Review: Wild at Heart by Patricia Gaffney

Title: Wild at Heart
Author: Patricia Gaffney
Genre: Historical Romance
Grade: A

Synopsis: It’s 1893 Chicago, and a man has just been discovered wandering around Southern Ontario. He doesn’t speak, and he’s completely wild. He’s brought to Dr. Harley Winter, an anthropologist at the University, who begins experimenting on him. During this time, the man becomes a source of fascination for Winter’s daughter, Sydney. When Sydney discovers that the lost man can speak, the anthropological experiments they’re trying become negated and it’s up to Sydney and her siblings to teach the man, who remembers that his name is Michael, to adapt to his new world.

My Thoughts: I decided to read this book thanks to Candy of Smart Bitches, who is an unashamed Gaffney fangirl. I chose this book to start because it contains a premise I wish I saw more often and which I love, that of a wild man teaching society what it means to be human. So I was predisposed to liking it, and then promptly fell into the book and didn’t emerge until I finished.

What I liked best about Gaffney’s writing is that she draws wonderful characters. Everybody is nuanced and three-dementional. We don’t have the stereotypical absentminded professor, the caricatured unsuitable fiance, or the annoyingly precocious child. Dr. Winter, his assistant Charles West, and Sydney’s little brother Sam are true characters in their own right.

And it goes without saying that I adored Sydney and Michael. Sydney was very much a woman of her times, and there are so many things about her that a less skilled author could have drawn out to make me dislike her. She’s a bit of a doormat at times, and of course there’s the bit about West, who starts out courting her. But I understood Sydney’s motivations, and I appreciated the fact that she seemed to be a genuinely kind person, with a few very human flaws. I especially liked that she wasn’t a virgin. She’d had sex in the past, with her husband who’s been dead for a while when the story opens, and she misses the intimacy, which is why she lets West sniff around her even though she doesn’t like him much.

As for Michael? Ahh, Michael. He was so completely perfect. I loved his wonder and horror as he discovers this new world, and I almost cried for his deep and abiding loneliness and the sense that he had that he just didn’t belong anywhere, once he was rescued and brought back to civilization. I also thought Gaffney struck a good balance when it came to his backstory. It was present, but didn’t overwhelm the story of his life in the present.

Also, I should mention that I loved the setting. I love that particular time period in American history, and plus, as I may have mentioned, I’m a bit bored with Regency set historical romances at the moment. So 1893 Chicago was a fun place to visit.

My only niggle is minor. It constitutes a spoiler, though, so I’ll just say that Michael’s real family felt a bit too fairy tale perfect for me. I don’t know what I would have wanted for him, but I’m not sure that they were it.

Aside from that though, which is something that may very well work for people other than me, this was a wonderful book. Highly recommended.