Review: Wandering Wild by Jessica Taylor

Title: Wandering Wild

Author:  Jessica Taylor
Publisher: Sky Pony Press

Publishing Date: 

Pages: 368
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance/Coming of Age 

Series:  Stand Alone
Source:  ARC

 

Raised by Wanderers, sixteen-year-old Tal travels the roads of the southern wild in her Chevy by day and camps in her tent trailer at night. Hustling, conning, and grifting her way into just enough cash to save her fifteen-year-old brother, Wen, from bare-knuckle fighting was once enough to keep her dreams of traveling the whole world at bay. Everything changes when the Wanderers set up camp in a little town called Cedar Falls.

There, Spencer Sway, a boy Tal tried to hustle at a game of billiards, keeps popping up into her life—and worst of all—into her scams. Buttoned-up, starched-and-ironed Spencer talks of places where Tal’s truck can’t take her. His promises of traveling across oceans are almost enough to shatter her love of the Wanderer life.

When a boy shows up at camp, ready to make good on a nearly-forgotten arranged marriage to Tal, Tal and Wen make a pact: No matter the cost, they will use their limitless skills of grift to earn the bride price and buy back her future—even if Spencer Sway gets used along the way.

I love this cover. I don't know what it is about it but I love it. So that is what first attracted me to this book. The second thing... the synopsis. Gypsies, love, con artists, scams, yup sounded like an interesting book. New story too. I am always up for something fresh and new. I really really enjoyed this book. It was a pleasant little surprise, a hidden gem.  

Tal is a gypsy, a wanderer. Her and her brother travel with a caravan from place to place, conning people for money. This is their life and have been since they were born. They lost their mother and their father, they only have each other... well and the other gypsies. The problem is Tal is promised, bought, by another Gypsy group. To be married off. Shes does not want this  life and sets off to earn some money to pay her bride price, her freedom. A little glitch in the plan she falls in love. Her life changes, the meaning of it, the future, everything. She needs to figure out if life wandering is the life for her. 

This book really got me invested from the very beginning. I really liked the voice of Tal and could tell right away I would connect with her. She was wild, independent, street smart, wise, mature for age. She seemed to have it together, as much as she could with the life she has lived. I connected with her and I felt her. I liked her. 

Her brother, Wen, I liked too. Just really liked all the characters and what they had to offer to the story. Wen was a cool and chilled and really wanted to look after and protect Tal, even though he was younger. Spencer, the love interest was awesome. I think he was really understanding, sweet, and a truly good guy. 

The romance was sweet, a little fast but I think with Tal, it was expected. She has never really fell in love and when she meets her match and he is a knight in shining armor...it just happened. I liked the way the romance felt and the direction it was headed. It wasn't perfect and little cliche.... broken girl sweet boy but not without his issues. They meet and save each other. Yup that is it,but I still really much enjoyed it. Made me smile on many occasions. 

The struggles in the book felt real even though it was a world I know nothing about but I can how this world would be like the one described in this book. A band of modern day outlaws. There were arranged marriages, bride prices, king boss, alpha omega type thing. It was interesting and exciting without being over done. 

The ending was good. It wasn't full resolution, but enough to end the book on a happy note. It would be awesome to have a companion novel that also shows the progress of the main characters of this book. I would love to visit this world again. 

The book was well paced, written well. It had developed characters, an interesting story line, and a cute romance. 

A good read, very enjoyable. Great for those who love cute romances with a bit of seriousness and trouble. 

My debut, Wandering Wild, a young adult magical realism novel, launches May 3, 2016 from Sky Pony Press. My first contemporary young adult novel, A Map for Lost Girls, is coming from Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin in 2018. Represented by Melissa Sarver White at Folio Literary Management.
I adore sleepy southern settings, unrequited love, and characters who sneak out late at night. After graduating from law school, I realized I'd rather write my own stories than read dusty law books. I live in Northern California with a sweet-yet-spoiled dog and several teetering towers of books.

Delightful Discoveries: Realistic Fiction

Delightful Discoveries are books that I have discovered recently... old, new, just released... from blogs, Goodreads, libraries, friends, or bookstores. 

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer

A darkly funny and spectacularly original exploration of friendship, goodbyes—and spontaneous combustion. 

“Katelyn Ogden was a lot of things, but she wasn’t particularly explosive, in any sense of the word.”

Mara Carlyle’s senior year at Covington High in suburban New Jersey is going on as normally as could be expected, until the day—wa-bam!—fellow senior Katelyn Ogden explodes during third period pre-calc. Katelyn is the first, but she won’t be the last senior to explode without warning or explanation. The body count grows and the search is on for a reason—Terrorism! Drugs! Homosexuality! Government conspiracy!—while the seniors continue to pop like balloons.

Mara narrates the end of their world as she knows it with tell-it-like-it-is insight as she tries to make it to graduation in one piece through an explosive year punctuated by romance, quarantine, lifelong friendship, hallucinogenic mushrooms, bloggers, ice cream trucks, “Snooze Button™,” Bon Jovi, and the filthiest language you’ve ever heard the President of the United States use over Skype. 

Aaron Starmer rewrites the YA rulebook in Spontaneous, a ridiculously funny, super honest, and truly moving exemplar of the absurd and raw truths of being a teenager in the 21st century . . . and the heartache of saying goodbye.

738 Days by Stacey Kade 

At fifteen, Amanda Grace was abducted on her way home from school. 738 days later, she escaped. Her 20/20 interview is what everyone remembers—Amanda describing the room where she was kept, the torn poster of TV heartthrob Chase Henry on the wall. It reminded her of home and gave her the strength to keep fighting.

