WILDER

by Rebecca Yarros

The Renegades #1

Publication Date: September 19, 2016

Genres: Adult, Entangled: Embrace, New Adult, Romance

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He’s Paxton Wilder.

Twenty-two-year-old, tattooed, smoking-hot leader of the Renegades.

Five time X Games medalist.

The world is his playground—especially this year—and for the next nine months I’m stuck as his tutor on the Study at Sea program.

He’s too busy staging worldwide stunts for his documentary to get to class.

But if I can’t get him to take academics seriously, I’ll lose my scholarship…if I don’t lose my heart first.

Six unlikely friends on a nine-month cruise with the Study at Sea program will learn that chemistry is more than a subject and the best lessons aren’t taught in the classroom…but in the heart.

My Review

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Yippee! A new series from Rebecca Yarros! It's no secret that I love her books and the wonderful book boyfriends that she gives us, so I was super excited to read this one. I loved the sound of this. It's like the Semester at Sea program had a baby with the X Games.

We meet Leah Baxter as she is boarding the Athena. She has been accepted in to the year at sea program with a full scholarship and a job as a tutor. She doesn't know who she will be tutoring, but she knows that without the job she wouldn't be on the ship. Within minutes of boarding the ship, it becomes very clear that her year aboard will be an amazing experience that she will never forget.

Paxton Wilder needs a tutor and Leah happens to be that tutor. Their first meeting was anything but successful and while Leah realizes she has her work cut out for her. Paxton is pretty much the opposite of Leah. He's outgoing. His job is being daredevil. He loves to live life on the edge. But despite those differences, Paxton finds that he is very attracted to Leah.

“Okay then. Do you have your schedule so I know what classes you have?”

“I have every class you do.”

Her mouth dropped open. “How is that even possible?”

“I needed to know you could help me, or take notes if I had to miss class.” Because I engineered it that way.

“Did you sleep with the registrar or something? How did you make that happen? You know what? I don’t even want to know. We have seminar at nine a.m. tomorrow. Do you think you can make it? Or were you planning on waterskiing behind the ship or something?”

“That’s not even…” Huh. I wondered if it was possible. Maybe if the rope was long enough, and we launched from—

“Unbelievable. No wonder you need a tutor. You’ve killed off all your brain cells doing stupid crap. Tell me something—are you just here for the Renegade Channel?”

My eyes widened. “I thought you didn’t know who I was?”

She rolled hers. “Come on. We’re still close enough to port to have good internet, and there’s not a lot of Paxton Wilders running around. Google is pretty nifty with the whole search thing.”

I swallowed. How much did she know? “What did it tell you?”

“That you run a YouTube channel with a few friends who all have ridiculous stage names, you’ve won a couple X Game medals in motocross or snowmobiling or something.”

“Both,” I answered automatically.

“Great. You enjoy flinging yourself off mountains and buildings and generally see exactly what it would take to kill yourself, and I’m responsible for getting you through this academic year while you’re doing it all over the world, right?”

Fuck. She put it together so quickly. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, I doubt those hugely expensive cameras are here to document some boring reality show featuring your academics center stage, so the only plausible explanation is that you’re here to take your little channel international. Or is it bigger?”

“Bigger,” I answered truthfully. “Some of the things we have planned aren’t exactly legal in the U.S., so it seemed to be a great time to shoot the documentary. What else did you learn?”

“That you prefer leggy blondes who have a disproportionate ratio of breast to waist. Which is fine with me; I’m sure there’s a full treasure trove here to select from, and I’m safe since I don’t fit any of that criteria.”

“Whoa, when did I even hint—?”

She threw her palms out. “You didn’t. I just figured I’d get ahead of you. Look, you almost killed me, dumped me into a huge pool, and now I’m stuck with you if I want to stay on this trip. I understand what I signed up for. But I will not be involved in anything you do—like I was today—ever again. You and I are business only, got it?”

I nodded slowly. “Got it.” What the fuck just happened?

“Good. Now you can leave. I’ll see you at seminar in the morning.” She walked to the door and held it open until I left her room, closing the door behind me with a loud click.

