Wild About You really doesn’t hold your hand in the beginning. Rather than starting with a scene showing Natalie signing up for Wild Adventures or anything about who she is before the show, we are instead dropped right into the middle of the forest as she is set loose on her first task of the show: finding her way to the rest of the group.

It’s easy from this instant plunge into the book to quickly get interested in the story. I found myself sucked into the plot and what all was going on, reading Natalie finding her way through the trees and figuring out who her partner on this out-of-character expedition would be, not even taking a break to write down my thoughts on the first parts of the book!

As promised by the description, Finn is the grump to Natalie’s sunshine, and the two do not get along at the beginning. However, it was very obvious to see the change in them as they grew into their own friendship/crush stages and the way that changed their team dynamic.

There were also a lot of side characters in this story I adored. Beyond Finn and Natalie, there are other groups competing for the chance to get this scholarship money, and readers will have time to get to know a lot of them throughout the course of this book. In particular, my favorites were Zeke, the resident himbo (as described verbatim in the book itself) and Harper, a grumpy girl who doesn’t let her attitude get in the way of being a decent human being. Their jokes throughout gave the book a good amount of levity and helped make this journey enjoyable!

However, the relationship between Finn and Natalie and the funny side characters aren’t the only things this book is about. A fair bit of this book is about grief and losing your loved ones, as well as learning how to live your life after their passing. Both Finn and Natalie are shaped by the people they loved outside of the show, and these characters have a lot to do with their decisions throughout.

I will also say that I wasn’t a fan of the conflict shown about 75% of the way through this book, which felt like it was just thrown in so we could have a conflict. Without saying too many spoilers, Natalie gets her period around 3/4ths of the way through the story, and ends up having a negative outlook on what’s going on because of it. While it is only a small section of this book, the inclusion of this “conflict” in general had me questioning if we couldn’t have found literally anything better to make into a conflict.

That being said, there were a lot of good moments I found throughout this book! I definitely enjoyed my time reading Wild About You, and I’d love to get a physical copy in the future to display on my shelves!

This is Kaitlyn’s strongest book! All her stories are so original & lots of fun, especially for the reality tv show fans!

What to expect…
- inspiration from the TV show, “the amazing race”
- grumpy/sunshine
- character with anxiety that is written with care
- forced proximity
- perfect summer read!!
- BANTER!!!!

Thank you to the author, the publisher, & to NetGalley for the Arc in exchange for a review!

I can always count on Kaitlyn Hill to write an amazing romance novel. Wild About you has to be my favorite Kaitlyn Hill yet. Wild About you was funnier and swoonier than ever. I loved the plot aspect of a reality show and the challenges out in the woods. I think that was one of the main reason I was completely hooked on this book. I absolutely adored our main characters Natalie and Finn. I loved how both struggled internally but they were perfect for each other. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this. I've been a fan of Kaitlyn Hill since her debut and each book keeps getting better. I'm not really a reality survivor tv girlie, but I'm learning that I love the premise in books - eat that plot right up. Loved Nat and Finn - I had so much fun reading about the two of them. Legit 10/10 would recommend.

4.25 stars. This was such a fun read and combined a lot of popular tropes: grumpy/sunshine; forced proximity; and one bed (or tent in this case). It’s upper YA, so while yes it’s a romance, the most you get is some kissing.

My husband actually wants to hike the entire AT, but I’m not on board with that plan myself - however, it was fun to read about a pseudo reality show set along the trail. The Smoky Mountains is my happy place honestly, and where I would move to if I ever decided to relocate.

Best part of this book, in my opinion, was the discussion/attention to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). You don’t get to see that much in fiction, unless it is just glossed over and love cures it. I’m so glad that wasn’t the case here and the author shows that you can have GAD and fall in love, but the GAD remains.

My gratitude to NetGalley and Random House for a digital copy of this story. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

This was such a cute new adult story! I thought the reality show aspect was fun! Though I do think this trope has been a little bit overdone lately I really liked the way it was done in this story. I really liked both main characters and I loved their discussions about loss and mental health issues. I loved seeing Natalies development over the journey of the show and how much it affected Finn. I also thought there was a fun cast of side characters. This had a great mix of grump sunshine and forced proximity.

