Something Wild and Wonderful follows Alexei and Ben, two strangers who are on the Pacific Crest Trail to deal with their respective trauma. Alexei is trying to heal from being ousted by his religious parents after coming out as gay whereas Ben is determined to not get sucked into another relationship after having had too many toxic experiences—both think they can leave the past behind them and move on with the trail. After all, nature and solitude is supposed to solve it all, right? Alexei is prepared for many things, but he isn’t prepared for Ben. Somehow, the trail keeps throwing the two of them together, almost like fate. As the two men, who couldn’t be more different if they tried, travel together on the biggest adventure of their lives, they can’t help but notice just how much they cherish the other’s presence…and kind words…and steamy kisses…Can a romance that started when they were in the worst headspace turn out to be their happily ever after?

Something Wild and Wonderful is downright magical. The setting? Absolutely riveting. The characters? Chef’s kiss. The relationship development? Utterly entrancing. Kelly paints wonderful pictures with their words as we follow Alexei and Ben on their journey. Would I ever go on a long hike that is not only dangerous but also super exhausting? No. Did I still google all the places they visited just so I could live even more vicariously through Alexei and Ben? Absolutely.

But at the heart of this story are of course our two amazing protagonists. Alexei and Ben are complete opposites—they grew up in very different households, live different lives and have very different support systems waiting for them once they come back from their hike. Whereas Alexei is struggling with the repercussions of coming out as gay, Ben has always been supported by his gigantic family at home. However, whereas Alexei hasn’t had a lot of experience in the romantic department, Ben has been burned time and again, constantly finding himself in toxic relationships. They both enter the trail for a multitude of reasons but it all boils down to coming to terms with their past and figuring out a better future. The amount of times I had to put down the book and just scream in my head that this!! Is how you do complex character development right is in the hundreds.

As the trail gets more dangerous, the stakes are also heightened between Alexei and Ben as they can’t ignore their mutual attraction any longer. But their baggage from their respective pasts not only influences how they see themselves…but also how they approach attraction, chemistry, and relationships. Both Alexei and Ben find and fight their demons off and on the trail and I couldn’t for the life of me put down the book because I needed to know how they could find their way to each other once they dealt with what kept them from accepting love in all its wonderous forms. The way Kelly manages to create these incredibly authentic characters who deal with so much baggage yet somehow manage to be each other’s biggest supporters and fight for their right to exist in the world and be cherished for who they are just amazed me to no end. Stories about healing from your painful past can be so cathartic and Alexei and Ben’s was exactly that. As they heal and grow, you yourself feel accomplished for having stuck it out with them – and having made it to the other side of that long hike. As with the trail, their road to happily ever after is a steep climb but so rewarding once you get to the end of the book.

Something Wild and Wonderful is a cathartic, unforgettable story about healing from the pain of the past and discovering the true beauty of unbridled and unconditional love in places you never thought to look for it. Filled with adventure, bravery and hope, this story cements Anita Kelly as one of the most versatile voices in queer fiction.

I really enjoy Kelly’s writing. I was super excited to snap an ARC copy. Kelly does not disappoint with this one! I had a great time and highly recommend.

4.5 stars

Anita Kelly does it again!! Something Wild & Wonderful is a beautiful story about finding yourself and finding love on the Pacific Coast Trail.

Alexei has recently come out to his (religious) family and his parents are.... less than accepting. Alexei feels lost without his community and decides to thru-hike the PCT, his main goal being to reinvent himself and gain clarity on what he wants to do next. While on the trail he stops another (objectively hot) thru-hiker, Ben, from stepping on a rattlesnake. Later on, Alexei runs into Ben again and they decide to spend some time hiking the trail together. Undeniable chemistry, and well, it's a romance. You know what happens next.

I truly loved this book - both Alexei and Ben felt like real people and I loved reading about their growth and character development throughout the book. I think this story will hit hard for many people who read it, especially Alexei's story. I think it will be healing for those people as well, and I'm really glad Kelly decided to portray this particular coming out story for that reason.

Also loved seeing the London & Dahlia cameo!! (I love them so much)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This story far and away exceeded expectations. The summary: Two men meet hiking the PCT and fall in love. But the story of how they each evolve and grow and, maybe most importantly, how they give the other the freedom, love, and acceptance to do the same is just beautiful! It had me deep in my feels and crying (I’m not a cryer) on the airplane this weekend.

This will forever be a top rec from me for anyone looking for a truly character-driven love story.

