Something Wild & Wonderful features a queer grumpy/sunshine love story set on the Pacific Crest Trail. Recently estranged from his conservative family, Alexei “Lex” Lebedev set out on the trail to find himself. He never expects saving Ben Caravalho, a fellow hiker, from a rattlesnake will result in them walking side-by-side together or that the connection they form on the route would turn his entire world upside down.

If I loved this book less I'd be able to talk about it more! I loved everything about this romance from Lex's journey of learning to find confidence and love within himself as he starts on a new path in life separate from his family, to Ben's realizations of the future he truly wants to mold for himself.

This is a tender, romantic, and heartwarming book. Anita Kelly never misses!

Fun audiobook and a great second book for the series. I will definitely read more by Anita Kelly in the future.

Alexei is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to figure out what direction his life is going to take now that he's become estranged from his homophobic parents and community when Ben literally runs into him. They decide to begin hiking together. It's a romance that builds gradually as the two become closer and closer as hiking partners and have to figure out what they want in their futures.

I loved this story overall. There were several moments that it came across very young adult but I enjoyed following the characters and seeing what would happen. I highly suggest if you want a cute romance story that warms your heart.

“…maybe it was the detours that actually counted the most.”

I keep typing and deleting words, trying to come up with a way to tell you just how absolutely perfect SOMETHING WILD & WONDERFUL is. Described by the author as “WILD, but make it gay”, it’s a queer love story between two men who fall for each other after a chance meeting while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Alexei is in turmoil after his religious parents cut him off when he finally comes out as a gay, and Ben is nursing a wounded heart and corralling a scattered spirit in the wake of a toxic breakup and the loss of his aunt.

I love books with a physical journey, and this one is especially immersive: we experience the aches, the exhaustion, the sweeping vistas, and the songs of birds alongside Ben and Alexei as they hike up through California into Oregon. There’s simmering chemistry, tender intimacy, aching grief, and gorgeous, high-flying hope. As a person who used to be deeply embedded in a religious community, I felt so much of Alexei’s process around his own faith. Seeing him allow himself to experience God, to find everyday holiness in the outdoors and his love for Ben, healed something in me. I also loved how pure their affection is: Ben and Alexei are both such unique people, with different ways of processing and socializing, and they are constantly delighting in each other just as they both are.

It’s a love letter to the trail, to the wilderness, to the wild parts of ourselves that seek to be free and to find a home in another person. This story broke my heart wide open; I can’t recommend it enough. Also, the audiobook, performed by Mark Sanderlin, is lovely. Thanks to Forever Books and Hachette Audio for the review copies!

Content warnings: family rejection, homophobia, religious bigotry, loss of a loved one, injury, toxic relationship, panic attack

Alexei has a rough start to his journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. Lucky for him, Ben, a very attractive stranger, is there to save the day. When Alexei continues to run into Ben on the trail, they ultimately decide to take on the trail together. Neither one of them was prepared for this big adventure to also include a love story, but here they are.

This book is incredible - the emotions, the swoon-worthy moments, the character development - it truly has everything you could want in a romance story. Alexei and Ben were the sweetest characters you can’t help but love, both as individuals and as a couple. They each had some things to work through and their different reasons for being on the trail, and their individual journeys were beautiful, but the way they supported each other and were there for each other throughout those journeys was even more special. There were some pretty heavy topics, including the characters feeling like they weren’t enough, and this book had me emotional and tearing up at times. But it was also incredibly heartwarming and even funny at times. I can’t say it enough, this book is amazing.

Mark Sanderlin did a phenomenal job with the narration - he truly brought this story to life.

Thanks to Hachette Audio for the advance copy.

Anita Kelly is remarkably talented at getting me invested in things that I otherwise do not care about, like, for example, hiking. Genuinely, the idea of someone wanting to hike 2000 miles in one go is... beyond baffling to me. I'm lucky when I can convince myself to go on a walk (paved) around the lake I live near. It's only two miles. Four if you add in an extra part. But Kelly sucked me in with Alexei and Ben. There's something about the way their interactions start and it's all one word things back and forth to the way Lex slowly begins to open up. Plus the way that Ben starts to feel settled that just really worked for me. I loved both character ARCs and I loved the secondary characters we got to meet and interact with along the way. I even loved the description of the landscape and the joy of eating at McDonalds. As a person who is delighted by air conditioning if I've been outside for a mere twelve minutes, the simple joy the men took in modern conveniences was somehow alarmingly relatable given that I am never very far from things like running water and they were going for days on end without.

