Wild Child by Mike Wells

Publisher:  Mike Wells
Publish Date:  March 12, 2011
Available on Kindle:  B004RVZBFW
Cover Illustration:   Seron Fuller

Summary:  Briana Fox is the wildest girl in school.  She and Kyle have been close for a long time...almost lovers.  But Kyle is afraid that if he pushes her, he'll have his heart broken and lose his best friend.  When Briana challenges him to a swim across the lake, she's injured in a horrific accident, but discovers a mysterious substance in an underwater cave that saves her life.  What seems to be a magical yet harmless "power drug" invokes superhuman abilities, and Briana soon becomes dependent on it for her very survival.  When two government agents learn of the discovery,  they will stop at nothing to find the source and turn Briana into a human experiment.  Is Kyle willing to risk everything to protect his love?


WILD CHILD was a fast-paced read.  I finished the book in one night - not because it was easy or simple, but because it was fast-paced and exciting.  If you like mystery and drama, you'll like this story.  If anything, I would have liked a bit of back story for Brianna and Kyle - I felt like I was missing out on some good stuff.  However, it's not needed, I just wanted it, the story stands on its own without any back story at all.  Brianna is injured by a boat and Kyle thinks she's dead but she reappears better than ever.  It turns out that she's found a spring in the lake with this fantastical water - it makes you feel awesome!  I really like the way Brianna's injury is described, you can easily imagine it but it's not so graphic that you're grossed out. 

Brianna is kind of a brat.  She tries to get Kyle to do things, like swim across the lake, by calling him chicken and teases him about him looking at her.  I think I would have felt worse about the accident if she had been a nicer girl.  Kyle has to deal with Brianna, his cranky dad and the police/Feds without letting Brianna die or be used for research.  I was really surprised by the ending, I didn't think nice guy Kyle had it in him!  It was a great twist in the story and I had to read it twice as I simply couldn't believe he did it! 


To my way of thinking this is traditional science fiction - it could actually happen, who's to say it can't?  There's no zombies/vampires/magical beings...just some weird water.  Sometimes the best idea is to keep it simple.  Too many current books go on and on and by the time you get to the end, you think 'seriously? what happened to that stuff at the beginning?' 

Mr. Wells is making all of his books available in ebook format.  I think that's awesome, so many people are looking for good books that they can download!   Mr. Wells actually gave away all of his print copies of WILD CHILD when he moved to teach in Latvia.  Unknown to him, people picked them out of the recycling and were selling them on Amazon!  The book is used in ESL (English as a Second Language) classes in Latvia and other places because it is modern and has 'simple, yet engaging language'.