The Girls Trip

The Girls Trip by Ally Condie, 320 pages

Hope, Ash, and Caro met in a Zoom book club, but soon branched out into their own Zoom meetings to chat and connect with other women going through difficulties in life. Hope is an actress who is losing herself in the glare of the spotlight; Ash has a successful business as a florist, though her success has put a strain on her marriage; and Caro's an anesthesiologist who recently lost a patient and is struggling to find her way back to work. So when Hope suggests meeting in-person for a glamping and hiking trip off the grid, Ash and Caro jump at the chance to connect in real life, and leave their worries behind. However, things don't go as planned, and soon, one of them is missing, leaving the other two second-guessing everything they thought they knew about each other.

For the first 75% of this book, it was compelling, with distinct main characters and a ratcheting sense of tension and distrust. However, the last quarter of the book went a bit off the rails, and the bad guy seems to come out of nowhere, almost like the author picked the character out of a hat. It was particularly disappointing, given how invested I was the rest of the book. I just really wish it had stuck the landing.

Something Wilder

Something Wilder by Christina Lauren (2022) 361 pages

I've been wanting to read something by the Christina Lauren duo (Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings) for a while, and Something Wilder jumped at me. Lily Wilder, along with her best friend Nicole, are just scraping by while giving pretend treasure-hunt tours in Utah. It has been 10 years since Lily's one true love, Leo, had left, and her only wish now is to get enough money to buy back the ranch that her late father, Duke, had sold in Wyoming. When she learns that the ranch is up for sale again, she wishes that the stories her dad had told about Butch Cassidy hiding his loot from a bank robbery long ago were true. Her dad spent a lot of time in Utah, searching the canyons for the treasure, and when he sold the ranch in Wyoming, that's where they lived until he died.

Meanwhile, Leo is New York, still pining because Lily never contacted him again after he left her because his mother was injured. His mother died and he stayed in New York to raise his younger sister. He writes computer code to thwart hackers and is a whiz at solving puzzles. One of his friends plans a trip for four of them to go on one of Lily's treasure hunt tours, and Leo is blindsided when he sees Lily. Likewise for her. They eventually have "the talk," the one where they discover that their separation was not wanted by either of them, but Lily can't break down her wall, not wanting to be so hurt again.

The group sets out on horseback, with minimal provisions. The guys are suffering from the rigor of the trip while the women easily handle the horses, heat, and meals. When one of the guys, Terry, goes rogue, all bets are off. Especially when it seems that the notebook filled with Duke's old maps and notes might actually show that finding a real treasure is possible after all. But danger awaits!