Gosh, I just adored this book! It was like a sweet little YA hug. This book has very low spice (only kissing) but very high feels!

Pick this up if you like:
* YA contemporary romance
* adorable/hilarious banter
* outdoor adventures
* anxiety rep
* Dolly Parton
* books about reality tv
* a sunshine mfc who turns into a grump and then reverts back to sunshine
* a grumpy mmc who turns into a thoughtful, caring simp
* a literal bear vs. man scenario where you would actually pick the man 😂

The banter between Natalie and Finn was laugh out loud funny, and by the end I was kicking my feet while reading because it is just so wholesome and lovely!

This was a five star read for me, and I can’t wait to go back and read Kaitlyn’s backlist now. I even picked up a copy for myself so that I can reread and loan out to the adults/teens in my life who love romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Romance for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

Kaitlyn Hill has such an entertaining and unique voice, I loved every minute of this book! It was fun, hilarious, and heartwarming all while handling topics of mental health and grief with such care. The premise and location kept me turning the page-- this is the perfect summer read! I think this is my favorite book from Hill yet!

Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Natalie Is not your typical outdoorsy adventure girl but with her student loans and needing to pay for the next semester of school, she did the only thing she could. She signed up for a Wild adventure reality TV show. If she could win, the prize was $100,000. So with her mega cosmetic bag and a pair of hiking shoes she was off. She is paired with a total stranger by the name of Finn and they were at odds from the very beginning.
I thought the storyline was good and I enjoyed the banter and the excursion of the adventure. I did eventually come to appreciate the characters and their differences. I liked how they were able to find ways to encourage and sustain each other through some difficult times. Overall, I thought it was a fairly enjoyable read. It is touted as a young adult book, 12 to 17 years old. In my opinion there was far too much foul language. but I appreciate that there were no illicit scenes. Some cuddling and kissing with suggested sleeping arrangements. It can be read as a standalone story. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

3.5
This was a cute little romance. I did not like the slow build of the romance that much. I wanted to know about the boys character as well and it took a long time to kind of show us that. However the romance was still cute as it developed. I most loved the campy amazing race type of environment and the anxiety rep. I could relate to her growing up with general anxiety disorder. I liked how it showed at some point the thoughts and feelings you get with it. I like that it tells about that in a ya book because I had no idea not only that I had that growing up but also that there were other people going through it too and not everyone else thinks and feels those same ways either. I liked the book and thought it was good.

A truly swoony read full of adventures in the wilderness and in love.

I enjoyed this read from start to finish. Each moment our MMC and FMC have made me crave yet another moment in their world. Grumpy/Sunshine is my romance jam and this angsty teen element really gave light to that already blazing fire of trope passion

I will be buying a copy for my teen daughter to take with her to college as she asked us to put together a tiny library of new books for her to read when she needs escape. This one will give her some laughs and fun to escape from the piles of work she will have in her freshman year.

This is written rather young but being it is YA with geared ages of 12 and up, I went in expecting that. With that in mind I am giving this read 4 brilliant stars!

Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Romance for this ARC read!

Wild About You by Kaitlyn Hill is a grumpy sunshine young adult romance. Natalie Hart is loud, unfiltered and she won’t apologize for it. However, at the end of her freshman year of college, she loses her merit scholarship and gains an anxiety diagnosis. She is hesitant to take out student loans and discovers an interesting way to get the tuition funds she needs. In a race through the Great Outdoors, Wild Adventures is a reality show a la The Amazing Race. While she prefers to pamper herself rather than roughing it on the Appalachian Trail, complete challenges and compete with other college students. Finn Markum becomes her partner and he is outdoorsy with a Capital O with a growl that would scare a bear. When the friction between them turns flirtatious, Natalie realizes that she’s in more of a wild adventure than she bargained for.
Wild About You is a fun, young adult romance with an outdoorsy adventure. Filled with a grumpy-sunshine pair, enemies among the other contestants and a life changing experience. Along with the fun adventures along the trail, the story deals with heavier topics of anxiety. Despite her lack of experience, I’d admired Natalie’s determination to give the Wild Adventures her all. She was a bit annoying at first but I enjoyed seeing her growth by the end of the story. Finn was grumpy and standoffish at first, yet with Natalie on the trail with him, begins to lighten up. He was very unlikeable at first as well. Grumpy and unlikable doesn’t always go hand-in-hand. I’ve read some grumpy characters who were likable. Finn definitely had some walls and reasons behind his unlikability. Overall, I enjoyed Wild About You. If you enjoy young adult romances, I recommend Wild About You.