Now, years later, Amanda is struggling to live normally. Her friends have gone on to college, while she battles PTSD. She’s not getting any better, and she fears that if something doesn’t change soon she never will.

Six years ago, Chase Henry defied astronomical odds, won a coveted role on a new TV show, and was elevated to super-stardom. With it, came drugs, alcohol, arrests, and crazy spending sprees. Now he's sober and a Hollywood pariah, washed up at twenty-four.

To revamp his image, Chase’s publicist comes up with a plan: surprise Amanda Grace with the chance to meet her hero, followed by a visit to the set of Chase’s new movie. The meeting is a disaster, but out of mutual desperation, Amanda and Chase strike a deal. What starts as a simple arrangement, though, rapidly becomes more complicated when they realize they need each other in more ways than one. But when the past resurfaces in a new threat, will they stand together or fall apart?

Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

    Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The thick glass of a mason jar cuts deep, and the pain washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you.
Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge.
A deeply moving portrait of a teenage girl on the verge of losing herself and the journey she must take to survive in her own skin, Kathleen Glasgow’s debut is heartbreakingly real and unflinchingly honest. It’s a story you won’t be able to look away from.

My Mad Fat Diary by Rae Earl

It's 1989 and Rae Earl is a fat, boy-mad 17-year-old girl, living in Stamford, Lincolnshire with her mum and their deaf white cat in a council house with a mint green bathroom and a refrigerator Rae can't keep away from. She’s also just been released from a psychiatric ward. My Mad Fat Diary is the hilarious, harrowing and touching real-life diary Rae kept during that fateful year and the basis of the hit British television series of the same name now coming to HULU. Surrounded by people like her constantly dieting mum, her beautiful frenemy Bethany, her mates from the private school up the road (called “Haddock”, “Battered Sausage” and “Fig”) and the handsome, unattainable boys Rae pines after (who sometimes end up with Bethany…), My Mad Fat Diary is the story of an overweight young woman just hoping to be loved at a time when slim pop singers ruled the charts. Rae's chronicle of her world will strike a chord with anyone who's ever been a confused, lonely teenager clashing with her parents, sometimes overeating, hating her body, always taking herself VERY seriously, never knowing how positively brilliant she is and keeping a diary to record it all. My Mad Fat Diary – 365 days with one of the wisest and funniest girls in England.

Everyone We've Been by Sarah Everett

Addison Sullivan has been in an accident. In its aftermath, she has memory lapses and starts talking to a boy that no one else can see. It gets so bad that she’s worried she’s going crazy. 

Addie takes drastic measures to fill in the blanks and visits a shadowy medical facility that promises to “help with your memory.” But at the clinic, Addie unwittingly discovers it is not her first visit. And when she presses, she finds out that she had certain memories erased. She had a boy erased.

But why? Who was that boy, and what happened that was too devastating to live with? And even if she gets the answers she’s looking for, will she ever be able to feel like a whole person again?

Tag You're It!: THE TOTALLY SHOULD’VE BOOK TAG!

THE TOTALLY SHOULD’VE BOOK TAG!

This wonderful tag is brought to us by Great Imaginations 

A BOOK THAT TOTALLY SHOULD’VE HAD A SEQUEL

I wish this book had a sequel. I really need more of this world. 

A BOOK OR SERIES THAT TOTALLY SHOULD’VE HAD A SPIN-OFF

Oh how to choose... so many good ones... 

I am going to with the Tiger Saga. I think another couple of stories set on other myths in other parts of the world would be great or even more India myth. Maybe new characters and just a different myth. That would be fun. 

AN AUTHOR THAT SHOULD TOTALLY WRITE MORE BOOKS

All of them. HeHe. the more the better. Okay seriously though

I am going to go with Amy Engel... loved the Ivy series. I need more of her writing.

A CHARACTER WHO TOTALLY SHOULD’VE ENDED UP WITH SOMEONE ELSE

Oh I can't answer this. I think they all end up with who they are meant to end up with. Its how it was planned from the start and I am okay with that.

A BOOK THAT TOTALLY SHOULD’VE ENDED DIFFERENTLY

I know I am bad at this. I can't imagine books ending differently. They are what they are supposed to be. 

A BOOK SERIES THAT TOTALLY SHOULD’VE HAD A MOVIE FRANCHISE
Oh this one is fun... all of them again. Just kidding. I would love to see the Unearthly books come to movies. OR the Tiger Saga. Oh so many I could choose. So here is a few. Any book that made me swoon and have all the feels. That should be on the big screen. 

I could keep going but I will leave it at these. 

A BOOK OR SERIES THAT TOTALLY SHOULD’VE BEEN A TV SHOW

How did I know this was coming... 

and again more than one.  I picked ones that could have ongoing stories with mini stories. lots of mystery and crime or superhuman powers. I think these could be stretched out. 

A BOOK THAT TOTALLY SHOULD’VE HAD ONE POINT OF VIEW

Oh this is hard. I think again. I can't think beyond what the book was because that is what I know it as. I just can't think of any. I guess I will skip this one. 

A BOOK OR SERIES THAT TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE HAD A COVER CHANGE

I am stealing this one from Lyn: 

The Glittering Court has an ugly cover. I just don't like it. Well. I like the roses. Maybe if it been something with the roses without the girl. Maybe not sure. 

A BOOK OR SERIES THAT TOTALLY SHOULD’VE KEPT THE ORIGINAL COVERS

 to this  to this 

I liked the original! 

A SERIES THAT TOTALLY SHOULD’VE STOPPED AT BOOK ONE

SO I am a huge series fan and this one is hard for me. So I am going to choose one that had a companion novel from a different POV, same story, different voice. I have found I am not a fan of these. I know there are new ones to this series. But not gonna read them. Just too much for me even though I loved Easy.