Out of the Wild Review

Title: Out of the Wild

Author: Sarah Beth Durst

Series: The Wild, Book 2, Final

Publisher: Razor Bill

ISBN: 9781595141590

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Julie's life has returned back to normal after The Wild has been tamed back to underneath her bed.  Her only regret was leaving her father behind.  But when The Wild unexpectedly released him from his prison, the happily-ever-after that Julie expected flew out the window when the Prince's actions made the Wild grow and grow.  What was going on?  Julie needed all her wits when she embarked on her final adventure to take down the Wild.

One word: Frustrating. I was thought it was cool that Julie's father managed to escape from the Wild.  But what I didn't expect was the plot to suffer for it.  The first half of the book pretty much went like this - the Prince refusing to hide his "princeliness" and ending up doing heroic things that ultimately ruin 500 years of hiding.  Then Julie was constantly reasoning with her father to stop.  Of course, the Prince ignored said daughter's advice and rushed off.  Resigned, Julie ran off after him to clean up the mess.  Rinse and repeat.  So, let me say I'm understanding Julie's frustration.  Finally, at the halfway point, Julie does a complete 180 and ended following her father.  This was where the story picked up.  Now, this was what I was expecting since reading the first book.  There was so much action.  Things were thrown at you left and right and the whole mystery of the series of events were being revealed.  I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.  The ending nicely wrapped up all loose ends.

What I liked in the first novel, it was slightly lost here.  Where was the magic?  The plot was nonexistent.  It was there, but only as an afterthought to the relationship between Julie and her long-lost father.  There were a few new characters for returning readers to look forward to.  The villain was an unexpected twist.  For those who haven't read the prequel, "Into the Wild," it's not exactly necessary to read it.  But you will be missing a lot of background information.  I would recommend borrowing this book.  There was action, little bit of romance, fairy tales aspects and adventuring heroine made this book worth reading at least once.  But the angst that was present in the first half of the book made this a hard book to chug through.  Not worth keeping on my shelf.