The Love Study

Written by Kris Ripper

Narrated by Pete Cross

When a commitment phobe goes on dates arranged by the nonbinary host of a popular YouTube advice show, the search for a perfect date goes perfectly wrong.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Sep 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781666542707

Kris Ripper

Kris Ripper is an author from the great state of California, and zir pronouns are ze/zir. Ze has been writing fiction since ze learned how to write and was boring stuffed animals with stories long before that. Now, Ze shares a converted garage with a kid, can do two pull-ups in a row, and can write backwards.

Reviews for The Love Study

[Roo Janvier · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is such a sweet and real and captivating love story. It has the ooey-gooey feel good moments and the heart wrenching tension filled suspenseful moments. The characters are well developed and varied and each have their own special touch in their slice of life. Major themes are queer dating and romance, adulting, anxiety, communication and chosen family.

Its most valuable asset is how it can casually normalize everyday struggle without trivializing how important these struggles are to each person. I recommend it to everyone, but especially those interested in queer and genderqueer stories. My trans and/or nonbinary siblings will even be delighted by the subtle nuances that many people might not notice but are very real to us.

In terms of the audio recording, the different characters are pretty distinct and it's mostly easy to follow along between character changes. What gets pretty challenging is that the main character, Declan, is prone to internalizing his monologue as often as he will blurt things out so you need to be focused a bit to understand whether dialogue was said aloud. At times, the voice used for Declan and the voice used for Sydney will blend together (especially if they're having a back and forth conversation) so it can be hard to tell who started the conversation until the source text itself clarifies. Each voice suits the character, and there's definitely life to them, but the technical aspects of the reading could have been better since it pulls the listener out of the story. 4/5 for the voice acting.

TL;DR: A great gushy feel good romance with a focus on character development and friendship.

[Ms. Z · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Consent is sexy, but so is having a close enough bond in a relationship that it's okay to make some assumptions - or at least describe the ask in a way that isn't weird every time. There are a lot of books where I think about what the characters might be doing in their everyday lives, but I can't imagine this particular relationship actually lasting/existing outside of the environment of the story. Also, I was really confused that the characters didn't consider what they were doing to be "dating". Maybe *I* don't understand dating, then, or maybe the beginning of my own real-life 20-year relationship was just weird and I didn't realize it.

[Geneviève Rouleau · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

SO MUCH QUEERNESSSSSSS

I loved this book, it was a true reflection of the world I navigate in with my sibling (I say that, because it's so different from other social groups, like at work, for example) I loved all of the characters' quirks and awkwardness. They felt so REAL and authentic. Also I LIVE for innuendos and the bad puns (on purpose) really reminded me of my sibling. and CONSENT. SO. MUCH. CONSENT.

However I didn't enjoy the other parts as much aka when it's just Declan and not in relation to Sidney. But this book deserves all of the stars anyways!!!!!