This is a well written, satisfying story about the complexities of love and relationships. The characters are all well written and the protagonist Eleanor is three dimensional, engaging, and relatable. The novel is written in an overall lighthearted tone, but we share in El’s insecurities and fears.

Love an easy read/listen and loved Laura Kay's previous books so this one fit the bill! Queer rep, falling for a friend, great adult friendships, all round a solid book

This is a well written, satisfying story about the complexities of love and relationships. The characters are all well written and the protagonist Eleanor is three dimensional, engaging, and relatable. The novel is written in an overall lighthearted tone, but we share in El’s insecurities and fears. I am straight and this novel is about a same sex relationship, but anyone who’s ever yearned to find a loving connection with that Certain Someone will surely identify wholly with El’s situation. Keep an eye out for Sally. She only has a bit part, but she steals every scene she’s in.

I loved this one. I loved the friendship/ relationship between the two main female characters, The narrator had the perfect voice for the story and parts made me laugh out loud. A fab read.

Really enjoyed this one. Found the story relatable which helped me to connect to the main character and her "be more wild" journey.
I however found the audio difficult to get into and ended up listening to it while reading along to the book.

I loved the characters in this book, they're so relatable and so well written I could image them being friends (/I really wished they could he my friends 😂)

The book follows El who is stuck in a job she doesn't love, doing something that wasn't meant to be a long term job. She's also in love with her best friend Ray, who doesn't know.

On New Year's Eve El decides that she needs to "be more wild" so sets herself the resolution to do one wild thing a month because surely that will make her life more interesting and consequently her more happy?

During her "wild year" she find herself agreeing to leave london to live in a doer upper in the countryside with Ray and their two other best friends, Jamie and Will, seeing this as her chance for a fresh start and surely living with Ray is the next best thing to being in a relationship with her...?

Really recommend this book, loved the relationships and representation in the book without it feeling like it was being like shoved in your face?!

Wild Things is the perfect read for you if you are looking for something light-hearted and fairly laid-back. I was excited to give this one a read after seeing a lot about Laura Kay’s books but having never picked one up myself. I throughly enjoyed this easy-going read!

El is stuck in a dead-end job, in unrequited love with her best friend and in desperate need of a major life change. One New Year’s resolution to ‘Be More Wild’ later and El is committed to doing one wild thing each month. It hasn’t amounted to much just yet but she is hoping it can only get better.

So, when the plan is hatched for El, Ray and their two closest friends to ditch the city and move to a house in the middle of the countryside, El can hardly say no. But, living so close to the love of your life without them knowing isn’t as easy as El thinks.

I loved all the characters in this book and the way they all supported each other. They are honest to each other no matter what and that was a joyful to read. El is an excellent main character who was humorous, caring and trying her best to be carefree. Her ‘Be More Wild’ list is hilarious and the way she captures all the memories in her journal was emotional and heart-warming.

Laura Kay writes her characters in such a way that they felt so real to me. The way in which she writes about friendship, the LGBTQ+ community and the community they build in the village was so wholesome and wonderful. The narrator of the audiobook, Abigail Hardiman brings El to life in such a unique way and helped make the story feel even more real for me.

El and Ray’s relationship is slow-burn and quite low-key. For me, I enjoyed this as the emphasis was much more on El’s growth as person rather than the relationship. I loved the topics this book brings up and it certainly brought a smile to my face.

Overall, Wild Things is the perfect book for you if you want something light-hearted and joyful. You may even end up wanting to move in with El and her friends too.

as the title suggests, this book is wild! buying an old house in the country and turning it into a gay commune with your best friends- very iconic.

i feel like this book did a great job at describing that feeling in your 20s/30s where you feel like you aren't "winning" at life. where everyone is on their own path and it feels like you are lost.

i am a sucker for the countryside and this has strengthened my argument for getting chickens!

