From the internationally best-selling author of The Simple Wild comes the continuation of a woman’s journey to Alaska and a life she never imagined for herself.Calla Fletcher returns to Toronto a different person, struggling to find direction and still very much in love with the rugged bush pilot she left behind. When Jonah arrives on her doorstep with a proposition she can’t dismiss, she takes … dismiss, she takes the leap and rushes back to Alaska to begin their exciting future together.
But Calla soon learns that even the best intentions can lead to broken promises, and that compromise comes with a hefty price–a log cabin in rural Alaska that feels as isolating as the western tundra.
With Jonah gone more than he’s home, one neighbor who insists on transforming her into a true Alaskan, and another who seems more likely to shoot her than come to her aid, Calla grapples with forging her own path. In a world with roaming wildlife that has her constantly watching over her shoulder and harsh conditions that stretch far beyond the cold, dark, winter months, just stepping outside her front door can be daunting.
This is not the future Calla had in mind, leaving her to fear that perhaps she is doomed to follow in her mother’s fleeing footsteps after all.
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I feel bereft now that I’ve finished WILD AT HEART. Seriously, I could get lost for many more hours in Calla and Jonah’s Alaskan world. THE SIMPLE WILD is one of my favorite books and K.A. Tucker achieves the monumental task of offering readers a sequel to rival its predecessor. Calla hasn’t lost her quick wit—in fact she’s sharper and wittier than ever— and Jonah is as funny and swoon-worthy as always. Together their chemistry is palpable!
While part of the beauty of TSW was watching Calla change and grow during her time in Bangor, that growth is the absolute soul of WILD AT HEART. I was fully engrossed in her journey to find herself and her place in her new community. It truly felt like I was there cheering on a friend during her successes and hurting for her during the darker times of the transition to a permanent life in Alaska. It was so fun to watch her positively impact the lives of the people around her without even realizing her effect.
And not only are the heroine and hero as engaging as ever, but the secondary characters and new additions to this world are superbly drawn. I grew to care about them so much and relish their time on the page.
This is not just a beautifully written romance about what happens after you find happily ever after— this is women’s fiction at its finest.
A funny, emotional, authentic, heartwarming, stunning romance that will forever sit on my favorites’ shelf.
This book is all about Alaska, the weather, the characters, the communities. It was captivating.
This was a great continuation of “Simple Wild.” Not only did I enjoy the love story. Calla and Jonah are great characters, a joy to read, and their struggles and issues felt real.
I also liked rating Calla learning to find her place in her a new country, especially one as difficult as Alaska. It was fascinating and fun to read.
As soon as I finished this book, I downloaded the final story (a novella) of this series. I can’t want to read it!
Another fabulous read. Very different to the first and there were quite a few times when I was annoyed at both characters for their actions and lack of communication. But it was also a very realistic depiction of what they faced and a reminder that while love is powerful, it’s not always enough. Wish there were a few more answered questions at the end…but secretly hoping for a book 3 😉
~ Claire
I hope you’ve all read THE SIMPLE WILD! This 2nd book is a sequel – you really should’ve read the first one before starting this one! It’s not 100% necessary, but it would just be insane to miss out on the amazing first book!!
WiLD AT HEART starts four days after the first book ended.
We all remember how Jonah came to Toronto to ask Calla to come back to Alaska with him.
And she asked him for some time to think.
But of course we don’t need much time – we’re doing this!!
We’re moving to Alaska to be with our hot angry yeti!
But of course going from being a spoiled city girl to living in the Alaskan wilderness is not the easiest thing for our Calla.
Will she give up and go back home to be spoiled in Toronto by her mom and step-dad Simon?
READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT
Ugh! I loved it!
I was sooo looking forward to reading this book. Even though I didn’t really need it. I was pretty happy with the first book. I could’ve lived with that ending. But of course we always want more – I always want endless epilogues. And that is kind of what we get here. The MORE after THE END. The answers to questions we ask ourselves after almost every book we read! We never get that! I just love that Kathleen wrote this!
Only it’s not this one little happily ever after epilogue. Not yet at least. We have a long way to go and lots of problems and arguments and animals and whatnots to overcome until there might be a HEA on the horizon!
But the reader loves every single word of Calla and Jonah’s journey to that happy end!
I just adored this book! I felt like being right there with Calla. Decorating their house, harvesting strawberries, chasing or running from goats and dogs and bugs and bears!
