Wild Life by Opal Wei

Published: January 23, 2024
Harlequin
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Pages: 295
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

This was so much more than a rom-com. There was so much heart, compassion, and realistic elements. This book handles some heavy topics (cancer anxiety, among other mental illnesses), but Opal handled it perfectly.

I loved the way she wrote about mental illness and the struggles that go along with it. The balance of wanting to do it all and needing a break was so realistic it brought tears to my eyes.

The way this story builds, with the impeccable balance of humor and sass, kept the story rolling at an engaging pace. The whole situation was well done and presented superbly.

I enjoyed how Wei wove together the heaviness of reality with the fun and shenanigans of a romantic comedy.

The rants were top-notch, and the way these characters fell together was sweet. This was my first book by this author; I look forward to reading her again. This would make the cutest film!

I loved how culture was represented, and it was beautiful having characters that were not the typical stars of the rom-com show. The representation was stellar, and Opal Wei is a rock star.

Quick Summary: Contemporary fiction

My Review: Wild Life by Opal Wei is a Harlequin Feature romance. It follows the relationship between a cancer survivor and an ex C-Pop artist with an anxiety disorder.

About the Book: After a weirdly amusing meet-cute, a grad student and a former boy band member escape to an island. He's there to care for his animal rescues, and she is there to locate a priceless slide. While there, they each deal with the things that have been holding them back.

My Final Say: This was an ok read. It respectfully addressed anxiety. The characters were conflicted, but likable. It was funny and sweet. I loved that it ended on a good note.

Rating: 2.5/5
Recommend: Yes
Audience: A
Status/Level: ⏳

Thank you to the author, to the publisher (HARLEQUIN, Harlequin Feature), and to NetGalley for granting access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

A delightfully funny sweet rom com that wraps the reality of mental health throughout the story in a meaningful way while keeping the humor and entertainment at the forefront. He deals with anxiety and panic attacks thus choosing to seclude himself away from the world as much as possible. She takes on the worry of everyone and everything around her, set her life on a path to cure cancer and whether she likes it or not, she is sticking with the plan. When both characters realize that they are doing damage to their own lives through the actions or paths that they have each taken, will they be strong enough to choose a different path or will they just keep foraging forward on the poorly forged paths that they started? The author did a great job of creating fun, quirky, serious, romantic characters and wrapped them in a plot of insta-love with a bit of close proximity drawing them together faster than typical. The humor is on point and I can honestly say that I hope the author turns this into a series so we can see more of the side characters that were introduced in this book!

I really enjoyed this book. It was cute, fun, sexy and I loved all the Canadian references. Especially, the goose 🙈.

I loved how the author approached anxieties and panic attacks. She did it beautifully. The romance was also really well-written. I love the impulsivity of Zoey and that it wasn't common for her. She learned so much about herself with Davey. And Davey grew so much because of Zoey. Their romance was cute and full of banter.

The only part, I had difficulties with, was the end. There were so many events happening at the same time and really close to each other, it felt rushed. I had difficulties following.

If you want a quick read with :

✨ Anxiety representation;
✨ Banter;
✨ Spicy 🥵 ;
✨ Forced proximity ;
✨ Slow burn ;
✨ Romance.

A fun read, the story of Zoey and Davy. Both have a past that is influencing their life in a bit way. Will their time together change things for them both?

They're walking on the wild side…
-
This was such a fun and quirky romance. Zoey is such a mess but in a brilliant phD candidate, clumsy way. She runs into Davy who is hot and all her plans go away.
She ends up on his private island cause he has a piece of her research which honestly seems very slippery cause it just kept getting lost, I think it was a sign she didn't want it.
They had a slow burn romance and he suffered from anxiety and just wanted to be a hermit because of experiences from his past.
I would totally watch this if it was a romcom. It was funny, had an elderly Jaguar, a Scooby doo neighbor trying to cause trouble and all the feels.


