I also enjoyed how her relationship with Wren, her father, also grew and healed. It was great to see her finally realize that it is possible to survive without a full face of makeup and access to internet 24/7. If there’s one thing I learned from reading stories set in Alaska, it’s that community and the support you get from it, is a big part of surviving up there.

That said, her character growth was so satisfying to witness! It wasn’t exactly a quick adjustment, but I loved that she slowly let her city girl go, and slowly found her place in the close-knit community in Bangor. It became eye-roll inducing at one point. She was a spoiled and entitled millennial who thought life didn’t exist without the internet, and who wouldn’t stop spouting about how expensive everything in her luggage was. I’ll admit that I wasn’t Calla’s biggest fan at the start. What can I say about The Simple Wild other than I loved it?! I’ve already shared how much I love the setting, but the characters and their stories also quickly grew on me. It’s a simple truth that turns out to be not so simple after all. It would be foolish of her to kindle a romance, to take the same path her parents tried-and failed at-years ago. As his undercurrent of disapproval dwindles, it’s replaced by friendship-or perhaps something deeper? But Calla is not in Alaska to stay and Jonah will never leave.

As time passes, she unexpectedly finds herself forming a bond with the burly pilot. Jonah is probably right, but Calla is determined to prove him wrong. And he’s clearly waiting with one hand on the throttle to fly this city girl back to where she belongs, convinced that she’s too pampered to handle the wild. While she struggles to adjust to this new subarctic environment, Jonah-the quiet, brooding, and proud Alaskan pilot who keeps her father’s charter plane company operational-can’t imagine calling anywhere else home. She braves the roaming wildlife, the odd daylight hours, the exorbitant prices, and even the occasional-dear God-outhouse, all for the chance to connect with her father: a man who, despite his many faults, she can’t help but care for.

But when her father reaches out to inform her that his days are numbered, Calla knows that it’s time to make the long trip back to the remote frontier town where she was born. Calla never looked back, and at twenty-six, a busy life in Toronto is all she knows. Calla Fletcher was two when her mother took her and fled the Alaskan wild, unable to handle the isolation of the extreme, rural lifestyle, leaving behind Calla’s father, Wren Fletcher, in the process.

The simple wild book 2