One important call-out: If you, like me, come from a religiously conservative background, this book will hit your heart in difficult but beautiful ways. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and I believe the subject was handled with the utmost of care. That said, give yourself space for that 🫶

I really enjoyed Anita Kelly's first book and don't know why I put off reading this one for as long as I did but once I finally jumped in I really loved it and felt like it was written directly for me. This book has so many things I truly love, Tamora Pierce references, found family, delightful smut, queer romance, a cameo of the town I went to High School in, and some moments of Bill Bryon's A Walk in the Woods vibes. This book is a winner for anyone who wants a romance novel about complex and sometimes struggling characters or who loves hiking and nature.

Thank you to Net Galley and Forever Grand Central publishing for a free E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Alexei had planned on hiking the Pacific Crest Trail alone, as he needs to sort out his thoughts and his next steps in life. It took 20 minutes for his parents to disown him when he came out and Alexei is feeling unbalanced. He’s only just got on the trail when he spots a rattlesnake and prevents a hiker named Ben from getting a snake bite. Alexei has many miles to travel, yet he runs into Ben again, and the men decide to hike together for a while.

Ben likes to be on the move and, after his last disastrous relationship, he’s ready to hike the trail. He really wants to find that special person to share his life with and cute and quiet Alexei has him intrigued. As the men walk, they learn more about each other and save each other in ways they never thought about before. What was supposed to be a time of solitude turns into the men falling for each other. But life on the trail is its own special place and when the outside world wants them to make other plans, Alexei and Ben have to figure out if they can hold onto what they found in the wilderness.

This book was interesting to me for many reasons and I’ll give you my ending line in the beginning in that Something Wild and Wonderful may wind up being one of my favorite books of the year. Which is interesting because when I started the book and was a few chapters in, I found it to be slow and I was having a difficult time getting into it at all. But as the miles passed as Alexei and Ben walked and I learned more about them and felt their connection, it all changed.

Alexei and Ben are hiking for some of the same reasons and some entirely different reasons. Alexei was just disowned from his conservative parents when he came out, he is in between jobs, and he goes on the trail because he thinks he needs to work on himself. However, when he meets Ben, Ben thinks Alexei is perfect the way he is. Alexei is quiet and introspective and knows bird calls by name. He feels completely alone and isn’t the best when making new friends, but Ben is the safe space he needs. Ben comes from a large family that he is close with. They all care about him and Ben loves them all, but he is at odds with himself as he feels he doesn’t follow through on what he sets out to do and he is certainly tired of getting his heart broken.

The men fall for each other slowly in ways and they fall for each other quickly in other ways. How they respond and react to each other becomes an extension of themselves, as they want to make each other happy. Ben wants to show Alexei what being with a man you care about can feel like and Alexei is able to calm Ben’s racing mind and they truly bring out the best in each other. Their story isn’t without its share of hardships, as real life encroaches on their travel plans and it’s in those moments where the book shines brightest. The deep emotional payoff here is worth all the miles it takes for the men to get there.

In the end, it was difficult to let Alexei and Ben go as their story wraps them around a wonderful ending and I do recommend you take a walk with Alexei and Ben.

I LOVED Love and Other Disasters so I was very excited for this one. However, I just didn't love it as much. I wanted to feel the romance between the characters a little more. I just wasn't as excited for them and anxious about how things would go because I wasn't fully involved. BUT I did really like how Anita showed a character with social anxiety. I think the signs and symptoms were shown, but it wasn't made to be their personality. Anita Kelly will still be an auto-buy for me, but this wasn't a favorite.

Alexei and Ben both have the goal of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Alexei thinks he wants to do it alone to get away from his problems until he meets Ben.

I really loved this story. I liked the balance of hard hitting topics like homophobia, mental health, and discrimination alongside the hiking and love story. It was an entertaining story the entire time. My one (small) gripe was the use of letters towards the end. I understand the choice but I didn't love that.

I thought that this was really good! This is the first time I have read any of Anita Kelly’s work and I was impressed. Alexei and Ben were fantastic characters and I really enjoyed watching them open up to one another. They seemed perfect together even if they each had a few issues they needed to work through independently. I had a great time watching them find a future together.

Alexei and Ben were wonderful together. They meet on the Pacific Coast Trail and eventually decide to walk together. Alexei is a bit of a loner so this is a big deal for him to agree to walk with Ben. I liked watching these two get to know each other and I thought it was interesting that they were both at a crossroads in their lives. I felt that the descriptions of life on the Pacific Coast Trail were wonderful and almost made me want to pack up and take the journey myself (but then I remembered how much I like sleeping in beds and air-conditioning).

