Published by Barefoot Publishing on 15 August 2013
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Pages: 260
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Just before college graduation, Ina--star of her senior class--made a mistake that went viral. Then, when life seemed like it couldn’t get any worse, she walked in on her boyfriend cheating with her roommate. To get away, Ina ventures to a cabin on a remote mountain, intent on some solitary time.
She doesn’t count on Adam -- the man who watches over the cabins -- being so distractingly sexy. Adam came to the mountain to get distance from anything that could cause him pain, and Ina stirs feelings in him he thought he’d left behind.
As Adam and Ina open up about their pasts, the mountain seems like the perfect setting for a second chance at love.
Until they realize they’re not alone
*I received a free ARC of Gone Wild from Barefoot Publishing via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*
Gone Wild has a lot more to do with living with nature than it has to do with a girl who kind of acts more wild than usual – despite the cover that shows a lot of skin and wet white clothes… The story is not bad, but I didn’t really get completely drawn into it, either. I can’t really put my finger on why, though, because even if Ina and Adam were both good characters they didn’t make me need to continue reading.
Ina goes to a secluded mountain cottage to find herself and figure out what to do with the rest of her life now that college is over and she can’t seem to score a job. Adam is running the cabins, but he’s not all that friendly, he likes to have the mountain to himself and to enjoy the peace and quiet as well as the hard work that comes with living there. Gone Wild almost applies more to Adam than to Ina, especially because he’s the one who is actually living in the wilderness while she only wants to try to sort through her possibilities and see what she can do when she’s not surrounded by people who distract her all the time.
In the beginning of Gone Wild, Ina is afraid of the silence and of the dark in the evening. Her fears become stronger when she hears on the radio that a prisoner has escaped from a prison nearby, and she starts hearing things outside her cabin. She also feels like someone is watching her, but she doesn’t trust her instincts at all. At first, she thinks Adam is the one watching her, and sometimes, he is. A tentative friendship start between them, as both have a lot of trust issues. Ina recently broke up with her long-time boyfriend because she found him cheating on her with her room-mate. Adam has a similar back story without the cheating part.
The writing is mostly good, but there are some strange word choices. Instead of ‘feeling subconscious about it’ I’m pretty sure it should be ‘feeling self-conscious’ instead for instance. There were other instances where the wrong word was used as well, but I didn’t highlight all of them.
The story is pretty slow-moving, and not much happens. Of course, there is some character development, but even that felt pretty slow to me. Also, with only two characters as part of the story for most of Gone Wild, it made it a little difficult for me to keep interested. I am pretty sure lots of other readers will enjoy Gone Wild, though. It has the self-reflection and introspection, but that wasn’t what I thought I would get when I started reading, so I wasn’t really up for it. The scenery descriptions are very good, and when things finally started to pick up speed towards the end, the story became more interesting as well.
[I] saw an empty parking lot to my right with another faded sign: No cars past this point. Park and hike. Assuming that note was for hikers, not cabin-renters, I kept driving.
I stopped breathing. I never believed that clothes made the woman. I always thought an attractive person was good-looking whether they wore a potato sack or an expensive dress, but my reflection proved me wrong.
His face was almost foreign with the beard gone, and I studied him without feeling subconscious about it.
I’ve seen this one a few times on Goodreads and it has intrigued me, but not enough to mark it want to read. Still don’t want to.
For decades, teachers have been collecting those odd word choices. They started sharing them with the world when e-mail and the Internet became popular. I wonder how many of the new ones are the result of auto-correct and not really looking at the spell-check options for that red underlined word.
Thank you for the review.
Oh, I didn’t even think about auto-correct! It just read really strangely in some places.
I have read some of those odd word choice collections, and most have had me howling with laughter 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Xyra 🙂 *hugs*
way to go on getting one more cleaned up from your e-reader, too bad it wasn’t as good as you hoped. Normally I am not the grammar police, but I would find incorrect word usage more annoying (like the sub vs self-conscious you gave). thanks for sharing.
Thanks Tanya 🙂 I’m not the grammar police either, but I do think that a book should be held up to a certain standard when it comes to correct grammar and word use.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I agree!
I’m sorry this didn’t really work for you, Lexxie. The premise did sound promising but after reading your review, I’m thinking it probably wouldn’t work for me, either. But you finished it, so points for that. 🙂
I started the last book on my COYER list yesterday, but at 23%, I gave up. That’s something I rarely do, but it just wasn’t for me.
Yes, sitting inside watching the snow is very nice. And just what I needed today. 🙂 I hope your day has been nice. Have you caught up on any sleep you missed while lost in Rook & Ronin world?!? 😉 *hugs*
Yeah it wasn’t really for me, Brandee. I do prefer to finish books, too. I’m sorry you gave up a book at 23%! I had to give up one of my COYER books at 30%… I just couldn’t read it anymore.
Yes, I have caught up on my sleep (I think) I fell asleep before 10pm yesterday 😀 *hugs*
Twitter: bmreviewsohmy
To bad this one wasn’t a good one for you, but it happens. I think the word usage you gave would have bugged me as well. 🙂
Oh well… luckily there are lots of other books out there, Stormi 🙂
Thanks for stopping by.