Elsie at her very best.

All my favorite tropes: marriage of convenience; unexpected guardianship; found family; hate-to-love; mountain sexual tension; #brokenboy only he’s a big ol tattooed WRESTLER
Truly my wrestling-loving ass was eating this up. Hello Roman Reigns and welcome to Rose Hill :D

Imagine the world as we know it if romance authors were given the reigns to write Wrestling Storylines. Think of the drama! The tension! The satisfaction! It would heal me. It will never happen, because WWE is full of ugly weird businessmen that we’d pick bears over, but that is why I imagine we have Elsie Silver.

I tore through this audiobook in 2 days. It would have been one, had I not needed to pause to do some actual work. Not only are Jason Clarke and Samantha Brentmoor a nuclear duo in romance narrating; Rhys and Tabitha are absolutely electric from the moment they first come into contact.

Rhys is broody, grumpy, and reclusive with good reason. Tabby is anxious, stubborn, and funny with even better reason. They collide on the very first page into what will be a lightning storm of sexual tension, banter, and self-exploration. Elsie has proven with Chestnut Springs (particularly Reckless) that she can kick ass at building relationships and crafting real emotional connection through characters that seem to be complete opposites. But she outdoes herself with Wild Side.

Tabitha Garrison made it her personal mission to look out for her sister, Erica, in order to give her nephew, Milo, the best shot she could. Addiction is never easy, and trying to take care of your sister who is all sorts of complicated is even harder. But she does her best. Setting her up in a small town and paying a visit to the landlord/neighbor to give him a heads up to watch out for Erica and Milo when she’s gone.

What Tabitha is not expecting just a year later is that grumpy asshole of a landlord/neighbor to be named the legal guardian in Erica’s will when she unfortunately overdoses. Rhys is many things: he’s a recluse, he’s mysterious, he’s big and hot and tattooed and (god) SO sexy. But he’s also extremely invested in Milo’s wellbeing, despite claiming he was never romantically involved with Erica. He is also ready to fight Tabitha for custody over Milo if it comes down to it. The only problem? He’s AMERICAN! And his work visa will limit his travel into Canada to visit and stay with Milo until they can figure out a game plan.

Said game plan: a marriage of convenience.

From the get-go, these two do NOT get along, and it’s probably the only thing they have in common (how much they don’t like each other) other than their love of a 3 year old who named a plant after his dead mom and throws tantrums in grocery stores when you don’t neigh like a horse when he tells you to.

You could also count the fact that they are always one glare away from ripping each others clothes off at any point in time as something they have in common, but that’s pretty much a given in these situations. It’s clear that Rhys has a serious trust issue. After being gone for weeks, he’ll come back with mysterious bruises and won’t divulge his day job other than saying he works in “entertainment” and not correcting Tabitha when she suggests he’s a pornstar. There is also the whole thing where Tabitha blames him for her sister’s death because Erica overdosed very soon after Rhys evicted her. Overall, not the best foundation for a successful marriage, but that’s okay because they’re horny enough for each other than they can successfully convince their friends and family to have an actual wedding!

What sets Wild Side apart from the rest of the Rose Hill and even Chestnut Springs series is the switch up of subject matter.

yes, it’s small town. Yes, Rhys is technically a ‘single dad’ in this bowling league, but the wrestling angle is something I haven’t seen in Contemporary Romance yet, and the way that Elsie integrates it into the plot—with the theatrics, the physical danger, the dichotomy in Hannah Monthana—I mean Rhys—to both love what he does and be wary or embarassed about it—makes it that much more compelling. It’s just enough wrestling for you to enjoy but not consider it a sports romance.
The found family of it all is beautifully done. Elsie treated the heavy subject matter of a foster system failing Rhys with lovely care. His detachment to others, to his own name, was warranted because of his background. But he wasn’t the type to just wallow in it or let it make him a bad person. He found something to put his energy into. Wrestling helped him, but it didn’t BECOME him, and that’s why I think he’s my favorite Elsie man (sorry Theo love you).

Tabitha and Rhys’s relationship doesn’t open up and progress until they’re both ready to accept and come clean and get closure about several things. For Tabby, it’s her sister. For Rhys, it’s his need to hide. Is it one of Elsie’s slowest burns? Yeah, I think so. But it works.

It is also, by far, her best 3rd act. I love to see a writer grow with every book, and Wild Side proved that Elsie has grown past forced 3rd act breakups or tension that falls flat and resolves quickly. The events of the third act are real, the characters’ reactions are real, and the way they approach their relationship is so real. (no spoilers here but god I loved Tabby so much).

One of my favorite small details was how important it was for Tabitha to feed Rhys. Food security was a big thing for Rhys growing up, and she identified that quickly. Pair that with the fact that Tabitha is a chef who literally has made it her life’s passion to feed people—it is a beautiful character design on Elsie’s part. A perfect matchup.

Elsie Silver has been one of my favorite authors since I picked up Flawless in 2022. And Wild Side just confirmed why. This is one of those books that I’ll be adding to my re-read roster, one of them that I’ll be comparing everything else I read to. I can’t wait to see what she does with WILD CARD. Only she can get me to actually enjoy an EX-BF’s dad trope.