Something Wilder by Christina Lauren is a novel filled with adventure, treasure, and, of course, love.
Lily Wilder is the daughter of notorious treasure hunter Duke Wilder. She grew up with her father's adventures, but she never wanted to be a treasure hunter herself. She's content running fake treasure hunting tours in the red rock canyons of Utah.
But when her father dies, Lily is left with a map of a hidden treasure that her father never found. She's determined to find the treasure and use the money to buy back the beloved ranch her father sold years ago.
Leo Grady is the man who broke Lily's heart years ago. He's back in town with a motley crew of friends, ready to hit the trails in search of the same treasure.
Lily and Leo are forced to work together to find the treasure, and as they spend more time together, they begin to realize that they might still have feelings for each other.
This def had potential but it just fell short for me. It was boring at times and I didn't like that it was written in third person. Had it been from the point of Lily and/ or Duke that would have allowed me to connect to the characters more

This book was a fun, different ride than I was expecting, but I was still left wanting a little more from it in the end.

Something Wilder is the story of Lily (is just me or do a lot of stories have Lily as characters lately?) Wilder who has spent her entire life around individuals who are treasure hunters. Her father Duke, is somewhat of a legend among this crowd and leaves her when she's 19 to search for treasure. Leaving Lily and her then boyfriend Leo to care for the family ranch. The novel fast forwards 10 years to Lily now running a treasure hunting tourist company and Leo living in NYC, where they haven't spoken since Duke left. Leo's college friends take an annual trip and unbeknown to Leo, they end up at Lily's tour. While the 2 rekindle their romance, adventure ensues.

For the first 1/4 of the novel, I really liked this book and thought it would definitely be at least a 4 star. The tension was believable, the characters had emotions, and the background was gorgeous. After an incident with Terry however, it kind of lost steam for me, which is funny because that is when the action picks up. I just wanted more background on the romance and why they felt so strongly about each other, especially after 10 years. they just kept saying it was there but not what drew them towards each other. And then it went pretty 0 to 100 in terms of romance.

The action also kind of went 0 to 100 in terms of they were riding horses and then BAM there was a gun.

It was an enjoyable, fun read, but as I said, I wish there had been a little more background and past detail since so much of the backstory relied on it!

I thought this book was really good! It took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I had a hard time putting it down! I thought the character development made the story really beautiful.

I love that CLo wanted to do something new and fun, and it was outside their usual formula. However, things were so bonkers and so much was put in this book the core romance took a backseat and I didn’t care much for it. I love a second chance romance, and this one fell flat. I hope they keep exploring new formulas and plots, but this one wasn’t for me.

Not my favorite Christina Lauren book but I really enjoyed the story, and the different setting for a romance. Great read.

Fans of Christina Lauren will be surprised by this more adventurous departure from their usually firmly just romance novels. This book bends the genre and adds a bit of adventure that was fun and unexpected, but in a good way. I really enjoyed having new dimensions added to the familiar second chance love trope!

While some of Christina Lauren's other books are still probably my top favorites of theirs, I enjoyed reading this one as well. I think the second chance romance trope was implemented in here perfectly and I had a great time watching these two characters reconnect, learn more about each other, and ultimately fall back in love.

Adventures on horseback, hidden treasure, murder, betrayal, and romance? Yes, please! I really enjoyed this book, it didn't take itself too seriously, and it was just fun. I would have liked a little more on the original romance between Lily and Leo.

It was okay. Different from what I normally read. I would probably pick up another book by this author just to see if I really do like the author’s books or not.

🏜 I’ve only read a couple of Christina Lauren books, and I enjoyed them. This book is a little different from the others I have read. It is a romance, but it is full of adventure. I liked the variety.

🏜 This is a second-chances, forced-proximity, buried-treasure adventure story. It takes place in the desert in Utah, and it was fun to experience the beauty and danger of the outdoors with Lily and Leo (the MCs).

🏜 The story alternates between Lily and Leo’s POV, which provides a fun and interesting look into their personal thoughts during their experience.