If you've not read the book yet, basically, Alexei has been recently laid off from his job and while he is sorting out his next step, he decides to set out on hiking the Pacific Coast Trail thinking he can figure out Alexei 2.0 on the way. He needs to figure out how to let go of his parents who disowned him for being gay and sort through the way they used religion against him. Alexei understands that God does not share the values his parents say they're living by, but that is quite a lot to process. Fortunately, he has like 2000 miles to do so. But he doesn't factor Ben into his plans. Ben, who is funny and handsome and charming. Ben who is on the PCT because he wants time to explore before he returns home to Nashville to begin his career as a nurse in the geriatric field. He doesn't seem to see himself the way Alexei sees him, but they've got a whole lot of miles to work through that too.

Their chemistry is electric from the first moment they meet, in my opinion, but in a very... natural feeling way. The way that when you meet certain people you wonder about them for a while even if you don't spend all that much time together. There's a spark that could become nothing, but obviously, given this is a romance novel, that's not what happens and that spark turns into a whole lot more. I just absolutely adored the way Kelly wrote this book and I loved every bit of it. A million stars from me!

Everything I could want in a romance book & more: sweet, swoony, and steamy! The reader also can’t help but root for Alexei and Ben, or MCs.
This will definitely be in my top romances of the year!


The narration was great. The only thing that could have made it better was to have dual narrators since the story is told in dual POV


Recommended if you like:
-being outdoors/hiking
-slow burn romances
-open door romances
-life after leaving religion
-dual POV romance
-found family


CW: homophobia, anxiety, religious trauma, strained family relationships (due to coming out)


Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the ALC copy. Something Wild & Wonderful is out now!

This is Anita Kelly's follow up to Love & Other Disasters. I enjoyed all the parts about hiking and why Ben and Alexei were on the trail and what they were hoping to accomplish. I also really liked Ben's family and that they immediately accepted Alexei. I just didn't feel Ben and Alexei's attraction to each other.

Something Wild and Wonderful is a tender love story about finding yourself and letting yourself believe in the good things, in happiness and friendship and love. In this novel we follow Alexei and Ben, who both decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail - Alexei after coming out to his super religious family in the last 20s and being cast out of the family, and Ben after picking a new career path and deciding to try to calm his mind after studying for it and before starting a new job. The two meet pretty quickly into the PCT, after Alexei has been hiking for only a few miles, and after their second encounter on the trail, they decide to stick together. As they uncover new things about one another, their tentative friendship turns into something more. But they'll have to fight their own demons and make peace with them before jumping into something new.

Both Alexei and Ben are characters that you can truly feel in your heart - dealing with scars they were previously dealt, dealing with trauma of being rejected and made to feel unworthy, finding themselves in their late 20s (SO RELATABLE OKAY! We need more main characters that absolutely do not know where their life is going in their 20s. Or 30s. Or 40s.). I am definitely not a hiking gal BUT I lowkey wanted to hike the PCT while reading this (I won't cause like I said, not a hiking gal. Or a no bathroom for days on end gal. Sadly). It just seemed like the perfect backdrop for trying to figure out some things about yourself.

Alexei's and Ben's love story was so perfect from the beginning to the end - how it started slowly, tentatively, before being blown wide open. It was never easy or straightforward. None of them sacrificed more than they could or would give, which is something I possibly loved most. They had to figure some stuff out for themselves before truly dedicating themselves to their relationship. It was realistic and at times heartbreaking, but most of all, filled with hope.Also don't even get me started on the perfect parallel between their love story and the PCT hike! I could scream about it for days!

I read Something Wild and Wonderful at just the right time for me, and it gave me solace in so many ways. I will be returning to it again and again and I already know this one will be a 2023 favourite. How could it not be. <3


REP:  Russian-American MC, Portuguese-American MC, gay MCsm autistic MC (revealed later on), dealing with trauma, diverse cast of SCs

I adored Anita Kelly's last book, Love & Other Disasters, but this one completely blew me away.

Alexei Lebedev is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail as a way to plan his new life as Alexei 2.0. He came out to his family and his parents disowned him. He has a lot to figure out about himself as well as what he wants his future to look like, and months of solitude seems like the way to do it.

Ben Caravalho has always felt restless, and decides to hike the PCT as a last-ditch effort to get that feeling out and have a big adventure before he 'grows up', starts making smart decisions, and focuses on his career. He's sworn off men, because he never seems to make good decisions when it comes to love or lust.

