Friday, July 19, 2013

Wild Child


Jackson is mayor of small town Bishop...a town that is getting closer and closer to becoming a ghost town. Jackson is determined to save the town though...mostly so he can leave it behind without any guilt. He left once before, but when tragedy struck he had to put his dreams on hold to return and raise his younger sister Gwen. Now that she is graduating and will be heading to university, Jackson is ready to leave once again. To do so with a clear conscious though, he really wants to help Bishop back on it's feet economically. When he finds out about a contest a cookie company is having to move it's production to a struggling small USA town, he is determined that this is the answer he is looking for, this is what can save Bishop.

Monica is a former bad girl wild child who briefly lived in Bishop as a child. Now she is back to relive the past for the book she is writing. She is the last person Jackson wants in town when the media comes looking for a small wholesome American town. But Monica isn't going anywhere! With the promise to be discreet, she plans to carry on with her work and Jackson can carry on with his. But in small town Bishop nothing stays secret for long, and it's even harder to avoid anyone! It gets even harder to ignore the sparks that flare between Monica and Jackson either. They are two people struggling with their past, their present, and their future who find themselves attracted to each to one another despite their differences.

Are they really so different though? Both of them have a past that has significantly affected who they are today and their inability to have lasting relationships. What starts out as annoyance with each other soon becomes a lust that can't be denied, and Jackson and Monica can really heat the pages of Wild Child up! Neither of them plans to have anything that will last beyond the time they are in Bishop...but their hearts might tell them differently. It's not just the blossoming relationship between Monica and Jackson that are the heart of Wild Child though. There is Monica's relationship, or lack of one, with her mother...and the walls Monica has erected around her heart are going to take a pretty strong person to break through them. Does Jackson have it in him to do that? Can he take the time for himself, to make himself happy, instead of always trying to keep everyone else happy? We also have an indepth look at the relationship between Jackson and his sister Gwen. It's so complicated and heartbreaking at times, I really hoped it was not beyond repair! We meet a lot of the residents and non residents of Bishop, and their stories all tie together nicely in Wild Child. 

Molly gives us much more than romance in Wild Child. There is a community trying to pull together to save itself and each other...and broken and breaking families trying to heal. We also meet some people who we definitely want to learn more about like Shelby and Cora! But this is Monica and Jackson's story, their struggles, the conflicts, and the growing they are going to have to do separately and hopefully as a couple if they can start healing from the past and make a relationship work. Monica and Jackson are both strong characters that I really liked. Monica has a bit of a tortured past and I felt sorry for the little girl she was and what she went through. I could completely understand her reactions and how her past shaped who she is today. Jackson had tragedy in his past too when his parents died, and he has done the best he can even if at times I wanted to shake him!! 

Wild Child was very well written. There are a lot of different plot twists, you never knew what was going to happen and Molly manages to weave everyone's stories together perfectly. I admit in the first few pages of Wild Child I wasn't too sure if I'd be able to get into the story, but it didn't take long and I was hooked! At times Wild Child was an emotional roller coaster, one I was happy to ride!

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