Wild Side - Elsie Silver

 

(4.5 Shock. Horror.)

So, I’ll be the first to admit that I go through these phases of liking an author, lifting them to heaven, and then forgetting all about them based on one bad experience.

When I think of small-town anything two authors come to mind – Tessa Bailey & Elsie Silver. I discovered Elsie back in 2023 when I read her Chesnut Springs series in 2 weeks flat. I’ve got the whole series up on my blog and I of course have some fan favourites. Then came along the Rose Hill series with Wild Love. I didn’t love it so I wasn’t that hyped for Wild Eyes. However, that one snippet we got at the end of the book was giving major Brendan and Piper vibes from It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey so I had no qualms about pre-ordering it. I fell in love with West and Skyler instantly. It was a 5/5 read and got me into this small-town country vibe reading slump. Then Wild Side was coming out. Truth be told I never cared much about Tabitha or Rhys from what we were fed in Wild Eyes. I bought it and it sat on my shelf for months after the release.

Well, I recently re-read Wild Eyes again and eager for some more snippets of West & Sky, I begrudgingly picked up Wild Side. And then my heart broke in two when Rhys shed actual tears. I loved every second of the book.

Is it better than Wild Eyes? No of course not. But it is still up there with my top 5 Elsie Silver books? Hell yeah.

So let’s talk about who we have. We have Tabitha Garrison who owns the Bighorn Bistro right here in Rose Hill. She worked her way up and eventually bought it. Tabitha also had a sister called Erika who gave birth to a beautiful boy Milo who’s now 3. Nicknamed Tabby Cat, the spitfire first meets Rhys years ago when Erika first moved into to one of his properties. A pinky promise was made and then hatred and malice took over Tabby’s heart when she was under a misconception. The misconception that Rhys evicted her sister which lead to a spiral back into drugs and death. And so that love-hate tug of war began.

Rhys is a professional wrestler, and Erika stated that Milo would be his in the will she left. That was the biggest obstacle that led to their marriage of convenience because Rhys? He was not a Canadian citizen, so guess what Tabby suggested when he was stopped at the border? A marriage. Ha! The way I love these kinds of books.
So, we have ups and downs. We have tension building and crackling. We have Milo, who’s the reason for all the compromise. And we have Tabby and Rhys, who have both been lied to by Erika.

I’ll tell you what I liked about the story and what I didn’t so much like. The journal entries — they were long and tiring. I just wanted them to end.
What I appreciated was how the meeting between Tabby’s parents and Rhys was not overly documented. I’ve read such scenes a thousand times, and there are only three that I remember. I enjoyed how the wedding wasn’t overly dragged out either, and how even though it was a slow burn, it wasn’t the unnecessarily slowest burn ever. There was always something there to kind of scratch that itch.

The most memorable moments for me had to be, obviously, when the tension cracked all the way, when Tabby and Rhys both found out what Erika did, Rhys’s vulnerability after his incident, and OF COURSE the kiss during his wrestling match. I knew he’d never go through with what Anthony said, but still, reading it happen was like a cold drink on a hot summer’s day. Quenching. The unmasking of that man needs to be studied.

Some honourable mentions would be when little storm cloud Cora didn’t know she was crushing on Wild Side aka Rhys and then proceeded to call a 35-year-old man OLD! I also enjoyed West and his quippy remarks. And of course, Cleocatra. I’ve seen my fair share of cats in recent reads.

I’m going to re-read it again since I think I rushed through it a bit. Wild Card? Nope. I’m going to buy it even though it’s a trope I’ve never really read before and doubt I’ll like. Never say never. I haven’t stopped thinking about Tabby and Rhys for the past week, so expect the unexpected. Oh my god, Rhys texted this to Tabby — I just remembered!

I’m currently finalizing my mood board to make my post on Instagram even though I’m unable to tag Elsie Silver in any of my posts. If it’s meant to find her, it will. Job hunting is stressful, per usual. There are a lot of new opportunities arising, so fingers crossed it all goes well.

I’m off to my small-town romance stash of books. Let’s see what else I can find.

Until next time.

Mwah.

Vivian.