Fabulous story. I couldn't put down my Kindle!

Melanie Drake was always a "by the rules" kid. After being in a car accident when she was just 8 years old, her life changed forever. From that point on, she stuck to rules. While she was laid up with a broken arm and a broken leg, along with a permanent scar on the side of her face; she turned to books to speed up her long summer of healing. Ever since then, Melanie flew through school with straight A's and a ton of knowledge.

After college, she gets a job with the government and impresses them when she accurately helps out the cyber crime division. She advances as an agent with the OSI and the sky's the limit for Mel. She becomes a master profiler for the agency, helping them solve the worst cases. After she successfully arrests a serial murderer, she once knew, she retires after 15 years of service. She decides to become a guidance counselor in an elementary school, buying a home, and getting a dog.

But when her old Boss comes to her because he needs her skills to go undercover to take down billionaires with diplomatic immunity doing bad things, she's all in.

A wonderful story!

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @kensingtonbooks  for my complimentary copy. My thoughts are my own.

What an interesting story this turned out to be! I was expecting a romantic suspense, but this one turned out to be more of a women’s fiction story with a suspense element. It is the story of Melanie Drake. As a child, Melanie suffered injuries in a car accident that forced her to be bedridden for a time. She became a voracious reader and soon excelled in school. She eventually went on to succeed in college, and then moved to a career in intelligence as she worked for the government. She played a major part in apprehending a serial killer. Then she decided to get her Master’s degree in guidance so she could work with children.

But her former supervisor came calling with an undercover job offer, Melanie would be working as a high class escort in Washington D.C. and New York. She got into some tense situations but relied on her intelligence to help her out.

This story is told entirely in third person from Melanie’s perspective. Melanie is a well-developed strong female character. Though Melanie goes on some unsuccessful dates, she is not very experienced with men, other than in the working world. There is a male lead with only the briefest hint of romance to come at the end. I enjoyed the story, but kept waiting for the romance!

Read this if you enjoy;
*suspense
*undercover agents
*women’s fiction
*strong female characters
*stories of right vs. wrong

It was difficult for me to decide what to rate this book. The reason is that I was expecting there to be more suspense and danger throughout the story. However, the first half of the book was background information on what led up to Melanie becoming a school guidance counselor. While I understand it was necessary to context for her decisions, I will less time had been spent on that and more on her undercover work.

I did enjoy seeing how Melanie was able to pivot as needed when she was on her undercover assignments and the burgeoning relationship between her and Gilmour.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I love Fern Michaels. I have read everything she has ever written and you can never go wrong with her books, The characters are always so relatable and her stories draw you in from the first. I can highly recommend her books to everyone.

Melanie Drake was a very interesting character in the book The Wild Side.
She had so much going for her in life considering how her youth was affected by an accident she was involved in. She had the brains, guts, instincts to see things in a way not many people do in life.
The story was such a quick read and I enjoyed it a lot. Fern Michaels has again written a book that for me was great reading from start to finish.
Thank you NetGalley, Fern Michaels and Kensington Books for the ARC of The Wild Side. This is my personal review.

In this story you will meet Melanie Drake. As we follow her threw her life we discover just how strong and motivated she is. She is extremely intelligent After high school she goes on to University of Virginia majoring in politics and foreign affairs. She has the goal to be accepted into the Distinguished Majors Program. Unfortunately after graduating from college she discovered most companies and the government required a masters degree to get a job. She didn't have that kind of money and wasn't going to have debt like that for the better part of her life.
When she was once again, living at home, she was talking to her brother who was in the Air Force, he told her about applying for a job at the OCI. He was referring to the Office of Special Investigations for the US Air Force. She did just that and it took quite sometime for her to move up in the rankings to get to where she wanted to be but per usual she did exactly that!
There comes a point when she finally does go back and get her Master's degree she actually buys a home and changes jobs and gets not one but two beautiful dogs. Seems as if her life is finally exactly where she wants it to be. She is a guidance councillor and a local elementary, she still has her old colleague from OCI to talk to and hang out with. This leads to her being called up by her old boss to do a few odd jobs.
I have to say Fern Michaels is an extremely talented artist of her craft. This book is so well written that it captivates you from the very beginning. I have to say this is a very strong women in a mans world book My favorite character has to be Melanie herself! She doesn't let no stand in her way nor does she let anyone stand in her way. She is not only intelligent but she is strong both mind, body and soul! I loved this character and really hope that Fern Michaels continues to write her story! Highly recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me this opportunity to read this book. This book is about Melanie Drank and the path that took to her to become an OSI agent. While this book does a great job story telling her life, the book's summary about her getting roped back in doesn't happen until over half way. The jobs she then has to complete seemed very rushed. This book would have been better if there was more deep dive into her cases as an OSI agent. The focus is more about Melanie's life from childhood to adult. The book was a good story but I would not classify this as a thriller.

