Review: Wildly
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 21, 2013
In Debra Kayn's Wildly, Shauna Marino returns to her small home town with something to prove to herself, the town and her teenage crush Grayson Schyler.As a teenager, Shauna pulled some pretty outrageous stunts in order to attract Grayson's attention and her last antic resulted in her father sending her off to college. Now older and hopefully wiser, Shauna is determined to make amends for her past actions and with any luck, live down her wild reputation.In the beginning of Wildly, I really did not like either Shauna or Grayson. I thought Shauna was still rather immature and I thought that her wild reputation was somewhat exaggerated. While Grayson had some good qualities, he was horrible to Shauna. These two lacked communication and instead of trying to work things out, they spent a lot of the novel ignoring one another. Their relationship went from one extreme to another, and I despaired that they would ever get over their emotional, kneejerk reaction to run away whenever a misunderstanding occurred between them.However, as the story unfolded, my opinion of both characters slowly evolved. Shauna proved to have more backbone than I expected where Grayson was concerned. She still harbored deep emotions for him, and I admired her for standing her ground with Grayson. When he was not willing to have anything but a sexual relationship, Shauna made a serious attempt to move on and give dating other men a shot.Of the two, Grayson has the most emotional baggage to deal with. He has valid reasons for avoiding emotional entanglements, and he comes across as cold and unfeeling. But he cannot deny his feelings for Shauna are more than sexual and when he begins to open up, she agrees to a relationship on his terms. But it is not until their complicated past comes between them that Grayson begins to face the demons that continue to haunt him.A secondary story arc with Shauna's parents provides incredible insight into her character. Once again, Shauna handles the unpleasant situation with them by running away and ignoring them until her parents give her no choice but to hear them out. It was through this storyline that I began to understand why she was unable to give up on her love for Grayson.Despite my frustrations with our lead protagonists, I did enjoy Wildly. Both characters undergo a tremendous amount of growth and find forgiveness for past mistakes. Debra Kayn does an excellent job capturing the small town atmosphere and attitudes and I love how Shauna lived down her notorious past.A sweet yet sensual story that I recommend to anyone who enjoys contemporary romances.I received a complimentary copy for review.