Review :: The Wild One by Janet Gover

Last year I read Janet Gover’s Christmas at Coorah Creek and loved it so much that I vowed to read more of the Coorah Creek series. The perfect opportunity came up when I spotted The Wild One on NetGalley a little while ago. This is the second book in the Coorah Creek series – I think it is the kind of series where it might be nice but certainly isn’t necessary to read the books in order (I’ve now read book 3, followed by book 2 and loved them both). It was a joy to revisit this rural community – scroll down for my full review.

What is Janet Gover’s The Wild One about?

Iraq war veteran Dan Mitchell once disobeyed an order – and it nearly destroyed him. Now a national park ranger at Coorah Creek, he’s faced with another order that he cannot obey.

Professional photographer Quinn finds beauty in unlikely places. Quinn’s work comforted Dan in his darkest days, and she can help him again. But she knows darkness too – and Dan soon realises that she needs his help just as much as he needs hers.

Carrie Bryant was a talented jockey before a shocking race fall broke her nerve. Horse breeder Justin Fraser is fighting to save his heritage, but would gladly lose it all to heal Carrie.

Four wounded souls fight for the life of a magnificent wild stallion. Could saving him save them all?

My review of The Wild One by Janet Gover

I absolutely loved being back in Coorah Creek, and devoured this in a single day. One of the things that grabbed me from the very start was how real the setting felt. I thought it was so well described that the park felt like an additional character in the book. As with Christmas at Coorah Creek I also really enjoyed the community of characters we meet in the book, which is something I always look out for in rural fiction.

The main plot about saving a herd of brumbies from the park was the perfect background upon which to bring together the four main characters and build the bonds between them but also have some realistic tensions – both between characters and also sometimes within themselves. I liked the look we got at the backgrounds of each character – I thought they were developed enough to feel authentic and have some depth and also be moving towards some growth by the end of the book. There are some fairly heavy themes/topics raised in the story, including infant loss and PTSD, which some readers might like to be aware of. I thought these issues were handled with sensitivity and didn’t feel at all gratuitous or like they were added for drama or shock value.

Reading The Wild One made me really keen to revisit Coorah Creek through Gover’s other books set there – I still haven’t read the first book (Flight to Coorah Creek) and there are at least two other later titles.

I absolutely recommend this one to fans of Aussie rural fiction. If you do pick it up please let me know what you thought!

xo Bron
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The Wild One by Janet Gover
Out now from Escape Publishing

Source: I received a free digital copy for review from Escape Publishing via NetGalley (thank you!)
Category: Contemporary Australian rural romance

Find Janet Gover online here.
The Wild One on Goodreads
My review of Christmas at Coorah Creek

You can read an excerpt from The Wild One over on the Romance.com.au website.

Want more rural romance? Check out these posts.