A punch…right in the feels

Love Always,Wild is book one in the For Him series. A contemporary MM series of interconnected books.

This is my first time reading AM Johnson and wow does her writing pack a punch…right in the feels.
"He’d looked at me like I was his saving grace, like I was the last thread holding him together"

I'm not usually a fan of second chance romances, but this one absolutely hooked me in. With the right balance of angst and tension you are on the edge needing to see where their story takes them.
Jax and Wild's story is emotional and heartbreaking but absolutely beautiful nonetheless. Finding their way back to hapiness after nine years wasn't their only hurdle. With small minded towns people, family tragedy and inner struggles of worth.

If you haven't given this one a read yet I definitely recommend, the audiobook is brilliant Tim Paige and Kirt Graves brings the characters to life that you feel the emotion in the story. I'm also looking forward to seeing where the next story in the series takes us.

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beautiful story, beautiful narration

This is so beautiful , I couldn't imagine reading this without the narration, it puts all the feels into the words.

would recommend day in and out. The love between these two goes on despite years apart.

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Love so much!

I loved this book so much! we were taken on an amazing journey with two people who had to really work hard to make their lives better and to make their love work (no stupid magic-fixes or sex-solves-everything crap). I also loved how fully fleshed out the side characters were, I could really sympathise with Ethan and Anders and hope the best for them- no useless spot-filler characters in this book! the southern element was also fantastic. the performance was brilliant and I loved the accents (I'm a sucker for southern accents)

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Despite the drama, I loved this!

“Wilder,” she said in a tone that made me feel like I was five years old. “You just love to create your own drama, don’t you?”

Wilder and Jax are secret lovers until Jax ghosts Wilder and never makes contact again. Years later, still hurt and needing to process, Wilder writes a best-selling novel about the affair and Jax dares to reach out. I liked a lot about this epic second-chances romance: Jax’s small-town, religious, and family obligations that have stifled him for years; Wilder’s dissatisfaction with anyone since Jax; their email exchanges; and the wonderful audio narrators (Kirt Graves as Wilder and Tim Paige as Jax). I felt frustrated by Wilder at times, he manufactured unnecessary drama, but I didn’t hold it against him - some people are just built that way. Overall, a great story with a very satisfying epilogue. I like that this whole series centres around novelists and publishers, it’s a great theme!

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Best audio series

There I said it! this series audio is incredible!

Wild and Jax's story is so well written. You could understand and reason with the mistakes Jax made and the depths of their love.

I am so glad I stumbled across this.

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Swoon and Longing

Beautiful men. So hurt but forgiving. They couldn’t stop the pull towards each other. I always want more spice but I loved the anticipation, goosebumps!

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fantastic

really enjoyed this book. loved the character building especially of Jax, the narration was great too.

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Cute but..

Slightly predictable and gets a little off track with 4 chapters back to back of basically physical imagery/scenes. Starts off quite intriguing but fizzles to a quite average predictable ending. Good for a little background noise novel

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I really wanted to like this

The first act of this story hooked me. The intrigue surrounding our MCs Wilder and Jax as they struggled to move on in their lives after a sudden and unresolved end to their relationship 9 years prior kept me longing to know more. The narration was also fantastic (especially Tim Paige as Jax).

Unfortunately, this longing gradually turned into eyerolling and irritation as the story concluded. This story needed the eye of an editor, someone to trim off the bloat, narrow rhe focus and tweak some of the immersion-breaking thematic flaws.

Wilder in particular left a bitter taste in my mouth. I could not sympathise with his character and found him to be unlikeable, selfish, tedious, and far too dramatic. His ability to self reflect came across superficial - often acknowledging how self-centred he was being for the sake of other characters, but never reaching a point of growth beyond that acknowledgment. Dizzying oscillation between adolescent callousness and bizarre insight into experiences he has no reference point for. There was a persistent disconnect with how loving and considerate Wilder is said to be with how little consideration for, or interest in (and in some cases how obnoxiously insensitive he is) to the people in his life.

Jax's family tragedies and grief was handled just as poorly. Wilder's heartbreak being centred over the horrific reality Jax has to live with felt very out-of-touch. While the narrative tried to emphasise Wilder's pain as being on par with Jax's, often by heightening the stakes through reactions that felt far too dramatic for the situation, the stakes and risks between Wilder and Jax were not remotely comparative,

Overall a frustraing experience. What could have been a cathartic exploration of two people dealing with the ghosts of their past, saying goodbye to what never was, finding closure and departing into their separate, meaningful futures with the men that could offer them more stable and healthy relationships became a hollow second-chance fantasy that lacked chemistry between the love interests and bordered on toxic.

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