But of course we also know that Jonah can’t be with her 24/7 – he has a new company to run and he’s gone a lot. Will Calla survive alone in a place full of bears and crumpy neighbors and their wolf-dogs?
LOL! We sure hope so, because Calla & Jonah just belong together. But we don’t want either of them to give up too much of their hopes and dreams to get that happily ever after.
AMAZING ROMANCE!
It was like a Calla-diary or one of her blog posts. We get lots of Jonah & romance too, but of course we focus mainly on Calla and how she survives her new life with new challenges and new friends and frenemies. It wasn’t the Bianca-cries-all-through-the-book thingy like the first one – but I did shed some tears!
Some readers might’ve hoped for something a little different, but I really loved reading this. It was just so very beautiful. I never wanted it to end!
OK – that’s it – what more should I say?! If you read and loved the first book – you will definitely read and love this one and if you haven’t read the first one…what are you doing reading this review anyway?!
WiLD AT HEART was such a beautiful Alaska romance!
A what-happens-after-The-End kind of encore for all fans of Calla & Jonah! And I loved every single moment of it!
Run to your nearest amazon for your own Jonah – this one is mine – and he’ll be sold out in no time!
P.S. … the end of this second book … while amazing and beautiful … wasn’t really all that endish!
I hope our darling author will one day write a third book!
The Simple Wild
Wild At Heart
Calla, Yeti & Baby = Wild³
LOL!
I want more. It was perfect, but I still want more!
It’s no secret that The Simple Wild is one of my very favorite books so when I heard that K.A. Tucker was writing a sequel I was over the moon excited. I never once doubted that this book was going to be good but Wild At Heart exceeded all expectations I LOVED IT! I loved that it gave me all the feelings that the first book did but was also a whole new story with more layers of Jonah and Calla that we hadn’t yet seen. We got to see them fall in love before in sort of a whirlwind but this time around we get to see that love develop deeper over time. And like real life their love story was messy and complicated at times. They are both trying to not only navigate their relationship but also start their lives together in a whole new part of Alaska. Honestly I could go on and on gushing about all the things but really you just need to READ THIS BOOK. {Thank you Social Butterfly PR for sending me this copy} Wild At Heart is the perfect sequel to an already beautiful book. I am secretly crossing my fingers that maybe even a third book could be a possibility because KA Tucker writes the kind of love story that I will always want to read.
I fell in love with a sky cowboy.
How do you feel about sequels? To be honest, they rarely meet my expectations. This is especially true when that previous story made my Top Favorites of the Year list. You’d think that by now, I’d learn to either lower my expectations or not read the next book, but I suppose I’m a glutton for punishment. So you can imagine my delight when I read ‘Wild at Heart’ and LOVED it! It was not only the exception, but it was THE PERFECT continuation of Jonah and Calla’s story from ‘The Simple Wild’. I cannot sing its praises enough!
Calla and Jonah move to a remote area in Alaska. On their isolated 100 acres, they have an airstrip for Jonah’s airplanes, a home, a garden, a goat, and a place for their raccoon. The scenery is stunning and serene.
It’s the day to day stuff that makes a real marriage,
It was a joy watching Jonah branch out and come into his own. But it was the journey that Calla took, that stole the show. She had always been a strong character, but that was when she felt she had a bit of control or a way out. When the newness and charm begin to wear off, Calla is left to figure out who she is and how she’s going to make Alaska her new home. What part of her will she bring to this town? How is she going to survive here, alone, while Jonah is gone hours at a time, fighting fires and gone for weeks on end, while flying for Big Game Alaska? Also, Tucker does a fabulous job giving us insight into the struggles this community faces. From the isolation to the brutally cold winters, Tucker shows how important a support system and strong community is to their survival.
I will always find ways back to you.
We get to meet a whole new cast of characters; Muriel, Todd, Teddy, and Roy. They were brilliantly written, and spin-offs could easily be written about each of them. And I am dying to learn about Teddy and Muriel’s story – to learn how Muriel got to be the spitfire she is. I also want Todd’s story to develop and for him to live his perfect life. But it is Roy whose happy ending I crave. The curmudgeon not only grew on Calla, but he grew on me, too.
These are the types of stories are where Tucker’s brilliance as a writer shines; stories about family, about commitment, and about fighting for each other. Stories about real-life struggles, everyday worries, and love. She delves into them, studies them, and brings them to life.
‘Wild at Heart’ was funny, charming, tender, heart-warming, and passionate; simply put, t was beautifully written.