Thank you harlequinpublicityteam and harlequinbooks for my gifted copy.

This was a fun and a bit wacky strangers to lover story between Zoey, a scientist trying to find a cure for the cancer that took her sister's life and a wealthy recluse she meets while on vacation who accidentally leaves with a crucial tissue sample Zoey needs for her research.

Determined to retrieve it, she follows him to his private retreat on a remote island off the British Columbia coast. While there they fall hard, get involved in lots of small island community antics involving a cougar named Baby and other random animals.

While this was definitely steamy and full of laughs, it also addresses some serious issues like social anxiety, panic attacks and grief/loss of a loved one. Good on audio and definitely a new Canadian author to watch! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Steam level: open door

Content Note: anxiety, panic attacks, neglectful parents, discussion of non-fatal cancer

Dear Opal Wei,

I’d heard good things about Wild Life and Olivia Dade blurbed it which is a meaningful recommendation to me in itself, but knowing you are also Ruby Lang* made me even more inclined to dive in. (*Not a secret, I checked.)

Davy Hsieh, former member of a C-pop band and current hermit, bumps into Zoey Fong at the university where she is a Phd student undertaking cancer research. Davy is hoping to meet with a professor at the college to get some help starting a wild life sanctuary. Davy comes from a wealthy Taiwanese family and owns a small island off the Sunshine Coast of Canada. He rescued a cougar from a zoo and big cat Baby lives on the island with him. Davy has anxiety and a huge fear of letting people down (in part because his father told him constantly that he does let people down all the time. His father is obviously a complete jerk) and keeps away from others and very much to himself as a result.

Zoey’s sister, Mimi, had bone cancer some years ago. She made a full recovery after treatment but Zoey, who as the older sister, had to step up quite a bit during Mimi’s illness, has dedicated herself to “The Plan” which involves getting both a medical degree and a doctorate in cancer research and curing the bone cancer from which her sister suffered. (Or, at least creating a better treatment). Only, she’s miserable. She’s worked hard for years and spent a lot of money but she’s very unsatisfied. Maybe The Plan isn’t what’s good for her? But if she does not have The Plan, what does she have? And, if she quits the program she will be letting people down and become a quitter – things that Zoey Fong is not a fan of.

When Davy and Zoey bump into one another (Davy never does meet the professor he’s looking for), Zoey asks him to hold an envelope for her. The envelope contains a slide of cancer cells of the kind Mimi had and is a kind of talisman for Zoey. After some confusion between them, Zoey and Davy separate – but Davy still has the slide. Zoey, desperate to get the slide back so she can continue with The Plan, tags along with Davy the next day to get it back only for reasons, the three never seem to be in the same place at the same time. The next day, Zoey ends up traveling to Davy’s island* with him in order to locate the slide which has been packed away somewhere among all the other stuff he’s shipping there. (*I admit I was a little surprised that the island where Davy was hoping to start a wild life sanctuary was not tropical. I guess I was influenced by the very tropical cover. )

Zoey refers to Davy in her mind as “the Handsome” even though she’s mad at him for not having the slide and giving it back to her straight away. He’s very good-looking and very distracting. Davy, for his part, is immediately deeply smitten and guilt-ridden about Zoey being upset.

Davy Hsieh did not often know what he was doing. He didn’t operate with a plan—it was more a set of loose guidelines. And even then, he usually forgot about them.

This—this situation—however, seemed to call for some sort of forethought. While Zoey stood on the deck of the boat, talking on her phone, he jotted down a quick list.

1. Don’t screw up Zoey Fong’s life

2. Don’t screw up MY life

3. Help Zoey get the slide back

4. Win Zoey’s forgiveness

5. Get to know Zoey better

6. Let Zoey get to know me

7. That’s kind of scary that most of this list is about Zoey

But he had to make sure of a few things. She had to be protected and safe at all times. So even if she insisted on doing something foolhardy, like getting on a boat with a stranger (this plan was already going well), then he was going to object and stand his ground and not let her dark eyes bore into him until he couldn’t think straight.