🏜 Lily is a great character. She is feisty, strong, smart, and capable. I really love books with strong female leads!

🏜 Honestly, the romance didn’t feel like the main purpose of the story, which was refreshing and different. The romance is there, but the adventure and the treasure hunt are the focus of the story (IMO) and I really enjoyed it.

🏜 TLDR: This story is a unique mix of romance and wild-west treasure hunting with a strong female lead and lots of excitement. I definitely recommend it.

Thank you @netgalley and @GalleryBooks for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

classic Christina Lauren, I really enjoyed this romance. I think I liked Unhoneymooners better but this was still very fun and I really liked the setting!

I've read almost all of Christina Lauren's non-Beautiful Bastard backlist, so whenever I pick up a CL book, I know what I'm gonna get: a formulaic, feel-good romance that I'll like, maybe even really like, but not love. It won't be super original or knock my socks off or anything like that, but it won't make me regret investing my time into reading the book. And even if the book's underwhelming and disappointing, it won't leave me feeling disappointed, if that makes sense. CL books are the equivalent of Katherine Heigl romcoms. And that's mostly what I got with Something Wilder—a moderately underwhelming, but still fun and entertaining, romance.

Like In a Holidaze, Something Wilder is different from CL's other romance novels—except where In a Holidaze dabbles in the sci-fi/magical realism genres, Something Wilder dabbles in the adventure/mystery/suspense genres. Something Wilder is a second-chance romance that tells the story of Lily and Leo, who met and started dating as young adults when Leo was visiting the small town where Lily lived. They made promises to each other, which Leo broke when he had to rush home to deal with a family emergency, leaving Lily in the dark. Flash forward about a decade, and completely by chance, Leo, on a boys' vacation with his friends, crosses paths with Lily again. And that's when things start to happen. Treasure hunt. Murder. Survivor-type shit.

Something Wilder is probably among my least favorite CL books, but it's still better than about half the romance novels I've read in my lifetime, so that's not really a bad thing. Personally, if you're in the mood for a second-chance romance, or even a second-chance romance by Christina Lauren, I'd recommend Love and Other Words over this one. That said, if you've liked CL's other books—or enjoy your romance with a little side of adventure, mystery, and suspense—you'll probably like this book of theirs as well.

3 stars

What a creative book! I have truly never read anything like this: a great blend of adventure, thrill, and romance. The first bit of the book was very slow for me, but as the book went on I became more invested in the main chracters and their history together. This book was very different from Christina Lauren's usual style - not exactly my favorite, just not the tropes for me!

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory.

This is just not it. I think the plot was too all over the place and it was lackluster compared to other Christina Lauren books.

This was a wild ride and I really enjoyed it! It read a little different than their other work as there was a sense of adventure that we don’t see in their books but I thought it was fun! It took a couple of wild turns and had a little mystery which made the book that much fun for me!

The romance was super cute! It made my heart happy to see two people who life took down different paths get back together. An “I’ve loved you since forever” trope always does it for me.

I think this is a great beach read!

This was a fun read - different than what I've come to expect from this author but in a good way! I loved watching this play out.

If you’re looking for an adventure read with a subplot of romance, this is great.
If you’re looking for a romance read, you may find this falls in the “meh” category.

I love Christina Lauren and have read most of their books. Some are hits, some are misses. This one kind of falls into the middle for me. I loved the setting and hearing about the scenery when they were on their hiking adventure but felt like there was too much focus on the adventure of finding hidden treasure than on the relationship between the two main characters. This was very light on the romance and I really wanted more!

This one has everything I’m looking for in a book- adventure, humor, romance! This book was very unlike CLo’s other books…I mean that twist! 😳😳 IYKYK! I loved how Lily was such a strong heroine and Leo was willing to do anything and everything to fight for their relationship. Seriously though, there is no explanation needed. If you’re a Christina Lauren fan…preorder this book. If you’ve never read their book…this is a great one to start with!