Young adult contemporary romance book with a dash of adventure, Wild About You by Kaitlyn Hill. I loved Natalie and Finn's ability to talk freely about their loss and mental health issues. I love how the author portrayed Natalie's development over the journey and how it affected Finn as well as how he had a significant role in her self-discovery and ability to embrace things she had previously felt terrified of.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Natalie is someone who is comfortable being herself, but when her freshman year of college leaves her without her merit scholarship and with an anxiety diagnosis, she needs to find a way to get some money to stay in school. So, she signs up for the new college version of Wild Adventures, an outdoorsy adventure show, that has a $100k scholarship prize. She isn't exactly outdoorsy (her lengthy skin care regimen makes her too high maintenance for that), but this is better than taking out student loans, right?! However, when she is randomly assigned to partner with Finn, who is the grumpy to her sunshine and the outdoorsy to her indoorsy, she realizes she may have taken on too great a risk. But no risk, no reward! And she really needs that reward. So putting up with Finn is necessary, or is it welcomed? Is there perhaps some chemistry there beneath the tension?

Sure, Natalie prefers her twelve-step skincare routine to roughing it on the Appalachian Trail while competing in challenges against other college kids, but that scholarship prize money is calling her name. High risk, high reward, right? Enter Finn Markum, her randomly assigned, capital- O Outdoorsy teammate whose growl could rival a black bear. These partners have more friction than a pair of new hiking boots. Or is it flirtation? Turns out falling in love might be the wildest adventure of all...
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As someone who is outdoorsy lite, I love living vicariously through people who do big hikes like the Appalachian Trail. Therefore, reading a rom com set there via a reality show is just that much more fun. This has some fun side characters and relationships, but at the core Finn and Natalie were easy to root for and continually made me giggle with their back and forth.

If you like the Amazing Race, Emma Lord books, or just want an outdoorsy rom com, give this one a shot.
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Content Warning: This is a closed door rom com. Intimacy is implied. There is also use of adult language, talk of anxiety, and characters dealing with grief.

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Romance for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.

WILD ABOUT YOU is a fun YA romance with lovely anxiety representation that definitely healed my heart a little bit!

This was a super cute, fun Rom Com. I really enjoyed the characters and the reality TV show aspect. The challenges Natalie and Finn faced were fun. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. There were moments when the story hit on grief but it did so gracefully. Definitely recommend if you’re into grumpy sunshine, forced proximity, and outdoorsy types of books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book!

This was a fun little romp. It's a perfect beach read because it's quick paced and has just enough depth and emotion to keep you going. Honestly, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would!

💭 MY THOUGHTS: I thought this book was very cute. The book goes from fun light hearted moments to dealing with heavier topics like loss of a loved one and anxiety.

Natalie and Finn are both really sweet characters who are very different which create a nice opposites attract trope. They find common ground when they’re forced together for a reality show and realize they both have trauma from their relationships with their parent(s).

Natalie was a bit immature which could be annoying at times but she is in college so that’s probably more accurate to real life. Also, some parts were a bit slow to read when they’re hiking and camping out. Overall a it was a cute read.

Read for:
💖 YA Romance
📹 Reality Show Setting
⛅️ Grump Sunshine
☯️Opposites Attract
⛺️ Forced Proximity

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
Spice Level: 🌶️/ 5

This was a cute romcom novel. I agree with another reviewer who said it read a bit more YA, but I’m fine with that. I will be checking out more books by this author.

Gosh. I truly loved this story in so many ways. Read more of a YA vibe, but it was definitely a fun plot - something different than anything I had come across before.

This book was so much fun! When I first started it, I almost thought it wasn’t going to up my alley, but I was so wrong. The chemistry, the humor, the setting…it was a great combination. The setting alone made it unlike any other book I’ve read

*Thank you to Delacorte and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and to PRH Audio for the gifted ALC*

This book is just precious. I love how Kaitlyn's books have all focused on reality shows, but each in their own way. Wild Adventures is Amazing Race meets Survivor, and listening to FinNatalie's trek gave me all sorts of endorphins. You've got the classic grumpy/sunshine pairing, the reality show foe in Enemi, and some twists along the way. As someone with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, I really identified with Natalie's struggles with anxiety. And man, the outdoors can be like *magic* for it. But I enjoyed the discussion of therapy and medication at the end as mechanisms that support each other.

