This is a super fun romance with a unique premise: four friends from London move into a house in the English countryside. My favorite part was the found family aspect, plus the authentic and lovable characters.

For someone who has absolutely no skills when it comes to DIY home repair, I find myself reading and loving a lot of books that feature this as a main topic. Wild Things is one of those books.
Wild Things follows a group of friends who decide to buy an old house that is in desperate need of fixing on the outskirts of London. We then learn that the friends have some complicated relationships since one of them has been in the love with the other for years. While I loved the set up, this book wasn't quite for me since I'm not the biggest fan of slow burn - but it was really well done and I'm pretty sure that fans of that trope will devour this story!
What I did absolutely love about this book was the focus on found family and friendship. You could really tell that these friends would go to the ends of the earth for each other and I loved that the romance part wasn't the big draw here but the fact that these friends just have so much fun together.

I absolutely adored this book! It was really well written and I loved all the characters. I wish I could move into Lavender House with them!

This book follows El who is in a rut. She is still in the same dead end job she hates, and hopelessly in love with her best friend Ray. When El, Ray, and their two friends Will and Jamie, hatch a plan to ditch the big city and move into a house in the countryside together, it feels like the perfect opportunity to shake things up. Despite being a DIY challenge, the friends are excited and hopeful for their newly named "Lavender House".
However, being in such close quarters with Ray forces El to confront her feelings and decide if it's worth ruining a their wonderful friendship for a chance at love.

I want to start by clarifying: I typically read romances that are aligned to my particular tastes (cis/heterosexual/female POV), so this was a bit out of my wheelhouse. So I can't really speak to the emotional pull of the steamy scenes (which are PG-13 at best)
That being said, its really well written. Its a great vantage point into friendships that span friend circles, what is considered 'wild', and could you be 'wild', and the impact of unrequited love. This is a solid 3.5 stars, and a great break-in story for anyone looking to move outside of their typical tropes/genres

In this story we follow a group of friends who decide to buy an old fixer-upper house on the outskirts of London. This is all fine, but one of the friends is in love with the other and has been for years. The romance was the definition of slow burn as it took the entire book to make any progress. El and Ray’s story didn’t seem like the focus of the book. About 80% of the book was based on the group of friends and the house. I really loved the community that they ended up building. The found family aspect is always great to read! I loved the premise of this book but it just missed the mark for me; I found too much happening all at once. Thank you Vintage Anchor via NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wild Things - Laura Kay

Thank you @netgalley for the #gifted earc in exchange for my completely honest review.

El is in a dead-end job and is struggling to get over a big crush on her best friend Ray. When her friends propose buying a house in the countryside and creating a “queer commune” (with the Token Straight, Will) - El is excited. Will living together be the best thing ever, or will El have to confront her feelings for her best friend? And will she feel the same way?

This was exactly what I needed to break my reading slump. I loved this friend group and their easy friendship. I’m not usually a friends-to-lovers fan, but it worked here. I could’ve read about their little house in the village forever. I need a friend like Jamie in my life, honestly I want a Sally too, maybe even the chickens 😂 The story gets off to a slower start and it’s definitely a slow burn, but it’s cute. El is absolutely pining over an apparently totally oblivious Ray. I’ll be honest - for most of the book I thought El was too good for Ray and that Ray is kind of a jerk. I’m still not sure the story proved me wrong 😂 As far as friends-to-lovers go, this was a cute one!

Thank you to @Vintage for the ARC. This book was a fun read. I usually do not like the slow burn troupe, but this one changed my mind. I enjoyed the friendship between Ray and El and how their relationship developed. Jaime was my favorite, I would love a story all about him.

This book was cute. Overall, I thought it was okay, but it was a little too slow of a slow-burn for me. I liked the idea behind the MC wild year, but I feel like it could have been executed better and been a way to add a little more fun and excitement to the storyline.

Thank you To NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for the eARC.

To begin this friend group is just so fun. I found myself giggling during certain portions of this book. But, that does not trump the fact that this book is a super slow read. It takes forever to get there it seems. I also wonder if my age played a factor despite being in my early 30s. It just missed the mark for me overall.

What happens when four friends decide on a whim to move to the London countryside, and one is secretly in love with the other? I expected a sweet queer romance with chickens. What I got was a book where so much is happening, that nothing happens.

Unfortunately, this book missed the mark for me. I was genuinely intrigued by the premise, but it takes nearly 40% of the book to get to the countryside and 70% to get to a romance. I am all for a slow burn, but a flame or two along the way would be nice. I think there were too many plot points, and none felt focused.

I did enjoy the found family and the community that they moved to.

