Review: Something Wild and Wonderful by Anita Kelly

This book was an impulse buy for me. I have never heard of the writer before, I usually (of course some exceptions apply, I do not dismiss this setting out of hand) find a road trip set up to be a boring one, but I liked the cover and I am still more often than not intrigued if there is a character who has Russian sounding name.

The characters absolutely sold the book for me. First of all it was quite an unusual meet cute, and yes a snake was very much involved. I really, really liked both Alexei and Ben and I loved their journey of discovery. I just wanted to note that I cannot call Alexei “Lex,” I am sorry, it hurts my ears and not because I have a problem with the nick name, especially since he is not a first-generation immigrant and it makes perfect sense to give him a very American sounding nick name, but it just hurts my ears.

So, Alexei has a bit more complicated journey in front of him than Ben does and of course a hiking trail may be a perfect place to do that. Alexei only recently came out to his parents who did not react well at all to their son being gay and Alexei is trying to figure out things about himself, his relationship with his family, God, and with his opinion of himself. Ben grew up with the loving, supportive family but he had some bad relationships which he is trying to put behind him and he is starting a new career. He also decided to spend some time on the trail.

Eventually both men decide to hike together, even if for Alexei it may not have been the best decision. I don’t think mutual attraction (and in my opinion lovely chemistry) will be a spoiler. I also think that here the writer sold me on Alexei’s worries about acting on his attraction actually. Ben’s actions also made sense to me especially realizing that he would not know the extent of what Alexei had to deal with right away.

“Alexei fumbled for Ben’s hand. Finding it, he brought it to his mouth and kissed its palm before twining his fingers through Ben’s and returning it to its resting place, on Alexei’s chest. He felt Ben kiss the back of his shoulder. He knew he wouldn’t wake up alone.”

Truly for the characters alone I would have graded this book even higher, but remember that I mentioned earlier that I often find a road trip set up boring? Well, let me be clear, I did *not* find the whole book boring. As I said I very much enjoyed the vast majority of Ben and Alexei’s interactions and them learning more about themselves and each other. I liked several episodic people on the trail, we even get to meet Ben’s family at some point. This author also knows how to paint beautiful pictures of nature with the words. I liked all that, however I did start to hope that more things would have actually happen in addition to them walking and falling in love. I was bored *at times*.

Grade: B-/B