I love this idea of a year of wild, as someone who definitely doesn’t like to be wild it would be good to be pushed a little out of my comfort zone. I really liked these four friends and how they really built something together. Moving out of the city can be difficult but I do believe county life is the best life.

Solid 3.5/5

A queer commune with your bff's is the absolute dream, so that adventure was a lot of fun to read. However, I would've left out the pining for my best friend plotline entirely. For most of the story, you watch El agonize over their feelings for their best friend Ray. While I can empathize with the feeling, it reads a little whiney and just becomes annoying over time, especially with all these other great changes happening for El.

This was such a cute & feel good book. What happens when a mashed group of friends decide to move from the city to a fixer upper in the country and one of the friends is in love with another?

Read if you like:
- Found family
- Character driven story
- One friend secretly pining after another
- F/F love story
- HGTV

Thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for this ARC. First, Laura Kay is a hilarious writer and I often felt she pulled content straight from my anxious brain! Her writing is delightful and funny. I really enjoyed the storyline of the longing and yearning the main character, Eleanor felt, for her best friend Ray. I have only read a few queer rom-coms due to their scarcity more than anything, but I will definitely return to this author and read her others.

Eleanor is a well developed character, as is her hilarious friend, Jamie. The other characters, Ray and Will, don’t feel quite as developed, although it’s probably due to point of view. The author did a great job bulking the tension between El and Ray, because through El’s eyes, it wasn’t clear what Ray thought. Toward the end of the novel El realizes she is enough as she is and she will be ok even if the love is unrequited. I enjoyed her arc very much.

I don’t want to give anything away but this was a really great story. It’s fun, heartbreaking, silly, and thoughtful…and it takes place in Britain. What more could you (I) want?

I really really liked this. Honestly, who hasn’t wanted to pack it all up and move to a queer commune at some point? The romance is a slow burn, but the unrequited love was portrayed excellently. I might’ve teared up a couple of times even. Life is hard sometimes. The themes of friendship, community, and chosen family really stood out. And I love Jamie with my whole entire heart. 4.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an Arc in exchange for an honest review.

I did not love or hate this book. The story was interesting enough to keep reading, but I had no problem putting the book down. Eleanor (El) the main character begins the New Year challenging herself to do 1 Wild Thing a month. She feels stuck in life in a job and apartment that she does not like and a crush of her best friend Ray.. Overall, her character was a bit dull and the book did not have me rooting for her. I did love the character Jamie. He was amazing and definitely gave the book some spark with his humor and crazy antics while still being a really good friend to El.

El is in a rut in her life and on New Year’s decides she is going to mix things up. She decides to do something wild every month. Things start simply, ten tequila shots in one night and get a tattoo. But then she decides to move from London to a dilapidated house in the countryside with gay best friends creating a queer communal home. The story continues through the year as she starts taking charge of her life. One of the biggest is to tell her five year long crush Ray that she has feelings.

The characters are sweet and I like the El making changes but some of them seem risky. Also because Ray doesn’t know that El has feelings for her till the 80 percent point it is hard to classify this as a romance. The story is more about El’s finding confidence in herself and creating a found family. Thank you to Vintage Anchor for the ARC via NetGalley and I am leaving a voluntary review.

Wild Things was a fun, light read - which are my favorite reads for a lazy afternoon!

The storyline was a bit surface level and it would have been better with a little more development related to the community. But maybe a sequel is coming!

Eleanor (El) is in a dead end job and the one she loves doesn’t even realize it. Ray is in and out of relationship and she is the fun one of this group of four friends. Will just recently broke up with his girlfriend and Jamie is the karaoke and fun loving guy. Will and his previous girlfriend were going to buy this house out in village but since they are no longer together he makes an offer to the other three friends to buy the house with him. They all decide this is a great idea and begin working on the house and fixing it up. They named the house Lavender house and talk about throwing a party! El really wants Ray to notice her for more than just a friend. I loved the camaraderie between all these friends and they truly had each others back.

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

El,, Ray,Jamie, and Will have moved to the country! They've got Lavender House, which needs a lot of work, and they've building a new life for all of them. And El has to confront her love for Ray, a love she's felt for years. She's been hiding her light on so many things and this move is impetus for her to start doing brave things- but can she, will she, admit her crush to Ray? Okay, so you know in advance that she will but this is all about family, the family we make. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read,

3.5 ⭐️ rounded down!

This was a fun, easy read!, but El (Eleanor)'s wild things list is <i>not</i> the main story line here. The book starts out with this challenge that her and her friends have created to get her out of her comfort zone, but drugs and a threesome on the list are huge red flags for me. Whether or not her friends actually encouraged her to do MDMA or not is unclear, but just that it was on the list and that it seemed she was doing potentially reckless and dangerous things just for the sake of impressing other people was not fun.

I think what this story is really about is El growing a bit more into herself, and of course, her unrequited feelings for her long-time BFF Ray. It's hard for me to get on board when the book is essentially telling me El has been in love with Ray all this time, and Ray doesn't seem that great. At one point, Jamie or someone else says there are plenty of other Rays in the world, and he seems totally right. I didn't get the obsession, and found myself unable to root for them when I didn't see the relationship build/develop. El finally confesses her feelings to Ray in the end, leaves their home, and Ray then eventually essentially says "You leaving made me realize I had feelings for you too." It just felt a bit shady. Again, there was nothing in the 80% of the story leading up to this that indicated Ray had any inkling of feelings for El. Where did this come from? Would have liked to see more than I did.

Jamie was a lifesaving character in this book, though. He was hilarious, and relatable, and I was cracking up when he named the chickens after Twilight characters. Throughout the book, he was a good friend, and relatively sane/reasonable, despite his dramatics.