Wild Things is such a funny, gentle and uplifting story and Abigail Hardiman is a perfect narrator for this book. Laura Kay writes about friendships and queer families in such a gentle and affirming way that it makes you happy to be part of the story. She writes about being scared to thread the unknown paths and about daring to reaching out for what we want. Wild Things is a joyous celebration of taking steps and being true yourself.

PS. The only minus of the book is that I'll now never swim in the pond in my life.

This book was an unexpected pleasure. The audiobook absolutely made it a great reading experience - the narrator brought the characters and their emotions to life, I cannot praise them enough. The cast of characters in this novel are loveable and relatable, and entirely human. It's hard to get someone invested in a short standalone contemporary novel (and for it to have a lasting effect), but Wild Things did just that. A month later, and I cannot stop thinking about it. The story is full of humour, friendship, romance, and the most loveable found family friendship group. I can't recommend this enough!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was kindly approved by net-galley to listen to the audiobook of this recently, I was very excited after reading and loving tell me everything last year

This follows our main character El who is just fed up with life, it doesn’t help she is also hopelessly in love with her best friend Ray, so when New Year’s Eve strikes she makes a New Year’s resolution to be more wild, this includes perhaps getting a tattoo or having a threesome, what she doesn’t account for is the fact her, ray and two of their closest friends decide to move in together,she’s left wondering if she will survive her wild year in such close proximity to a friend she’s been in love with for as long as she can remember

This is quite a slow burn friends to lovers type scenario which I really enjoyed, the narrator on the audiobook of this was fantastic and really made me feel quite attached to El as a character which helped as she went through the trials and tribulations of her “wild year”, I truly felt like I had been on this emotional rollercoaster with her, there’s definitely a lot of laugh out loud moments throughout this as-well as some truly emotional parts where I almost shed a tear alongside el, overall though El is most definitely someone I found to be a comfort character

The one and only negative from me with this story was that we didn’t get quite enough of the romance, the tension building throughout the two characters as the story progresses feels genuinely electric so I would’ve loved to have seen a little more of that as the entire romance elements really only play out in the final 50 pages, but saying that maybe El & Ray will return one day and I would absolutely love to see that🤞🏼

El Evans is stuck in a dead-end job, hopelessly in unrequited love with her best friend, Ray, and in need of a major life change. After a New Year's resolution to 'Be More Wild', El is soon in possession of one (small) tattoo, one (bad) hangover . . but she's trying and surely it can only get better?
So when the chance comes for El, Ray and their two closest friends to ditch the big city and move into a house in the middle of the English countryside, El decides to make this her big chance for a fresh start. But as they start plotting their bright new future and making preparations for a grand housewarming party, 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?

A heartwarming, laugh out loud queer romance! A wonderful cosy feel good read, for when you need something to binge. I read this one so quickly.
Loved the representation in this book, across all the characters!

I did enjoy this audiobook, even though I found the plot slightly predictable. The narrator is enagaing and really helps bring the story to life.

Some of the characters I found quite hard to love at times however I really enjoyed the strong message of friendship that is throughout the book. Els personal development and growth is a shining part of the book.

Overall a really nice and sweet queer romcom that has a nice message of friendship. Perfect for a gentle read for a summer evening.

I really enjoyed this little gay commune in the countryside. It did feel a little bit "Big City People Live The Country Bumpkin Life" for me at times but overall it was enjoyable.

I'm not sure I liked El and Ray together. I would have loved to see some more of Ray's feelings on El, as when they do get together it felt rather out of the blue on Ray's side.

I also would have like to see more of El's Wild Things List, which was important enough to get title billing but I felt it was pushed to the side a bit.

I would read a book about Jamie and the chickens forever.

I enjoyed this a lot!

The main character, Eleanor, is stuck in a rut, so she decides to do one wild thing every month for a year. Something that pushes her out of her comfort zone. When one of her best friends splits up with his girlfriend, El and two other of their friends decide to buy their house together - a kind of ‘Queer Commune’. A commune because there’s four of them living there as equal partners in the ownership. And it’s a decent commute time outside of London.

Only El has a huge crush on one of her housemates, Ray. And she’s had an unrequited crush on her for quite a while.

