A Little Wilder
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.
Recent Comments
I liked this book and would give it a B/B+ grade, It is definitely low angst and I came away with the warm fuzzies but I don’t think the book was completely without depth. I do agree that there was a lot of the Wilder family in this one and although it could be read as a standalone, it would be better to have read the others in the series first. However, I think the family presence was necessary to the storyline. Mari was so alone at the beginning and I think immersing herself in this large family helped her change her viewpoint of herself – that she was capable of putting down roots, have a relationship, and be a good mother. It was also so nice to see the women of the family giving Mari pregnancy advice and supporting Kane and Mari through those tough initial days after birth. I also liked how Mari helped Kane examine his role within his family and provided support and encouragement for him to pursue interests outside of his family’s company. Both Mari and Kane had to learn to see themselves differently and they helped each other do this. I liked how they were honest with each other and talked things out.
I did think Kane was maybe a little too perfect but I can accept that he was just a good guy who was the product of a kind and supportive family.
I thought the book was less steamy than the 3 before it. I think it would have benefitted from a prologue where we got to see how Kane and Mari met and had their one night stand. My impression is that they had some great conversation before they had sex and I think that would have shown their immediate connection. I was disappointed that we never got to fully know what happened, either by a prologue or flashbacks.
All in all, though, the book went by very quickly and I did enjoy it.
I agree that the book would have been hotter and made a bit more sense if you’d seen them in Vegas.
Sounds like a bit of a tooth-rotter; I know Bell can write ’em, so I might give it a chance.
As I’ve said in other places, I’m sure when Bell was putting the finishing touches on A LITTLE WILDER she had no idea her “unplanned pregnancy” romance would drop right after Roe v. Wade was repealed. When continuing a pregnancy is a choice (a choice millions of us made multiple times between 1972 and 2022), a woman is empowered; when continuing a pregnancy (no matter what the personal/medical circumstances) is a mandate, even the brightest “unplanned pregnancy” romance takes on Handmaid’s Tale vibes. I’ll definitely be reading A LITTLE WILDER, but beyond its arrival at a watershed moment for the rollback of women’s reproductive rights, I agree that the series’s sugary quotient has been increasing through the previous books. Bell is a great writer and I don’t think it’s in her to write an objectively bad book, but after she’s done with the Wilders, I hope she gets back to her Tierney Bay series, where she was two books in when she stopped to write the Wilder books. The Tierney Bay characters were a little rougher around the edges—or perhaps it was just that the books didn’t have illustrated covers.
It’s interesting. Abortion just isn’t a discussion in this book. When Mari finds out she’s pregnant, she did some “soul searching” and decided to keep the baby. It read as unbelievable to me because she is so unsure she wants to be a parent. In real life, unmarried women who become pregnant rarely choose adoption.