I love a good queer rom-com and this one was perfect. I will definitely be reading more from Laura Kay, especially if they're as wonderful as this one!

This was a phenomenal romance that really melted my heart. It will be a great addition to our romance section and will keep patrons engaged from the first page to the last.

I was expecting a cute romance, but this is really about friendship. I didn’t connect with the romance.

I tried to get into this one over a few months, and I was unable to find myself hooked enough to continue. I made it to about 25% through and decided I did not feel tied to any of the characters, although they were endearing.
I think one of the struggles was I saw this marketed as a queer Emily Henry novel and I don't think the two actually do match up. Maybe if I didn't have that bias going in, I would've been able to view it differently.

Thank you to Vintage Anchor and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wild Things is marketed as romance but it's more a fun loving friendship story. I think many millennials will feel the call of living in the countryside with their friends, isn't that dream? So I really enjoyed reading the dynamics of the group, the romance sub plot was slow but sweet but I feel like the found family vibes stole the show. Can I move to a gay commune now please?

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

3.5/5. A sweet story about finding your way and discovering who you really are. I enjoyed being along the journey with the main character as she tries new things to figure out who she really is and claim the life she actually wants. It took a bit for me to get into the story but as the relationships began to develop more, this read became much more interesting. I'd recommend this to readers that enjoy the likes of Boyfriend Material and Infamous.

I read a compelling book that seamlessly blended engaging storytelling with thought-provoking themes. The characters were well-developed, drawing me into their world and making their journeys feel relatable. The pacing was spot-on, keeping me hooked from beginning to end. The author's prose was both elegant and accessible, enhancing the overall reading experience. The plot had enough twists to keep me guessing without feeling contrived. While the ending provided closure, it also left room for contemplation. Overall, it was a satisfying and enjoyable read, showcasing the author's skill in crafting a compelling narrative that resonates with a wide audience.

If you want a cute light hearted read about friendship and kinda self discovery, this is the write book for you.

This is the perfect read if you want something light-hearted. Its such a good queer romance and I find that there arent many of those.

I love when I feel connected to characters in a story, and Eleanor is one of those where we understand what she feels. It's a really heartwarming book.

Wild Things is a book about a young woman named El who feels like she is in a rut in life, her job is stagnant, her crush on her best friend-Ray- is stagnant, everything feels monotonous. That is, until her and her friend group decide to house-share in a countryside cottage and shake up the small town.

This book is pitched as a romance, but honestly we don't even get the romance until almost the very end of the book - and to be frank, I really REALLY didn't enjoy the romance. The characters did not feel like they had ANY chemistry for a relationship and I honestly thought she was going to end up with the bartender girl (and wish she had).

While this book does have really great friendship plotlines and an adorable shtick about chickens, it just wasn't for me.

If you enjoy unrequited love, best friends to lovers, and forced proximity and a mid-life crisis with a dash of romance, then this might be the book for you.

Wild things is a queer rom-com loosely about a group of friends that moves to the country together. We center mostly around El, who is in a rut and decides to do a year of "wild things" to awaken her wild spirit! One of the wild things happens to be moving a queer commune of sorts with her best friend Ray that she has always been in love with.

It would be hard to really truly call this a romcom as we don't see any romance until the very very end. You meet a ton of the characters, and I wish each one was more fully flushed out because I was interested in knowing more about them. I also wanted to know more about the town they moved to and all the small town/country shenanigans that the group could get into. Maybe I needed it to be a series!

Wild Things was a simple story, but don't take that as an insult. I loved this sweet narrative, that was uncomplicated in the best way. It had a cover that immediately made think it was another rom-com, but I was surprised at how the focus was really on friendship. I enjoyed the chemistry between all the characters, and found myself smiling while reading. The romance is present, but doesn't seem like a focus. I always enjoy a story about found family, and this fit the bill. It did start off slowly, and I can see folks not wanting to push through. But ultimately it was an enjoyable read.

