Reviews - Wild Things | The StoryGraph

882 reviews for:

Wild Things

Laura Kay

3.71 AVERAGE

st_morwenna's review against another edition

2.25

lighthearted fast-paced

graces_book_history's review against another edition

2.0

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

j_teachthetorches's review against another edition

4.25

emotional funny hopeful relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Cute, fun, wholesome queer romance.

sydsquido's review against another edition

2.5

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

I'll echo the sentiments of other reviews here by saying that shelving this as a romance is doing it a disservice. The 'romance' plot line was the weakest part of the book for me, and I found myself actively hoping that she gave up her crush. The whole premise of it felt a little ridiculous, we are expected to believe that she has this all-consuming, burning crush with almost no build up or justification of it. The crush itself felt intensely teenage, and I found it hard to imagine or like a 30 year old who really doesn't have the emotional maturity to own up to it and would rather live like a tortured fifteen year old, but with alcohol and rent. I didn't find myself liking Ray, and I felt like I really needed more development to believe that a relationship with her would be a good idea, given how we see her treat other women. However, almost no development is given to their relationship and I think the novel suffers for it.

I honestly would have preferred if this was just a story about found family fixing up a house together, with the romance removed. (Or, finding romance in the village with Rachel!) The house was a wonderful bright spot, and I would have loved if we had gotten a little more from it with the journey of the renovation and it becoming a home. I similarly loved the scenes with Rozália and felt like focusing on these aspects of her life without the pining crush would have been an entirely more enjoyable book.

As it was, the romance was difficult enough to get through that the only thing keeping me listening at times was the wonderful audiobook narrator and mentions of village life.