Wants and Needs

by Roxy Dunn

A novel about coming of age when you thought you already had: a story about commitment and independence, about starting all over again, and finding different ways to love along the way

Independence seems to be drifting away from Misty. Just months ago, she was living with her fiancé and planning their life together. Now she’s single, back in her childhood bedroom, on crutches from knee surgery, and relying on her mother to help her with the smallest of tasks. This isn’t how thirty-two was meant to look.

When Misty turns to dating apps, she's immediately intrigued by charismatic, handsome Christopher – so intrigued that she doesn't even notice the acronym 'ENM' on his profile. By the time she discovers that it stands for 'Ethical Non-Monogamy' – and that the man with whom she feels such undeniable, dizzying chemistry, is in a long-term open relationship – she decides to give things a go.

And so Misty makes a pact with herself to date Christopher for the next six weeks while his partner is away. It’s all part of her plan: she wants to learn to become less attached, and to prepare herself for her next ‘real’ relationship. But is what she wants really what she needs?

Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Fiction, Audiobook, Coming Of Age, Literary Fiction, Ebooks

304 pages, Paperback

Published February 10, 2026

About the author

Roxy Dunn is an author, scriptwriter and voiceover artist. Her debut novel As Young as This (published by Penguin UK) was a Best Book of 2024 in The Independent, Harper’s Bazaar, Stylist, Cosmopolitan, and Sunday Times Style. Her second novel, Wants and Needs (published by Penguin UK, Penguin Random House Canada, and Bastei Luebbe Germany) was listed as a Best Book of 2026 by The Independent, The Mirror, ELLE, and Country & Townhouse. Her scripts have been optioned and developed by several TV/Film production companies and her pilot Useless Millennials was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Reviews

[Isadora]

“But short of physically dying being left by the person you loved was the hugest, worst thing I could think of. Almost the same amount of bad and terrifying as death”.

I absolutely adore concepts that tackle complicated romantic relationships and longing for love because of the relatability I find in them. For me, this story stared out incredibly strong but then took a dip down. However, I found the ending satisfying.

Writing: oh boy this was why the book went downhill for a bit because it started reading SO pretentious. Like to the max. I like witty writing and don’t mind when authors try and flaunt their intelligence and beliefs but some parts of his book had me rolling my eyes. Also this is a personal note but as a Christian, I don’t think we had to include that sentence about reading the Bible and thinking it boring lol 😂 like just don’t mention any religion maybe. Other than that the story was shockingly fast paced and enjoyable to read. Lots of little lines about loneliness that I love and relate to.

Characters: Misty is good? I don’t love nor hate her. I could relate to what she was going through sometimes a little too much, I felt like the Spider-Man doppelgänger meme. However, she also initiated a lot of that pretentious talk I mentioned above. Her love interest Christopher was interesting to learn about. I feel like I could never get a sense of who he truly was deep down but maybe that’s representative of how Misty felt she never got his love fully. Special thanks to the mom and best friend character! Both had me lol-ing 🤭

The crisis in this novel is that Misty and Christopher are in a non-monogamous (open) relationship. Christopher is married with a child but seeing Misty when he can. The wife is aware and she sees other people too when she wants. This is an interesting theme I have yet to see in any kind of media. Personally, I would never pursue a relationship like this but it was interesting to look at life and love through this different perspective and I recommend the book to anyone that wants to put on a pair of uncomfortable shoes and take a walk in this story! A interesting read that I am grateful for, just not a favourite


lit-fic about a woman craving love and is all consumed with a man she meets on hinge... is this story about me?! 😆😆

[My.bookish.diaries]

4⭐️

Thank you Random House Canada for the free copy💌

I really, really enjoyed this read. We meet Misty right at a turning point in her life, and getting to know her felt both fun and deeply thought-provoking. Her wants, fears, and inner dialogue feel so real ….. like you’re inside the mind of someone you could genuinely know.

As someone navigating life in my 30s too, I connected with her so much…the dating apps, the dating confusion, the “what do I actually want vs. what do I think I want?” spiral 😭📱💔 The attachment to romantic connections, the overthinking, as well as the way she finds beauty and nostalgia in ordinary moments… all of it felt painfully relatable in the best way.

The way Misty thinks throughout this book gives an accurate portrayal of every day people and the thoughts that may come through our minds, experiences we live and how we perceive the world. W find her entering into an ethical non-monogamous relationship that she isn’t really sure is good for her but still continues to do so with how much she feels for him. She continues to go back and fourth on if this is good for her or not.

