Kerry Rea has fast become a go-to author for me. Lucy on the Wild Side was funny, heartfelt, interesting (so many zoo facts!), and just plain fun. A story of family and the complicated relationships we have, personal growth, and letting go. I'll definitely be picking up Rea's next book.

This was so heartfelt and sweet. I loved the animal side to the story. I had tears in my eyes for parts of the story. I will say Lucy did grate on my nerves with how angry she was with her past and how she let it affect her relationship with her half sister. She seemed extremely immature for somebody her age acting that way.

I loved this book. This is the first book I've read from this author and I'm now a big fan! What I love the most about this is the animal fact banter.

Lucy is a zookeeper and lives her life the way she loves. Then enters Kai, a reality TV host, who happens to zoo royalty. When they meet it's guaranteed to turn their lives upside down.

Lucy's relationship with the animals is one of the most endearing (and my favorite) part of this book!

What an adorable read! Lucy has dedicated her life to caring for a gorilla troop and doesn't have much of a life outside of work. When her team is being recorded for a docuseries, she realizes how much she doesn't want to be in the spotlight and how much she despises the show's host. Lucy is trying to earn the head keeper position and knows that doing well in front of the camera's may be the ticket to her dream job.

The antics between Kai and Lucy had me laughing so hard. From despising each other to a fantastic romance, this was such a fun read. This book kept me engaged and I flew through it. It was better than I expected, and I look forward to reading more from this author.

The animals are major part of this book and they steal all the limelight.

Lucy is trying very hard for promotion to Senior Keeper at the zoo. Kai is an wildlife TV show host. They start off at wrong foot and she gets on his wrong side.

Their initial interaction started off completely wrong which brings about a start to hilarious journey. A perfect enemies to lovers. I am on his side and got a bit irritated with Lucy who always misunderstood him.

The random facts and her ramblings are cherry on the cake. I was wondering what level of research did the author take up to get those. This was fun and also emotional.

I enjoyed reading this one. This had so many trope into one and a unique setting. It also had issues handled pretty well. The writing style was good. Overall, I recommend this one.

I fell hard for this couple and the gorillas. The zoo was a fun unique setting for a romcom and I loved learning more about being a zookeeper. The banter was witty and the attraction between the main characters was hot and steamy. The narrator @emilylawrencecreates did a fantastic job voicing this wild love story.

4-4,5 STARS

This was such a fun read, I adored the characters and I loved the story.

Lucy is my new favorite character!I could easily relate with her and she make me smile a lot!She is fiesty and funny.Kai is also amazing. They have such a great banter, and in the beginning there is a lot of tension between them.

This is a cute, heartwarming,refreshing and fun story!It's fast paced and you can't stop yourshelf from falling in love with them.

I highly recommend it!

I really made an effort to enjoy this book, but Lucy really annoyed me. She came across as whiny to me, so it is hard to make a connection with a character. Why was there so much on "getting fired" over and over. This is just an example of why the storyline did not work for me. Male characters being the worst and then being perfect needs to be retired.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing the ARC.

Y'all, I fell in love with this book.

Everything about it is just so sweet and tender and amazing. I love Lucy and Kai's relationship, but the real shining star is Zuri, the gorilla that Lucy cares for and was the reason she became a zookeeper. I had just as much fun learning about gorillas, about random animals facts as I did watching Kai and Lucy move past their insecurities and fall for each other. I just want a whole book of Kai and Lucy going on crazy adventures and seeing animals in the wild.

What a fantastic read.

Rating 5/5
Plot 5/5
Spice 3.5/5
Writing 5/5
Character Development 5/5

[I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book]

“Lucy on the Wild Side” by Kerry Rea follows a rom-com between Lucy Rourke and Kai Bridges. Lucy is a primatologist who cares for gorillas. Lucy is a huge fan of reality tv shows and escapes reality by living vicariously through the love featured in these shows. Lucy’s main focus is on getting promoted to head keeper at her job. When a wildlife docuseries hosted by Kai chooses her zoo to film at, she sees this as the perfect opportunity to showcase her love for the gorillas she works with and land that head keeper position. When Lucy meets Kai, they have quite an enemies-to-lovers start, however, she soon sees him more than the charming and cheesy host. This makes Lucy question if she wants more than just a promotion at her job. However, when secrets from their pasts threaten to complicate everything, Lucy discovers that personal happiness and a successful career are two separate things and Lucy realizes that the path she set out to follow may take a few wild turns for the best.

This was such a cute rom-com! I related a lot to Lucy’s personality and I loved Kai. The chemistry between the two was off the charts and this was such a cute enemies-to-lovers, workplace romance. I loved the character development in this one and enjoyed seeing the characters grow individually as well as together. Overall, I loved this book!

This month the #literarylovelies read Lucy On the Wild Side by @authorkerryrea! I absolutely loved Kerry’s last book, The Wedding Ringer so I was very excited to read this one! She was very kind to gift us our copies of the book to read!

Lucy has been working hard to get promoted at the Zoo where she works as a keeper for the gorillas. She is very hard working and dedicated, but she does not participate in any social media promoting the zoo or the gorillas because a great fear of cameras and public speaking. When a wildlife tv series picks her zoo to film while a baby gorilla is moved to her zoo, Lucy knows this is her big chance to show she’s ready for the promotion. She just has to get past her fear of the camera.

