As a person living with anxiety and OCD who is just re-entering the dating world, I was able to review this book through the eyes of both a librarian and someone with mental illness. While not a work of high literature and definitely not highly scientific, there are sound bits of advice offered in a very conversational tone.

Raskin mixes in her own experiences with mental illness and relationships with advice from mental health experts, so you can see the benefit of following that advice. The method? She shows in painful detail her fumbles and pitfalls because she didn't follow their advice. Granted, it appears it was due to ignorance and she seems to have learned and took a lot of great notes. So I guess the jury is out as to how helpful the advice is to her and if she applies it.

Each chapter offers pithy intros of the experts she consults for the topic. And then each chapter ends with bullet point summaries. I like that for quick reference after having read the book.

While appreciate that Raskin was so raw and vulnerable in sharing her relationship difficulties, I also wonder how necessary that degree of transparency is? It was interesting and I felt a lot of empathy for her, but I didn't find all of it relatable. But I guess that's the point. We're going to take from the book the points that are relatable and appreciate her honesty as it hopefully helps others.

This is a book I recommend because there really isn't much out there for people living with mental illness who also want to date and have relationships. Relationships are difficult, anyway, but when you have a diagnosis and you have a significant other, it's important to make sure that person has the capacity to handle the extra load that your mental illness will sometimes necessitate.

Thank you to NetGalley and Workman Publishing Company for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have been looking forward to this book for over a year since I first heard of its development and it did not disappoint.

A clear strength of Raskin's writing is how concise and personal her method of storytelling is. This text is short but packs a punch with her constant tie-ins of lessons, personal anecdotes, and relevant interviews with experts in each chapter's fields to back up the validity of her information.

I also appreciated that, unlike most self-help books, Raskin consistently reiterates that she does not speak for every community, on various topics related to mental health and the disparities at different intersections when it comes to receiving improving your mental health and dating practices.

A slight improvement I would add for future books might be a workbook component or activity of some kind at the end of some chapters to give the reader opportunities to put theory into practice.

Overall, if you are familiar with Raskin's previous work or interested in any topics in the title at all I would strongly recommend this book as a quick, enlightening, and enjoyable read!

*Thanks to NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book.

I never thought I'd read a book about dating, but as a longtime follower of Allison Raskin, I knew a read of OVERTHINKING ABOUT YOU was in my future. Part self-help book and part memoir, this work of nonfiction discusses how to navigate relationships when anxiety, depression, or OCD may be a factor. What follows is a laid-back yet helpful guide to romance with heartfelt anecdotes from Raskin's own life thrown in the mix.

I'll be honest and say that I found myself wanting to nitpick many aspects of this book while reading. For example, why are there separate introduction boxes for each expert at the beginning of each chapter if they are just going to be reintroduced in the text? Similarly, I often found that the writing was just a bit too relaxed for my taste, and the chapters read a bit of out of order. Yet these minor critiques really don't have an impact on the content of the book itself, and really just come down to personal preference.

Overall, OVERTHINKING ABOUT YOU is an approachable guide to dating even if you don't struggle with your mental health. There's practical advice from finding a potential suitor online, all the way through how to handle a committed relationship and an ever-dreaded breakup. Raskin's interviews with mental health professionals help give the readers tools to use in the real world. I especially liked the concept of your romantic partner being the VP of your life.

If you're struggling with dating, or simply want to improve upon your current partnership, you might find this book to be a great resource. Unlike some other nonfiction books, OVERTHINKING ABOUT YOU is relatable to a modern day crowd and quite accessible. Of course, fans of Raskin will enjoy learning more about her personal life as well. I found the ending to be hopeful, and I look forward to seeing what Raskin accomplishes next in her life and career.

I think this book struggles with being both too clinical and personal at the same time. The author talks to professionals and uses their advice in the book, but then interjects her own voice. The tonegoes from stiff to very conversational very quickly, giving the reader whiplash. It feels like it's unclear what this book was meant to be: a self-help guide or a memoir by the author. The author has an interesting story but the way we learned it was in between interviews with doctors. I really would've liked a clearer focus and consistent voice here.

On the plus side, I think there's advice in here anyone can use when it comes to dating.

I found the book very easy to read and easy to follow, in particular, it was really well done how the book was interwoven with personal experiences and insights and inputs from professionals as well. Overall, I think the book manages to achieve what it sets out to do and made for a very honest and inspiring read! Lookin

Based on the title, I assumed this book was targeted to folks in existing relationships who might get a wee bit hyperfocused on their partner. Instead, it turned out to be a very practical guide for individuals with at least moderate mental health concerns who are preparing to date or are in the very early stages of dating. The author's interwoven personal stories, sense of humor, and overall uplifting vibe kept me reading anyway! She tackles each chapter with the input of two mental health professionals, who often offer complimentary advice despite differing perspectives. Each chapter is summed up with a list of key takeaways. Language, examples, and scenarios are purposefully inclusive. Overall, I enjoyed this read and would recommend it if you fit the description above.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC!

