Wilde has never known who his parents are or why he was left to fend for himself in the woods as a young child. When a DNA website shows a 100% match to him, Wilde may finally get to know something about his background. Of course, Hester Crimstein is there to help him. I loved this book- a total page-turner that I devoured in one day.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of The Match.
This is the second book in a series. The first book, The Boy in the Woods, introduced us to Wilde, and with Coben's wonderful imagination and writing skills took an unbelievable concept and made us believers while having a great deal of fun.

The Match opens many years later and, through a series of circumstances, Wilde is looking for his birth father that he thinks he has found thanks to a genealogy website. And he has found a cousin who suddenly needs his help. Only he didn't see the cry for help until months later. And off we go on another wonderful Harlan Corben romp through the wonderful, mysterious, fantastical world of Harlan Corben. There is a reason he is so well-loved the world over.

I loved this book and highly recommend it.

Not as thrilling or as twisty as Wilde’s previous outings, & Coben’s prose remains a barrier, but still a hoot.

THE MATCH is a sequel to THE BOY FROM THE WOODS, but there is also a follow-up on THE STRANGER. The first two tell the story of Wilde, who, as a child, lived on his own in the woods, breaking into empty homes to survive. He is rescued at a young age and has no memory of how he came to be in the woods.
So in THE MATCH, Wilde signs up at a DNA site, and he gets a match that takes him to Las Vegas and a father he has never known. Wilde, not wanting to disrupt the man's life, leaves Vegas after one meeting. Another match is with a cousin who turns out to be the Stranger.
He has become a reality star with a reality star wife, but soon someone is trolling him. It gets so bad, his wife leaves him, and his own life starts to unravel. He decides to track down the person/people responsible for his life turning to crap.
Wilde tries to find the Stranger but has little luck. Wilde's self-imposed isolation in the woods does not auger well for a reunion. However, he is curious enough to locate his cousin's family. They believe the stranger/brother/cousin to be dead. A suicide due to traumas he suffered after his downfall.
Wilde is not convinced, and as he starts to find a trail that will lead to the Stranger, he comes face to face with a force of evil.
Wilde is a good character, but the Stranger is bizarre. It's not clear why he takes the path he does and why it leads to so much devastation. The book is less good than most Coben novels; however, if you’re interested in the Stranger and Wilde, this book might work for you.

I always look forward to Harlan Coben's books and this one was worth the wait. Coben's latest novel, The Match, is a follow-up to The Boy From the Woods. In The Match, we see Wilde as a grown man struggling with the unknown of his past and his growing attraction for his deceased best friend's wife. Through a DNA site, the crazy ride of Wilde's life begins. While the discussions about DNA matching were a bit tedious and at times confusing, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I"m not going to disclose if he found out about his parents or if he and Laila end up together, but it's an absolutely great book and worth getting to the end!

I love Harlan Coben’s books. He has a way of writing about our worst fears, things that can really happen, and uses technology and real life situations to make it all seem possible. It’s not horror, but it almost could be! I could not put it down. I love that Wilde and Hester are back, and also a few other characters from previous books. Thank you Netgalley for the eARC!

This is the follow up to The Boy in the Woods. I did really enjoy the story line but I will tell you that this book has many characters and lots of twists and turns There were lots of characters from previous stories.

4.5 stars, Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, I enjoyed the first installment " Boy from the Woods" with Wilde as the main character trying to find out what happened to him as a young boy being left in the woods. This second one answers a lot of those questions and also brings back the main characters from the first book.
I really liked this one, almost 5 stars , a.little rushed at the end , I wanted a little more backstory to Wilde' s past

I loved every single thing about this book- the tautly written plot, the scene-stealing Hester Crimstein, the pacing, the characters- all of it! Harlan Coben is my favorite author to begin with, and he outdid himself with this one.

Many Harlan Coben fans have enjoyed his new series, Wilde, and The Match is the second installment. Wilde is the boy from the woods, was abandoned as a child and somehow survived and became a productive member of society. Wilde and the supporting characters wonder about how this came to pass. Wilde wants to find out what happened to him and where he came from, and has a DNA test. An online ancestry database notifies him of a match, and that match may be his second cousin, and he is excited that that may lead to him finding his father. Some of the information is a dead end, but as Wilde and others work on this, there are some questions answered and new questions asked. The information opens up some questions about a violent criminal, and Wilde, et al, work to solve the mystery.