Some moments were genuinely funny too - especially her “scheduled therapy sessions in her head” for herself (even though she very clearly needs a real therapist). She battles this inner voice of what is really needed in her life compared to what she is wanting.

✨ Overall, such a meaningful, enjoyable read.
I loved getting to know Misty, and I especially loved how her story is told through her friendships….it made her feel even more layered and real. The supporting characters added so much depth to her world.

Beautifully written. Thought-provoking. Relatable.
Highly recommend!

[Brooke]

Thank you to Penguin Canada & Libro fm for the arc/alc 🫶🏼💘

“Wants and Needs” follows Misty, who has recently gone through a breakup with her late fiance, and is trying to find her place in life. This is a coming of age story at its core, watching Misty’s relationships, romantic, friendly, and familial, develop. She ends up i involved in an open relationship and we see her navigating this throught the book.

While I did have a good time with this one, I was left unsatisfied at the end and I am not sure for what particular reason. I would be open to reading this author again though & I am so buzzed about my first ever physical arc!!

I also really enjoyed listening to this one because the narrator was british!

[Ebba Andersen]

I ate this up like a day old piece of shepherds pie. (This means I read it fast because it was so tasty and good)

Roxy is so funny and sweet and I just love how her characters carry so much intricacy and genuine personality.

I also loved how Roxy used the word zhuzh in this book.

I LOVED IT!

[gasbolina]

Oh ow, oh wow.
I’m a child of divorce. I don’t believe there is anything ethical about non-monogamy (don’t bother proving me wrong). I grew up with a struggling single mum and a mostly physically absent father, and this book had me holding back tears at (so, so, so) many of its fleeting but poignant moments as I devoured my way through it.
I had a feeling right away that this wasn’t going to be simply about ENM. Wants & Needs is a beautifully modern coming of age story of almost mid-thirties raisin lover Misty, and it sets off in the middle of her fiancé breaking up with her, leading her back to living with her mum in Brighton.
“It’s oddly gripping, and well, quietly devastating” is, among all of my several highlighted quotes, maybe the best way to describe this, even though it describes a different book inside this one. Misty doesn’t know much about anything she wants, other than getting others to take care of her needs, as she saunters aimlessly through her life, trying to write and publish a book and failing, because she keeps worrying about what other people might want to read.
It’s very easy to hear Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag at some points, especially the bits where she’s “going to therapy” and refusing to fall into the cliche of talking about her mother/their relationship/how she feels about her, but very much in an original voice kind of way. A way that had me enthralled and devastated all at once.
I’m going to be thinking about this book for a very long time. I might even get it for my mum.
“We humans are such funny contradictory things with all our massive little wants.”

Thank you to Netgalley and Fig Tree for the book, and to Roxy Dunn for all the repeated gut punching feelings I got from this. Goddamn. Ow.

[Poppy Dawe]

A recommendation from the gorgeous morg, who probably read this through a more empathetic lens than I ever could lol.

This was an easy but well written read, and I really enjoyed the coming of age vibes and the character growth towards the later stages.

BUT… the main character’s decision-making skills were practically non-existent, so I spent at least half the book cringing. At times, I couldn’t fully enjoy the story because I found her so irritating so it made it hard to sympathise with her. The ‘sexy’ scenes didn’t work for me either. The male love interest massively gave me the ick so these scenes made me uncomfortable haha

[Nathi]

3,75 ⭐️ ein wirklich interessantes Buch über eine junge Frau die sich selbst findet und einen kleinen Teil dieser Reise in einer nicht monogamen Beziehung verbringt! Schöner Schreibstil, spannendes Thema, nur habe ich keine große Verbindung zu der Protagonistin aufgebaut, daher die Bewertung. Würde es aber dennoch empfehlen - sind auch unter 300 Seiten!

[tiana ♡]

"We humans are such funny contradictory things with all our massive little wants and needs."

The complexities of the human experience and relationships through quite a unique narrative lens. 📖

Modern day dating, dating apps, people's expectations of themselves and of others, loneliness, grief, fear of being left alone with your own thoughts are some of the themes I found were handled particularly interestingly throughout this story. It's no secret that dating apps have dominated the dating scene and let's be honest, we've all heard stories! 😂 I like that they weren't shown entirely in a negative light and there were some positives too. I also liked the sense of humor. Moreover, I liked that this book explores the side of ethical non-monogamy (ENM), which I haven't read a lot in the contemporary fiction genre.