This book was def more coming of age than outright romance, and maybe that's where I also had a bit of disappointment here! Still, a decent book and one I'd recommend :)

3.5 stars rounded up!

What a delightful, cozy read. I loved the concept so much, and the whole book was charming. However, I found myself put off a bit by the actual main romance, and that ended up being my least favorite part of the story! I loved every aspect of El's personal growth, and her relationships with Jamie, Rob and Rozalia. I wish we'd gotten a little more of Will!

I found myself in El's head pretty easily, because she is so much like who I am. Lists, and overthinking, with a reputation for being the furthest thing from wild and spontaneous that could be (and a desperation to change that). I honestly could have read an entire book of her growth and journey without the romance aspect of it (or perhaps just a different resolution to it). There was just a lack of chemistry between Ray and El, and how blind Ray was to El's extremely obvious feelings made it almost feel like she was being purposefully ignorant so that El might get over her at some point.

Seriously though, these characters are living my dream. I want to live in a cottage in the countryside with chickens and a garden SO BADLY.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Laura Kay for the ARC of Wild Things. Wild Things publishes on May 23, 2023!

This book was super cute - an easy, relatively light read. I’m a sucker for books involving a big, old country house that needs some TLC, and Wild Things fit the bill for me. The main characters are all very likable in their own ways, and made this an enjoyable read for me. I look forward to checking out more of Laura Kay’s work!

A lazy slow burn beach read would be the perfect description. With that being said I wish more happened between El and Ray, I was rooting for them the entire book. The dynamic between the friend group helps progress the story but I really wish more happened. But overall such a lighthearted and sweet romance novel!

3.5

thank you to netgalley for giving me access to the arc in exchange for an honest review!

really enjoyed this book, it was a fun and entertaining read! only complaints i have is 1) i wanna movie into a queer commune now 2) when will my parents call me a bee in the knee (whatever that means)

This was brilliant. It was funny, quirky, cute, and it felt like home.

It's my dream to buy a lil area and live near my friends, and they got to live my dreammmmm. It was fun to live vicariously through them though! I enjoyed reading El's growth as person. It felt like a lot of soul searching/learning who you really are with some romance. It was such a light read. Perfect for after reading something heavy. This was a very slow burn, so be prepared for that. But I thought it was really cute, and I'm glad to have read it!

I really enjoyed this! It's a light read. A queer love story that's also about taking chances. The main character, El, challenges herself to do one "wild" thing each month for a year, and at the end of it, she takes stock of how far she's come.

It's always great to read about a group of friends who super supportive. The writing style is relatively stream of consciousness, but it really pulled me into the mindset of the main character. A solid choice for anyone who likes love stories!

Wild Things by Laura Kay is a beautiful, hopeful, LGBTQ+ story about El and a wonderful cast of characters.

“The version of myself that only exists in my head, the one who takes chances, steps out of my room and spends the night running wild."

I love the sense of family and community in this book and would recommend picking up a copy this summer!


Two best friends. One huge crush. A year that could change everything...

A warmhearted, hilarious queer rom-com about what happens when a group of friends are actually brave enough to live the dream and give up their dreary city apartments to buy a house in the country together.

El is in a rut. She’s been hiding in the photocopier room at the same dead-end job for longer than she cares to remember, she’s sharing a flat with a girl who leaves passive-aggressive smiley face notes on the fridge about milk consumption and, worst of all, she’s been in unrequited love with her best friend, effortlessly cool lesbian Ray, for years. So when a plan is hatched for El, Ray, and their two other closest friends—newly heartbroken Will and karaoke-and- Twilight -superfan Jamie—to ditch the big city and move out to a ramshackle house on the edge of an English country village, it feels like just the escape she needs.

Despite being the DIY challenge of a lifetime, the newly named Lavender House has all the makings of becoming the queer commune of the friends' dreams. (Will has been given a pass as the gang's Token Straight.) But as they start plotting their bright new future and making preparations for a grand housewarming party to thank the surprisingly but wonderfully welcoming community, El is forced to confront her feelings for Ray—the feelings that she’s been desperately trying to keep buried. Is it worth ruining a perfectly good friendship for a chance at love?

I was given an ARC copy of Wild Things from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an Arc in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars
Unfortunately, this book didn’t do it for me. It was rather dry and the MC started to get annoying and showed little personal growth. Her obsession over her love interest really seemed unhealthy and I wasn’t convinced by the way it was resolved. I love this genre, but this book ended up not being a good fit.

Wild Things is available May 23. Thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There were some things about the book that I really enjoyed, like the whole house renovation process. Jamie is a delight, Sally is wonderful, and Jacob, Bella, and Edward are the best chickens. I would happily read a book based on Jamie’s antics at the house, on the Instagram page, and in the WhatsApp community group. Happily. I liked the whole group dynamic, and the found family themes running through the book.

I knew that it was friends to lovers, but ultimately I think the chemistry fell a little flat. El clearly spent so much time pining over Ray, who didn’t seem to reciprocate. Maybe that had to do with the book being in first person with El as the narrator, but I wish more overt things had been put in there to key the reader that Ray is also into El. Their connection felt rushed since it wasn’t developed on both sides. Honestly, I felt more of a connection between Rachel and El, and I thought the two of them would date.

I had a hard time getting into the book initially, and found the first couple of chapters until they buy the house to be slow and clunky. I thought that El would be in college or in her early 20s based on her behavior and was surprised to learn she’s 30 or so. That said, once they bought the house and the ensemble had more time to shine, the pace picked up nicely.

Overall, it’s a quick and light read with good supporting characters and themes of found family.