A quality rom-com is a dance: a delicate balancing act of character and pacing, wish fulfillment and relatability, tension and levity, comedic timing and sentimentality. It can be noisy and shiny or cozy and intimate, but it must always be romantic. And — here’s the crucial part many overlook — it must be genuinely funny. Contemporary rom-coms that check all of these boxes seem vanishingly rare, but by Page 7 of Wild Things, a new novel by the English author and journalist Laura Kay, I knew I had found one ... I had come across a piece of writing that gave me that elusive rom-com thrill ... The story that unfolds is buoyant, charming, delectably wistful and quietly earnest ... Kay writes with a breezy but grounded crispness, like a bike ride through the country. She makes precise choices in pert, clever sentences. Jokes, quips and asides land with neat efficiency, always off-the-cuff, never self-satisfied or self-conscious ... An excellent romantic comedy. It is not a sunny sky, but a sunbeam: energy focused into a patch of hopeful light.
Lighthearted ... This sweet LGBT slow-burn romance is balanced by well-developed secondary characters, snappy dialogue ... For readers who enjoy British contemporary romance authors with a wry sense of humor, like Alexis Hall.
Kay has a sharp eye for Millennial culture, and her humorous dialogue and fully fleshed-out characters make for a satisfying novel. A queer coming-of-adulthood tale with enough cheekiness to make growing up seem not so bad.
