The fourth and final book in the Rose Hill series, Wild Card by Elsie Silver, is a small town contemporary romance and a fantastic close to the series. There is a bit of a forbidden element to the romance and a whole lot of hilarity with our characters.
Wild Card by Elsie Silver
Wild Card by Elsie Silver is the fourth book in the Rose Hill series. It is a contemporary small town romance published on September 9th, 2025. It is a slow burn and about 390 pages long with an age gap where the characters are in their late 20s and early 40s. You can find the book on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, and the author’s website here.
Premise
Bash has just had his entire life flip upside down, but finding out you have a grown child in your late 30’s and that it had been kept a secret from you forever would do that to a man. After meeting his son for the first time, all he wanted to do was curl up in his bed and process the entire situation, but unfortunately all flights have been cancelled till the morning.
Gwen was on to her next adventure but the delay in flights has put it on pause. Not willing to waste the night she plops down in a chair across from a man and orders him a drink. She’s bound and determined to spend the night breaking through Bash’s walls and get him to open up. What neither one of them anticipated was the connection they’d feel.
It’s a shame that he never reached out after their night of memories was over. It’s a shame she never responded to his messages the next morning.
Triggers
Triggers found in Wild Card by Elsie Silver include:
- Fatphobia, body shaming, and weight stigma
- Surgery and Medical Procedures
- Wild Fire Fighting
- Estrangement from parents, toxic parental relationships
- Sexually explicit scenes
My Thoughts
Right off the bat I knew this book would suck me in and hold on tight. The missed connection trope immediately got me, and as the reader, we all know exactly what happened. Neither one of them purposefully ghosted the other, but we love reading about what happened and the potential fall out from it.
“Strikes me that we’re all fucked tonight, and any open chair is fair game. If you don’t like me, then I fear I cannot help you. But if you just don’t like margaritas, then I’m happy to help you out by drinking both. I don’t have anywhere to be tonight, and I do love a good margarita.” – Wild Card by Elsie Silver
So almost a year passes and Bash shows up at his son, Tripp’s, birthday party. Shock of all is the fact that Gwen is introduced to him as Tripp’s girlfriend. So the woman he couldn’t get out of his brain is now dating the son he’s only known about for a year who he desperately wants to have a relationship with.
A frantic exchange in the bathroom reveals the truth of their situation and a wrong number being texted. And now their moment has passed because there is no way the two of them could pick up where they left off now, right?
For Gwen she knows exactly what she needs to do and immediately breaks it off with Tripp, it’s just too awkward, plus Tripp is a bit too egotistical for his own good. It wouldn’t have worked well anyway.
And while Bash heads home to wallow in his misery, Gwen takes off for her next adventure, which happens to be in Rose Hill, where Bash lives. This is where the fun begins because our favorite conspiracy theorist Clyde is about to meddle in everything in order to get these two together. And even while Gwen and Bash mostly avoid each other, they keep getting thrown together, and the connection between them becomes too much to resist.
“Do you want me to come upstairs and get you settled as well? If you keep this attitude up, I can hold a pillow down over your face to make it stop.” – Wild Card by Elsie Silver
Wild Card by Elsie Silver is a slow burn, but so worth the wait. The tension between these two, the moments where it becomes to much but they back away from each other, the way they can’t ignore the attraction and connection they feel, it’s all well done.
The yearning this man has is almost adorable, I may have kicked my feet a few times because of it. And once the spice hits, we get the dominant side of Bash, paired with a bit of bratty tendencies from Gwen making for heated scenes and some dialogue that will leave you fanning yourself.
Both characters have pasts with abandonment issues, so seeing their growth, learning to trust, and finally acceptance is fantastic. I especially loved all the found family aspects for these characters. Their friendships, and even the way they both turn toward each other.
“I lashed out, and you didn’t deserve it. So I’m sorry. If you want to be Gwen Dawson, mother of raccoons, then I won’t stand in your way. I support you in that venture. You can be seen and heard in my house. And you are welcome to befriend overgrown rodents who may or may not carry diseases. I won’t judge you.” – Wild Card by Elsie Silver
Look, normally I have a really hard time with conspiracy theory believing characters, but Clyde is fantastic. Not only in the way he meddles with Gwen and Bash, but his bluntness, and his backstory tugs at the heart strings.
If you want a funny, sort of forbidden romance, set in a small town, with a wide range of characters, you will absolutely love Wild Card.
Who Would Like Wild Card by Elsie Silver?
Tropes in Wild Card by Elsie Silver include:
- Age Gap
- Found Family
- Missed Connection
- Ex’s Dad
Make sure you check out all of my recommendations for the Rose Hill Series below:
If you liked In Good Company by Kat Singleton, Mountain Daddy by SJ Tilly, or Ignite by Melanie Harlow, you will likely love this book as well.
Have you read Wild Card by Elsie Silver, or are you adding it to your TBR? Let me know in the comments below. I love interacting with readers over books I also enjoyed.