was rejected by his family and his faith after he came out. It has led him to questions himself and want to reinvent the person he is. He didn't expect to meet Ben walking the trail. Ben is hiking the trail after a string of bad relationships to find himself. Neither expected to have a connection with each other while on the trail. Their plans for the future are turned upside down and they have to decide if they are ready for something wild and wonderful to happen.

I have a soft spot for long trek hiking books. I have no idea why, I think it has something to do with you against nature and learning how to survive with nature, rather than trying to compete against it.

This book is a love story, but it is so much more. It is about processing trauma and pain, while finding yourself on the PCT. It is about discovery. It is about loving yourself and not being ashamed. It is about self worth. It is amazing. This book was such a beautiful, emotional journey and I was there for all of it. Alexei and Ben are two both wonderful people, trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and make sense of themselves and they find healing in each other and apart.

I loved that though this wasn't a sequel to Love & Other Disasters we got a cameo appearances by London and Dahlia.

Be aware that some of the content in this story can be tough, please be mindful if you need to. If you like books about love, acceptance and some long trek hiking, this is the book for you! Thank you to NetGalley and Forever publishing for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.

Alexei is not expecting his hike on the PCT to start with a rattle snake. That’s exactly how it starts though. That and stopping another hiking for unknowingly stepping on said snake. While he isn’t expecting that, he for sure wasn’t expecting Ben. As the two begin to hike the trail together, things get a bit more complicated…for both of them.

I absolutely loved both Ben and Alexei! My heart just broke for Alexei and the way his family reacted when he came out to them. I thought the way he reacted to Ben was so understandable. After growing up in such a strict environment, I can only imagine how it would feel to actually fall for someone, while still struggling with everything you were taught growing up. I greatly enjoyed their adventures on the trail, their relationship, and how things fell apart and/or came back together.

Full disclosure: I LOVE hiking!! So, this absolutely spoke to me, I loved this setting, this premise, these characters! I was absolutely swept up in their adventure hiking the PCT. It was such a unique way to highlight their strengths and weaknesses as characters and as a couple. I found Ben to be absolutely endearing, and his family and friends so charming. I struggled a bit with Alexei. He read just a tiny bit young to me--but the fact that he had arrested development was also part of his storyline, so it absolutely makes sense. Overall their growth in their relationship and as people was inspiring and lovely to be a part of. Highly recommend!!!

This book was just lovely. I think I even liked it more than Love & Other Disasters!
Alexei and Ben's journey (literally and figuratively) is emotional, messy, and heartwarming. Alexei is on the Pacific Coast Trail as a way to heal from his toxic parents rejecting him after he came out to them. He's unsure about his new worldview, and how he connects to the LGBTQ+ community. Ben has also had toxicity in his life, but in the form of a string of terrible partners. He wants to pull himself away from the 'scene' and take a break from men... and he promptly runs into Alexei on the trail (or rather, Alexei runs into him). The two bump into each other a number of times before agreeing to travel together... and after a while a beautiful romance starts to develop. But can that relationship last in the 'real' world?

Alexei felt very much coded as neurodivergent, although I don't think that was explicitly stated. Having non-neurotypicals as positive protagonists is one of my favorite things in modern romance, so that was definitely a bonus!

“Like I didn’t know how stiff and uncomfortable I had been before, until I started walking with him. Like I had been clenching my jaw for so long and never fully knew until I met Ben, until I discovered the relief of my muscles starting to let go.”

My toxic trait is thinking I could ever hike this trail. This isn’t the first book I’ve read about it but it just seems marvelous and horrible to actually do.

I liked that this wasn’t filled with near death encounters for plot or whatever. It was two people who desperately needed to get their heads on straight going for a really long walk. They figured things out about each other and themselves and it was lovely.

Dahlia and London from Love & Other Disasters make a cameo so it was nice to get to see what they are up to now.

Thank you to Netgalley, Anita Kelly, and Forever for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

SOMETHING WILD & WONDERFUL is an absolute masterpiece. With stunning pacing, setting, prose, and character development, this is, in my opinion, as close as you can get to a perfect romance novel. Anita Kelly’s work is a masterclass in storytelling. Ben and Lex were incredible, three-dimensional characters and their dual POV was executed flawlessly.

SW&W is ultimately a love letter to queerness, community, and finding your own path. I devoured every word of it. I will be thinking about this story for a long, long time.

Following LOVE & OTHER DISASTERS, I knew I was going to love anything that Anita Kelly writes. And oh boy, I was not wrong: SOMETHING WILD & WONDERFUL is an absolute masterpiece. With stunning pacing, setting, prose, and character development, this is, in my opinion, as close as you can get to a perfect romance novel. Anita Kelly’s work is a masterclass in storytelling. Ben and Lex were incredible, three-dimensional characters and their dual POV was executed flawlessly.

SW&W is ultimately a love letter to queerness, community, and finding your own path. I devoured every single word of it. I will be thinking about this story for a long, long time.

I just love Anita Kelly and the amazing queer representation they wrote. This one follows two very different men who find each other and a lot more while hiking the PCT. I adored the back and forth of their story, from Alexei’s quiet yet capable nature to Ben’s boisterous yet anxious demeanor. I shed a few tears while reading their letters…truly a great story about finding your people and loving them hard.

Why is it that the more you love a book the harder it is to review? Gosh...this book. This was such an incredibly beautiful and emotional journey. So soft and tender, yet also bursting with joy and adventure. It was cathartic. I just loved it so much. Thank you, Anita Kelly, for allowing me to walk with your boys for awhile. 🧡 I have no doubt I will be thinking of them, and their stories, for a long, long time.

Thank you so much for the ARC!