Nothing But Wild by P. Dangelico
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Dallas Van Zant…
Water polo god.
Shameless flirt.
Beautiful disaster in the most literal sense of that label.
Trust me, it’s not hyperbole. He’s in big trouble with the law.
What does this have to do with me, you ask? Unfortunately, a lot. For some reason, which I still can’t quite wrap my brain around, I’ve been talked into driving him around as part of his plea deal.
Problem is, he makes me nervous. I’m not good with people, men in particular, popular athletes especially. I’ve worked really hard to get my disability under control and one minute in his company and all my hard work flies out the window.
To top it all off, I promised myself that I was going to make some serious changes this year. I’m tired of feeling awkward around boys. I’m tired of never having had a boyfriend. I’m tired of being lonely. And he’s wrecking my plans.
But I’m also not the type to turn away a person in need. So I’ll do what I must to help him out.
I’ll just pretend that I’m not enjoying his company. And I’ll ignore the fact that he’s sweet and funny. And I’ll tell myself every day that he’s out of my league.
Because I’m as inexperienced as they come. And Dallas Van Zant is nothing but wild.
BLURB: Nothing But Wild
Dallas makes an awesome book boyfriend!
I had some real issues at the beginning of this book, but after about 20% it was much better and I really ended up enjoying the story and the characters. This story was about a sweet girl named Dora Ramos who has a lot of insecurities but is crushing on the hottest guy at her college. His name is Dallas Van Zant and he is the best player on the water polo team and quite a player with the ladies as well.
My main problem with the beginning of this book is that Dora’s inner commentary lets us know that she considers herself overweight and that is her main insecurity. It is drilled into the reader over and over with commentary about food, diet, weight and how she thinks about herself. In one single chapter she says things like how she ran away faster than she jumps on a doughnut, how she failed to cram her booty into a Winnie the Pooh costume, how asking if she wants a boyfriend is like asking is she wants a Twinkie, how she will never turn down an iced latte, and how no California men want her “meat” as opposed to the bone of thinner girls.
I know that the BBW is all the trend in books recently, but you don’t have to go on and on about it. We get it already after the first comment. I personally think that the fact that she has a stutter could have been what she was insecure about, not the weight issue. She hardly seemed insecure about the stutter though. I wish books would just not mention the weight of the woman at all, like it is a non-issue whether the heroine is thin or fat.
After all the background information was given and Dora and Dallas started interacting with each other, the weight issue wasn’t mentioned as much so I was able to start enjoying the story more. There were a lot of supporting characters though and for me it was a bit hard to keep track of who was who. The reason being that all the guys (Friends and teammates of Dallas) have more than one name. They have their first name, last name and a nickname. One time he would refer to one by their last name, the next by their nickname and then again by the first name. I think his best friend was referred to as Rea, Reagan, Reynolds, and Cap.
The same with the girls, all the girls called each other by first name and Dora had a friend Alice Bailey, so they kept calling her Alice and Dallas kept calling her Bailey. I had to go back to the beginning where her full name was mentioned to see which of her friends he was talking about. Though I realize this is how it works in real life. Guys do often call people by the first name sometimes and last name another time as well as using nicknames a lot. Once I got all the friends straight it wasn’t an issue.
The romance between Dallas and Dora was slow to develop, they became friends first. I really like the character of Dallas. He was attracted to Dora very early on and his point of view was particularly good as he fell for her more and more. Dora saw Dallas as her dream man that she could never have as a boyfriend because her insecurities wouldn’t let her think that he might want her that way.
Though as Dora gets to know Dallas more, she sees what a great guy he is. Not just a beautiful player without depth. There are some storylines about each of their families and things that happened in the past and it all is brought together nicely. There are several steamy scenes that are terrific and in the end, I really want Dallas as a boyfriend! 😉 I ended up really liking the story and though I will take away one star for the issues I discussed, I still give this book 4 stars overall.
I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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