Book reviews for the girls and guys, find your next read here…
Elsie Silver – Wild Eyes
“I’m taking this life, the one I do not enjoy at all, and I’m turning it into one that I do.”
- Elsie Silver, Wild Eyes
For lovers of Ali Hazelwood, Hannah Grace, Lyla Sage (and western romance)…
West
Set in the idyllic Canadian town of Rose Hill, single dad and full-time happy-go-lucky guy Weston Belmont loves his life. Despite the loneliness that sometimes overwhelms his senses, between the chaos of his kids and his hands on job as a horse-trainer, West doesn’t have time for relationships, at least not serious ones. That is until superstar country singer Skylar Stone accidentally waltzes into his life and gives his head a spin. When she winds up living on his property as a favour for a friend, West begins to question why he doesn’t to relationships at all…
Skylar
Superstar Skylar Stone has been lied to her whole life. By her parents, her friends, her boyfriends… But most importantly she’s been lying to herself. When a solo trip to Rose Hill in pursuit of creating music she is truly proud of starts with a near death experience, she lands herself living on single dad and ultimate bachelor Weston Belmonts’ property. In a search for self discovery, Skylar finds herself constantly drawn to the man whose home she in living in. Will she find a summer romance? Or something more important, like home?
Review
Elsie Silver creates yet another idealistic landscape brimming with life and characters with personality and complexities in Wild Eyes. The town of Rose Hill is charming with its own little quirks that add to the atmosphere of the novel. Silver humanises the popstar through her character Skylar and depicts the difficulties that come with living life in the limelight. She carefully navigates anxiety and the obsessive thoughts that overpower the mind daily when living with this condition. The combination of small-town family man West and superstar country singer Skylar Stone creates an interesting dynamic between famous and ordinary, which silver attempts to make realistic through the characters vacillations in thought; the characters think about who else would be heartbroken if their relationship does not work.
Despite our first impression of Skylar as a stereotypical pop star, used to the city and lacking in common sense due to her entourage of assistants, Silver surprises by creating a fleshed out character that not only has anxieties and insecurities unique to herself, but also self-assuredness and fire. She explores the loneliness in being a single parent through West and confidently navigates the struggles that comes with introducing a new member to an already broken family. I was rooting for Skylar and West from the start, and although I am not usually a fan of young children in romance books, Wests children Ollie and Emmy are adorable and have personalities of their own. The relationships and bonds that form throughout the span of the book are truly heartwarming, and I don’t believe anyone could not love Wests little family. Although the narrative is disjointed at times and the first 40% of the book somehow takes place in the space of 48 hours… Overall Silver has a compelling writing style and has a knack to creating characters that are both relatable and loveable. The banter between the two protagonists is insane and had me laughing out loud in points. Silver creates the perfect mix between realistic and unrealistic to make the perfect escape from reality that most readers search for through these books. The brief cameos from her other novels that make an appearance in Wild Eyes are also a welcome sight for those that have read her other works.
A perfect spring/summer read or for if you’re trying to escape the dull English winter with a fun and wholesome romance, this is for you!
