Something Wilder

Something Wilder is a contemporary romance novel written by Christina Lauren. Christina Lauren is the pen name of an authorial collaboration between writing partners and best friends, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. Under the pen name, Christina Lauren has published numerous New York Times and USA Today bestsellers. The writing duo has written 28 romance titles in total, including the Beautiful and Wild Seasons series, Twice in a Blue Moon, The Unhoneymooners, Love and Other Words, and The Soulmate Equation.

Something Wilder was originally published in May 2022 by Gallery Books. The novel employs the forced proximity and second chance romance tropes to tell the story of unrequited lovers Lily Wilder and Leo Grady. Lily and Leo met and fell in love one summer when Leo was working on Lily’s family ranch, Wilder Ranch, in Laramie, Wyoming. Although they’d planned to spend the rest of their lives together, Leo abruptly disappeared from Lily’s life without an explanation or phone call. Ten years later, Lily and Leo reunite when Leo ends up on one of Lily’s adventure tours through Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Forced to spend a week riding horses through the desert region searching for buried treasure together, Lily and Leo begin to reconsider what could have happened between them. Told from the third-person point of view, the novel explores themes including The Journey Toward Self-Discovery, Love, Trust, and Forgiveness, and Reconciling the Past and Present. 

This guide refers to the 2023 Gallery Books paperback edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

The novel opens in Laramie, Wyoming, on Lily Wilder’s family ranch, Wilder Ranch. For the past five months, 19-year-old Lily and her new coworker and lover Leo Grady have been spending all of their time together. Being with Leo makes Lily feel as if all of her dreams are about to come true. Her adventurous father Duke Wilder is often absent on various treasure-hunting expeditions, but Lily isn’t letting Duke’s distraction bother her anymore. She’s convinced that Leo is going to stay in Wyoming with her and that someday soon they’ll own and operate the ranch together.

The novel jumps ahead 10 years. Lily is now 29 years old and living in Hanksville, Utah. Seven years prior, her dad died after suffering a stroke. He sold the ranch a few years before his death and Lily has felt lost and alone ever since. Her and Leo’s relationship didn’t last because Leo flew abruptly back to New York after his mom was in an accident. She tried contacting him but he insisted it was a bad time for him to invest in their relationship. In an attempt to overcome her heartbreak over Duke, the ranch, and Leo, Lily has been devoting her energy to her new business, Wilder Adventures. She and her best friend Nicole run the tourist expedition company together and give adventure-seeking individuals horseback riding trips through Canyonlands National Park. Lily never expected to embrace Duke’s old exploring obsession and wishes she could close the business and buy her own property again.

One night, Lily and Nicole meet up for drinks. Lily opens an envelope Nicole received from Wilder Ranch’s current owner, Jonathan Cross. He’s selling the property and wants to know if Lily is interested in buying it. Lily feels discouraged as she doesn’t have the money to secure the ranch.

Meanwhile, Leo and his college friends Bradley Daniels, Terrence “Terry” Trottel, and Walter Gibb fly from New York to Utah for their annual vacation together. Leo is shocked when they arrive at their destination and he discovers that Lily is leading their Canyonlands tour. He tries to engage with her and ask her questions about her life, but Lily pushes him away.

Lily and Nicole give their group an orientation. They explain how dangerous the park can be and give them the rules for their week-long adventure. They are going to be seeking out a fake treasure, following Butch Cassidy’s Outlaw Trail. Leo and Walter are compliant but Bradley is overly spirited and Terry is rude and resistant to taking Lily and Nicole’s directions.

One night, Lily decides to confront Leo by the campfire after everyone else has gone to bed. They open up about their lives over the past 10 years. Leo reveals that his mom died shortly after he left Wyoming and he has been raising his younger sister ever since. He also reveals that he tried contacting her and left repeated messages with Duke but never heard from Lily. Lily is shocked by these revelations and wishes Duke had made more of an effort to get Leo’s messages to her. She starts wondering if things could’ve been different between them, but quickly dismisses the thoughts and decides that she and Leo weren’t meant to be.

Over the following days, tensions arise between the companions. One night, Terry tries to steal Lily’s journal. It used to be Duke’s and contains maps and riddles that allegedly point to a buried treasure. Terry whips out a gun and insists that Nicole is going to guide him to the treasure. Bradley charges at him and they scuffle over the weapon. Ultimately, Terry falls over the edge of a cliff to his death.

The companions spend the evening trying to decide what to do next. They realize that Terry might be right about Duke’s journal and decide to venture out in search of it together the next day. They’ll leave Terry’s body and tell the authorities that he wandered off and they were looking for him.

The next day, Walter twists his ankle and breaks his foot while climbing. The group decides that Nicole and Bradley will take him back to get medical attention while Lily and Leo go ahead to find the treasure.

Lily and Leo spend the next days venturing through the desert together. The longer they are alone, the more they open up about their lives and feelings, their disappointments and dreams. Leo isn’t sure he wants to be in New York anymore now that his sister has graduated. Lily wants to buy land and hopes that finding Duke’s treasure will make it possible. One night, when Lily’s pack gets wet after crossing the Green River, she and Leo share the same sleeping bag. They end up kissing and having sex.

The next day, the characters find Duke’s old shack in the valley. They need to look for more clues, but decide to wait out the night in the cabin because of a hailstorm. They have sex again and spend the night talking intimately.

In the morning, they decipher more clues and puzzles Duke left behind. Then they use Terry’s satellite phone to pull up a map. They’re horrified to discover messages between Terry and three other people concerning the treasure hunt. Suddenly, two men named Kevin and Jay appear, and they reveal that they want the treasure. They take Leo and Lily’s deciphered clues and leave them tied up in the sun. Lily and Leo break out of their bindings and send update to Nicole. They return to the cabin, convinced they’ve missed a clue. They find another code that points them to a different part of the canyon. Suddenly, Bradley emerges from the brush. He grabs the gun Lily took from Terry and demands that she and Leo lead him to the treasure. Jay and Kevin rejoin the group, and Lily and Leo comply with their demands.

The group travels into a remote cave where they find a box with another clue. Leo deciphers it and says that Duke must have already taken the money. Furious, Bradley insists they must go to Duke’s shack to destroy the building in search of the treasure. When they emerge from the cave, Nicole is there with police officers and park rangers. The officers apprehend Bradley, Jay, and Kevin, and fly Leo, Lily, and Nicole home in a helicopter. The police clear Lily, Leo, Nicole, and Walter, but Bradley faces various criminal charges.

Leo informs Lily that he lied about the code in the cave. It really says that they should look in Duke’s house for the money. They go to the cabin Duke once lived in with Lily, and there they discover another code that points them to a secret compartment in the wall. Inside, they find a coin and a note from Duke, which leads them to a bank in Telluride, Colorado. They go to the bank the next day and discover that Duke left Lily a note and $15 million. Lily and Duke use the money to buy back Wilder Ranch, where they make a new life together. They also give some of the money to Nicole, who buys the land next door. After she finalizes the sale, the friends celebrate together. That night, Lily and Leo go to bed together, profess their love, and have sex.