Thank you Berkley, #partner, for the finished copy of The Beautiful and the Wild in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Berkley
Published: November 7, 2023
Summary:
The dangers of Alaska aren’t limited to storms, starvation, and grizzly bears. Sometimes the most dangerous thing is the person you love.
It’s summer in Alaska and the light surrounding the shipping-container-turned-storage shed where Liv Russo is being held prisoner is fuzzy and gray. Around her is thick forest and jagged mountains. In front of her, across a clearing, is a low-slung cabin with a single window that spills a wash of yellow light onto bare ground. Illuminated in that light is the father of her child, a man she once loved. A man who is now her jailor. Liv vows to do anything to escape.
Carrying her own secrets and a fierce need to protect her young son, Liv must navigate a new world where extreme weather, starvation, and dangerous wildlife are not the only threats she faces. With winter’s arrival imminent, she knows she must reckon with her past and the choices that brought her to the unforgiving Alaskan landscape if she is ever going to make it out alive.
A story of survival in the wilds of Alaska, The Beautiful and the Wild explores the question of whether we can ever truly know the person we love—or ourselves.
My thoughts:
I have a weakness for books set in Alaska and so this one of course caught my eye. Plus, just look at the cover? Isn’t it so eye-catching?
This domestic thriller is not quite what I thought it would be, but I still found myself enjoying it. This book explores the lengths we go to to keep our loved ones safe and that is a theme that always resonates. This is a slower moving book that I had expected, but I was still invested in what was going on, especially after Liv finds herself held captive in a shipping-container box, just feet away from her presumed dead husband, who is now her jailor.
Having the story told in dual timeline, moving back and forth from now to the past really helped me to understand how Liv ended up in the position she was and kept me glued to the pages to see where it was all going to ultimately wind up. As I mentioned already, it is a slower-paced book initially, until the last quarter when the action really ramps up.
This book is full of secrets and makes you wonder just how well we know those we love.