Lucy gets off to a bad start with the host of the show, Kai Bridges. She thinks he pompous, but after she gets to know him and sees he really cares for the animals, she sees him in a different light. She’s also dealing with some abandonment issues with her mother who left her when she was young to become a television star. It’s lead her to have a very safe life where she doesn’t stray far from home and her creature comforts. Is it time for Lucy to take a walk on the wild side?

This was another winner for me! I liked that Lucy seemed like a very genuine person who was very ambitious in her career goals. The zoo setting was fascinating and I especially loved all the weird animal facts. The scene with the first time Lucy is on camera had me laughing out loud. I also loved (and share) Lucy’s love of trashy reality tv shows. I appreciated that this didn’t seem like your usual romcom, but still had a ton of charm and laughs. It was very refreshing!

Chemistry while filming and hoping for a promotion is an ideal set up for this enemies to lovers trope by Kerry Rea. Spoiler alert: The animals steal the show! All the information about the animals shows that Rea knows her stuff or knows how to research well for Lucy on the Wild Side. I loved the characters and thought they had a fun plotline.

Fun and entertaining, the characters and animals will probably win your heart over like they did mine. I enjoyed every minute of this engaging read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing and author Kerry Rea for this digital review copy for me to read and enjoy. As always, my reviews are voluntary and my opinions are my own.

I started this and it was too slow with little/no chemistry. I need more spark and romance earlier in the book. I did like The Wedding Ringer but this one wasn't for me.

I listened to the audiobook version of this, and the audio was fantastic. The narrator captured the characters' emotions, personalities and accents.

Lucy is a junior zookeeper who's main goal in life is to be a senior zookeeper and to keep working with the gorillas at her zoo. She's devoted herself to her job and the animals in her charge. Kai is the host of a wildly popular show about animals all over the world. He's chosen Lucy's zoo for a season. And he wants Lucy on camera. Lucy's convinced he's targeted her because she insulted him when they first met. And she doesn't want to be on camera- mainly because of her horrible stage fright. It was painful and hilarious to watch her actions when she felt put on the spot. So good!

This is an enemies to friends to lovers. Both Lucy and Kai have some family baggage/trauma that has impacted them. The focus is really on Lucy and her own reflection and growth (it's told from her point of view). She has two wonderful best friends and a grandmother she adores, but this is balanced out by an ex boyfriend and a parent with whom she has a conflicted relationship. This relationship and the lessons she learned from it are what she has to re-examine. She and Kai connect and challenge each other. I liked them.

I loved the zoo setting and all the animal facts. Like everyone who reads this, I now need a baby gorilla in my life.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Read if you like:
🦍 Gorillas
🦍 Zoos and Reality TV
🦍 Love Stories
🦍 Enemies to Lovers

This one starts out with Lucy hoping for a promotion at work and knowing that a tv personality is about to be on site filming which is bringing some extra stress to the equation.

The pair starts off on the wrong foot and we are blessed with my favorite trope, enemies to lovers.

Once the sparks start flying, this is where the book truly shines! I loved the tension and sparks between these two and thought this was a well done romance!

This was a great debut and I can’t wait to read more by this author!

After reading Rea's debut I was curious how this one would be. And honestly, animals and a work-place romance? I am convinced Rea has a good recipe for success down.

i absolutely adored this book. I loved it being set in Ohio and also the two MCs. I felt like Lucy was such a good MC and i related to her so much. The feeling of being stuck while those around you are growing and moving on is such a hard feeling and it made me slightly emotional reading about it!! I loved the zoo setting a lot as well!! This is a very fun book to read and i cant wait to buy a copy!!

The zoo was one of my favorite places growing up and one of my favorite places to bring my kids when they were younger. I spent countless hours walking around and this book brought me right back to that.
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Lucy’s great love are the primates she cares for. She is excited that Kai and his reality show will focus on her zoo and the beloved gorillas for the summer.
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Shocker, Kai isn’t what he appears to be on TV. The two of them butt heads at every turn, but nothing is as it seems as they start to grow closer. This was a fun one, but I absolutely did not expect to cry as much as I did reading this, and let me tell you Nona is the real mvp of this book!
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Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adored this Animal Planet-inspired rom-com about a dedicated zookeeper who’s been disappointed by too many people who should have loved her unconditionally, and the docuseries TV star who blows into her life with a crew of camera people. He also just so happens to be the son of her idol, and she hates him instantly.

Or does she?

Kai might be the star of the TV show, but Lucy is truly the star of the book — and I absolutely loved her. She has major trust issues when it comes to the people in her life, but for really good reason. Her fear of taking risks and her desire to keep things comfortably the same is entirely relatable, but I also loved seeing her character growth over the course of her book. And of course, I loved getting to know Kai better and seeing the two of them connect and fall for each other.

This book made me laugh, cry, swoon, and stay up too late reading.

I absolutely loved this book! Kerry Rea has cemented herself as a must buy author for me. Her voice is so witty and sharp and there were multiple laugh out loud moments in this book. But I think the love story was my absolute favorite part of this book. Lucy and Kai are just perfectly matched, I loved their little weird couple quirks and their banter and their steam. The end of this one had me so emotional, I definitely cried real tears. Overall, this was a delightful romance!