I think this is a case where the summary builds up a higher expectation than the story delivers. Fern Michaels creates a wonderful character in Melanie Drake. For the first half of the book it follows her through impactful moments of her childhood and follows her into her career as part of the Office of Special Investigations. She is a profiler who can put information or abnormalities together and is good at her job. The next 25 percent of the story has her changing gears and becoming an elementary school counselor and we get one very good example of her doing that. Finally her work recruits her back for some evening part time work mentioned in the blurb. Yay, there is finally a bit of action and she gets a smidgeon of personal life.

If this is setting up the character to take on future cases then I’m invested and would love to read about Melanie again. If this is the end of her story then yes the bad guys are caught but I don’t know why I slogged through so much set up of the character. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC and I am leaving a voluntary review.

First of all, I owe Fern Michaels an apology. I don't think I've ever read any of the many books she's written. Mostly because I mistakenly believed she was a writer of romance novels, and I avoid those most of the time. I finally decided to try one of her books and was pleased to find out that Fern Michaels writes thriller/mystery type books. I also learned that Fern Michaels is a pseudonym for Mary Ruth Kuczkir. I enjoyed The Wild Side, my first Fern Michaels book.

Description:
For Melanie Drake, school guidance counselor in a small Virginia town, the day’s challenges typically involve a playground scuffle or a student skipping school. It’s worlds away from her previous career as a vital part of the Office of Special Investigations. There, she devoted herself heart and soul to covert operations, the riskier the better.

Since leaving, Melanie has cherished her peaceful, calm existence, with her two beloved retired service dogs for company. Then a call comes from her former supervisor, Rich Patterson. He needs her back for a highly specialized assignment. An international group of billionaires is known to meet regularly for decadent dinners, and they always hire high-class escorts for the occasion. Only the most elegant, well-educated, and sophisticated women will do. Infiltrating those meetings could yield information vital to national security.

Melanie’s loyalty is indisputable. She’s willing to pose as an escort and glean every scrap of intel that she can. But these men aren’t just wealthy and powerful, they’re also exceptionally ruthless. One slip, and they won’t hesitate to eliminate Melanie, by any means necessary. . .

My Thoughts:
Melanie was a strong female lead. She showed courage in taking on the impersonations she had to manage in order to assist in the investigation. The investigation itself was daring and risky. Melanie's life was in danger and the cost of not succeeding was great. I'm not sure how Melanie left her fast-paced, dangerous life to become a school guidance counselor. That had to be a difficult transition for her. I have to admit I liked and admired the character. I also liked the wonderful dogs in the story.

Overall I enjoyed the story and it was a fun investigation and an enjoyable read. It did feel somewhat rushed and things seemed to come too easily for Melanie. This is probably not Fern Michaels best book, but I won't be hesitant to try another.

Thanks to Kensington Books through Netgalley for an advance copy. Expected publication on March 25, 2024.

Melanie Drake is getting used to living the quiet life a a guidance counselor after getting burnt out being a special investigations officer. But when her former boss asks for her help on a covert operation to infiltrate billionaires as an escort, she decides to help. Also, her good friend and former coworker is also helping, but will she survive the operation?

This is fast paced page turner that holds your interest with great characters and a great plot. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for my honest review.

It is a really long time since I have read a Fern Michaels novel and the description for this story really interested me. Unfortunately, I found the story meandered and the main story was rushed into the final quarter of the novel. I am afraid I found it very light and with very little suspense.

3.5/5

This book didn’t go how I expected. 70% of it was backstory to how Melanie, our main character, ended up working as a high class escort for OSI (a government agency working to catch the bad guys.) I enjoyed getting to know Melanie, the character development was superb. Goodreads says this is a gripping suspense novel, however there were only a couple “gripping” parts. I would say this is more fiction with a few small thrills sprinkled throughout. I was entertained nonetheless.

