Anita Kelly’s Something Wild and Wonderful is a charming character-driven romance that, while quiet and somewhat understated, nonetheless packs quite the emotional punch. It’s set mostly on the Pacific Crest Trail, one of the most unusual settings I’ve ever come across in a romance novel, and boasts two complex, likeable leads who each has his own reason for undertaking the punishing two-and-a-half-thousand-plus-mile hike.

Six months before the story begins, Alexei Lebedev came out as gay to his deeply religious parents, who very promptly and quietly disowned him for his “choice”. He’s still in contact with his sister, Alina, but feels the loss of his parents and ostracism from the community in which he grew up very keenly. He’s been planning his hike along the PCT for months, and he still feels a pinch in his chest when he remembers that he owes his love of nature, birding and hiking to his father – but he hopes that by the end of the trail, maybe he’ll have become used to that feeling, maybe so used to it that he won’t even notice it any more.

It was hard to imagine, truthfully. But he was hopeful anyway. Hope was why he was here.

He meets Ben Caravalho on his very first day, literally saving Ben’s life when he stops him walking into the path of a rattlesnake. Alexei can’t help noticing the deep brown of his eyes and the warmth of his smile, but when Ben invites Alexei to walk with him and his party, Alexei declines. He’s been looking forward to the solitude, wanting the chance to say goodbye to his old life and find a bit of peace before starting over.

Ben’s reasons for hiking the PCT are similar to Alexei’s in that he, too, is looking forward to starting afresh. After a string of bad decisions, messy relationships, dead-end jobs and missed obligations throughout his twenties, he’s finally got his act together. After qualifiying as a nurse, he’s ready to start his career – and is taking a few months to excise his restlessness and prepare himself for his new, responsible life. One thing he’s determined to do is to break his habit of falling in love so easily – usually with the wrong guy – so he absolutely isn’t going to fall for the next gorgeous man he sees. Even if that man did save his life...

This is very much a character-driven novel, so there’s not a great deal of plot to speak of. Rather, it’s a lovely, gently moving story about two very different people forging a strong, emotional connection as they walk, talk and think their way through desert and mountains, snow and sunshine, trees and birds and other wildlife. The PCT – which is described so vividly that it’s like another, integral, character in the story - provides an excellent backdrop for quiet reflection and internal processing, and much of the book is taken up with Ben and Alexei hiking the trail, getting to know each other, supporting each other and encouraging each other; the pacing is leisurely but never feels too slow or draggy, and the story itself is never dull.

Alexei is quiet and nerdy, he likes plans and routine, he struggles in regular social situations and has a strong awareness of never having quite fit in anywhere. (He reads as neurodivergent, although is never labelled as such until near the end when he receives an official autism diagnosis). By contrast, Ben is upbeat and outgoing, possessing the kind of exuberant opennness that makes people take to him instantly – and he definitely wears his heart on his sleeve. Alexei is clearly going through the stages of grief for the loss of his parents and the life he’d known, and parts of his story are very sad and his intense loneliness comes through strongly - yet he’s hopeful, too, determined to make a future for himself in which he does fit, to work out what he wants from life and what his safe place looks like.

I enjoyed meeting the various characters Ben and Alexei encounter along the trail, and there’s a lovely found-family aspect in Ben’s friendship group (which I realised later was also part of Ms. Kelly’s previous novel, Love and Other Disasters, in which Ben appears briefly). I loved watching Ben helping Alexei become more comfortable with his sexuality and Alexei helping Ben to realise that he’s so much more than he thinks he is – that he’s enough, just as he is.

I usually try not to talk too specifically about things that happen late on in the books I reivew, but I can’t end this without mentioning the way that the third-act crisis is handled, because it’s unusual and really well done. While they’re apart, Ben and Alexei pen several letters, some of which they send, some, usually the ones containing the biggest emotional revelations, they don’t. Their loneliness and yearning for one another leaps off the page, and the epistolary format – letters written sometimes weeks apart – allows them both time to heal and to demonstrate their individual growth. Reading the unsent letters, especially, brought a lump to my throat – but it’s clear that they needed to write them as part of that process, even if the other never gets to read them.

My main criticism of the book is to do with something that so clearly telegraphed ‘disaster-in-waiting that I couldn’t help but wonder why the author went there:

That aside, Something Wild and Wonderful is a gorgeous story featuring two engaging, well-rounded characters falling in love and figuring things out about themselves and each other. The messages – about being brave enough to live an authentic life and the importance of allowing yourself to be loved for who you are – are crystal clear and the chemistry and soul-deep connection between Alexei and Ben is superbly drawn. Highly recommended.