I wanted to love this but I think I found Amelia a little too miserable and cynical to be fun and relatable. I did appreciate that she was writing in a diary so was incredibly honest, but she was incredibly complaint-heavy and a bit ungrateful. I liked the story, and I loved all the other characters a lot. Her cluelessness was quite charming sometimes, and there was shades of Adrian Mole occassionally.

Bridget Jones'Diary but for an edgy gay teen, basically.

Love is for Losers is the type of book I probably would have loved as a teenager. It is a super quick read, and it is so easy to whittle the time away reading it. I always find it hard to put down books written in diary entry format because it is just so easy to digest.

Although I am not the target audience, I did enjoy it. The characters were fine, and had good distinct personalities. It is the perfect book for a young teenager who just wants to switch off for a while.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Love is for Losers follows 15-year-old Phoebe. Her mum is a disaster nurse, constantly travelling to war-torn countries to heal the sick and save the needy while Phoebe is left at home with her mum's best friend Kate, a former war nurse turned charity shop owner. The stories follows Phoebe through six or so months of her life starting in London on New Years Eve when her best friend and platonic soul mate kisses her crush for the first time and the rest is history, even Phoebe. Phoebe, now a shadow to Tristan, relishes in her believe that love is for losers and she will never fall in love...until she does. When Phoebe meets Emma while volunteering at the charity shop, her position slowly but surely starts to change.

This story was cute, although in places a little stagnant. I feel that we follow Phoebe's internal monologue for what seems like hours in the same spot as she relishes in her belief she is better than the average person because she's riddled with teen angst. That's really what her character reads as at the start. What I did enjoy about this story, and is the reason I have rated it so much higher than my previous sentence would make you think I would, is the character development. Phoebe eventually gets over herself and her need to be different, in points often challenging her own judgmental mindset towards the end and I liked that. I liked that we see different points of her personality coming through but I do think those in her life really had screwed her over and she was entitled to her jaded sense of self. I think this would be a lovely book for a summer read.

This was a cute and easy read that made me think of Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging - but gay! It's so refreshing to see queer UK YA and for it to be joyful and not about gay sorrow or hardship. Phoebe is a fun and relateable character, and she was the most genuine teen character I've read for years!

Love is for losers is a wonderful YA coming of age story, I think it is aimed at the mid to younger end of the market or at least it feels that way to me. It has a very open and honest dialogue about sexuality which I thought was wonderful . This is a book with real heart and it’s such an addictive page turner. Well written, great characters, overall a perfect YA read

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann is a brilliant story about love and loss. It covers a whole spectrum of issues such as losing your best friend to first love, LGBT representation, disability representation, parental issues among many many others.
The story follows Phoebe Davies who is a little bit of an outsider. She isn't really comfortable with anyone but her close circle of friends and family however when she is forced to widen that circle we see her grow and Phoebe see's how good life can be if you stop being so judgemental and let people in.
Phoebe is your classic flawed character. She is likeable but some of the things she does are not. She is quick to judge and sentence people when they act in a way that she deems inappropriate and she is always getting the wrong end of the stick but oddly it is these failures that make you like her and make her seem much more human.
I really enjoyed Love is for Losers. It is a great addition to the YA genre.
Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann is available now.
For more information regarding Wibke Brueggemann (@WibkeBrueggemann) please visit her Twitter page.
For more information regarding Macmillan Children's Books(@MacmillanKidsUK) please visit www.panmacmillan.com.

I wanted to love this one as it ticks all the boxes for me in terms of what I look for in a book but sadly I ended up dnf-ing this one.

I started it and grew very bored with the story. I left it a while wondering if I was just in the wrong mental headspace for it but again I didn't find myself drawn to this story or the characters.

But please don't take this review as an answer as to whether you should read this as a couple of my friends absolutely loved it!

This book had me genuinely laughing out loud at points, and almost crying at others. It was an easy read, and an almost reflective one; a reminder of the awkwardness of the teenage years, between first loves and friendship fall outs. Phoebe is trying to make her way in the world, but is overwhelmed with the waves of emotion that come with growing up, along with the individual situations that only her life can possibly force her into.

Recommended reading for anyone who wants to think about ice cream, finding a work ethic, and jokes about cat sex.

Love is for Losers is a bit of marmite read, you either love it or you just won't connect with it because of the writing style.
The setting of the story in a charity shop makes for some interesting characters, but these were over shadowed by the main protagonists attitude which was very negative about everything and everyone she encountered. It took awhile to warm up to her but when you do you begin to understand why she is like she is.

Love is for Losers follows Phoebe who is currently living with her Godmother, after a certain accident Phoebe decides to volunteer at her Godmother’s charity shop in order to repay her, there she meets Emma. Surrounded by couples in love, Phoebe tries her best to steer away from love and her feelings for Emma.

To be honest I am quite disappointed, the book was not the hilarious and fun book I expected, and I did not like the main character. I knew Phoebe would be a negative character because of her thoughts about love, but she was constantly putting people down and really rude which made it hard to like her and hard for me to connect to the book/story especially because of how the book is written. The book did feel flat, I did not like the atmosphere of the book – it was not funny which was sad because I really liked the setting of the book and the different types of characters that were working in the charity shop.

The book moves really fast and should have been a quick read but I found it really hard to read and boring because things happen too quickly and it is very descriptive – the writing style in general was not for me. I felt like the plot had so much happening and yet it never went anywhere, things did happen towards the end but most of the book is repetitive. The book gets more interesting towards the end but as soon as things start to get dealt with, the book ends.

2/5

This was a rare DNF for me. I loved the premise and the fact that cats were clearly a feature (still LOVE that cover). However, when I dived into the book, it just didn't work for me.

The book follows a diary style of narration and structure. Given that, it's hard to avoid comparing it to Louise Rennison's 'Confessions of Georgia Nicolson' series; though I sense that the author was influenced by Rennison's books. Unfortunately, 'Love is for Losers' isn't nearly as fun. In fact, it's quite... grim. The narrator is unrelentingly negative about everything in her life, and although I flicked further into the book after deciding it wasn't for me and I can confirm she lightens up later on in the story, the book didn't make for a pleasant reading experience at all. It also felt oddly claustrophobic, in the sense that the narrator focuses on such a narrow subset of events (primarily, her disgust at her best friend's romance), with the result that I found it difficult to "anchor" myself in the story. As if I was stuck in a room with too-dim lighting.

The one funny element is the cats (strong Louise Rennison vibes), but that wasn't enough to keep me turning the pages.

(With thank to Macmillan and NetGalley for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review)