I've enjoyed many books by Michaels, but this wasn't one of my favorites. The storyline meandered all over the place. I didn't find it to be a thriller. The pace was way too slow until the final third of the book, when the majority of the action occurred. By then, things seemed a bit rushed to wrap up the ending.



Possible trigger warnings: sexual assault and kidnapping

A quick fast read divided in three parts, which explains how Melanie became to be a OSI agent. There is a lot of background information which did drag on a bit. Maybe a flashback scenario would have been more interesting. Once you get to the part of Melanie undercover work the pages were turning at an incredible rate. Overall a good read. Thank you NetGalley for this eARC. I am voluntarily posting an honest review after reading an Advance Reader Copy of this story. #NetGalley #TheWildSide

I felt that this book is a very slow starter, as in almost the whole first half followed the MC from elementary school through her first job and everything in between, and I mean everything in excruciating detail. MelDrake’s OSI career follows but flies by quickly and suddenly she is a guidance counselor.

I was ok with it, until around 55% when the author chose to insert a hot political topic which really wasn’t necessary. I don’t write spoilers, so I won’t say what it involves, but it pretty much made me think less of the book. Just my personal opinion, I’m sure others will breeze right past and not be concerned.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

Fern Michaels is, of course, a long-established successful novelist, who has a long list of well-loved books to her credit. The Wild Side will join those loved books. It features likable, relatable characters, an unusual but believable storyline, a very subtle love story developing under the primary mystery plot. I really appreciate the skill it takes to develop a love story without any overt reference to it until the end. Excellent writing and a very enjoyable read! The Wild Side is a highly enjoyable read!

I would like to thank NetGalley, Kensington Books and Fern Michaels for the E ARC of this book.
Mel Drake is eight years old when she realises that not everyone obeys the rules, from then on she decides she wants to help others obey rules. We follow Mel through her schooling and then into the work environment, where she works for the government and hopes to become a psychological profiler. She becomes a special agent and has some risky operations.
When she leaves the force she becomes a guidance counsellor at her local elementary school, she enjoys the job but is asked to come back into her old job for a few operations.
I did enjoy this book but the synopsis was somewhat misleading. From it I thought the book would be more about the special operations and this only comes in in the last few chapters, which I found very disappointing. For me it was a book that promised much but didn’t really deliver.

Thank you to Kensington Books & NetGalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was all over the place. It was marketed as a thriller, but honestly it read more like a biographical suspense story. It was written in third person POV which is not my favorite, and it didn’t really work with the story. The first two parts of the book felt like a biography of Melanie’s life, and lists of her accolades. The third part of the book started to detail her current life, but then backtracked right into her old life again. I will say I enjoyed how fast paced it was, but each chapter became a tedious repetition of her tasks at work. If you enjoy this type of writing it could be the book for you, but it was not for me.

This is the story of Melanie, who becomes obsessed with rules as a child. The book details her life as she becomes an officer for OSI at the federal government level. And describes her job training, and jobs afterwards.

Trigger warning
-sexual assault
-kidnapping

Thank you to #NetGalley, Fern Michaels and Kensington Books for the opportunity to read The Wild Side, to be published 26 March 2024. 4/5 Stars for this slow burn tale, in which the hero really plays the hero. It was a slow read which covered the time from Melanie’s accident at the age of eight, through years of being an OSI Agent, followed by her retirement from that and a career in guidance counseling. followed by some undercover work. If it had moved a little faster, it might have been more interesting. #NetGalley #FernMichaels #KensingtonBooks #TheWildSide

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you @netgalley & @kensingtonbooks

TW: Assault, Rape

I was very excited to get this book as a huge fan of Fern Michaels.

We start out with a tragic accident when Melanie was a little girl, then after a talk with her dad, made her always want to follow rules. Now, while not a tattletale, she will guilt you on your behavior if you are in the wrong.

The book follows Melanie through school and to a secret government job.

She then decided to be a grade school counselor, but her secret job does come back to find her.

It’s an ok read. I read it in 2 days.
If you need an “in between palate cleanser” book, this is a solid read.

I would check it out from the library but would not purchase.

I think I had higher expectations of this book based on the publisher description, and that it would be more of a the level of The Sisterhood Series (which I LOVE!).