Wylde

Wylde #1

by Jan Irving

Noah Matthews brought his son Josh to the pristine woods of Washington State to make a fresh start. The first night in their new home, Noah meets Kell Farraday when the laconic police chief shows up on his doorstep searching for two people lost in the forest. It's the start of a sexy new friendship when Kell decides to pursue the shy but flirtatious Noah. But a new beginning won't be so easy. Noah's former boyfriend shows up to try to reclaim a place in his life, and worse, Josh is drawn to the growing mystery in the forest. People disappear and then one turns up dead. There's something haunting the forest. Something watching. And soft-spoken and confident Kell's reassurances can't ease Noah's fear when Josh goes into the woods alone.

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Mystery, Gay, Contemporary, LGBT

236 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

romance author
Jan Irving has worked in all kinds of creative fields, from painting silk to making porcelain ceramics, to interior design, but writing was always her passion.

She feels you can’t fully understand characters until you follow their journey through a story world. Many kinds of worlds interest her, fantasy, historical, science fiction and suspense—but all have one thing in common, people finding a way to live together—in the most emotional and erotic fashion possible, of course!

Visit Jan's blog at http://jan-revealed.livejournal.com.

Reviews

[Betryal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A warning there is some m/f parts and I'll admit to doing the quickest skip through it, but nothing that traumatized me. This story had it's appeal by way in how it shifted to everyone involved and allowing us readers to know what's happening with them and their point of view. It didn't rate a full 5 star with me. More it's an almost 4 and to be quite frank about it it's because I was left with questioning certain circumstances that the story didn't explain. For instance Wylde, who practically raised himself since the age of 7 years old winds up being taken in by Jade and Alec and why cause the grandmother says so? To keep the balance? What balance and why should it be them and not Noah and Josh? So many questions still remain for me that I won't get into and the story didn't explain these anomalies. Maybe it's just me and I'm missing points that I didn't catch. Who knows. Though it's well written yeah, the plot is great, but not explanatory in the whole. Left me in a slim state of confusion.

[Claudia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, this was not a good book. Inconsistent characters, so many POVs that it was impossible to count them, ridiculous dialogue and characters that were cartoonish and completely unlikeable. And the plot... there were so many thread and storylines... and none had a rational development.

I might try another book by this author, seeing that this one is an early effort, and they might have improved, but not soon.

[Eyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wavered on the rating for this one. Of the three books that I have read by this author, this was definitely the most creative. Noah and his son move to a remote mountain house to start a new life. As soon as they arrive, they get sucked into the town mystery--the ghost who steals food and haunts the mountain. This book has the "ghost," murder, and a stalker--all things to make for a suspenseful read. It also has the building of Kell and Noah's relationship, which is sweet and amusing. I probably would have given it 3.5 or 4 stars if there hadn't been some unanswered questions. Plus, once it became obvious who/what the ghost is, I was absolutely furious at the situation and the townspeople who allow it to happen. That particular part of the story requires a suspension of disbelief that some readers may not be able to make.

FYI, there is a secondary m/f romance. I know some of my reading pals aren't fans of that. :)

[Erichae · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is so irritating! The perspective is constantly changing and out of the craploads of side stories going on, none of them develop!

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

My review is in spoiler tags because it hasn't been edited yet. It probable has too much negative stuff as that's what I tend to think to write down. If I'm enjoying myself, I don't want to stop reading!

There could be actual spoilers, though, so you've been warned.



What's with all the swimming pools? Almost no one has swimming pools here. They don't add to property values at all because they're way too expensive to keep up for how little they can be used. And up a mountain around here?

This is really disjointed. The sections are tiny, only a few paragraphs. They mostly do end at good suspense builders so far, but they're way too short. The story is kind of scary and suspenseful and I have no idea what's going on but the plot isn't going anywhere and I'm a fourth of the way through.

I feel like I'm missing something, like half the sentences have been removed.