I listened to the audiobook and thought that Mark Sanderlin did an excellent job with the narration. I liked the way that he was able to bring each of the characters to life and added just the right amount of emotion to his reading. I found his voice to be very pleasant and had no problem listening to the book for hours at a time. I am certain that his narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.

I would definitely recommend this book to others. I thought that this was a wonderful romance featuring two characters that were easy to root for. I hope to read more of this author’s work very soon.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Forever and purchased a copy of the audiobook.

This book is easily one of the top `ten I have read so far this year. Alexei and Ben are two flawed, yet deeply loveable characters. They meet while hiking the PCT and fall in love. Alexei is dealing with a family estrangement due to his parents homophobia, as well as some religious trauma. Ben is hiking to figure out what is next for his life after finishing nursing school,

This book is truly SOMETHING WILD & WONDERFUL in the most beautiful way. I somehow both devoured and savored this book at the same time. My heart just about melted at least once on every page. Think I’m exaggerating? You’ll just have to read it and see.

Alexei and Ben’s love is so raw, sweet, tender, freeing, and pure that I want to cry when thinking about it. One of the things I loved most about them is their focus and attention to detail about one another. How they would learn and discover so much about each other just by watching and noticing the other’s behavior and actions.

I admired seeing how Alexei and Ben evolved and grew individually from beginning to end. And to see them navigating the Pacific Coast Trail while navigating their lives.

The author’s writing has a way of reaching in and wrapping around my heart. This book wrecked me in the most gentle way. What an honor to have witnessed Alexei and Ben’s story.

Much gratitude to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for the ARC!!

"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳, 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶."

This is the softest, sweetest romance, even in the midst of some seriously heavy stuff, and it was such a joy to read. Alexei and Ben are both just so tender with one another, learning about themselves and each other as they slowly fall in love on the trail.

I adored both boys: their energies, their struggles, the way they related to the world. I loved that they both came from mixed cultural backgrounds and were bilingual. The inclusion of the heavier themes was handled with such care and realism, and never threatened to overwhelm the story. There's also an epistolary section toward the end that was just so so lovely.

The highlight for me was definitely the Pacific Coast Trail setting; it made me long to get out there and go backpacking! There was also SO much Tamora Pierce appreciation in this book, which was the happiest surprise because I was obsessed with her growing up.

Be sure to look at content warnings, but if you're looking for a beautiful and emotional soul-searching romance set in nature, don't miss this one!


Thank you so much Forever and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed Love & Other Disasters so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

I really liked the characters of Ben and Alexei and I enjoyed watching how they grew closer and overcame things together. The romance aspects of the story were sweet and felt natural. However, I wasn't a huge fan of the setting. I liked the idea of two hikers meeting along the way and developing a relationship, but since I know pretty much nothing about the PCT, I found myself switching between having no idea where they were/what the significance of their location was and honestly not even caring. I found myself putting the book down a lot because I was getting bored, though I was invested enough to come back.

One other thing I didn't care for were the time jumps. Now, when you're reading about people hiking thousands of miles, you don necessarily need details for every mile, but there were several time jumps where the story would skip weeks ahead but then have paragraphs talking about everything that was skipped. I would've enjoyed seeing those events happening instead of just having an info dump of everything that happened between chapters.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, but not as much as I was anticipating. I can't wait to see what this author comes up with next!

I loved this one! I was a little worried about the instalove but the characters were so well developed and spent so much time together, it didn’t feel instant at all. Alexi and Ben are both so lovable while growing and finding themselves. I loved how different their journeys were and how much support the provided each other. Their relationship felt so natural and believable.

I loved the PCT setting and thought it was really unique and added an interesting layer to the story. This book manages to blend really difficult subject matter with a sense of hope and joy in such a way that this book just left me happy at the end. There was also great representation!

I highly recommend this book if your looking for something heartwarming but with depth!

This is my new favorite romance. It's tender, sweet, and charming yet also full of adventure. Nature takes prominence as a main character alongside Alexei and Ben as they fall in love while hiking the PCT.

Anita Kelly manages to balance some of the heavier topics like family estrangement and homophobia with queer joy, nature, and absolute magic.

