What stands out to me most about this book is the gorgeous prose and lush, evocative setting. Crow Island conjures the glitz and glamour endemic to any Great Gatsby inspired tale, but also juxtaposes fluttering red and white-striped tents and idyllic beaches with the vastness and violence of the sea at night. As someone who spent a lot of time on an northeastern island growing up, I loved how effectually May captures the contrasting tones of the oceanside, which serves as a perfect backdrop for her gothic tale of magic, bargains, and love both pure and polluted.

I had strong feeling about the characters, both positive and negative. I adored Emmeline, Isobel, and Nathan, but despised Bea and was irritated by Annie. I could have gobbled up a story about Emmeline and her found family's origin, and found myself far more drawn to their moments of connection and shared history than I was to her romance with Annie or bad blood with Bea. Speaking of Bea, every time she appeared in the narrative I wanted to bang my head against the wall. Regardless of Arthur's later reprehensible actions, what Bea and Emmeline do to him to start the whole fiasco is horrific, as is the utter lack of remorse either of them show for it. I understand that Bea is supposed to be a complicated character, but not once was I sympathetic to her or her situation, driven as it was by her unbelievable selfishness and lack of self-awareness. I couldn't fathom how Annie and Emmeline kept putting up with her: in my eyes she is, if not actively an antagonist, one of the villains of the story. Annie just felt flat to me: I was so thrilled by the prospect of a witchy sapphic romance but her connection with Emmeline felt manufactured and uninspired. Without going into spoilers, I was also furious with a death that happened at the end of the book, which felt unnecessary and cruel especially in the context of what the character had been through.

I give this points for atmosphere and aesthetic, but the fact that I was far more interested in the side characters than the protagonists never speaks well to my ultimate enjoyment factor.

I liked the premise of this book but I found it slow. I kept going back to it and realizing that I didn't remember too much of what I had already read.

I really liked the idea of this book. The characters were interesting and there was definitely a mystery about what was going on. It was hard to finish this book because it felt like it took forever to get to the point.

I loved the dark, opulent setting of Wild and Wicked Things. The pace was a little slow at times but overall it was a great read!

So this was definitely a case of the book being 'not for me.'

I loved the writing. The prose is beautiful, with lush, evocative descriptions. But unfortunately the story didn't really grip me, which made it difficult to enjoy this book. The story didn't move as quickly as I would've liked, and so every time I set this book down I didn't feel a burning need to get back to it. Also, quite frankly, as much as the premise of 'dark, sapphic Great Gatsby retelling with witches' excited me, I think my dislike of The Great Gatbsy got in the way here. Every time I saw parallels between the stories, I just found my interest waning more and more. So, like I said before, this was clearly a case of a book not being for me. I think that if you enjoyed The Great Gatbsy and love a slightly slower-paced story with great atmosphere delivered through gorgeous prose, this will definitely be a book for you.

I loved the representation in this book and the magical and aesthetic world around them. "Wild and Wicked Things" is refreshingly different! When I found out this was a Great Gatsby retelling with dark witchcraft - it quickly became a must read, and it lives up to the hype!

Wild and Wicked Things was a magical book filled with darkness and witches. I really liked the idea behind this book as it was supposed to have a Great Gatsby feel to it and I enjoyed the eluding to Gatsby like parties. The setting of Crow Island was very cool as well and I also liked the spookiness of the meaning behind the crows. However, I found myself not liking any of the characters which made it hard to care for the storyline fully. The characters felt flat and unlikable and unfortunately I also was a bit disappointed with the magic system in the book as well. I wanted more from the author in details and backstory. The pacing was a bit weird too I felt like sometimes there was a lot going on and other times I was pretty bored with the stories progress. Overall this was a good and creative read that I really think readers will enjoy if they like the 20's and magic.

A sapphic Gatsby reimagining that morphs into a gothic Practical Magic.
Sounds awesome, but I was so disappointed.
The pacing was glacial.
The romance was a bit insta-lovey, but I could excuse that for the magical components if only all their interactions hadn't been so strained and weird. I didn't believe that they could ever even LIKE each other.
Very character-driven. I normally prefer plot-driven books with sky-high, world-ending stakes, but, again, I could forgive this if all the issues they faced hadn't centered around a side character who is honestly just a garbage human.
All this to say the writing was beautiful, and I would have put this down as a me problem until the ending which felt forced and honestly kind of silly.

I love fantasy and I love the Great Gatsby, and I greatly enjoyed this book!

I didn't find any issues with the pacing, and I was able to keep up with the story and the world-building very easily.