The two of them spent months preparing for this trip—they trained, packed supplies, researched—but neither of them could have prepared for meeting each other, and the growth and love that they'd find along the way.

Both characters are so infinitely loveable, and the way they care for each other just melted my heart. They're funny and tender, and ultimately help each other work through some pretty heavy feelings of not being enough. I wish I could read this book for the first time, all over again. It gave me all the heart eyes.

The audiobook was narrated by Mark Sanderlin, who has an impressive number of books on his resume, but who was new-to-me. To put it simply, his performance of the book was perfection. If you're an audiobook fan you can't go past this one. It comes in at 10 hours and 34 minutes.

I loved Anita Kelly's previous novel, Love & Other Disasters, and was so excited to read their latest release, SOMETHING WILD & WONDERFUL. It was so good, and I just wanted to savor my feelings and hug it when I finished. Alexei and Ben now live rent free in my brain and I love it.

I loved the outdoorsy storyline that gave me WILD vibes, as Alexei and Ben meet by chance while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). They bond over their love of nature and bird watching, and their favorite books too. Their friends to lovers (and all that buildup of sexual tension) led to some great steam and it had me swooning.

I appreciated that it also included a great mental health rep and the discussion of real and relatable issues as they sort out the trauma from the past which was a great self-discovery story. There was such a great combination of tender heartwarming moments, laughs, and the raw emotions too.

Now you can find me recommending this book to everyone, and I would definitely recommend the narrator, as I listened to a gifted ALC audiobook

*many thanks to Hachette Audio and Read Forever Pub/netgalley for the gifted copy for review

The site of the Pacific North Trail is a unique setting for two kindred souls to meet as they try to escape the pasts and move forward.

Alexei has recently lost his family and all connections after coming out to them. Feeling unmoored he’s decided to hike the 2500 mile trail in an attempt to find out who Alexei 2.0 will be in start his new life.

Spurred on by a bad break up and getting ready to move on with his career, Ben takes to the trail to clear his head and check off his bucket list item.

Ben and Alexei keep running into each other on the trail. Ben is fascinated by Alexis and wants to you continue hiking with him at each turn, where Alexei is intimidated by his charisma and feels the need to be on his own to complete his mission to find Alexei 2.0. Eventually, they do decide to continue on together and they find they bring up much more in the other and they could’ve imagined.

This is a great coming of age story with both characters, trying to redefine themselves as young adults within their circumstances. Both characters aren’t confident with their ability to find love, making this, peering all the sweeter when they find their happily ever after together.

I was really excited to see how Anita Kelly would follow up love and other disasters. Something wild and wonderful veered off from the cooking competition. We were introduced to in the her first book, but it still had the same feel and poignancy. These books are loosely connected by Ben’s friendship with London from the previous book.

Mark Sanderlin’s narration provided a perfect differentiation between characters, giving both Ben and Alexei their own unique voice. This narration was easy to listen to , with his comfortable voice and excellent pacing.

I really enjoyed this book, but Ben and Alexei were great unique characters. Also, the setting of the North Pacific Trail is equally fascinating.

Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly is available now in all formats.

Thanks to Hatchette audio in this advanced listening copy through NetGalley.

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.

I tried. I really did. But I'm starting to think books about the wild aren't for me. I also DNFed the Christina Lauren book. I think since I'm such a homebody I have problems with these types of books. It made me sad because I was looking forward to this. I don't think it's a bad book, but it's just not for me.

The narrator was fantastic!! I loved this book.

This book is such a beautiful story of healing and grief and acceptance.

I have what might not be a popular opinion about this one… I didn’t like it - at first! I have to admit it took me more than halfway through to warm up to it. The first half of the book is necessary to build the foundation of the characters… but it was slow, it was boring, and I was ready to give up (I put it aside a few times). If there weren’t so many other Bookstagrammers posting how much they all loved it, I’d have DNF - and I never, ever DNF. It took me a lot longer than it normally would have to read, because it didn’t keep my attention - at least, the first half.

I know I struggled with Kelly’s previous book (Love & Other Disasters), but eventually found my way through and also by the end, enjoyed it enough. I guess it just takes me until the very end to properly connect to their writing style! I did like the last half, really more the last third of this one quite a bit (told a lot in letters). I also quite enjoyed the part that took place in Nashville, which featured the characters from the first book, London and Delilah, and talked about the cooking competition show they were on.

