How far will a good girl go for the bad boy she loves?

Laney Holt is a preacher’s daughter. A good girl. Her only goal was to get married, have babies, and live happily ever after, just like her parents. Only that didn’t happen. The two people closest to her betrayed her, and Laney’s dreams came crashing down. Now she’s left with an empty space she doesn’t know how to fill. Until she meets Jake Theopolis, a daredevil with a death wish who has heartbreaker written all over him.

Jake has no interest in thinking beyond the here and now. All he wants out of life is the next rush, the next “feel-good” thing to keep his mind off the pain of his past. His latest rush? Showing Laney there’s more to life than being a good girl—and that going bad can be so much fun. Her only concern now is how she can ever hope to satisfy the wild side of a boy like Jake. She’s looking forward to trying. And so is Jake.

Four years earlier, the preacher's daughter, Laney and town bad boy, Jake Theopolis shared a flirty, memorable few moments. They went their separate ways with Jake leaving town and living his life to the fullest. And Laney settling into a seemingly perfect, safe life.  But the illusion was just suddenly ripped apart by betrayal. Now Jake is back in Greenfield after a death in the family and Laney is back home avoiding her present situation. She  has been assigned as the paralegal dealing with the estate inventory so they are thrust  into close contact.

Jake is cocky, flirty, challenging and considered the town bad boy. Laney is reserved, insecure, shy, and has been burned by love. She needs a break from her boring life and betrayal. He is just the man to show her spontaneity and fun. He does not do attachments and has his reasons. She is a long term kind of girl raised with good values. and high expectations. And her family and ex fiance' still have many expectations of her.

Preacher’s daughter Laney, and local bad-boy Jake bring us back to Greenfield and the Theopolis’s peach orchard in Some Like it Wild. Laney is a paralegal sent to the orchard to catalog the value of Jake’s family peach orchard. She is also home after having broken off her engagement to Shane, the man her parents still want her to reconcile with. 

Laney was cute. In the prologue she is shy, but shows a bit of backbone with the help of her best friend, Tori. Her shyness continues, but seems to be more present as a result of the town’s view of her as the preacher’s daughter rather than an innate shyness. As she begins to worry less about what the town thinks, she begins breaking out of her shell. 

Jake had a bad boy reputation around town, and especially with Laney’s parents. He’s been as far from Greenfield as he could get for years, avoiding the feelings the orchard brought up, until his sister needed his help keeping the orchard out of the hands of their aunt. I never really felt like his reputation was explained, other than the reason why his father was so negative towards him. 

It was interesting to watch their relationship develop while in somewhat of a bubble. They were outside their usual schedules and routines and as a result their feelings weren’t influenced by the people around them. When outside influences start coming in again, they both question what they are feeling. 

I missed seeing more of the other characters from the previous books. Rusty and Jenna made a few appearances, Jenna more so than Rusty, but they weren’t major players in the storyline. It felt like a standalone in that the focus really stayed on Jake and Laney, though aspects of the previous books did come into play, and the next character is introduced. 

It was a quick read, but a perfect length for Jake and Laney to find each other and work through everything that needed to be addressed. I liked this continuation of the Wild Ones series and hope to see more of these characters show up again in upcoming books.

We met Jenna and Rusty in book one The Wild Ones as Cami and Trick's best friends. Jenna is also Jake's sister from book two, Some Like it Wild. Jenna is spirited, outspoken, and fun loving. She has always looked forward to leaving Greenfield behind and making something out of herself. Rusty is wild, passionate, and charismatic, but has insecurities stemming from his past. They are totally compatible, hot for each other, and have strong feelings. But they do have some issues with communication. Rusty has fears and is afraid of admitting how he really feels or moving them forward. And Jenna needs to know what he feels so she can plan our her own path.

"He thinks I'm some sort of wild child that will never settle down."

A week of enforced celibacy, friends' wedding activities, and the  thought of losing her all makes for a lot of heated foreplay and sends Rusty reeling. Their chemistry is definitely hot and they really are good together. But they are both afraid to rock the boat too much.

I want to break him. I want him to give in because he just can't stand it. I want him to forsake all else for me, for the want of me, for the love of me. That's all I've ever wanted from Rusty--his devotion. The same kind of devotion I have for him. 

You can love somebody and still end up leaving them. Some people are just made that way--to always want greener pastures. I've seen it before. And I'm not getting attached to a person like that again. 

Wild Child is a stand-alone novella that fits between the storylines of The Wild Ones and Some Like It Wild. Rusty and Jenna hit it off in The Wild Ones, but most of what happens between them is off-camera, so to speak. Here, we get a little more about their story while the friends are all prepping for Trick and Cami’s wedding. 

Jenna has returned home to transition between college and her first job, especially as she doesn’t know where she will be working. But the one thing she knows is she doesn’t want to stay in Greenfield for long. Rusty knows Jenna isn’t interested in sticking around long, but figures there is no reason they can’t have fun while they can. What niether planned on was developing deeper feelings for the other. 

Jenna is generally fun and carefree, so it was interesting to see her handle situations where she wasn’t her usual confident self. The same with Rusty. They are both such fun-loving characters that they can’t help but question everything when things get serious. 

I loved the forced celibacy the girls (Cami and Jenna) set up before the wedding which caused quite a bit of tension within both couples. The situations the guys and girls both orchestrate to challenge each other had me grinning with each attempt to add to the sexual tension. 

This was a classic case of lack of communication messing up a perfectly good relationship. It’s a quick read, with a lot of interaction from Trick and Cami. Because I read Some Like It Hot before Wild Child, this filled in some gaps in the overall series storyline, but not having that info didn’t leave me confused. Now that I’ve read the whole story, I can understand some of the more subtle references that I missed.

The darling daughter of a champion Thoroughbred breeder, Camille "Cami” Hines has a pedigree that rivals some of her father’s best horses. Other than feeling a little suffocated at times, Cami thought she was happy with her boyfriend, her life and her future—until she met Patrick Henley.   "Trick” blurs the lines between what Cami wants and what is expected of her—and he just happens to be so sexy she can’t keep her hands off him. While they both know that Trick would lose his much needed job on the ranch if anyone finds out, they can’t resist the lure of their scorchingly hot encounters.   But when Trick stumbles upon a note from his father, it triggers a series of revelations that could ruin what he and Cami have worked so hard to overcome. It turns out there’s more to Trick’s presence at the ranch than either of them knew, and secrets with the power to tear them apart…  

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