Misty is a frustratingly realistic main character - in the sense that I'm not entirely sure I'm her biggest fan but I do think she's very realistically depicted as a character. And in truth, I don't have to be her biggest fan to recognize successful characterization. The narrative in Wants and Needs is very introspective and, at times, quite humorous. Misty feels very particularly about the world and about being honest about it, whether that's out loud or internally. However, it's this illusion of honesty that I feel the book exposes gradually. How, even when in this state of self-proclaimed honest behavior, dishonesty can lie nearby.

There is this idea of being 'left behind' because she's not familiar with several ideas and things that are deemed absolutely 'unmissable' by a circle of people. Misty oftentimes comes across as naive and as lacking social context in this book. I loved the irony of how it's utterly shocking to not know the definition of two words which frankly aren't that used in everyday speech for example, but having a deeper involvement with meaningful social and global issues is seen as 'well, what's the point really, I can't change much about it?' As social commentary, I think it's a very good example of modern society performative behavior as well as superficiality.

In terms of one of the main relationships depicted, Misty's relationship with Christopher always seemed to me to be operating at a disadvantage, which is why I found myself feeling uncomfortable during certain exchanges. However, this doesn't have to be a bad thing! I like reading about the intricacies of relationships and the frustrations which came about read as realistic. I also really liked reading about Misty's relationship with her mother and how it approached trauma and open communication.

The coming-of-age aspect of the story did feel a bit rushed to me. It felt as if our main character behaved a certain way during one scene and in the next one she was changed. The ending itself however, I really enjoyed; I found a particular moment to be very reminiscent of Dubliners, of which I'm a big fan so that was a plus for me! 🥳

Overall, I'd say this was a unique reading experience, which I think a lot of people will find interesting! Definitely, a good option for a book club discussion! 📚

[Morgan Sims]

4.5 ⭐️ Another strong read here and an interesting introduction to ethical non-monogamy. This gem was funny, steamy, and has an abundance of girl power (yay)

[Melissa (honeybee.reads)]

Wants & Needs is a book I was extremely curious about, the subject matter and the way the story would be approached. Unfortunately, for me right from the start I felt off about it, I wanted to push through and continue, because I truly had an open mind about it. I just felt the tone was off, the relationship felt off and the open relationship also. I have a friend that is in an open relationship and it just is in no way like this. I felt the book was making it feel like the MMC was cheating on his wife entirely. It made me feel a little uncomfortable. It was advertised as a humorous story but honestly it didn't come off as funny at all. Some things I felt awkward reading others were so cringeworthy.

The FMC Misty was not relatable to me, I didn't feel she was mature and knew what she wanted out of life. I didn't feel her growth or her affection for Christopher and vice versa. For me they just both felt like highly confused individuals and I don't think the purpose of the book was truly reflected, for me it came off as something entirely different. I felt it had potential to be a great story but the main goal was missed entirely for me.

Overall, this just did not work for me. It is unfortunately not a book I will be recommending, it makes me sad but too many things just really threw me off and made me uncomfortable.

✨️ Thank you to @randomhouseca & Roxy Dunn for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Cariad Fiddy]

Struggling to want to finish. It’s mortifying. At first Mistry makes sense as a character that has no idea how to date after a 7 year relationship. Rentering the dating world at 31 probably would be a shock to the system but making her so clueless and childlike was painful to read. I don’t think she’s autistic but… nobody acts, speaks or thinks like this. Chris would not take her to his home firstly because she’s unhinged and secondly because of his wife and son. That early into poly I think you’d try to balance it out more especially if the other persons new to it. It feels like no research was done on poly marriage. Also, shame on Dunn for her unrealistic depiction of sex for the majority of women across the world. Feels like a man wrote this.

[Sophie Wolpert]

Misty is just as annoying as her name but also she is kind of all of us…. This book made me giggle a lot!

[Steph]

I do unfortunately have to dock some points for multiple voice-inside-head characters

also big megan costa shoutout in the acknowledgements you love to see it

[Eve]

Complete and utter tripe and I persevered reading it purely out of spite.

[Catherine]

I had mixed feelings about Wants and Needs by Roxy Dunn. The book explores complicated relationships and the ways people often confuse desire with what’s actually good for them, which is a theme I usually enjoy in character-driven stories.

The writing is reflective and observant, especially when it comes to the small emotional details between characters. Dunn captures the awkwardness and tension that can exist in relationships pretty well. One thing I did really enjoy was Misty’s inner monologue, it was unexpectedly funny and added some lightness to the story. Her thoughts often felt the most natural and entertaining parts of the book.

That said, the story moved a bit slower than I expected, and I sometimes struggled to stay fully invested in the characters/ long chapters with the side characters. While the emotional themes were strong, I found myself wanting a little more momentum in the plot.