In this dual POV M/M romance you'll find:
- rattlesnake meet cute
- hiking side by side in silence
- so many birds
- Autism rep that goes without diagnosis until the epilogue
- some spicy scenes
- two lovable men healing themselves from different traumas
- beautiful descriptions of nature
- set in PCT with a prelude in Nashville
- CW: homophobia

Real Rating: 3.5 /5 Stars

In the first few pages of this book one of our two main characters, Alexei, is setting off on what I would call a “cathartic hike” (which I am fond of myself”, or maybe you could call it a long, dark journey of the soul on the infamous Pacific Coast Trail (do yourself a favor and look it up, because this trail covers some of the most beautiful land and views on the west coast and stretches from Mexico to Canada). Anyway, he’s hiking to grieve and hopefully close off some chapters in his life so he can start over as a revision of his former self, hopefully without all that baggage on board.

It’s going well until he’s only been on the trail a nebulously short amount of time on the trail, when he suddenly has a funny, if terrifying meet-cute with fellow PCT hiker Ben. I had to admire both hikers for handling the situation at hand in this scene, considering I’d lose my marbles in the worst way. Alexei joins up with the other hikers Ben’s been blazing the trail with for a while until all the people and chaos gets to him and he decides he wants to get back to hiking solo. To his surprise, Ben asks if it’d be okay if he hikes along with Alexei until they get to Kennedy Meadows (a well-known refueling and rest stop on the trail). Alexei’s crush on Ben, along with how Ben seems to need a little saving here and there leads Alexei to agree to the proposition. And so our two intrepid explorers set off, with mutual chemistry, fascination, and awkwardness settled over them like a transparent cloak.

I didn’t hate this book, but I was disappointed by it. I live within a couple of hours of several PCT trailheads and have hiked small sections of it before. I wanted to backpack most of it before I was 50, but chronic back injuries and epilepsy took that away. And I love gay romance. The blurb for this book had me so excited I knew this was one of the titles I was most excited for this year. But I feel let down.

Kelly’s debut effort, “Love & Other Disasters”, was one of my favorite novels last year. It was effervescent. It was like champagne bubbles in a book. It was impeccably written. This book? It doesn’t shine like L&OD did. It’s just as well-written (save I thought the book lagged a little in pacing during the early part of Act II), and the epistolary section of the book in Act III made me sob like a baby (I seriously tear-stained my silk pillowcase something fierce), but the book as a whole doesn’t feel as polished. I never felt like it was much of a comedy, but closer to a dramedy, and I never felt like it fit into the grumpy/sunshine trope. I feel like marketing Alexei as grumpy is insulting and it does the character a grave injustice, especially given events later in the book.

I know I seem to be in the minority in not singing this book’s praises, but I call it like I see it. I’m still a huge fan of Anita Kelly’s writing style and their efforts to bring us contemporary romances for the OwnVoices crowd. I can’t wait to see what they bring us next.

I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All views, opinions, and thoughts expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Gay Romance/LGBTQ Romance/MM Romance/Romantic Comedy/Rom Com/Contemporary Romance/OwnVoices/Books with a Psych Aspect/LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Friendly Read/Spice Level 2

I read an ARC for NetGalley and really enjoyed this read. It was part romance and part spiritual growth, which makes for a delightful combination. Alexie has a lot to figure out in his life, and the long trek along the PCT gives him time to sort things through. Meeting Ben creates cracks along his outer walls that allows the light to finally seep in. It’s a sweet and moving story with surprising depth.

I loved everything about this book! Ben and Alexei were such well developed characters. I loved their interactions with each other and you could tell how much they cared about one another from the very beginning.

The setting for this was so unique and fun for a romance novel. I really enjoyed all of the people they met along the trail.

Anita Kelly did a great job writing the emotional aspects of this book.

I will be highly recommending this one for a long time!

This book is perfection! I loved every minute of this book and growled when people interrupted me. Both Ben and Alexei are both fantastic characters that make you fall in love with them right away. The side characters are also so beautifully done. I just love everything about this book. I will always read anything Anita writes.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever Publishing for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

My heart. This was such a soft, tender romance and so well done. The backdrop of the PCT demanded a lot out of them mentally and physically and yet gave space for Alexei and Ben to quietly process and heal. In so many ways this is Alexei’s coming of age as a gay man. He had hundreds upon hundreds of miles to unpack his strict, religious upbringing and find inner peace with who he is.

I wanted to wrap up Alexei and protect his heart at all costs. I loved that he was a birder and that Ben accepted Alexei for all his quirks and nerdy tendencies. By far my favorite part of the book was toward the end when it turned to epistolary style. What a genius way to move the story along and send me running for tissues as the emotions leaked from my eyes.

If you like queer romance, found family, opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine romances, I think you’ll enjoy this one.