Harlan Coben is one of the most read and respected thriller writers, and even though he tells his stories in a serious way, with plenty of suspense that builds throughout, Coben inserts dry humor that tends to make the novels fun as well as exciting. When there is building tension, it’s nice to have a bit of humor, and it helps. Coben is a fabulous storyteller, and most fans have read everything he has written because with his name on it, it is guaranteed to be a good read. And unlike several other bestselling writers, it’s obvious Coben has written these novels himself and hasn’t cheapened them by adding a co-writer. Coben is also a master at developing his characters and readers will enjoy the fact that the characters seem real and are absolutely believable.

Once again, Coben has written a good novel, and thriller aficionados will want to read this series. You can’t go wrong with a Harlan Coben novel.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Let me preface by saying I did not read the first story, The Boy From The Woods. I think the story may have hit differently if I had read the previous. Without that knowledge I will give an honest review for someone who has not been enlightened. I thought it was a good story. It was a bit much at times. Wilde discovers more about his past via a DNA test. Thus begins the tale of intrigue. You will be caught up in the happenings in the story but I do want to read the first one as well.

I am always excited when I see there is a new book by Harlan Coben coming out, even more so when it is a sequel to a book I already loved. The Match picks up where The Boy in the Woods left off and Wilde is looking to find a connection from his past. There were lots of twists and turns and in the end Coben's twist surprised me as usual. This was an excellent book, and made me want to read The Boy in the Woods again. I look forward to hopefully learning more about WIlde in the future!

🧬SYNOPSIS: After months of being out of the woods, Wilde has returned. He submits his DNA to an online ancestry database which brings him closer to the past than he ever dreamed, but there’s danger lurking behind every corner.

🧬REVIEW: So, I may have been a total idiot, but I had no idea this was the SEQUEL to “The Boy in the Woods,” so I would HIGHLY recommend you read that first. Not only that, but Coben also references and uses characters from his past novel, The Stranger, which I have not read either, so this lead me to be a little lost and frustrated from the start. Could I still finish it? Yes. Did it impact my overall enjoyment? I also think yes.

I thoroughly enjoyed Cohen’s “Run Away,” so I was looking forward to this. I will say this is definitely a book you must concentrate on, because the cast of characters is HUGE and there is a LOT going on. You’ve got a murder trial, DNA drama, long lost family stories, a reality show, a serial killer, cyber tech nerd vigilantes, romance, and I’m not even scratching the surface. It was one of those where I put my phone down and set a timer until I could look at it again because I had to FOCUS.

It was a very creative storyline, and for the most part, everything came together well. I did not see the ending coming and it was definitely a unique book. I think Coben is a talented author, but this wasn’t my overall favorite.

🧬VERDICT: 3 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎵Song Rec: “DNA” - kendrick lamar

Thank you to @grandcentralpub and @netgalley for an ARC of this one! You can preorder it as it releases on 3/15!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYRDZAKr5L1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I loved the first book in this series, The Boy from the Woods, so I was super excited to get my hands on a pre-release copy of this, the second (many thanks to the publisher via NetGalley). I certainly wasn't disappointed, although I must say I was never worried in the slightest - I've loved every single book I've read by this talented and prolific author.

The central character, known as Wilde, is a grown man who, as a young boy, was found living in the Ramapo mountains of New Jersey. He has no memory of a family, or how he got to the woods - but he's managed to carve out a successful life that includes graduation from West Point. Still, he remains for the most part reclusive; and his closest friend, the son of feisty attorney Hester Crimstein, has died. His love interest is David's widow, Laila, but even to her, he's unable to make a serious commitment.

As this one begins, Wilde apparently has found his father through a DNA website. They meet, but the man - who has a wife and family and lives in Nevada - has no knowledge of fathering another child since, he says, he's always been faithful to his wife. Well, almost; it seems he sowed some wild oats while in the military stationed in Europe - basically one-night-stands with eight women whose names he doesn't remember.

As all this transpires and Wilde tries to decide where to go next, readers get a glimpse of an uber-clandestine group called Boomerang. The group keeps their identities top secret, even from each other; their mission is to exact vigilante-style payback on folks who have done nasty things to other folks. After careful consideration of proposals submitted online, they pick and choose which cases to follow up.