The found family, the struggle with identity and self-love - all great themes. The love that Ben and Alexei had for each other? That was beautiful. I just wish Alexei didn’t have to search for anything like he did in the first place (tears my heart up, as the sister of a “Ben”, myself - from a very accepting family)! Why can’t the world just accept everyone as they are?!?

Narrated by Mark Sanderlin - he did a good job, but any book that has multiple points of view, especially if MM, needs to have more than one narrator, to help differentiate when switching between the characters. Hard to keep track of which character chapter it is when it’s the same voice the whole time, and with the audiobook, you can’t flip the pages back to check like you can with the ebook or paperback. He didn’t do anything to make the characters sound different so we could tell them apart between chapters.

I do recommend this one, for people going in know it’s a very slow set-up, slow burn, but ends up being a beautiful, emotional love story.

I received an advance review and listen copy from NetGalley, Forever (Grand Central Publishing), and Hachette Audio, and this is my honest feedback.

This book was amazing! It made my heart so happy. I liked this author's book, Love and Other Disaster, which I read last year. But this book I absolutely loved!

This book follows Ben and Alexei. Two men hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. They meet while on the trail and decide to hike together. Along the way they start developing feelings for one another. Both of these main characters are going through a lot, and are hiking the trail not only to hike it, but to deal with their individual tribulations. To see a better summary check out the second picture.

It’s emotional, funny, cute, gay and some steam! I included some content warnings at the bottom as it deals with some heavy stuff at times.

A bonus thing I loved so much is that Ben is a nurse. (Hence why my stethoscope makes an appearance) He talks about passing the NCLEX and worrying about his future. I related so much! I have my BScN, and passing my NCLEX four years ago to become an RN was one of the most stressful times I’ve ever had. Ben talking about why he loves nursing also made me smile so much. It’s some of the reasons I love it too. Just really cool to see a character I related so much too. Losing patients and processing grief. I related to Ben so much.

All together it’s an amazing LGBT adventure romance, I highly recommend this one! It will give you all the feels. It’s one of those books that reminds me why I love the romance genre so much.

Thanks to Netgalley, Forever Publishing and Hachette Audio for the copy In exchange for my honest review

CW: homophobia, anxiety, religious trauma (past), alzheimers/dementia, familial estrangement due to identity.

After really enjoying LOVE & OTHER DISASTERS, I was probably going to read Anita Kelly's next romance, no matter what, but I was delighted that this is a backpacking romance. Set on the Pacific Crest Trail!

If you've ever read or seen Wild, you probably get that most people don't just spend week after week on the PCT for funsies -- many come in search of something, even if (maybe especially if) just themselves. Both Alexei and Ben are working out who and where they want to be moving forward.

Highlights included their meet-cute, the ways in which they supported each other along the trail, and an epistolary element later on. Not to mention, Kelly has a gift with side characters. SOMETHING WILD & WONDERFUL is a tad long, but I enjoyed my time with these people.

I mostly listened to the (great!) narration by Mark Sanderlin. As much as I enjoy dual-perspective romances with two narrators, it didn't bother me to have just one here. I liked Sanderlin's cadence and inflections.

✨ Review ✨ Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly; Narrated by Mark Sanderlin

I really enjoyed Kelly's last book in this series, but thought the cooking show part was under-featured...BUT this book I absolutely adored! It gave me such happy, heart-warming feelings (a la Heartstopper), and I totally binged listening to this!

Alexei and Ben meet on Alexei's first day on the Pacific Crest Trail, when Alexei stops Ben from tromping over a rattlesnake. They begin hiking the trail together, at first with some reluctance, but then increasingly with comfortable familiarity. There's something about the silence of their surroundings that really helps their budding friendship and then attraction to feature across the pages. While they certainly encounter other people in meaningful ways, these connections are brief, returning us quickly to the Alexei/Ben trail adventure.

This book, even while talking about challenging topics (family estrangement, relationship catastrophes, loss, and more), still just felt like a giant hug to read. I loved watching their relationship grow and evolve, and to see their trust in each other blossom. Their surroundings in the natural world also felt very pure, and it was such a great read.

The audio narration was great and kept me in the narrative -- highly recommend it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: m/m contemporary romance
Location: Pacific Crest Trail (mostly in CA desert)
Reminds me of: Cheryl Strayed's Wild meets Heartstopper
Pub Date: Mar 7, 2023

Read this if you like:
⭕️ heart-warming m/m romances; dual POV
⭕️ friends-to-lovers (albeit a new friendship)
⭕️ hiking and the outdoors
⭕️ found family feels

Thanks to Forever Publishing, Hachette Audio, and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!