Overall, it’s a decent read with some insightful observations about relationships and self-awareness. I just really wish the main character made better decisions for herself sooner and maybe a little less abruptly at the end there 😅 

[kasey]

This book felt deeply real. It captures the feeling of being lost and lonely while also not knowing what you are searching for. The inner thoughts felt raw and honest in a way that made me feel strangely seen. I related to the characters more than I expected and often caught myself recognizing my own intrusive thoughts on the page.



I loved how the book explored the tension between living in the present and planning for the future. It shows how what you want now may not be what you want later and how confusing that realization can be. The story is filled with moments that are genuinely beautiful and genuinely funny. I found myself laughing out loud while still feeling emotionally grounded in the characters.



This book was just released and I already know that it’s going to be a hit! If you love weird girl-messy-real life books, you’re going to love this one! It perfectly encapsulates being a young woman. Thank you so much Random House Canada for the ARC!

[Nadia]

ARC from NetGalley

I wasn’t sure what I thought of this book but ultimately ended up enjoying it. I don’t think I’ve read any books with plots around ethical non monogamy (Not to be confused with NME magazine) and I found it really interesting.

I also enjoyed the exploration of the relationship between the MC and their mother.

I will always love a book in which the main character is flawed, frank and complicated but ultimately likeable. I will keep an eye out for more by this author!

[Julia Kochert]

Oh ow, oh wow

[Francesca]

No flipping notes. You know when you read a book that feels like it was written for you? Not that I’m considering an open relationship or healing from a knee surgery, not in that literal a sense. But that, her thoughts felt like they had been extracted from my brain and articulated in a way I never could have.
This makes it less surprising that I can’t quite put into words how perfect I thought this book was. While reading it I simultaneously wanted to: read it in one sitting, take my time and enjoy every sentence, read it in the perfect environment (egg chair in the garden in the morning with my cats and a coffee, which incidentally is how I finished the book), and finish it so I can immediately start reading it again this time to annotate and tab.
Truly excellent, the most deserving of a 5 ⭐️ that I think I’ve ever read.

[Elsa]

Lectura para mi club del libro de este mes.

Not my cup of tea.

La protagonista me ha resultado infantil y dependiente, en cuanto al interés romántico me ha parecido un tipo indecisivo y desaborido. Un punto positivo a que la protagonista tiene buenos amigos y su tienen interacciones que nada tienen que ver con el protagonista. Me han gustado especialmente Erika y su madre. Ojalá la autora se hubiese centrado más en esas relaciones.

He subido una estrella más a mi puntuación después de la charla literaria que me ha aportado otros puntos de vista.

[biz]

nice light-hearted book about an interesting young writer going through a rough patch. kinda relatable as a young adult figuring out how life works! other thoughts:

- erika and christopher didn’t seem like real people, in similar ways (surely no one talks like that? but maybe that’s just what rich white british people are like)
- didn’t understand her attraction to christopher at all, it was especially baffling every time he commented on her “lack of knowledge” (hate that!!!)
- misty really should’ve seen a real therapist rather than an imaginary therapist
- she’s also a bit insufferable at times but very aware of it, which is somewhat endearing

[thebookybird]

4.5 refreshing and funny

[Kristen]

4.5 ⭐️ - really enjoyed this!

[delli]

Underwhelming så att säga

[Gabrielle Anagnostopoulos]

Delightful from start to finish. Wants and Needs has a main character in Misty that is immediately endearing to the reader. She was so fully fleshed out I forgot sometimes I was reading about a fictional character and not a real 32 year old woman.

I expected to be spending most of this book reading about her relationship with the main love interest Christopher, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much her cast of friends stole the show. You were almost learning about Misty in the way she was reflected through all her relationships which I really
enjoyed. AND I loved the development of her relationship with her mother.

[Lucy]

In Wants & Needs, we follow Misty on a belated coming of age journey as she comes to learn what she really wants from her relationships with partners, friends and family. After an abrupt end to her 8 year relationship, Misty’s world is rocked and the stability she thought she had is gone in an instant. Misty then meets Christopher through Hinge, but is initially wary when she finds that the ‘ENM’ in his bio stands for ‘ethical non-monogamy.’ Throughout the course of the novel, we see Misty grappling with her wants and needs regarding Christopher. Can they ever truly align?

Dunn’s writing finds the perfect balance between tragedy and comedy. I did not expect to laugh out loud as many times as I did at Misty’s dry wit and her mother’s curious habits, and then to turn the page and be hit with the hard truth of both of their struggles. Throughout the book, I often felt the same way as I did watching Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, or reading Nora Ephron’s Heartburn. Dunn is also a screenwriter, and she really does play to her strengths when it comes to witty and pithy dialogue.