Some of my favorite things about this book are the secretive nature of magic, the way the give and take of magic is emphasized, and how well the Great Gatsby retelling was done. Bea, Annie, and Em are all amazing characters, and I grew very attached to them.

However, I don't love when stories told in multiple POV's use first-person. Along with this, I feel like having a little bit more information on some of the cultural things regarding magic and Crow Island would have been beneficial to the story. I was able to understand the story without them, but it definitely was still lacking without them.

I very greatly enjoyed this book, and this is absolutely a book I would tell others to read.

This book had all the potential for a dark, raw, and imaginative telling that should have hooked me from the beginning ... but it didn't. Wild and Wicked Things is set in a post-WWI world, on a secluded island filled with witches. Pair that with the Great Gatsby retelling and it should have oozed with darkness and drama.

Unfortunately, Francesca May's writing style did not maintain my attention - or really grab my attention from the start. The plot didn't start to unfold until the 30% mark and then the pacing was painfully slow. There were definitely moments of great imagery and storytelling, but they were brief and did not include enough plot line to keep me excited and coming back for more.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Redhook Books for the advance e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review! All opinions are my own.

In Wild and Wicked Things You'll follow Annie, in the wake of WWI, as she heads to Crow Island to settle her estranged fathers estate. This small coastal town is full of wealth and illegal Magic, two things Annie has little interest in. Yet as she settles into her cozy coastal cottage, she can't fight the pull she feels towards her mysterious neighbors. Is it simply the glitzy soirees they host each weekend that have caught her attention or could it be something more?

This Saphic Gatsby inspired story is brimming with atmosphere and opulence. Unfortunately, for me, it was riddled with pacing problems. I tend to like a slow and methodical unraveling of stories but this one felt like a slog. The plot didn't start coming together for me until the 30% mark. Still,there were lines here and there that kept me going, promises of things to come. Some of those promises do play out on page and to the authors credit, they're done beautifully, but at the end of the day the bits that caught my interested were underdeveloped and I found myself wading through page upon page of repetitive exposition and themes to find them. Sadly I found myself bored more often than excited inside these pages.

This had so much promise but sadly the pacing killed it for me.

Wild and Wicked Things - Fran Dorricott/Francesca May
Genre: Scfi/Fantasy
Publication Date: 3/29/2022
Goodreads Rating: 3.94/5 stars
Synopsis: swipe

The premise of this novel really drew me in - promising a tale of magic set in a post-WWI world, on a secluded island teeming with Crows. How creepy and fantastic!

Pros:
- The overall plot is interesting, Crow Island itself, how it was founded, the mystery surrounding it, and the House where much of the story itself is set.
- The mood setting is extraordinary (shrouded island, foggy all the time, by the sea, some serious spooky vibes with the house, the crows always loitering around).
- There were times where I was really frustrated with the characters (why is Bea the way that she is?! Annie should stand up for herself!) which indicates to me that we've got good character development!
- There are some pretty big things happening in this novel, and it's tied in well with the post WWI era. I wouldn’t necessarily call some of the plot developments ‘American Gothic’, but I’d say they start to lean that way a bit during some stages - especially when you consider the setting and the description of the house, shadows, and the feeling that things are haunted at one point.

Cons:
- The story feels unfortunately slow at times, even though a lot technically happens.
- Crucial information is withheld at times until the very last moment - which makes certain things pack less punch had we been clued in a bit more (for example: information on The Council, how the blood debt really worked, the tether, why did Bea really leave without a trace in the beginning, etc.). Also fairly simple things like explaining what Kazam is. I think we needed a bit more specific ‘world building’ here. I wish some of the other descriptions had been replaced with this type of meaningful information.
- The timeline jumps were very confusing to me personally. They are inconsistent with which characters we jump to and also the years, and don’t happen frequently enough for the reader to be able to go ‘oh, right, here’s where we left off with this person last time we jumped back’. Ex: one jump is 11 years, another 4. We also jump to a journal at one point - add that to 'visions' of the past by main characters and it's very confusing at times.

Overall this was a great spooky read, but I do have to give it 2/5 stars. Note the 3.94 current Goodreads rating as of January 2022!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Redhook Books for the advance e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review! All opinions are my own.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

🥰Review/Summary😍
Wild and Wicked Things
Author: Fran Dorricot, Francesca May
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 319
Rate: 5 /10

Summary: Following the death of her Father Annie inherits a cottage next to a mansion that throws amazing parties. However, the parties aren’t the only amazing thing about Annie’s new neighborhood, Annie’s neighborhood Emmeline is rumored to be a witch and witchcraft is illegal regardless Annie cannot help but be drawn to her. Especially once Annie realizes that Emmeline knows her and tried to her help her lifelong friend Bea and the two of them are in quite the issue and Annie has just made it worse.