I was halfway to my room before I started laughing. Little Eleanor Baxter had done the one thing no other girl had done in my lifetime—dismissed me outright.

I knew I liked her for a reason.

On paper, Leah and Paxton should not work. They are just too different. Leah has her reasons for acting the way she does, but with Paxton's help, she slowly comes out of her shell. She finds herself doing things that not only scare her, but also make her feel alive, which is something she hasn't felt in a long time. And Paxton...WOW. He did things in this book that made me swoon like crazy! Total book boyfriend material! (Rebecca is REALLY good at that.) And even when I shouldn't like him, I totally did.

One of the things I really loved about this book was all the traveling. The author did a great job of transporting me to places I have never been, but it felt as though I had. I think my favorite spot was Greece, but that could have been because that was were Paxton totally stole my heart because he did something that was so sweet it made me want to reach into the book and steal him for myself.

And props to Rebecca because she did that thing where she threw me for a loop and made me yell out "PLOT TWIST!" Thank god I was home and not in public.

I can't wait to read the next book...it is going to be goooooooood.

WILDER BOOK TRAILER

EXCERPT

I’m here on my own feet, chasing you, pursuing you. Not vice versa. I don’t know what’s happening between us, but I’m also not stupid enough to dismiss it without exploration.” One of his hands palmed my cheek, both soothing and electrifying me in one motion. “If we’d been alone on that beach, I wouldn’t have held back, wouldn’t have had to think about what you wouldn’t want in the public eye.”

He dragged his thumb across my lower lip, and I kissed it lightly, unable to stop myself.

He sucked in a breath. “I would have kissed you exactly as I’ve been fantasizing about since the first second I saw you standing on this balcony, all wide-eyed and beautiful.”

“Paxton,” I whispered, leaning in to him. His words melted me, made me want things like his mouth, his hands— things I couldn’t have, like his heart.

“I would have kissed you like this.” His mouth took mine, open and hungry, his tongue—sweet mercy, his tongue—slipping past my lips to stroke, explore, and savor, igniting a fire within me. I pressed at the same time he pulled, bringing our bodies flush against each other, and the fit was electrifying.

He tasted better than I imagined, all dark chocolate and mint.

His empty hand tunneled through my hair to the back of my head while mine wound around his neck, desperate to get closer, to take this one chance I had to not only taste but experience him. Over and over, he brought our mouths together, one moment gently sucking on my lower lip and the next sliding his tongue along mine. He’d caress my mouth gently, then plunge in possession, a blatant ownership that made my thighs clench, my stomach burn.

The man kissed like he rode—with a single-minded focus that made everything else in the world pale in comparison—and I could only go along for the ride.

He made me feel consumed yet empty, desperate yet sated all in one moment. Screw the sports documentary, he should make one on how to properly kiss a woman and save millions of clueless men.

My fingers dug into the muscles of his shoulders as his hands moved to my ass, squeezing and lifting me against his impossibly hard stomach with a groan. “Fuck, Leah. You have the most incredible ass,” he groaned against my mouth, sending bolts of pure, dizzying lust spiraling through me. “All soft curves and perfect in my hands.”

I whimpered when our mouths met again, the kiss taking on an edge that had me arching against him, exploring the ridges of his teeth with my tongue before he sucked it in. In that moment I was Paxton’s, and it was glorious.

ABOUT REBECCA YARROS

Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and a lover of all things coffee, chocolate, and Paleo. She is the author of the Flight & Glory series, including Full Measures, the award-winning Eyes Turned Skyward, Beyond What is Given, and Hallowed Ground. She loves military heroes, and has been blissfully married to hers for fourteen years. When she’s not writing, she’s tying hockey skates for her four sons, sneaking in some guitar time, or watching brat-pack movies with her two daughters. She lives in Colorado with the hottest Apache pilot ever, their rambunctious gaggle of kids, an English bulldog who is more stubborn than sweet, and a bunny named General Fluffy Pants who torments the aforementioned bulldog. They recently adopted their youngest daughter from the foster system, and Rebecca is passionate about helping others do the same.