Love this author, so love reading her books! This wasn’t an exception it was well written and loved the characters!

I was completely blown away by this book, I went in blind not knowing what to expect but I was so surprised. At first I predicted the story to be a little predictable but I couldn’t have been more wrong. This book has so much excitement and adventure, but equally it was comforting with the elements of friendship and loyalty. I’ve read another of Christina Lauren’s books and loved that one too, I’ll definitely read more of her work.

BOOK REVIEW: Something Wilder by @christinalauren

5 Stars
Smut: 3/5

Before you read this book, go look up pictures of The Maze in the canyonlands in Utah where it is set to add to your enjoyment and imagination!

I have no idea how to start this review except to say THIS IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER CHRISTINA LAUREN BOOKS. If you are expecting their normal romance book, this is NOT that! Let me tell you why...

If I was to place Something Wilder into a genre it would be "suspense romance". There is definitely romance but there is also danger, violence, adventure and excitement. At times I was happily giving the book heart eyes and smiling and at others I was gripping it with tension and incredibly on edge about what would happen next. It is unexpected, shocking, gripping and brilliant but also lovely, sweet and sexy. What a mix!
The book is centred around Lily, our lead female who runs wilderness camping expeditions in the Canyonlands. Lily is an amazing character who had undoubtedly had a tough life and deserves all the happiness in the world. She is so easy to love and I clicked with her character instantly. She is brave and has a hard exterior but also funny, kind and vulnerable. Our lead male is Leo who I absolutely adored. He is relatively quiet, full of wit, very clever and so loving. I loved Lily and Leo together and the romance was wonderful. They have a fantastic chemistry but also a great connection that bonds them despite their time apart. This has second chance romance and only one bed tropes. The smut is so well written as it is hot and steamy but also cute and loving.
I don't want to give anything away about the storyline as it is just so brilliant. Christina Lauren did an fantastic job at this new genre (for them) and their writing was as excellent as ever.

Overall, a book I am going to want to read again and again! I could not recommend this more and hope you all love it as much as I did!

Please note that I was #gifted this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was an unexpected read, but in a good way! The story took lot's of twists and turns that I didn't see coming but I really loved the overall story.

Leo was such a cute, lovesick character. He was so sweet and nostalgic and completely in love with Lily and it was the best thing ever. Lily was such a great headstrong main character and I loved her character arc and the backstory with her father.

The whole storyline with the treasure hunt was so entertaining, the whole story felt so different from standard romance novels and I actually really liked the adventure. I also really liked how everything was solved, it was done beautifully and made so much sense.

Overall, this was a great, easy to read and entertaining book and I would 100% recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

I am normally a big fan of books written by this duo but this one just wasn't really for me. It took a turn I wasn't expecting and I'm not sure if I was a fan!

I liked Leo and Lily as characters and loved the rekindling of their romance. The rest of the story just didn't really work for me.

Amazing! My first Christina Lauren read and it was so good! I thought the in the prologue and first chapter I struggled to tell who was who but then it clicked. The twists were amazing. I didn't expect any of them to happen. I think I only predicted 1 thing that happened which I loved becaue everything was a surprise. It wasn't too fast paced but was fast enough. It was just perfect.

2⭐️ A second-chance romance that took a bizarre and unexpected turn, unfortunately this wasn’t for me.

Spoilers Ahead because there's things I need to talk about in this book! I'll keep it as unspecific as possible.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book, I really did, and I had high hopes going in having loved and 5* The Unhoneymooners but this was just... something else.
I almost DNF'd this book, Chapter 10 was almost it for me because it took such a turn but I find it hard to DNF if I've read enough that there's threads I want answering so I kept going but actually stopped reading at Chapter 19, skim read Chapter 26 and 27 and then read from Chapter 28 to the end.

Firstly, this is not a Rom Com, or at least it didn't feel anything like a Rom Com to me.

Secondly, when the blurb tells you that 'the trip goes horribly and hilariously wrong' don't believe the 'hilariously' part. There is literally nothing hilarious about what happens... there is a gun hostage situation and someone *actually* pushes someone off a canyon, killing them.

This felt like such an unexpected turn of events, and ok I didn't really care about said person's death because they were not at all likeable ( like they were awful ) but it just felt like it came randomly from nowhere and was not the direction I thought this was going in at all... honestly I was half convinced this person was going to come back from the dead as some paranormal being I was so floored by the direction this went in ( I can confirm, he did not).

Something Wilder felt like it was part thriller, and don't get me wrong, I love a good thriller, but that wasn't what I signed up for when I started reading this book- I was in the mood for a cute second chance contemporary romance/romcom with some light-hearted mystery and adventure in the mix and everything about the marketing of this book (the blurb, the cover, even the way it's categorised on goodreads) made me think that was what I was getting and it wasn’t.

I didn't really gel or feel like I loved any of the characters and I also had a bit of an issue with how real this felt, not just the plot (which did feel like a fever dream at times), but also the way the characters reacted to some events ( I expected to see more emotion and depth in response to something that happens in Chapter 28) and the relationship between Lily and Leo. Sure, they were cute, and they had some sexy tension but I felt like all the mentions of their previous relationships were based on the sexual side and fair enough, it was a whirlwind summer romance, but they both intended for it to be for the long haul and were supposedly so madly in love that they still thought about each other/hadn't loved anyone else 10 years later. I just wanted to see more of what made them so crazy about each other and for them to have a more substantiated foundation so that when they did realise that there had been a misunderstanding it made sense for their romance to move quickly from there and didn’t feel so sudden.

