Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC

This is a classic "it's not the book, it's me" situation. At least I think so.

There was loads that drew me to this book when I first stumbled upon it: the diverse cast of queer characters, the romantic comedy aspect (I've never read a romantic comedy with a genderqueer character and was READY), the premise of the youtube show etc. etc.

Speaking of the Youtube show... I mean, the Love Study is the name of the book, right?
Somehow, the Love Study only went on for three dates because that's how long it took for the Protagonist to confess his feelings for the show's host and so they started dating. I would have loved more build up here. Because two people who both freely expressed that they didn't date, this... happened quite fast?

I did like the negotiations they had about how they wanted to define what they had because every relationship does not need to be textbook. But it sort of just got... A LOT. I felt like half of the book was just discussing the state of the relationship.

A lot of this book is dialogue - which I don't hate! - but it felt often stilted and unnatural to me. More than once I had to read and re-read a sentence and thought "would anyone really say that like that?". Sometimes, the conversations also felt a little like going in circles. There was some definite repetition in here. And for some reason I was really bothered when either the MC or the Love Interest said things like "there is an innuendo in here but I can't find it". Because that happened more than once and I wasn't sure if the author tried and couldn't find it or if ze didn't try?

The fact that they did always try to find innuendo in everything also felt a bit... immature I suppose. I am all for sex positivity in books but in this case I thought it was weirdly inappropriate because they found innuendo in everything (or didn't) while also having very "psychotherapist-y" conversations. Generally they felt more like college students to me. Early 20s instead of almost 30 what with Sidney's "graveyard of veggies" and both of their tiny living quarters. I just found myself not being able to relate to their situation at all, which also added to my confusion.

Lastly, I felt like at this point - after reading this book - all I really know about the characters is the kind of relationship they want to have, that they both live in tiny quarters and that Declan can cook and left his last boyfriend at the alter and that Sidney does Youtube. I wasn't able to connect to them at all, which, seeing as most of the book was dialogue between those two is a bit unfortunate.

I am sure there are a lot of people who will enjoy this, but sadly it just wasn't for me.