Also can we talk about the book that Natalie is reading? Because I want to read that!

*An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

What should have been a fun trope-filled camping adventure romance, complete with mental health talks and learning to love yourself while competing in a reality tv show was indeed that, but it also featured, for me anyways, a rather annoying MC. Natalie is a potty-mouthed obnoxious and childish (she refers to a competitor on the show as "Enemi" the entire book) character for most of the book, and I just didn't really like her all that much. She could be genuinely funny or clever sometimes, which was nice, but overall I didn't like her vibe. Finn is an angsty mean guy for no good reason at the beginning, and I really struggled to like him until his character vastly improved, and he became the best part. I'm solidly in the "Natalie doesn't deserve him" camp. There was a spot just past the halfway mark where I was really enjoying the story, and even the two characters together, but it was short-lived. The back half was still markedly better than the first half, but there was a lot of predictable annoyances in the back half.

Okay, have I ever read a reality tv competition book where I liked that aspect of the story?? Even when it's objectively well-done and I don't have any complaints about it? I don't think so, so probably time to steer away from those.

This book follows Natalie, a college student looking to earn some money by winning an outdoor/ wilderness TV show competition. Natalie is an actress, in school, and needs to win this money to continue there. Her family is unsupportive of her dream and she is doing her best to do what she needs to do. Could she have worked this summer, obviously, but winning a large amount of money, while using some of her acting skills, is a better bet. She is paired with the stoic and grumpy Finn. Finn is from Vermont, knows the outdoors and camping and thinks Natalie is ridiculous.

This was your classic grumpy/sunshine, falls for each other, opposites attract romance. Finn and Natalie don't really have too much in common but forced proximity and only one tent have a hand in making them learn to like each other and even trust each other to succeed at the TV show challenges and attempt to win.

Both characters were fun and stubborn. I found this book to be really entertaining, yes it was cliche in a lot of ways but that is what I needed. It was a pretty soft and easy read and I think that if you like the outdoors it will hit in ways you will enjoy.

I liked that they were running around the AT, the challenges were fun and funny at times and the banter was good. Overall, this was a cute and fun romance that would be a great summer read by a lake.

"Wild About You" is a fantastic YA novel by Kaitlyn Hill! It's centered around Natalie, a theater'-loving college student who is desperate to win money so she can stay in college. When she sees an advertisement for the reality TV show Wild Adventures and its $100,000 prize, she spontaneously decides to sign up. Wild Adventures is like a mix of Survivor/Amazing Race/The Challenge -- all of which Natalie has nothing in common with. She packs her entire makeup supply and takes off for her new adventure. Upon arriving, she learns that each player will be put into teams with total strangers. When Natalie -- loud, outgoing, and dramatic -- gets paired with Finn -- quiet, introspective, and serious -- she's convinced this will be a total bust. But along the way, they learn that their differences may actually be what makes them the perfect team.

I enjoyed reading about how Natalie learned to believe in herself, and the honest portrayals of anxiety and the way it holds us back. I also liked reading about the Great Smoky Mountains and the Appalachian Trail. This was a really cute book, and I greatly enjoyed reading it! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This story follows a young woman who is off to a race outdoors for a reality tv show and her partner is a grumpy man. I’ve read Hill’s previous novel but I have to say that I enjoyed this book a lot more. I loved the storyline that Hill created and it was so well-written. I do have to say that for me personally, the reality tv show challenges were kind of hard to keep up like like stops mainly. If there was a map in the book, that would have been so helpful and very easy to imagine. I did enjoy the mental health awareness for this book and how these young women and men never gave up. This story only follows Natalie’s pov.

Natalie is the FMC of this story who is looking to earn the prize to pay for her college. I loved her character and how she was such a bright person. I do wish we got to see her parents in the book but I’m glad to see her find new friends that are her family. Then we have Finn, who I wish we got his pov but I still liked his character. He’s there for his own reason but I loved how began to fall in love with Natalie. There are many side characters in this book and I loved the new friends of Natalie. The romance in this book is grumpy x sunshine and one bed which was so well done.

The epilogue was well done but I do have to say that the ending kind of dragged a bit. The story was well done and I loved the campaign/ reality show storyline of this book. It was fun and very enjoyable. I recommend checking this book out because you won’t want to miss out.