I love Laura Kay’s writing. Yes, it’s a romance, but it’s not teeth-clenchingly sweet, and El’s personal growth is as central to the story as the romance itself.
Jamie is fabulous, Will is the sensible one - all great characters and people you’d love to know and be friends with.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator really brought the characters alive - and brought out the humour as well.

I’m definitely becoming a firm Laura Kay fan!

I really enjoyed the premise of this book and the cast of characters was diverse and fun. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it rather than listened on audiobook as I didn't really like the characterisation, particularly that of Ray and Jamie. I found them to be really stereotypical in the way that they were voiced and I could not take to Ray at all. This kind of detracted from the joy of the book for me as I found it really hard to buy in to Eleanor's attraction to Ray, unfortunately.
There were moments of joy and fun in this book. I adored the idea of the communal living in rural England. The house and surrounding village sounded absolutely idyllic and I loved the scenes that were set here.
Overall I though this was an 'ok' listen. Pretty predictable, lacking in surprise and nuance and hard-to-love characters let it down a bit for me. I wasn't looking forward to picking up the audio as much as I had hoped.

The premise for this book is nothing unusual, however, the writing really brings this alive.
I was lucky enough to listen in audio and the characters just came alive.

Witty and upbeat with a feel good factor.
This summers beach read

@currentlyreading__
Book 40 of 2023

I was happy to be sent an audio version of Laura Kay's 'Wild Things' and even though it's Kay's third novel, it's the first of hers I've read (or listened to in this case). It was a gentle and light-hearted book with some lovely characters but I felt it was missing more of a plot-line. The audio had great narration and I very much enjoyed sitting in the sun listening to the tale of Eleanor and her decision to make wild decisions after coming to the conclusion that her life is somewhat vanilla but... I was waiting for something to happen, something dramatic, plot-changing or just a bit more oomph.

Eleanor is a person who's stayed within the lines all of her life and this failure to step outside of her comfort zone has made her decide to do one wild thing a month. Living in the London metropolis has also gotten too much for El and along with a group of friends, they decide to buy a wreck of a house in the countryside, gut it and live there. They get chickens, call it their queer commune and when all is sorted with the house, El can work on getting her best friend Ray to fall in love with her.

It's wholesome, a nice read and one you should pick up if you want a summer read with a gentle plot. I find a read like this always satisfying after a heart-racing one and equally, I like a tense thriller right after something like this so watch out for my next read.





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First I want to thank Netgalley, the author and to the publisher for offering me the opportunity to listen to the audiobook version in exchange for an honest review.

I thought it was an easy book to listen to and probably to read as well. The friendship relationship between Eleanor, Ray, Jamie and Will is spectacular and very supportive, being really great characters.

It also felt like this book was more about El' finding herself and doing wherever she likes, pushing for doing new stuff which was brilliant as even some of the readers can learn something from this fictional character.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it.

I listened to the audiobook of this one, and I adored it! It was perfect easy listening with likeable characters, no major conflict but a little tension and will they/wont they to keep you listening.
The LGBTQI+ rep in this book was handled to well, I love when an author weaves it into a story without making a big deal out of it for the sake of it. I loved seeing El’s supportive old sister type relationship with her mentoring volunteer work, and her relatable struggles with working out where she’s going in life. The slow burn romance and found family was well written and didn’t feel forced at all.
Whilst romance runs through the book, it’s predominantly closed door with small amounts of touching and flirting, and actually the main storyline focuses more on friendship and self development. It’s short and brief and whilst there’s no major turning points or revelations, the storyline almost seems to teach you lessons along the way about being yourself, finding happiness in the smallest of things and sometimes being just a little bit braver than you ever think you could be. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to buy a gorgeous (if a little ramshackled) house with their friends and live the perfect life with chickens and open fires.
Lara has expertly written something that feels like you’re just hanging out with friends following their life - sometimes that’s exactly what we need in a book! I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a gentle but enjoyable read this summer.