Wild About You is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Random House Children's in exchange for an honest review.

Natalie needs money after struggling through her first year of college and losing her merit scholarship. She applies and is chosen to be on "Wild Adventures" an outdoorsy-Amazing Race-esque reality show for their first college students only edition. Her randomly assigned partner Finn is gorgeous, grumpy, and has no patience for Natalie's loud, unfiltered, high-maintenance personality. What follows is a typical grumpy-sunshine, forced proximity, fairly tame romance.

I wanted to love this story and I did enjoy it, but there was something about it that made me feel like I was slogging through mud. It wasn't as exciting as it should have been. The last 15% really picked up and I loved that part, but it took a lot of pushing myself to get there.

Also, I kept reading "Enemi" (Natalie's nickname for Alli) as "enema" which was really distracting

Wild About You by Kaitlyn Hill is a sweet grumpy-sunshine teen romance story.
This book was so fun and I loved it so much. the characters were so cute.
A sweet delightful book. I loved watching Natalie and Finn grow in this book. They made me smile throughout the whole book.

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

Do you like quirky FMCs? Are you super into survival shows? Do you think you could win on something that's Survivor meets The Greatest Race? Then you should be LINING UP to read this newest book by Kaitlyn Hill! There is no one who writes cooky, neurodivergent MCs like Kaitlyn does. And, I say this because I interact with her a lot on Instagram, you can really hear her voice coming through in this one. Like she took little pieces of her own personality and eccentricities and threw them into Natalie, and I am here for it.

rating: 4 STARS
genre: young adult romance
steam: closed door, kissing
release date: May 21, 2024

This was another one of those books that once I got into it, I couldn't put it down! And even though you're PRETTY sure you know how it's going to end and the competition will end up, you're still not 100% sure. So you have to know!

Seriously, if you're into YA or you're looking to get into the genre, Hill is a great place to start. Highly recommend.

Read if you like:
Grumpy/Sunshine
Camping & Survival
Found Family
Really funny one-liners
Nature puns
Attached at the Hip by Christine Riccio

As a huge fan of both the outdoors and reality TV, this book was made for me. I enjoyed discovering Natalie and Finn's love story. I related greatly with Natalie on being an anxious girlie, so it rang true to me. Loved it!

This cover. What dreams are made of, right? I 100% requested this for the cover. Well maybe 95. I also love that its a YA read.

If you like camping, college adventures, pop culture, opposites attract, mental health rep, bears, and the Appalachian Trail, this one is a good one for your list!

CW: language, including more than a handful of F-words

DNF at 30%

Honestly my biggest problem with the book is that I really didn't like the characters or start to care about them. It's a cute premise, just not for me.

#WildAboutYou

Thank you @prhaudio @getunderlined for my gifted copies! #PRHAudioPartner

“That’s it. Her name is now Enemi. With an i.”

I’ll be honest, the first chapter or two wasn’t for me. If first impressions were it, me and Natalie would not be friends. But, as she does in her Natalie way, I stayed, became charmed, and absolutely adored this book.

First off, yes to all things Appalachian. Think Amazing race, but college kids, in the south, hanging in Appalachia. Yes to all the things. This book made me want to bust out the tent I don’t own and go find a waterfall or six.

The audio was amazing. Amanda Stribling was a great reader. I loved all the different wild adventures characters and how they were like a little family. I cheered hard for Harper, and was definitely ready to scrap Alli. It was just a really fun YA with great underlying discussion on anxiety.

Absolutely adorable. Out May 21!

This was a fun read! I loved the idea of an adventure show, and the different challenges the characters worked through revealed their personality in a realistic way. I thought Natalie was a really witty character!

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you to Kaitlyn Hill, Delacorte Romance, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

First, the cover instantly grabbed my attention.