There’s a kind of humour within the writing which I found very endearing.

Davy settled them onto the piano bench and thought of how nice it was to have contact with another person again, especially when that person was Zoey, so alive and snappish and vibrant and—

“I’m not joining in on a song I don’t know,” Zoey said snappishly and vibrantly.

While on the island, the story veers into something like caper territory. A little bit farce, a little bit ridiculous, mostly fun. A grumpy neighbour makes an accusation and Fierce Zoey comes to the fore.

Meanwhile, Zoey and Davy give into their attraction and also open up to one another. So there was this mix of serious (discussion of anxiety and addiction to pills for example), romance and intimacy and zany set pieces. Somehow it all worked together. I have the feeling that the humour and/or the mix won’t work for everyone (no book will ever do that of course) but it worked for me. Mostly.

I did get a bit tired of Davy constantly leaping to self-blame. Fortunately, so did Zoey. And she called it out.

“I’m getting really tired of this. Is blaming yourself the way you keep people from getting close to you? Who needs an island when you’ve got that thick wall of self-regard masquerading as self-blame keeping people out?”

Thank you Zoey! If Davy never moved on from that, it would have made him hard to be around for very long I think. (Also, by the end, Davy was in therapy which was a very good thing.)

Davy needs to learn to let people in. Zoey needs something similar. She doesn’t always have to know everything. She doesn’t have to save the world. She doesn’t have to save her sister that’s for sure – her sister is fine. I really liked how Davy talked to Zoey about the possibility of moving on from The Plan and making a new plan.

“It depends on where you end the story, doesn’t it?”

Someone once gave me similar advice when I was struggling and it made all the difference to me.

I enjoyed the side characters, Li-leng – Zoey’s roommate and best friend, Davy’s good friend and former babysitter, George, in particular. George is exhausting but passionate and devoted to Davy.

Apart from the epilogue the story takes place over less than a week and it was that which gave me a little pause. Both main characters fall in love and completely change their lives after such a short time. I was prepared to go with it for romance reasons but it also seemed out of character for each of them so I had a bit of cognitive dissonance about it.

Wild Life leans heavily on the zany to leaven the more serious aspects of the story – at times, it was just a little bit too zany for me but for the most part, I was charmed.

Grade: B

Regards,
Kaetrin

Included as a top pick in weekly January New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

Oh my goodness, Wild Life was SO fun. While it is ostensibly a romcom, it's also sensitive, heartfelt, and just so sweet, I loved every minute. Zooey is SO relatable, Davy is adorable, and the whole premise is so wild and wacky - and yet also totally made me want to jet off the the Pacific Northwest to hang out on a scenic island.

The premise of this story is honestly kind of hilarious. Davey accidentally ends up with a very important lab sample slide of Zooey's, and she then proceeds to upend her life following him around trying to get it back. The slide is clearly a bit of a metaphor for Zooey's dissatisfaction with her life, and I love how it ends up being the catalyst for her making big changes for herself. Meanwhile, Davey has been hiding on his island to keep his anxiety at bay, but I loved the frank discussion of mental health that ends up prompting.

Zooey is so driven, a high achiever and perfectionist who is so devoted to her "Plan" that she cannot see anything beyond it. Davy is the perfect match for her - he's a little more steady (despite his issues with anxiety) and seems to have a knack for actually getting her to slow down. There is definitely an element of instalust going on in this book, but the chemistry is so palpable from the moment they meet that I found it totally believable. And I mean, you throw any two people with some level of attraction together onto a remote island and sparks are going to fly. I loved that despite the intensity of their connection, the actual spice was slow to develop. There are lots of loaded looks and subtle touches beforehand - oh gosh, I loved it. And I always love depictions of imperfect, yet very realistic sex - it just makes the story seem more real.