Thoughts: I wanted to like this but I just couldn't. I saw people call it gothic Gatsby and it's really not. First Emmeline and Bea weren't star-crossed lovers and she really doesn't do anything to get Bea back. However, Bea is just as annoying as Daisy. Annie was an interesting character but I still like Isobel and Nate better and Nate didn't deserve that neither did Isobel. I wish we saw more of witchcraft rather than dealing with the issue that starts before the book starts. The ending gets a little Practical magic with Bea's husband Arthur and Annie making everything worse even though she is trying to help. Overall I’m bummed I wanted to like this but it was a weird mash of Practical magic with hints of the Great Gatsby.

This book’s description look amazing but it wasn’t for me once I actually googled the TW. Thank you for this opportunity.

I have just finished reading the final pages of this wonderful story and am at a complete loss for words. Yes, i knew I would love this book based solely off of the premise: Gatsby but with sapphic witches. I just didn't realize how much I would adore all the characters and their flaws and strength. May writes a captivating story filled with intrigue and mystery that makes you want to read "just one more chapter" until you are finished. The Great Gatsby was a favorite of mine for my readings in high school English, and this retelling has revitalized that love.

*Thank you to the publishers for giving me an ARC to review via NetGalley*

Character 5| Setting 5| Plot 3.5| Writing 4| Enjoyability 4

Overall: 4.3

I will start this out by, I love The Great Gatsby. That book isn't romantic. It's full of shitty characters who do shitty things. Which is kind of what happens in Wild and Wicked Things. I think that May definitely got the point down with this setting. This atmosphere was so on point!!

I could definitely see the connections with the inspiration being TGG. It made me think of some of the ways I wish TGG went when I was in HS reading it.

I loved these characters so much they were chaotically bad, but they grew.

One trope that totally isn't my favorite is LEAVE I WILL ONLY HURT YOU AND IM TRYING TO PROTECT YOU. I just am like come on don't be dumb they can handle themselves(I am reading another book that has this going at the same time so the effect is kind of doubling on me.)

Overall though I really enjoyed this, I felt like the pacing was good, until the end. The ending just felt rushed and the HEA ending was too easy. The stuff with Annie's father felt rather tepid and I wished we learned more on that.

Overall I did really enjoy this book and I am interested in following this author and keeping up with their works!

It's been years since I've read "The Great Gatsby," and I hadn't read the comparisons with Fitzgerald's classic before requesting the book, so to find out it's supposed to take inspiration from his novel was a lovely surprise to me. I was able to enjoy this book without it suffering by comparison, because I did notice the homages, but distance and Francesca May's style in delivering the story made it one that can stand on its own.

It was the author's writing style what made "Wild and Wicked Things" a nice and enjoyable read to me, as well as the very palpable chemistry between not only the main leads, Annie and Emmeline, but them and the others. They have such lovely rapport it leaps off the page, and makes you care for them, their relationship, and their future. The atmosphere of the setting is another well-done aspect I appreciated very much, it felt like a real, lived-in place in our world despite the abundance of magic.

The story, on the other hand, didn't quite captivate me as much as hoped. It's a matter of taste, not the premise itself, because it's not often that I like witch characters and gothic mysteries separately, so together is more of a challenge. Even so, because of the above mentioned aspects, I had a good time with it. Francesca May is very talented, and I really like how she writes and develops her ideas.

While I loved the premise of this book, and some of the lush descriptions, I could see and taste the salt air, and the thread between two of the characters was a brilliant way to illustrate their connection. I just felt like it went on too long and many parts felt too repetitious. Bea, one of the main characters and the reason Annie came to Crow Island in the first place, is a selfish, manipulative woman….I found it hard to see why any of the other characters would have liked her. Many give the book 4 and 5 star reviews, so it just isn’t a book for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

First off, I think the book itself is written fine. It keeps you drawn into the, straightforward, plot. Unfortunately, I seriously disliked the characters. For atleast over half of this book. Like every, single one. Annie was the least worst one, but she was such a “people pleaser”. She seemed to want everyone to like her, or she tried going out of her way to try and help someone. This may seem like a positive trait, but it got annoying. Especially since Bea and Emmaline were awful. Em was scared of getting close to anyone and tried to act like she could do everything herself. She did the whole “let’s be ignorant to someone in order to protect them” crap. I always hated that. And Bea was so damn selfish. Her past self and current self. I wanted nothing to do with her and hate Annie more for always trying to help her. She clearly didn’t want or deserve it. So, if you’re okay with these personalities, you’ll probably like the book. If they’ll slowly drive you crazy, like they did me, you may not.