This was an okay book about advice, but personally for me it didn’t provide me with much help and I didn’t take much away from it

As someone who is perpetually anxious and single I got a lot of great insights and inspiration from reading this book. The research and insight from mental health professionals really legitimatised the concepts Allison explored and the anecdotes felt real, funny and honest.

Obviously the mental health landscape is huge and the industry is ripe with inequality. I am glad this privilege was acknowledged throughout the book although I do think some of the interviews could have been more focused on inclusivity and contain diverse voices. It is a challenge though and I still applaud Allison for her efforts.

The chapters in which Allison gets the most vulnerable were the most compelling to me. Relationship stuff - sex, dating, break ups - is tough but I do feel more able to go on the dating journey thanks to this book.

I felt very unaffected while reading Overthinking About You. Despite its relatable subject matter, I found the book altogether hard for me to relate to, it was more like the writer was telling than showing us.

I didn't find the writing to be very visceral, there wasn't really any meat to any of the personal accounts, it was more matter of fact: "He said this, she said this, I felt this way..." I wanted to feel more while reading this, like a punch to the gut! It felt like this title was heavy on the shallow personal accounts, and light on the self-help.

I think this is a book that will resonate with fans of Allison Raskin.

I'm a big fan of Allison, so I'll admit that I was excited to read this book more because she wrote it than because of its contents. But I do also have anxiety, and though I've been in a happy healthy relationship for years, I don't have much experience with dating. So I figured I'd learn things from this book even if I'm not its target audience--and I found it even more helpful than I thought!

So much of it was just useful for me as mental health info on an individual level. I haven't had almost any therapy for my anxiety since I was a kid, so even though the more early relationship-focused angle was less relevant to my situation, it was still very helpful, both in how I think about my relationship and just generally living with anxiety. I realized some habits and patterns in my relationship might have more to do with my anxiety than I thought, and so I can work on those things too. I definitely screenshotted and took notes on lots of sections of this book.

It was also just enjoyable to read; I started this book while in the middle of several others, and ended up abandoning all the other ones to speed through this one. Out of all the novels and everything else, this was the most interesting and engaging one I was reading.

I also love Allison's voice as a writer. I'm sure it helped that I'm familiar with her work and style, and maybe some of the humor or tone wouldn't come across the same way to a different reader. But I for one enjoyed it and it felt like listening to a friend.

This book has really helpful and concrete advice for living with a mental illness, for dating, and for doing both at once; I would honestly recommend this book to anyone, regardless of if they fit the specific "person with anxiety, OCD, and/or depression who is looking to date new people" profile. This book covers topics from how to date productively to going on medication to talking about sex, and I think literally anyone would find something useful inside. Even if you're entirely neurotypical, you could use the general dating advice, and odds are you have some kind of relationship (not necessarily romantic) with someone with a mental illness. I think this book could help you know better how to communicate with them, and understand what life is like for them.

Overall I loved this book! I'm so glad Allison wrote it; thanks to Netgalley and Workman Publishing Company for the chance to read and review this ARC.

damn that book took a peak into my mind. what as an overthinking it was to read this book. i learned way too much this on myself tbh! 4.5/5 a really good non-fiction

Thank you Workman Publishing Company.and Netgalley for this ARC!

I loved this book so much! I haven't read many self-help books on dating, but I found Allison's writing to be clear and easy to follow. I think it's easy for discussion on these topics to feel cliche or overdone, but I learned so much from each of the chapters, even when I hadn't personally experienced what was being addressed. For instance, I've never been in a relationship, but the chapter about breakups really resonated with me because it also focused on rejection and situationships. Even if you don't have depression, anxiety or OCD, I think there's a lot to learn from this book, but as someone with OCD, I was really happy to see OCD-specific advice and representation. I didn't realize all the ways my OCD/anxiety could manifest itself within my dating life until it was laid out in front of me. I also appreciated how accessibly the concepts were explained through the bullet point summaries and analogies. Allison's voice comes through in all the little jokes and I found her honesty and self-reflection about these topics to be really refreshing and comforting. I can't wait to buy a physical copy of the book when it comes out and loan it out to all my mentally ill little friends!!

finished this a second ago and i am very emotional. Where has this book been all my life? i will be recommending this to every single one of my friends, i felt so seen and heard because of this book and my heart feels full. Thankyou for writing this.

What a pleasure!

Allison Raskin has been a great inspiration to me. This book was insightful and timely. I am a great admirer of Allison's courage, creativity, and advocacy.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review,