K. A. Tucker is an excellent writer. I felt in love with Calla and Jonah, and I loved the challenges and the obstacles that they needed to fight to be together, to accept each other, the compromises they had to do to find a equilibrium.
Loved this book so much!!! Kacey and Jonah are just one of the best couples out there. You really get all the feels while reading their story. Also the word building is phenomenal as are the other characters.
I’m so happy I was able to binge-read Calla and Jonah’s story. Because after The Simple Wild, I was curious about their journey as a couple. I think the strength of Wild at Heart is that it kept things reals, especially the struggles of them as a couple, Jonah as a business owner, and Calla as she continues to find herself.
This book moved me, for very different reasons than The Simple Wild did. I saw myself in Calla’s decision to give her all to a new relationship, starting over in a foreign land, figuring out her place. Did I want to slap Jonah a couple of times? Yes, I did. But it all works out in the end.
I think K.A. Tucker did an amazing job transmitting what life in Alaska could be, and how time seems to go at a different speed there. Plus, she created some outstanding and strong characters like Roy.
My favorite series of KA starting with the Simple Wild. I loved these books! So satisfying.
It’s no secret that The Simple Wild is one of my favorite books. When I heard that K.A. Tucker was bringing us more Calla and Jonah I was over the moon!! There was definitely a brief moment where I was both excited and scared to read Wild at Heart because I didn’t want to this sequel to be a let down from book one. In my mind they got their happily ever after but with a sequel there leaves room for anything to happen.
There is nothing I can say that will make this story seem more appealing, but I will say Calla and Jonah’s story continues in a way that I didn’t expect to love so much. You see Calla grow not only into who she is with Jonah, but you see Calla discovering exactly who she is. The Simple Wild made me cry and long for something I didn’t know I wanted but Wild at Heart gave me the happily ever after that seems possible.
Now let’s hope Tucker writes a third book and makes this the best trilogy EVER!!
Two years ago, almost to the day, I finished reading The Simple Wild, and I became enthralled with this little Wild world in the heart of Alaska. I’ll admit, I took my time before cracking open Wild at Heart because I doubted KA could captivate me and make Calla and Jonah’s relationship as hot and interesting as in book one. Thankfully, I was wrong.
C & J take the next step in their relationship in the cutest and most unusual way possible, leaving me hooked from the first page. After some twists and turns, all of which were 100% believable and kept me captivated until the very last page, the ending was perfection.
As always, KA infuses humour (who knew goats could be so funny!) and family dynamics into her fiction with impeccable flow. C & J face domesticity and the “Average”—not to mention run-ins with all kinds of wildlife—in endlessly entertaining ways. And yet again, KA drew some tears out of me—a rare feat!
If you haven’t read The Simple Wild, do so today, but be sure to have Wild at Heart and Forever Wild nearby and ready to go. I’m not even taking a break and diving straight into #2.5 as we speak!
“I need you in my life like I need to fly. Like I need this Alaskan air. More than I need this air.”
Wild at Heart picks up right where The Simple Wild ended, and I dove in right away. I loved reading about Calla and Jonah’s adventure as a couple in a new small town in Alaska, a place they can now call their own, while starting to make their dreams a reality. Calla is trying to figure out where her place is in this life they’re starting to create together, as Alaska and the types of activities she can do, are still new to her. Their adventure doesn’t come without challenges and doubts though. With bears lurking, a crabby old neighbor, and a scare while Jonah is out flying, emotions and stress run high. Calla and Jonah are both very stubborn individuals, but their love for each other is stronger than anything that puts that love to the test. I loved the introduction to new characters, and the return of some from TSW. Unlike TSW, there was more focus on Calla and Jonah’s relationship, and though this was still different than other romance novels, this story has quickly become a favorite of mine.
Wild at Heart continues where Simple Wild ended and I loved being back in Calla & Jonah’s world. This book has wonderful romance and some steamy moments, but it’s also about Calla adjusting to life in Alaska and figuring out where she fits in her new home. It was wonderful to see Calla grow and discover her limits. I enjoyed all the new characters as well as the pages where we see old friends again.
Wild at Heart has a different feel than the Simple Wild, as it should. Jonah and Calla are past the enemies-to-lovers figuring out feelings part and are realizing that just because you love each other, it doesn’t mean living together and doing life together is easy. Reading this reminded me of the early stages of marriage, when the real day-to-day stuff begins and two people start trying to figure out how to compromise and make each other happy. I enjoyed the journey with Calla and this book solidified Jonah’s position at the top of the book boyfriend list.