If you are looking for a fast-paced, funny yet deep romcom, definitely check this one out. The writing is beautiful, there characters are so real, and I couldn't put it down. Thanks to Ruby Land (writing as Opal Wei), Netgalley, and Harlequin for allowing me the opportunity to read this one early!

Thank you to the author Opal Wei, publishers Harlequin, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of WILD LIFE. All views are mine.

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. I got a great feeling about this book immediately, right from the introduction written by the author. She includes content warnings, which I slways value. I have ptsd and I appreciate the opportunity to prepare myself for triggers in books. She also includes a few lines of my favorite poem, "Wild Geese" from Mary Oliver. I had very high expectations going, because of the front matter.

2. I really love all the animals in the book. The pissed off hawk was a pretty great description!

3. The steamy scenes in this one are extremely intimate and well-written. I'm usually so serious when I read steamy scenes, but I had this goofy smile on my face while I read these ones!

4. Cute ending; good character development.

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. I didn't really appreciate the author's diminution and infantalization of her fmc in the opening lines of the book. This was a huge disappointment for me.

2. The narrative in this one is a little wiggly, but still en example for the genre.

Rating: 🐆🐆🐆.5 / 5 big cats
Spice: 🌶🌶
Recommend? Yes
Finished: Jan 23 '24
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
💖 romance
🚪 open door romance
🏘 small town life
🏝 island life
👥️ forced proximity trope
🦁 animals

A retelling of Bringing Up Baby? Yes please!! This story follows Zoey, a burned out cancer research student, and Davy, a reclusive aspiring animal sanctuary owner. They meet by chance at Zoey's lab, where her prized bone slide accidentally falls into his possession. After some back and forth, it becomes necessary for Zoey to travel with Davy to his small private island in order to retrieve it. Hijinks and romance ensue.

Things I liked: the Bringing Up Baby call backs, Asian American representation, mental health representation.
Things I didn't like: it was a little silly for me, but I get that it was based on a screw ball comedy. The spice was kind of awkward.

This would have been a 3 star but it's based on one of my all time favorite movies so it gets a bump. Thanks to HARLEQUIN - Romance and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love love loved this book. Mismatched-but-meant-to-be romance? Secluded island? A storm? AGGRESSIVE GEESE? It was a joy to follow along with Zoey and Davy as they got to know each other (and themselves!) in this funny, shenanigan-filled romance.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin for this ARC!

- Zoey and Davy are incredibly odd, but also incredibly sweet! While I found some parts a little awkward, it just fit the characters so well!
- I loved all the anxiety rep! It was so well done, and it showed how varied anxiety can be.
- The setting is phenomenal, and it adds so much to the story. The descriptions of the island and all the storms were so cozy and encompassing.
- Some of the narration felt a little off, and that took me out of the story while reading. I noticed this especially during the spicy scenes-some descriptions felt very out of place? It was easy to write it off as both of the MCs are very, very strange.

I love romance with a conceit and Wei delivers in Wild Life, setting up a contrast between “wild” and “tame”, wilderness and urban landscape. For her main characters, it translates into an analogy of either a working-out of life untethered, or a life controlled. As we get to know them, these opposites turn out not so opposite after all. Because living the either/or life doesn’t make it a good one.

I’m making Wild Life sound humourless and sombre in a way it isn’t: it’s witty, funny, and an homage to one of the great screwball comedies, Bringing Up Baby. “Baby” is a reflection of Wei’s duelling themes: an elderly cougar (hey, it’s Canada: we have cougars, not leopards), declawed, and rehabilitated by the hero on his remote, “wild” aspiring animal sanctuary. Baby is as “declawed” as the narrative is of any problematic aspects to the film. (Heck, these days, romance is “declawed”…not that that isn’t a good thing in places.) A quick read of the publisher’s blurb fills in further details:

The Plan was simple: find a cure for the cancer that nearly took her sister’s life. But for Zoey Fong, something about The Plan isn’t working anymore. Maybe it’s her unsuccessful research, maybe it’s burnout. But when a crucial tissue sample accidentally winds up in the hands of a very distracting—and disarmingly handsome—visitor, Zoey jumps at the chance to follow him home to retrieve it.