You may love this if you want an easy read with queer representation and a great found family.

Thank you to NetGalley, Vintage Anchor, and Vintage for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sweet and quick with enough emotional depth and a lot of fully realized characters. The main romance didn’t really work for me but I suspect that has more to do with me than with the book itself, looking forward to reading more from this author!

def 17% Nothing happens. I think I finally got to where the story starts with them deciding to get the house together, but that should have been page one, not almost 20% into the book. All the descriptions were of the most random things but never the characters. El's obsession with her friend is weird, yes I know this is going to become the romance (which other reviews tell me doesn't happen until 70+%) but it just seems creepy. I like the idea of this book, but I think the author was trying too many things and it just didn't work.

Wild Things by Laura Kay

Published: May 23, 2023
Vintage
Pages: 313
Genre: LGBTQ+ Fiction
KKECReads Rating: 5/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Laura Kay is a writer and editor. She has an MA in American History from the University of Sheffield and now lives in East London with her wife and cats.

“You’re enough, yeah?”

El has decided this is going to be her year of wild things. She will leave her comfort zone and do one whole thing a month. After a rocky start, she moves to a house in the country with her best mates, Will, Jamie, and Ray. That is where things get complicated.

This was such a sweet story. I loved the humor mixed with the prose. The storytelling was seamless, and the character development was strong.

El was such a fun character. I loved her journey of getting to know herself and accepting that she is enough as she is. Ray was a solid character who had confidence and poise. Will was a steady presence, and Jamie was fun.

I loved the idea of living with a group of friends, and I loved the adventures they shared. The way the story unfolded felt authentic. The emotion was well played, and the build-up was realistic.

The last half of this book was beautiful. I loved the growth El goes through and the emotional path she embraced. This was a lovely story about believing in yourself and taking the plunge.

Wild Things is a light queer rom com. Meet a group of friends who decide to buy a house together and form essentially a gay commune. It is a light-hearted read with a non-complicated plot line. Meet El who is in a rut in her life and finding confidence in herself. The best part of the book is towards the end, so beware (the first half or so moves slowly in my opinion). The character building is strong in this book. The characters were very well developed, but with this said, I have mixed feelings about this book. Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for this eARC in exchange for a honest review.

I was given a free eCopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The main character’s dilemma is fun and speaks to those who have a hard time letting go and going with the flow. The romance is sweet and I found the story to be immensely compelling. I was rooting for the main character nearly every time.

This is a great book to represent those who find themselves outside the current cultural norm, and it’s an awesome, clever and humorous novel that talks about stepping outside our comfort zones and taking a leap toward what we want most.

4/5 stars!

I thought this was fine, and it's more that it didn't work as well for me in particular. It's a fun rom com about a group of friends who buy a house in the English countryside, with a focus on one F/F friends to lovers couple. I just felt that the drama over the romance lasted way too long and then was immediately resolved at the end.

Wild things by Laura Kay missed the mark for me. I definitely think this book is a for a younger crowd and I couldn't relate to the characters. However, there were some laugh out loud moments and the friend group is hilarious. While this was not for me, I can see a lot of people who would love this book and I think it will be a great read for them!

I think I'm too old for this book, but it was charming. My Gen X self was telling my millennial roommate that I feel like someone as entrenched in anxious unspoken feelings as Eleanor a couple decades ago would not be a sympathetic heroine. But I don't think anyone can grow up in this world without anxiety and I don't think it stays localized. I'm glad this book exists and I love a small town that isn't represented as perfect or awful but rather just a nice little place to live.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Wild Things was everything I dreamed of during the height of the pandemic. It is a cozy, low-stakes romance about a group of friends who leave the big city to go fix up and live in a dilapidated house in the countryside. It is an escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life and just so thoroughly enjoyable to read.

In the book, El, feels like she is in a rut and makes a resolution to be 'wild' for the next year. This involves doing one wild thing every month (and then journalling about it in her favorite stationary). El has been in love with her best friend, Ray, since she met her but Ray is a serial dater and El couldn't stand to lose Ray. The two of them and their other two best friends, Jamie and Will, have the opportunity to buy a house outside of London. Unsurprisingly, living with Ray forces El to confront her feelings and actually deal with them.

I can't recommend this enough. It was just so so good.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
🌶 🌶 🌶

Tropes: best-friends-to-roommates-to-lovers, best-friends-to-lovers, roommates-to-lovers, escape to the country, slow-burn,

#WildThings #NetGalley

This book just wasn't for me in genre aspects. I wanted to give this rom-com a try but wasn't into it. However this would be great for audiences that enjoy rom-coms/cute romance stories.