17/06/2026
The Wayward Ones by Kaycee King
The Wayward Ones was such a powerful and emotional follow-up to The Things We Couldn’t Say and wow, this one really put my heart through it.
Picking up three years later, Sam and Adam are happily married, but Adam is struggling deeply after losing his dad a few months earlier. While Sam knows Adam is hurting, he doesn’t realise just how much Adam has been leaning on alcohol and drugs to cope. When Sam’s mum invites them to spend Christmas with the whole family, they decide to go, even though Sam knows being back around his deeply religious father, June, is never going to be easy.
From there this story completely wrecked me. Watching Adam spiral while Sam tries so hard to hold everything together was heartbreaking, and the family drama hit hard. June had me so frustrated! I genuinely wanted to scream at him more than once. The way Kaycee King explores grief, addiction, family trauma and the damage words can do felt incredibly raw and real, and there were moments that honestly made me feel sick with how cruel people can be.
But underneath all that heaviness is so much love. Sam and Adam’s relationship still felt so strong even when everything around them was falling apart, and that emotional connection between them carried this whole story for me. Full of hurt/comfort, found family, emotional healing and so much heart, this was such an intense but beautiful read.
I absolutely loved this one, even when it broke my heart 🖤🎄📚
