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Title: Wild at Heart
ISBN: 0451205987
Author:
Patricia Gaffney
Publicate Date: 2002-04-01
Publish: 2002-04-01
List Price: $13.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $0.90
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
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1: Great Hero
This book is completely unbelievable, but who cares when the hero is so wonderful? For some reason, I enjoy stories about "wild" people adjusting to life back in civilization. I read Alice Hoffman's Second Nature (Gaffney's admitted inspiration for this book) many years ago, and I've also seen the great Truffaut film, The Wild Child. Gaffney's book is interesting because, being a romance novel, it has a happy ending - the wild man adapts to society and finds a home.
This story takes place in 1893 in Chicago during the World's Fair. The hero's name is Michael MacNeil and as a young boy he was on a rafting expedition in Canada with his aunt and uncle in which no one survived but him. He spent the next 18 years living in the wild, alone except for animal friends. Then he is found and locked up as a human "oddity." The heroine, Sydney, meets Michael because her father is an anthropologist who wants to study him to prove whether human beings are innately good or bad. Eventually, her father abandons his study of Michael, and Sydney and her two brothers decide to help him learn to adjust to the civilized world.
This book had a lot of really cute scenes, and I loved how slowly and believably Sydney and Michael fell in love. I also loved the characters of her two younger brothers. Where I think the book dropped the ball a bit was in its characterization of the time period. Gaffney points out how horrible it is that Michael is caged at first - but when Sydney and her family visit the World's Fair, there is no mention of the hundreds of people who were similarly on "display" at the Fair. The character of Michael has a HUGE problem with animals being caged at the zoo, but there are no comments about the Exposition's Midway Plaisance? I personally find the objectification of people at the 1893 Fair far more objectionable than a zoo (although a 1893 zoo was bad, too) and I wish it had been addressed.
That's sort of a minor problem, though, when the overall romantic wonderfulness of the book is taken into account. Highly recommended!
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2: Entertaining, but not much more...
"Wild at Heart" was different, but not what I wanted it to be. I was very excited by the idea of this book: A man living in the wild falling in love with the daughter of the man studying him. I thought that sounded so different and intriguing. Sadly, the idea was just barely touched upon and the uncivilized Michael was no wild man at all, but very civilized indeed. All in all, this book wasnt bad, but very mediocre. Not a keeper.
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3: Disappointingly tame at heart
After reading the rave reader reviews, I was disappointed by this effort by Gaffney. I expected primal passion and a strong unorthodox hero, but got an overly tame wolf cub controlled by an insipid heroine, in a sappy syrupy romance eclipsed by domestic dramas. The younger brother Philip was more intriguing than the hero and would have been better romance material with his dissolute ways, but even he gets Disneyfied at the end. I had a tough time finishing the book and skimmed the final bedroom scene. There is virtually no romantic or sexual tension between Sydney and Michael. Such happy people, such uninspired and uninspiring romantic drama! For a better take on the primitive male tamed by a strong, intelligent woman, read Katherine Sutcliffe's "Devotion" or better yet, Lisa Kleypas' "Flowers from the Storm," the smartest, sexiest romance ever written. For a better Gaffney novel, try "Lily" or "To Have and to Hold," complex and erotic love stories.
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4: Delightful!
I had never read anything by Patricia Gaffney, but the cover promised that it was different somehow, and indeed it is! Can't remember when I have enjoyed a story more. Not only do I highly recommend this book, I can guarantee that I will be reading more by this author in the very near future!
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5: The best!
This is a wonderful, spellbinding book. The book maintains an excellent balance between storyingtelling and romance. Each plot turn is well developed but never overdone. Ms. Gaffney is a very talented writer. I loved this book!
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