MEGAN HART - LOVELY WILD
• 352 pages
• release date - 25 November 2014
• Harlequin MIRA
• release date - 25 November 2014
• Harlequin MIRA
★★★★★
5 Stars
5 Stars
From New York Times bestselling author Megan Hart
comes a haunting and insightful novel about a woman trying to find her place in
the world…
Brought up in the savage captivity of her unstable grandmother's rural Pennsylvania home, Mari Calder once yearned for rescue. Now she struggles every day to function as an adult in the confines of normal society. Left with only a foggy recollection of her childhood, she's consumed with being a dutiful wife to her husband, Ryan, and mother to their two children.
But an unexpected twist of events returns her to that long-forgotten house in the woods. Soon, Mari is greeted with reminders of a past life, the clarified memories only inviting a new level of strangeness into her fragile world. To protect her family, she must find the beautiful, powerful strength hidden in her inner chaos. Because someone is bent on exploiting Mari's trauma, and as normal and wild begin to blend, a string of devastating truths force Mari to question all she thought she knew.
Brought up in the savage captivity of her unstable grandmother's rural Pennsylvania home, Mari Calder once yearned for rescue. Now she struggles every day to function as an adult in the confines of normal society. Left with only a foggy recollection of her childhood, she's consumed with being a dutiful wife to her husband, Ryan, and mother to their two children.
But an unexpected twist of events returns her to that long-forgotten house in the woods. Soon, Mari is greeted with reminders of a past life, the clarified memories only inviting a new level of strangeness into her fragile world. To protect her family, she must find the beautiful, powerful strength hidden in her inner chaos. Because someone is bent on exploiting Mari's trauma, and as normal and wild begin to blend, a string of devastating truths force Mari to question all she thought she knew.
The book is told from 3 POV's.
The 'main' character: Mari. Her husband Ryan and their teenage daughter Kendra.
Then there's 8-year old son Ethan - he doesn't get to tell his side of the story ☺
Mari had a very unconventional childhood.
She grew up with a grandma who basically kept her away from the world. And not really in a good way. Mari was 'wild' - she couldn't talk and was horribly malnourished and underdeveloped when Ryan's Dad - a phsychologist discovered and 'saved' her. He took her away and put her in a hospital where they did research on her. It wasn't all that horrible, at least she had food and was able to learn new things.
A few years later he adopted her. Which destroyed his marriage and didn't help his already strained relationship with Ryan.
But when Ryan and Mari first meet when she's 15, she falls immediately in love with the young man.
And after Ryan's Dad died only a few years later, Ryan took over the 'responsibility' and married her.
They've been pretty happy with their lives, but a stupid affair with a patient and her suicide some months later and the resulting lawsuit against Ryan are very hard on the family. Even though he doesn't really tell them the whole truth about it all.
Ryan takes them all out of the city, back into the old farmhouse where Mari grew up in.
He finally wants to write the book.
The book his Dad never got to write.
The book about his wife's life.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH MARI & HER FAMILY ???
WILL THERE BE A HORRIBLE CLIFFHANGER??
I'm not telling you that of course ☺
OK, no Cliffhanger - it's standalone Novel ☺
_____________________________________
I REALLY LOVED THIS BOOK!!
Phew. I don't even know what to write right now.
This was such a .... different Megan Hart book.
First of all - there's NO sex in this book!!! Only a little bit of kissing.
But, while I love sex in my books, this one didn't really need it.
LOVELY WILD was a story about a woman.
A woman who used to be a girl. A girl that grew up different than other girls.
And spending the first eight years of her live the way Mari did, turned this girl into the woman Mari is today.
She's constantly checking the fridge and pantry to make sure they're not running out of food. She never wants to be hungry ever again.
She looks at the wealth of this food and knows it's not enough. It can never be enough.
She's sometimes painfully honest and blunt, she just doesn't understand why people feel they have to lie or tell flowery halftruths.
She loves her family - her kids are her everything. And her husband Ryan. That's a different thing - she loves him, but it's complicated. They're whole life together, from the moment they first met could be called weird. Legally they're siblings, since Ryan's father adopted Mari.
After Ryan gets 'fired' from his job he takes the family back to Mari's old house. Because they can't afford to go somewhere else for the summer, and because ..... he doesn't really know or tell us why he wants to go there - maybe to see how she reacts to the place, maybe he can use it for his book.
The reader is not really sure about Ryan. Do we like him? We don't most of the time. But he's just a man after all ;) They make mistakes, and they regret. He loves his family with all his heart and we hope that maybe the family will get their happy end.
Once they're in the old farmhouse things happen.... memories come back - people might show up.... secrets will be revealed...
In her dreams, she is still wild.
Even though I expected something different when I started reading, I really loved the book.
Dawson and I cried a LOT!!!
There were sooo many feels and lots of moving, sad, emotional moments.
I loved that we got to hear the story from those 3 POVs.
The whole book, the story behind it, was something completely different to all those romances we're reading at the moment. Good different though ... I really enjoyed reading it - I couldn't put it down - I HAD to know what would happen to the Calder family!
♥ LOVELY WILD ♥
is an amazingly different kind of book. A look through the eyes of a wild girl & the happily married mom that she's become. Sad & moving & disturbing & beautiful!
↓ LINKS TO THE BOOK AND
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I was born and then I lived awhile. Then I did some stuff and other things. Now, I mostly write books. Some of them use a lot of bad words, but most of the other words are okay.
I can’t live without music, the internet, the ocean or Coke Zero. I can’t stand the feeling of corduroy or velvet, and modern art leaves me cold. I write a little bit of everything from horror to romance, and I don’t answer to the name “Meg.”
WELCOME, NEW READERS! To answer your question: NO. The books aren’t a series and don’t NEED to be read in any certain order, other than Tempted, which should be read before Naked. (Even the Order of Solace books don’t need to be read in any certain order.) If you’re a purist, looking for a reading order, you can try here.
But really, the books are standalone and meant to be read in whatever order tickles your fancy. Characters reappear in different books, so the link above will help, but don’t hold it as the standard. Read at your pleasure! And thank you!