At times she came across as a little bit annoying, entitled, or needy, but I was just thinking that holy crap, if I had just dropped my entire life to follow a man to the remote wilderness and was left alone all the time, I would be too! She is never out of character from how she was introduced to us in the first book, so Tucker did a nice job exploring more of her personality and how she would handle different situations. I thought Calla’s struggles were very valid and realistic. While Jonah is out flying planes and loving every minute of it, she is finding it hard to acclimate. After they move into their new home in a small Alaskan city, bigger than where her dad lived, but not by much, Calla kind of loses sense of her purpose.

But then it settles down, much like Calla does, into a lulling rhythm. The plotting is quite fast at first, a whirlwind of moving and months/time passing. We watch as Calla and Jonah agree to live together in Alaska, both compromising in some way for each other to be happy in a new home. This book begins pretty much immediately after the first one ends. Everything was handled so perfectly and authentically. Tucker was too smart and too good of an author to just play into that crappy trope. And while there was a hint of something like that (technically), I should have trusted that K.A. I didn’t know what to expect! And I was nervous, based on the back description and on my own assumptions, that there would be some sort of love triangle kind of thing or something equally as awful. A risk you must take with any sort of sequels to stories like. I didn’t want anything to taint my experience of reading that first novel or cause me to dislike any of the characters.

I was juuuust a little apprehensive going into this book, because I loved The Simple Wild so much. I really appreciate what the author did with the story and how she handled the continuation. This sequel didn’t quite contain the magic that the first book did for me, but it was very well done, nonetheless. Like I need this Alaskan air. More than I need this air.” “I need you in my life like I need to fly.

Wild at heart wild at heart book critic