“I need you in my life like I need to fly. Like I need this Alaskan air. More than I need this air.”
What a story full of growth and a strong romance!
I was more than delighted that the author chose to keep their relationship and love strong throughout the sequel. Yes they had their fights, but who are Calla and Jonah without their own opinions and passion?!
The growth that not only their relationship took on, but more so the growth of Calla as an individual was my favourite thing about this story. I went from disliking to tolerating Calla in the first book – To loving the person she is becoming in this sequel. She’s stepped away from her familiar roots and she’s chosen the path of kindness, love and character development. But most of all, she’s chosen a brave path full of courage that I know will only make the love between her and Jonah shine more. They both bring out the best in each other and it’s the healthy love we all dream of having.
I actually wouldn’t mind seeing a third sequel as I would love to see how Calla goes being a mother. Oh and I wouldn’t mind more Jonah of course.
I actually preferred this sequel to the first (only by 0.5 of a star). 4.5 Stars! Read within 24 hours.
I loved watching Calla find her footing in the wilderness of Alaska and find herself along the way. I also really enjoyed the new cast of characters, especially Roy the curmudgeon.
Unfortunately, with so much focus on Calla and her new role in Trapper’s Crossing, I felt like we got less of Jonah & Calla as a couple. I was dying for more of Jonah in this book!!!
This was a slow burn until it hit the fan at the very end.
I know that 80% of Bookstagram has already read/heard about this one, so I’ll try and keep it from being too repetitive! I think my option is maybe not the norm. I’ll try to be as vague is possible so there’s no spoilers! The Simple Wild had a HEA ending, which usually leaves me wondering what came after. Wild at Heart was a look at what happens when the honeymoon phase ends and real commitment begins. .
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Let’s start with what I did like. I loved the very beginning and the first romantic moment in the book. I really had high hopes I was about to be swept off my feet right along with Calla. I also loved their home. So much potential for the story just right there! I would’ve loved to see more of it. I LOVED Roy. I loved Calla’s relationship with him and their banter back and forth. I appreciated the honesty in his story and I would’ve loved to see more of his background as well as his growth. I would’ve liked to see Calla learn some of his trade from him. It was clearly important to him! I liked the idea of the Farmer’s Market and the festival, but we didn’t get to see Calla actually participate in either of those. We did however get a lot of house decorating and complaining. She’s in Alaska! Where the mountain hiking? Where’s the moose pictures? Where’s the Northern Lights? I don’t know… I loved this storyline concept. Hot, rough around the edges Alaskan Pilot falls in love with a pretty city girl, they start a life together in Alaska… I just wanted MORE. I still love Jonah and they have, in my opinion, a very realistic relationship! Their chemistry never feels cheesy or forced. And I do understand feeling isolated and lonely the way she did at times. When my partner’s second job starts in the summer we go days without seeing each other for more than two hours. And he usually is exhausted and asleep within ten minutes of being home. There was a time where I was very lonely. But just like Calla needed to, I learned to be independent and find my own happiness. I would love a third book to see where they went with their businesses and relationship and if she found herself!
I did not want this book to ever end!!!! I loved it so so much!! It was so real and honest. Sometimes going in to a sequel to a story that is about the same characters, it’s the same drama different book. This one however is not like that. With new side characters (some old) you watch Calla grow even more. I binge read the first book and then this one. I’m not ready to leave Alaska yet! It’s going to be hard to go into another book after these. Maybe time to go back and reread already!
4.5/5
This is the sequel to The Simple Wild which I read 2 years ago and really enjoyed…same here.
This takes up where the first left off.
In the first, Calla is a young woman who had taken off to Alaska to see a dying father that her mom left 24 years earlier. She meets Jonah, a pilot working for her dad’s charter plane company. They start out as enemies but fall in love by the end of that book, but after the death of her father, Calla returns home to Toronto while Jonah stays to work in AK.
This book, Calla and Jonah decide to buy a house together in a remote location in AK…issues arise.
Three things stood out for me in this one: Tucker does a wonderful job with her nature descriptions (both 1st & 2nd books); we have some returning favorite characters but also some new intriguing ones; I really could see the growth progression of Calla and Jonah, both as individuals and as a couple. While at times I wanted to strangle one or both, mistakes were necessary for strengthening their bond.
Nicely done.