Davy Hsieh’s rugged island estate is no manicured suburban park. His plan is simple: establish a legitimate animal sanctuary and embrace life as a hermit to make up for a sketchy past. Zoey invading his fortress of solitude should not, under any circumstances, be a romantic development.

And yet it’s the single most invigorating week of their lives…when they’re able to set their many differences aside and embrace it. Stranded amid all manner of flora and fauna—including a semidomesticated cougar called Baby—Davy and Zoey first have to survive the island. Then they’ll need to take a leap of faith, maybe even trusting in each other, to save it.

Wei pays homage to the Hollywood meet-cute in the opening scene. Davy is wandering Musqueam University in search of a professor he has an appointment with in hopes he’ll advise him on establishing his animal sanctuary. Instead, he stumbles into Zoey’s lab:

She pulled out her phone. “Shit, shit, shit. I am so late.” In an unexpected move, she ran to the sink and began scrubbing out mugs. “I’m sorry,” Davy said again, because it was an appropriate thing to say in Canada for all occasions. “It’s not your fault,” she muttered…Besides, he had no idea what this woman was going to ask him next. It was invigorating.

Zoey’s frenetic washing, Davy’s wide-eyed cluelessness are a hoot…and then you add a nod to our anglo-Canadian propensity to apologize for everything. (May I note for readers, especially my American friends, franco-Canadians don’t apologize. I hope someone writes an anglo-franco opposites attract romance. Kind of Bon Cop, Bad Cop, but with romance.) This gives you a good sense of Zoey and Davy: she’s go-go-go and he’s slow and steady; both, however, are working to atone: Zoey makes up for her sister’s childhood cancer (who’s fine and studying in uni and having a great ole time) and Davy, for being addicted to prescription drugs when he was in a boy-band and had to deal with his anxiety to perform. They’re good people with a unreasonably heightened sense of responsibility, not so opposite, definitely worthy.

Despite the serious underpinnings to Zoey and Davy, Wei keeps the tone light, the antics zany, and the banter droll. Her narrative only bogs down when Zoey and Davy get mushy about their families, their seeming failures, and fear of letting anyone “down”. As I said, they’re good people, but Wei’s humour made up for Zoey and Davy’s uber-earnestness. For example, when Davy tried to give Zoey a tour of his island, their encounter with wild geese was priceless. Examples of what makes Wei’s romance a great read: humour, banter, wit:

“Are you some kind of loner survivalist?” Zoey asked him. “No. I really am not.” Or was he? He paused to consider. “I mean, I like society, and I really don’t like writing manifestos.”

“I heard the longing in your voice. What’s your poison: straight-up Broadway, old-school MGM? Oh, wait, Disney movie musicals.” She was in trouble now, and judging by the look in Davy’s eye, he knew it. Still, she wasn’t a quitter. She tried to feign nonchalance, as if he hadn’t seen into her secret soul. “How do you figure?” “You’re pink-cheeked, like a doll. Like a princess who can sing with the birds.”

And the goose encounter can give Hollywood a run for screwball zaniness and its wit is Canadian, sorry!:

“Why don’t we both turn and run?” “That’s what I said earlier. Then you were all like, I’m the goose whisperer.” “I changed my mind. I’m not the goose whisperer. Although once we’re out of their territory–” “Everything is their territory. They’re Canada geese. As far as goose names go, it’s a pretty imperialist one.”

I snort-guffawed many times reading Wei’s Wild Life.