Hester comes into play after her grandson, Matthew (David's son) tells her he's worried about not hearing from Wilde from far too long. Wilde, who's been laying low and focusing on finding out who he really is and why he was left in the woods, gets a text from a man who claims to be his cousin. That guy, as it happens, has made quite name for himself in the reality show business - and not necessarily a good one. The rest of the book follows Wilde's attempt to locate his real relatives and work on relationships with the people he loves as much as he's capable of (yes, he does reconnect with Matthew, Hester and Laila, but you'll just have to read it to get the details). Trust me, it's quite a ride that leads up to a bit of a surprise ending (nope, not gonna spill the beans on that, either). As for me, I just have to dial down my impatience level while I wait to get my hands on the next installment!

This is the sequel to The Boy from the Woods that I've been waiting for and my pick for the best thriller I've read this year. Thank you, Harlan Coben!

Wilde was a boy of 6 to 8 years old when he was discovered living alone in the New Jersey mountains. He had been able to read and to survive but had no memory of a family, and no family had ever claimed him in the 35 years that ensued. After using his special skills to locate a missing girl in the last book, he is now having mixed success in tracking down his own relatives. But who would have thought that submitting his DNA to an online genealogical site would result in such confusion and mayhem, including multiple murders?

The character of Wilde, a study in paradoxes, is one of the most compelling selling points of the book. He prefers to isolate himself in a self-created, portable "ecocapsule" in the mountains but is able to break out of isolation and help to solve puzzling and dangerous situations when needed. Attractive to women--and attracted to them--he nevertheless has trouble forming lasting attachments. Although he has trust issues, he is endlessly committed to a few special people in his life: attorney Hester, his closest thing to a mother figure; Hester's grandson Matthew, the son of Wilde's deceased childhood friend; and Matthew's widowed mother, Laila. Wilde's character shows development throughout the book, which helps him become more relatable to the reading audience.

The other triumph is the intricately plotted story. Elements as diverse as reality TV dating shows, online trolling, a secret vigilante group, multiple dysfunctional families, and a religious cult all intersect in fascinating ways. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to discover what was next, and I found the ending satisfying. However, there are still a few loose ends, which encourages me to hope that there may be future Wilde adventures.

Finally, it isn't necessary to read The Book from the Woods to understand this one (plenty of background provided), but you'll want to do so after reading The Match.

My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for allowing me to read and provide an honest review of this book.

At first I thought this book would be interesting, but it is just a mix of everything tossed in together and stirred. We all know it will be popular. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

A great page turner in the covid era... a great escape for an afternoon, a day at the beach, a vacation or plane read to divert ones thoughts from everyday life. Coben never disappoints.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 5/5 stars

How does Harlan Coben always one-up himself? The Match may be my favorite of his books yet. The Match follows Wilde (from The Boy from the Woods) on his journey to find out more information about his mysterious childhood. However, a DNA site leads to even more questions and mystery.

The Boy from the Woods was my first Coben novel and then I went on 15 book binge because I loved it so much. I am hoping Coben revisits Wilde and Hester and friends because I love him just as much (if not more than) as Myron and Win. This mystery is so intricate and twisty and entertaining. I was hooked from the first chapter and dreaded putting it down. I love how it involves so many characters from the Coben universe, but can still be read as a stand-alone. All the stars. I don’t know how I will wait for his next book.

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

Full review to be posted closer to release date.

There has not been one Coben book I’ve read that I haven’t loved. This is the follow up to The Boy From The Woods and though it can be read as a stand alive it would be great if you read it also. It’s great to see Wilde and some other old favorites too. This one just flew by and I wish I could have slowed it down to enjoy it more .

The sequel to 'The Boy from the Woods' starts out off with a 'wild' turn of events. Wilde begins to piece to together the truth behind his lost years. A DNA match sets forward a chain of events that will leave readers eagerly paging through the novel to discover what really happened.

You can read the book as a standalone but I would suggest checking out the previous title to learn why Wilde keeps people at arms length as well as the reason Hester, Laila and Matthew are the only ones that he trusts.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for the early edition of #TheMatch in exchange for an honest review. I wasn't sure if I would like the book at the beginning but by mid novel, the story switches into high gear. Readers are taken on a key speed chase to discover the killer and the mystery behind Peter's disappearance. Get ready for a 'Wilde' ride and determine if Coben's novel is a match.