Second, this was so good. I loved Natalie. She made me laugh more than once. Finn my growly man. The perfect book boyfriend.

Some of my favorite quotes:

”I feel lucky that by random chance, I could do this with him by my side. Falling for Finn was the easiest part of wild adventures. I didn’t even have to try, and I couldn’t have stopped if I wanted to.”

"The more I learn about you, the more I find myself wanting to know everything."

"I hope it's not over for a long time."

I loved this!! I’m not normally a YA kinda gal but this was so fun and had me all kinds of giddy!! As an anxious girly myself I can very much relate to the things that Natalie was feeling throughout her time in the book! That feeling of never being good enough or constantly overthinking everything that someone says..it’s exhausting and the author did such a great job of portraying the very excruciating details of said overthinking in Natalie’s dialogue. And Finn?!? Come on. I kept picturing Chris Pine type of human for sure. Anyway loved how much I laughed along with the characters and story and cried at their vulnerability. It felt like I was really watching a tv show and fell in love with all the characters..minus Enemi LOL.

**Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy!!**

Kaitlyn's books just getting better and better! This one is the perfect summery, outdoorsy, swoony, grumpy sunshine, forced proximity trope where the heroine, Natalie Hart, is desperate for college money after having an anxiety-induced, less-than-stellar first year and has lost her merit scholarship. Desperate for a way to pay, she signs up for a seemingly out-of-her-comfort zone reality-based partner competition that involves hiking the Appalachian Trail. There, she meets her partner Finn Markham, a grumpy, surly outdoorsman who is not impressed with her theatrical skills, nor her face-care regimen. However, as they embark on their journey, they both discover they have deeper parts of themselves than their outsides reveal.

This one has what I love in YA romance--fabulously crafted banter, situational comedy, found family, and deep emotional discovery as both Finn and Natalie are dealing with complex issues like grief over lost loved ones, anxiety, and panic attacks. The Wild Adventure's competition creates lots of challenges that lend themselves to comedy, and I laughed out loud so many times at Nantalie's one-liners and her encounter with a bear is just...chef's kiss! This one made me laugh, gave me butterflies, and had me rooting for Natalie's development as a hiker and a camper who can best the competition even with her face masks and lip balm, all while strengthening her bond and connection with Finn. Strong language and mature situations make this a better fit for older readers, but it's still closed-door and suitable for high school YA collections.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children's/Delacorte Romance for the eArc.

I did not realize this book was connected to other books by this author, but I read it as a stand alone and completely understood everything. This book took me some time to get into, and to get a connection with the characters, but that also plays into what it feels like when you have anxitety. Finn & Natalie have that opposites attract type of friendship, she is the sunshine & he is a grumpy grouch. I also didn’t realize this was a YA book when I requested it, didn’t look at the category very well, but it was still very entertaining for older adults.

I loved this one so much! Grumpy to sunshine is definitely one of my favorite tropes, and this was done so, SO well.

Natalie is competing in a outdoor reality competition, hiking a portion of the Appalachian Trail and completing challenges along the way. The prize - a $100,000 scholarship, is sorely needed after Natalie's poor grades led to her losing her funding. Her parents aren't at all supportive of her college goals, and are ready for her to come back to reality and life at their ranch.

Natalie is determined to do well, with her charm and wit, and 20-step skin care routine. Her randomly assigned partner, Finn, is not impressed with her approach. He takes hiking and all the outdoor skills that come with it seriously, and Natalie's bubbly personality grates at his reserved demeanor.

When Natalie can finally get Finn talking, their banter had me laughing out loud, and sharing quotes with friends and family. Everything is not as easy as it might seem, though I would mark this as a "lighthearted" book. Issues are dealt with regarding panic attacks, anxiety, and grief over the loss of a loved one.

All in all, absolutely would recommend. As soon as it's out, I'm planning a book store trip to pick up my own copy, because this will have to be read again.

I've previously read "Not Here to Stay Friends" by the same author, a novel which I very much enjoyed. This one, though I didn't love. Try as hard as I might, I couldn't bring myself to be interested in the story, which I found very slow paced. Could be just because of me not liking the book at the time I read it, but I do think the writing style wasn't great in this work of Hill's. There's definitely an audience for this book out there, just not meant for me.