There's this weird flirting that goes too fast but not fast enough. So one closeted guy is all appalled by the other's bold questions. But then later invites him to have breakfast and is the one flirting. Then there's a new section that has the out char acting coming back from searching. When did he go? And there's no indication they talked but now they're full on coming on to each other. So what happened over breakfast? Plus a whole day passed that wasn't explained.

I'm not explaining this well either. Basically things are all over the place and rather random to the point that I'm not sure the sections are even in the right order.

The dialog is so awful, non sequiturs, inappropriate boldness, familiarity between characters who don't know each other at all... I've got a permanent "uh, what just happened?" Look on my face.

Too many POVs.

I really get the impression this was written as a get romance between Jade and Alec, maybe with a secondary gay romance, but Simone thought a gag romance would be easier to sell. The het romance is slow and sweet but the gay romance is choppy and ill thought out. The romance sections are really badly written lie they were added in after the original editing.

Another weird incongruous scene. Noah is legitimately angry with Kel and then they're doing something sexual without any argument or talk so it's not makeup sex.

Here a lot of outdated slang liked "dweeb."

A gay man is not going to refer to himself as "bent"!

Jade is kickass. This book mostly isn't sexist.

Noah is pathetic. He had unwanted advances from a man (all he did was pull Noah close really hard, not even against a wall or anything and they'd been sort of dating for months) and bid he's terrified of having sex again or relationship or really even dating again? Wait, he didn't even want to look at porn photos?? This is a man. He wasn't raped or forced to kiss or anything like that. He's scare of Adam because of a suspicion that Adam might hurt them when he hadn't done anything at that point.

But then he doesn't get at all scared when Kell says how much he wants to order him around in bed, to tie him down, etc. they barely know each other, haven't had sex yet and I think Noah is a virgin. God is the author a man pretending to be a woman? What woman hasn't had that happen to her or worse or known another woman who has?

This is a lousy cop, getting into a fist fight to protect his man when the evil ex is already leaving. He also has no respect for privacy.

I love that Noah was faithful even in a marriage of convenience, although I think marrying someone because she's pregnant but you aren't in love is asinine. It's probably going to fall apart later or they'll be lonely or stray or whatever and at that point it's going to damage the kid. But if they don't get married, both parents might get into loving relationships with other people to model what healthy families and relationships are like. And then the kid will have four parents who dote on him instead of two in a loveless marriage.

What is up with this ordering potential lovers around?

That was fast, although time is passing on the investigation end without any explanation as to why or what they are doing. But this end appears to be day by day.
Instalove.

Alec is creepy.

The sex is varied which is good, although I am not into dirty talk and this was really domineering with both relationships which kind of ruined it for me.

Why did Noah call Kell after he found Josh safe and before Wyldw showed up?

I don't really get why the bad guy was creeping around the woods that first night scaring everyone. And who killed the people that were dead when the story began?

[Tonileg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wilderness M/M romance with a murder mystery.
Noah Matthews and his son have just moved to the mountains in Washington State to make a new life after city living wasn't making them happy. Really there is more to the story, but I don't want to add spoilers because there is a few twists in this M/M romance between an almost virgin gay dude and an experienced small town sheriff. At the sames time, there is a sweet M/F romance with a deputy and a tough mature hard working lady.
Small town living is fascinating to my big city soul. I don't know how to survive with so few people to interact with... what do you do when you find them stupid, but you still have to buy your groceries from them!? I would get run out of town after my first year!
Cute little story about a wild man, a mystery and some deaths in a small town.
256 pages
3 stars

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

In order to increase the suspense of the story Ms. Irving chose to write Wylde from the characters differing perspectives. It works, but it makes it hard to follow the timeline. Several times I was unsure what happened first, or if someone was in two places at the same time.

Because of this I felt I could only give Wylde three stars.

[Grandmat · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Very detailed plot, vivid characters, several threads juggled well and nicely strung out sexual tension. My only peeve is 12 year old Josh seem precociously aware of life and human motivations. He simply seems too adult about some things and probably the least fleshed out character among several done well.

[Kimmy D · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't finish it. I'll have to try something else by this author.