Overall the romance was cute, if a little underdeveloped and if this had been marketed as a Romance/Adventure/ Thriller then I may have felt a little differently - it did have potential to be a great book but I just don’t think it was executed in the best way and ended up feeling far-fetched/random. Really sad about this one. :(

Oh, my, god. I was absolutely obsessed with this from start to finish. This was such a cute and quirky book which gave me all the feels!
Lily and Leo are the cutest pairing and how they split up and accidentally found each other again took me through a whirlwind of emotions, combine that with a treasure hunt and you’ve got yourself one of the best books I’ve read all year! Loved it!

This book is full of adventure and twists! I really enjoyed the story especially how problems kept arising and getting in the way of their mission (if that's what you want to call it). There was a couple of moments throughout the story that I did not see coming and that kept me gripped to be honest. I love the love story between Lily and Leo, he was trying so hard to make her see what they had before was still there! The writing style flowed well and I enjoyed the different POV's between Lily and Leo. Between the adventure and the love story, this made for a perfect feel good book that I definitely recommend!

as always, Christina Lauren didn’t disappoint! I am a huge fan of their work and was so excited to read this!

Lily Wilder leads tourists on treasure hunts through the canyons of Utah using her Dads maps of the area. When her first love shows up for a trip with his friends, will this be the adventure of a life time? 🐎

They’ve done it again kids!! I loved loved loved this book. Every aspect is flawless - the adventure, the romance, the tension, the scandal, the comedy and the treasure hunt that lays the base for it all. 🏞

I adored watching Lily and Leo’s relationship develop and completely fell for the second chance at love. How invested I was shows how each character is so well written, there were some I adored and some I despised and wanted to push off a cliff. 🙄 The puzzles you try and decipher along the way convey how well thought out and planned the story is too. 🗺

I couldn’t put this down and finished it in one day! This is a strong contender for my favourite Christina Lauren book and I can’t wait for the next one already 🙊

Quite a departure for Christina Lauren, but great fun and it was hugely entertaining to follow this through from start to finish.
Lily Wilder has always, a little, resented her father Duke for his obsession with treasure hunts and riddles. A celebrated treasure hunter Duke was rumoured to have discovered money that was stolen by Butch Cassidy. There’s no suggestion that this is the case as Duke sold the family ranch, had a stroke and then left his daughter with nothing.
When we first meet Lily she is preparing for one of her wild tours, taking rich City types to the wild and allowing them to play at finding treasure. However, this particular tour goes very much off page…partly because one of the party is Leo, the man Lily fell in love with years ago, but also because one of the group has an ulterior motive for joining in.
While I was invested in the rekindling of Lily and Leo’s relationship I loved the way we veered into a true treasure hunt. We never quite know how this is going to pan out, but the temptation to risk everything just for a chance to fulfil a dream is quite an inspiration.
There’s danger, more than I expected, and there’s a nerdy delight in puzzles and codes. On more than one occasion it could have gone either way, but this had a lovely feel good factor to it that left me with a smile on my face.
I’m grateful to NetGalley for allowing me the chance to read this before publication in exchange for my review. I also wonder where they’ll go next…

I am a huge fan of Christina Lauren books, but this was such a let down for me. I wanted that addictive, keep you on the edge of your seat romance, and what I got was a treasure hunt. I ended up with so many questions and feeling rather short changed. Not my favourite at all, but great characters.

3.5 stars

A treasure hunt, a second chance romance and a little bit of kidnapping thrown in to the mix.

This book has left me really confused, I’m not sure what it was trying to be. It wasn’t a rom-com, it wasn’t a thriller and it didn’t have enough action to be an adventure.. I just don’t know what it was trying to be.

It was very easy to read, the writing flowed well and I did read it in just one sitting. I did like the characters, however I don’t think there was enough build up or depth between Lily and Leo. Walter and Nicole were great though.

Overall it was a little more than just okay for me- entertaining in places, not bad but not great either. I genuinely don’t know what else to say about it. I’m really struggling to review it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I recently started reading books by CL and I fell in love with the plot lines and characters so I knew I HAD to read this one. Just what was needed for the warm weather, perfection as always from Christina Lauren!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! wait...did I mention I loved it?? Christina Lauren have been one of my favourite romance writing duos since the days of Beautiful Bastard, and like a fine wine, they've gotten better and better over the years. SOMETHING WILDER is a Second Chance romance and I am pretty sure that Lily & Leo are one of my favourite CLo couples to date. While it has elements that you come to expect from this duo, it is also incredibly different to what they've written before,..but guess what?? I loved it ;-)

Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for this eARC of Empress Crowned in Red

Christina Lauren books feel like coming home, you know what to expect - theyre cozy and feel good and the same can be said for something wilder. I loved it and Lily and Leo. The twists werent predictable which Ireally enjoyed!

Something Wilder is a wonderful tale of first loves and  second chances, mystery and adventure. But aside from the romantic relationship ❤, this story is about family, friendships and finding your place in the world.

I really liked Lily and Nicole. I enjoy a book with strong female characters. Lily though strong had a vulnerability to her - a sadness even - that somehow made her more determined.

And as for Leo, he's sweet yet sexy and undeniably loyal.

This book has a lot going on and the plot keeps you guessing while offering up some heartfelt moments.

Thank you to Netgalley, the authors and publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Christina Lauren's books just feel cozy and easy and Something Wilder was no exception. This is the perfect Summer Romance if you’re looking for something a little different.
Remarkable characters, who will stay with you for a long time. A true escape within the pages of a book, filled with adventure, rekindled romance and second chances.

Wow, wow, wow! 😍

Another amazing CLo story, this time involving a second chance love story and an actual treasure hunt - National Treasure style, no less 😅

Absolutely loved it. Loved Lily and Leo and how they came back to meet again after 10 years.
Loved the adventures they had in Canyonlands - sounds like a truly spectacular place!

Thank you @netgalley and @littlebrownbookgroup_uk for my advanced reader copy!