A Little Wilder
Grade : B-

A Little Wilder is Kane Wilder story, he of the famous Wilder family. (This is the fourth full book of the series and, I suspect, given that each book is about a Wilder brother, the penultimate one.) And though I love me some Wilder--Bell is one of my favorite contemporary romance writers--in A Little Wilder, I found myself getting a bit tired of this increasingly picture perfect family. Over the course of the books, the Wilders--the five brothers, one sister, their mom, her partner, and--going into this book--three significant others AND their families--have slowly slipped from being loving, funny, and interestingly flawed to verging on a sugar coated fantasy.

Kane is the sweetest of them all. He's gorgeous, kind, other-oriented, funny, talented, incredibly nice to small children and the elderly, a gifted artist whose work highlights the best in his subjects, and, of course, so giving in bed that he never ever lets himself come before his partner. Honestly, all the man is missing is a halo... and, apparently, a very pregnant baby mama.

As readers of the last book, Wilder with You, know, Kane has been unable to forget a one night stand he had in Vegas earlier in the year. One night stands are not his norm nor, we are told (and that's all because we never saw the actual encounter), is how sexually domineering he was with his hook-up. So when said hook-up, Marigold, shows up--she's been hired by his brother Clark to renovate six Airstream trailers for Wilder Adventures--Kane is thrilled to see her... especially since she's pregnant and it's his. He's recently realized that what he truly wants in life is a family of his own and--whoa--look what's here!

For her part, Mari isn't so sure, at least not at first. The sex with Kane was phenomenal, sure, and her hormones are making her constantly horny, but Mari hasn't decided whether or not she's keeping Bun, the baby. That said, she's excited to renovate the trailers--she's an artist and these look like a very fun job--and it doesn't take much for Kane to convince her--in the most non-pressuring way possible--because, saint!--to spend some time Rush Creek and see what happens.

I had no doubt--at any point in this book--that Kane and Mari would fall in love, stay together, and raise baby Bun. Kane is so perfect and so undemanding and so able to constantly give Mari exactly what she needs in any given situation--why wouldn't Mari stay? Yes, she loves her job and it involves travel. And yes she had a shitty mom who makes her worry she'll be a shitty mom. But these fears are clearly solvable--Kane is perfect so of course he'll be the sort of father who supports his partner's work and Mari is such a lovely person from the get go that we know she'll be a great parent. There's no palpable conflict in this book and thus story isn't especially interesting.

That doesn't mean the book's a failure however. As usual, Bell's writing is wry and witty. Her sex scenes are hot--she does a lovely job of making pregnancy sexy. And I suspect many, wrung out by the news, the weather, the economy, and any number of other stresses, will find the Wilder brand of soothing perfect love comforting. Bell's world is one in which everyone is loveable and worthy of love and, really, that's wonderful.

If you love the Wilders and you're up for a very sunny read, you'll have a great time reading this. But if you're looking for depth in your storytelling, I'm not sure you'll find it here.

Reviewed by Dabney Grinnan
Grade : B-

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : July 19, 2022

Publication Date: 07/2022

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Dabney Grinnan

Impenitent social media enthusiast. Relational trend spotter. Enjoys both carpe diem and the fish of the day. Publisher at AAR.
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