I did think that Misty and her friends had an unrealistic number of casual-but-also-extremely-profound conversations, but the truths, maxims, conclusions, etc (basically all of the meaty philosophical stuff) I found to be really well written and astute observations on what it means to be human and to love in the present day.

I actually enjoyed seeing Misty’s relationship with her mother develop more than her fling with Christopher, which on the whole frustrated me more than anything else.

Christopher didn’t feel very fleshed out for a character with so much presence in the book. Even as we learned more about the parameters of his open relationship and his own wants and concerns, Christopher still seemed like a vessel for Misty to use to learn more about herself and grow as a person. I guess that makes Christopher into a sort of male version of the ‘manic pixie dream girl’ archetype. A manic pixie dream boy?

I found Misty childish and needy, and although Dunn does go into how her upbringing might have played into this, I was left wanting more regarding both Misty’s childhood and her mother’s own experience growing up, which readers are led to believe formed her tough exterior without us really being shown how or why. I did like the whole motif of Misty’s own personal internal therapist, though.

Overall, I think that the writing of this book is perfect. I really enjoyed Dunn’s style and look forward to seeing it more in future works. This book just needed a lot more character depth for me outside of Misty herself, but I would still definitely recommend to fans of Dolly Alderton, Sally Rooney, and books about women who are still trying to figure themselves out.

Thank you to Roxy Dunn and Penguin Fig Tree for the opportunity to read and review this ARC copy!

[Mathilde’s Library]

Reflective? Absolutely. Illuminating? Not quite. Misty struggles with the fear of being alone and with determining whether the life she imagined for herself, marriage and kids, is built on her true wants and needs. She questions whether she could accept only ever getting pieces of the person she loved, and whether she wanted him enough to set aside what she believed she needed. Her big moment of realization felt a little sudden to me, given that every deciding factor had been staring her in the face since the beginning. Being inside her head felt genuine and real, even if it was scattered and a little frustrating at times.

Non-monogamy is something I’ve never really understood and I think I was hoping this story would shed some light on why it works for some. Instead, it mainly reaffirmed my own beliefs, which is that people who seek this do so because they aren’t completely fulfilled within their current relationship. To each their own, this is just my opinion. My final takeaway is that I’m all for questioning our own boundaries, but not because a situation you don’t want forces you to.

Thank you to Random House Canada for the ARC!

[Lieke Polak]

“As I ran I felt a yearning but this time the yearning wasn’t for him, but for my longing. How I missed that too. We humans are such funny contradictory things with all our massive little wants and needs.”

Loved loved loved it. Mocht van mezelf weer een boek (of twee) kopen voor de meivakantie en deze was right up my alley. Over onafhankelijkheid, moeder-dochterrelatie, vriendschap, ENM en schrijven. Loved ook dat alle mannen in dit boek eigenlijk losers zijn en de vrouwen fierce en independent.

[Alexandra Tower Nunez]

It’s only February and I already know this will be one of my favourite reads of the year. Misty has become one of my all-time favourite characters—charming, razor-sharp, and a surprisingly tender role model for shameless self-discovery. Her voice felt like Bridget Jones meets Fleabag, equal parts chaotic and incisive.

I loved how the story confronts the taboo of open relationships and uses it as a lens to examine Misty’s flaws, insecurities, and, ultimately, her wants versus her needs. It’s a refreshingly original late coming-of-age story that captures that subtle but seismic shift into independence and self-reliance. The book made me just as pensive as it did laugh, and watching Misty’s growth unfold was incredibly satisfying—I’m already hoping for a sequel.

The writing style is fantastic: fast-paced, delightfully unfiltered, and perfectly reflective of Misty’s curious, chaotic mind. I devoured this in under two days, and every time I set it down, I couldn’t wait to pick it back up. This was my first Roxy Dunn novel, and it certainly won’t be my last. Thank you to Random House Canada for the advanced copy—I absolutely loved it.

[cursedb]

I love Roxy Dunn’s work. She captures my feelings with an honesty that feels rare, especially when it comes to the struggles of your mid-twenties to early thirties. There are so few writers who truly understand that in-between phase of life, and she does it effortlessly.
I also loved As Young As It Gets, and with this book she once again completely captivated me. The thoughts felt raw, vulnerable, and incredibly relatable. Even though I’m not a fan of open relationships and don’t know much about them, the story never felt like a chore. Instead, it felt real, like something that could happen to any of us. I felt seen in so many moments. Please keep writing more.🙏🏻