A million stars for this pure and gorgeous love story!

‘A new queer voice conquering the world’ is what I called Anita Kelly when I read their first full novel Love & Other Disasters. But oh boy, they’re far more than that. They’re definitely one of the best romance authors in the world right now.

I fell in love with Alexei and Ben the moment I met them. And I fell hard. They squeezed their way into my body and aimed straight at my heart. It’s so difficult to describe what this story did to me. I sat in the garden under our cherry tree and listened to the birds and looked at the plants and the sky, and imagined I was there on that trail and watched those two men falling for each other. The fuzzy feeling I got in my chest when Alexei and Ben met. The smile tugging at my lips when Alexei was listening to birds and Ben was watching him. The ache settling in my belly when Alexei talked about his parents. The tears running down my cheeks when I read those letters. And still so many moments lifting the corners of my mouth up into a huge smile.

I loved the insta love turned into slow burn, I adored the descriptive writing, and I was in awe of the conversations Alexei and Ben had even while having sex. This is how a romance should be written, authors out there! And readers, this is the perfect romance to read. It’s got Charm Offensive vibes while it’s far more quiet than Charm. One of the best romances I read this year, maybe even the best! And that beautiful cover fits the story so well!

Anita Kelly has yet again knocked me to the ground with their writing. This book feels different than any romance I've ever read. It's not a typical whirlwind love story, this is literally step by step the journey of two characters finding themselves and walking into love. They consider everything carefully and they take their time. And even when they stumble and fracture themselves, they step back, consider what went wrong, and they work toward the healing they need. Alexei and Ben don't fall into each other, they take each other by the hand and stabilize one another for their entire journey. Something Wild and Wonderful is soft and quiet and considerate. It settles into your bones like the trail does to Ben and Lex and it leaves a lasting impression..

I love how much LGBTQ rep there is in publishing now days. It is something that I like to see! This book was no exception to how excited I was to read it. I had not read any of this authors previous books, but I do have it on my TBR and might just pick it up after having read this book. I think I have seen a lot of content about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail recently and this book was something that made me more interested in it. I think that it had a good amount of plot, adventure, and steam mixed together to make the perfect story.

Something Wild and Wonderful truly was wonderful. I’ve seen it described as a slow burn, but it really was not. It had just the right amount of steam, pacing, and relationship development to keep me hooked while still being believable and true to life at the same time. The character development was excellent as well, particularly of Alexei. You could really see him grow over the course of the book as we learned more about his history and family trauma that drove him to hiking the PCT. Ben was great as well! Both characters were flawed, but it was beautiful to see them address their shortcomings and grow both individually and together. This book made me want to hike the PCT more than Wild while hoping for a swoon worthy experience! A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley.

Heartfelt and such a joy. I really enjoyed this one more than the author’s previous work and will be reading more in the future. This was just what I needed to cheer me up

This was a lovely read. I loved Ben and Alexei and appreciated the slow burn romance set along the Pacific Crest Trail.