This was such a fun, cute queen chick lit story. The book was tagged as a rom-com but the romance was more of a subplot than a main story arc. This book was a slow start for me, but I was hooked pretty quickly. I really enjoyed the character development and humor throughout the book. And I loved the whole " leave behind city life and buy a house in the country with your best friend” plot. Overall this was a cute book and I would definitely recommend.

This was such a good read I loved it and was completely hooked from the first page. Definitely recommend

I enjoyed this novel more than I thought I would. The idea of four friends (three queer, one straight) setting up a commune (Lavender House) and becoming engaged with their local community and more rural activities was fun, especially when they succeed in growing their lives as they had hoped. I also fell immediately in love with Jamie and his three chicken children, Edward, Bella, and Jacob.

However, I confess that the main character, El, is not my favorite, mostly due to her one-sided pining for Ray throughout the book. She's perfectly fine character otherwise, with enough personality and traits to feel authentic, but she is bogged down due to her fixation on Ray. Admittedly, this is a romance book. and perhaps that's to be expected. But it just got annoying after a while of her not just straight up confronting her feelings and running away when someone she's not dating kisses someone else.

If you're looking for a feel-good book about a group of friends working pooling their resources to support each other and growing into a nice home, then I think you'll like this book. But if you want a lot of heavy romance and relationship building between a couple, as opposed to a mostly one-sided pining through the bulk of the novel, then I think you'll be disappointed.

I'm so late to review this but what an adorable, sweet little sapphic slice-of-life. It's got everything I ever want from a book: found family who love each other so much, characters who feel real and look ved in with real issues, and messy queer people!

This was my first by Laura Kay and definitely not my last!

Laura Kay could teach a masterclass on the low-key, wholesome, slightly messy queer rom com, as exemplified in her third novel, Wild Things. El is stuck in a rut, both personally and professionally. Still in her dead-end job at a London newspaper, she spends most of the workday making photocopies rather than researching stories, as the job had initially promised. Meanwhile, El’s roommate leaves passive-aggressive notes on the fridge while otherwise disregarding her existence. But worst of all, El harbors a gigantic, unrequited crush on Ray, her best friend of five years and also her coworker.

In an attempt to scoop herself out of said rut, El plots to do one “wild thing” each month for a year. In January, she drinks ten shots of tequila. In February, she gets a butterfly tattoo. In March, El experiments with MDMA. In April, she has a failed threesome. (You get the idea.) But when El, Ray, and their mutual friends Will and Jamie devise a plan to move to a fixer-upper farmhouse in the countryside, El finally begins to feel alive again. The catch: El must regulate her feelings for Ray now that they live (and work) in close proximity 24/7. Will she choose to protect their years-long friendship, or risk it all by spilling her feelings for Ray?

Wild Things is a friends-to-lovers romance, yes, but also a heartwarming exploration of found family. Kay breathes life into the book’s characters, all of whom are flawed and lovable and distinctly themselves. Ray, the effortlessly cool lesbian love interest, is spunky and enters every DIY farmhouse project with infectious enthusiasm. Will is the group’s token straight man, a sensitive soul leaning hard on his friends following a breakup with the woman who was supposed to have escaped to the countryside with him. Jamie is a Thai, biracial gay man who drags his friends to karaoke nights and forges a bond with the commune’s four chickens. It is impossible not to feel the love between this motley crew of friends, who simultaneously lift each other up and call each other out on their bullshit. Even minor characters (El’s queer mentee Rozália, the local townspeople, etc.) feel fully realized and essential to the plot, driving home the notion that family extends far beyond blood relations, that everyone has a place to belong.

Recommended for fans of droll British humor, readers of In at the Deep End and Queenie, and watchers of Fleabag and Feel Good.

Content warnings: absent/distant parents, cheating (not related to main character)

https://lesbrary.com/wild-things-by-laura-kay/