If I have a critique, it’s my uncertainty about the romance. Zoey and Davy are compatible, mature, capable of love and being love. Like most recent romance, however, Wei follows the new? newish formula: Zoey and Davy must, in confessing to each other and other people important to them, heal their broken selves. While enacting this important self-actualization, Zoey and Davy appreciate each other’s best qualities and boost each other up to be able to do that self-healing. It’s worthy and “good for you” romance, like eating your fruit and veg. It’s not romantic though. I mean the sex is great, the banter is funny, but there’s not much of romantic in the romance. It’s Weetabix and I want a buttery croissant slathered with jam and a hunk of Brie. *shrug* Still, it’s funny and zany and well-written and likely to be one of the best romances I read this year. Miss Austen agrees, Wild Life offers “real comfort,” Emma.

Opal Wei’s Wild Life is published by Harlequin. It releases today, January 23rd. I received an e-galley, from Harlequin, via Netgalley. This does not impede the free expression of my opinion. Moreover, no part of this review was written with any use of AI.

First of all, the cover of this book is beautiful!! It's so bright and fun and it drew me in and made me want to read it. Wild Life was an adorable, fun, romance!! This storyline of this was very original and creative. I love that Davy lived on a private island and was protecting Baby, the cougar. The 2 main characters are such opposites and such an unlikely couple, but they work so well and brought the chemistry!! This book does have a spicy factor to it! Overall, an entertaining read!

Thank you, Harlequin Publishers, and Netgalley, for an advanced read copy in return for my honest review.

If you like books with really quirky characters and plots, then this might be the one for you. Zooey Fong is a scientist who likes a plan, and wants to follow through with a plan. Her plan is to get her boss to notice her at work, and approve her research even though it's clear she doesn't really love her lab job. A mistake means that Zooey gives a stranger, Davy, the slide that she needs to impress her boss, Then a wild adventure begins where Zooey drops everything and follows Davy to retrieve her slide.

Davy is a mysterious and kind man who owns a private island. It turns out that he's a former member of an Asian boy band. His troubled past means that he is used to living on his own, and caring for the animals he's trying to rehabilitate. I mean, seriously, this plot is bizarre.

It's a romance, so of course Davy and Zooey get trapped on the island together, there's a big storm, the power goes out, they have lots of sex. Their flirting is awkward because they are awkward. There are some cute and tender moments as well.

Overall, this is an easy read, and good for fans of Romance with unusual characters and plot.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book.

A sweet and steamy escapism read!

This was a fun adventure if you can suspend reality and just enjoy the ride. Zoey is a serious and dedicated MD PHD candidate set on her plan of curing the cancer her sister has already been saved from. Davy is an easy-going hermit setting up life on a remote island. Through a series of unfortunate miscommunications and happenings, Zoey and Davy are together on his island for an intense period.

I really enjoyed the Canadian setting, the way Zoey and Davy worked together in their forced proximity and the culture embedded in the romance of a Chinese Canadian and a Taiwanese Canadian.

I recommend for a quick and fun read!

I really liked this fun romance! Zoey Fong has a Plan. She’s going to become a medical researcher to find a cure for the bone cancer that afflicted her younger sister. Her sister is fine now, but Zoey can’t abandon The Plan or she’ll be a failure. She holds on to a tissue slide as a talisman.
One day, a guy named Davy who’s a former K-pop band member comes to the lab. He lives on an island refuge with an elderly declawed cougar, and wants to adď more unwanted animals in the future.
Zoey spends the day with him and they’re attracted to each other but she loses the slide in boxes going to the remote island. When they get there, a huge storm keeps them inside where they take their relationship to another level.
Can Zoey figure out what she wants to do with her career? Can Davy keep the island as a sanctuary while managing his anxiety? I liked how the author addressed the mental health challenges, 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

Wild Life by Opal Wei was a delightful rom-com with engaging characters who I instantly enjoyed.
I really liked this author’s writing and the book didn’t disappoint.
This is such an immersive and heartwarming read and I couldn’t put it down.
A fun and heartwarming romantic comedy that is perfect for fans of the genre.
The writing is witty and engaging, and the characters are lovable and memorable.
I was completely immersed from start to finish!

Thank You NetGalley and Harlequin for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!