• Sexually explicit content.

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Growing up the daughter of notorious treasure hunter and absentee father Duke Wilder left Lily without much patience for the profession…or much money in the bank. But Lily is resourceful, and now uses Duke’s coveted hand-drawn maps to guide tourists on fake treasure hunts through the red rock canyons of Utah. It pays the bills but doesn’t leave enough to deal with the sight of the man she once loved walking back into her life with a motley crew of friends ready to hit the trails. Frankly, Lily would like to take him out into the wilderness and leave him there.

Leo Grady knew mirages were a thing in the desert, but they’d barely left civilization when the silhouette of his greatest regret comes into focus in the flickering light of the campfire. Ready to leave the past behind him, Leo wants nothing more than to reconnect with his first and only love. Unfortunately, Lily Wilder is all business, drawing a clear line in the sand: it’s never going to happen.

But when the trip goes horribly and hilariously wrong, the group wonders if maybe the legend of the hidden treasure wasn’t a gimmick after all.  There’s a chance to right the wrongs—of Duke’s past and their own—but only if Leo and Lily can confront their history and work together. Alone under the stars in the isolated and dangerous mazes of the Canyonlands, Leo and Lily must decide whether they’ll risk their lives and hearts on the treasure hunt of a lifetime.

This page-turning adventure full of second chances, complicated relationships, and the breathtaking beauty of the American Southwest will take you on one wild ride.

Indiana Jones meets Hallmark channel, with a few underwhelming steamy bits. But if you are tuned into Lifetime for the storyline and never-failing romance formula, the spice is medium and should not deter you from reading it. The steamy scenes actually add to Lily’s and Leo’s personalities.

The characters have a history, that is evident from the beginning. And it was a short, intense history. But a good chunk of time has passed since then.  Memories have turned to pain, betrayal, and a good amount of bitterness.

Truthfully, the only reason I gravitated toward this book is my penchant for the southwest. Utah’s southwestern national parks hold a few of my favorite happy places.

We all know that romance stories follow a certain formula. And it works. Why mess with it? This book stuck to the formula in an annoying cookie-cutter way. There are too many ‘because-of-plot’ moments. Too many ‘how convenient’ eye-rolling coincidences. True, there are expected to be a certain number of romance-novel-stereotypes in a romance novel. But I feel this book abused them.

As for things going ‘horribly and hilariously’ wrong. Horribly—yes. Hilariously—not so much. There are a few moments that are chuckle-worthy. But hilarious? Hardly.

All the characters, main and side, stick to their personalities – mostly. A few bits here and there, seemed to come from far-left field for Leo.

Maybe it was that fact that the third Indian Jones movie began in the southwest deserts of Utah or that the father/son element. In this case father/daughter. The book channeled that feeling for me. And not in a wow, that was a great new take on family treasure hunting.

I enjoyed reading it for the most part, but don’t think I will reach for it again. Subjectively, it wasn’t my cup-of-tea to begin with.

Objectively, I don’t think that this should turn anyone off from ready anything else by Christina Lauren. Hallmark and Lifetime movies are popular for a reason. For me, this is where this book falls. Snuggly into that category. All the stereotypical formula plot points plus a bit more spice—a tiny bit.