Thank you NetGalley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Kitty Wilson book and I really wanted to love the story because I love RomComs and was very excited to read this based on the description but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. I found it to be more of a psychotherapy based book rather than a RomCom. While I loved the representation of drag queens, abusive relationships and PCOS but also found it to be a little heavy at times.

I did like the chemistry between Lily and Jay and was rooting for them from the beginning. I liked how they both had issues that they needed to overcome. With that being said, I did find the writing to be a bit all over the place and a tad confusing when the sudden switching of POV.

I think the premise of this book was great but it definitely is not a RomCom and I think the description needs to be reworked to accurately portray the story.

This is listed as a romance, but the main aspect of this story is working through your own problems/trauma. Characters have a lot of depth. You learn a lot about them. This was a good way to read about different relationships (lovers, parents, friends), and working through different problems.

MC’s relationship isn’t tied up at the end (promises to see where things go). I would label it as a HEA.

No overarching external dilemma within plot. Focused on navigating internal dilemmas in regards to relationships.

Good read if you have the time. Not a big page turner. Cute moments- lots of them cheesy.

Sexual tension between main characters. Nothing explicit- slightly more than fade to black.

LGBTQ+ representation, gay, drag

Always check content warnings.

Special thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for this digital ARC.

I really liked the idea behind this, but ultimately it wasn't for me.

My main issue was that I didn't like that the main "conflict" centered around Lily not wanting to date Jay because she just didn't like the idea of commitment. I think this type of conflict can work well in stories, but I personally don't enjoy books where it's the main conflict, as the resolution just boils down to a character changing their minds. It winds up feeling somewhat unsatisfactory.

I did really like PCOS representation- that's not something that's usually portrayed in media.

I have been following Kitty since the days of her Cornish Village School series that I loved. This, for me, is a completely current type of book, although the blurb says that it is a Romcom it is far deeper than that, which doesn't always make for easy reading. Lily, the "Love Doctor" has many issues of her own which results in her going for brief relationships, whereas Jay is looking for someone to spend the rest of his life with, but somehow there is a definite spark between them. The book covers many issues, including abusive relationships and PCOS , but there are some really great Drag Queen scenes - I loved Jinx - to stop it being totally dark. In summary it is a book that you need to read slowly and absorb, making you think about your own relationships, but it does have its entertaining side as well.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley, however this did not influence my review of the book.

This book was entertaining, fun and I wanted to find out what would happen. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.

Rating : 3 out of 5
Blurbs :
Dr Lily Galbraith solves her city’s love problems with wisdom and wit every week on her widely popular Love Doctor podcast, but her own approach to romance centres on one goal: staying single. So when a meet-cute in the sauna brings gorgeous Jay Hooper into her life she knows she needs to run the other way.

Having just agreed to a bet with his sister that he’ll stop dating and searching for ‘Mrs Right’ for at least six months, Jay tries to ignore the attraction he feels for Lily, which is only intensified when they find themselves working together.

He can’t date, and she doesn’t date…but then again, rules are made to be broken, aren’t they?

Thoughts : It's just not for me, I guess. It's slower than I thought it would be and I don't even like the MCs here so I think that's the main problem. I can't relate and form any attachment to the characters and it got me throughout the book. Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!

I don’t do this lightly, but I have to admit defeat with this book. I’m DNF-ing at about 20%.

A very basic rundown is Lily, a podcast Love Doctor is a woman who doesn’t date. She meets Jay, a man who isn’t supposed to date and obviously they end up attracted to each other.

The writing style was a bit difficult for me. The switches between perspectives was jarring at times and I wish the chapter would list who was in control of the narrative. I also felt there was a constant stream of information from and for our characters but the pace seemed relatively slow. This book just felt chockablock full all the time and it made it difficult to read and process, in my opinion.

I will say I loved the inclusion of drag culture and I also loved the rep for PCOS. I do like that uncommon topics such as these are becoming more common in published media and I applaud the author and publisher for this.

All in all I was not able to finish this book, but this might be for you if you are looking for an novel with LGBTQA+ characters and PCOS representation. Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Dr. Lily Galbraith is a psychologist specializing in love and romance. In spite of the joy she gets from helping others with their relationships, she plans to stay single. Jay Hooper wants nothing more than to find “the right one” and move on to the next phase of his life but he keeps hitting roadblocks. A chance meeting brings Lily and Jay together and they soon find themselves fighting their feelings for one another.

The Love Experiment is a contemporary romance with a bit of an “instant love” feel to it. Lily and Jay fall for each other very quickly and then have to work through issues stemming from past circumstances that may conflict with their relationship. I appreciate the sensitive way in which the author discusses and portrays certain subjects such as infertility and relationship abuse.

While the plot of The Love Experiment sounded very interesting to me, the storyline was not paced very well. It was a very slow read. I also had some difficulty with the way the author swapped around the POVs.

This is the first book that I have read by author Kitty Wilson. While The Love Experiment was not my favorite, I do plan on taking a look at some of her other work.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK (One More Chapter)!

A great summer beach read for any romance fan! On the surface, this feels like quite a light, cosy romance but Kitty Wilson tackles some heavier topics such as domestic abuse and bullying with care, offering great advice from the book’s Love Doctor, Lily. Wilson’s writing is a graceful balance of the fluffy, warm romance and the darker subjects that make this a more realistic read with complex characters - exactly what I look for in my romance books!

There are a host of fantastic characters sprinkled throughout this book and they all had their own personal issues and backstories which made it easy to connect with them. Wilson showed real life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows but there is happiness to be had and it’s possible to grow if we put in some hard work and, who knows, romance could be on the horizon! Beyond loving the concept of Lily being the Love Doctor with her own podcast, I thought the advice on different topics was incredibly interesting and really sound advice. It added an extra special layer to the book.

Despite Lily’s profession, she has a lot of her own past to deal with before she’s ready to date Jay who honestly, may be my perfect man. While he’s trying to live in the moment, Lily struggles to think of the future but when they’re together the sparks fly and with a bit of self-reflection and bravery (mostly Lily’s) they might just make it work. I would say though that although I did really enjoy this book, I did find Lily to be a little frustrating at times - she was cruel, making bad decisions and acting immaturely. It wouldn’t stop me recommending this book, though!

This book was good but a lot is going on in it and the side characters almost felt like main characters (positive or negative depending on what you prefer). There is great discussion about PCOS (Lily struggles with it) and other topics but as mentioned, there's a lot going on. I did find each chapter's POV switch to be a bit jarring without the name of the character written at the top (something I assume will be fixed for the final pub version). This book is a bit therapy like so it does take away from the fun bit. It's a solid read, with a good romance, and many good characters, but the writing may not be for everyone.

This was cute! A light read but I breezed through. Thank you netgalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange of a honest review.

This is another Kitty Wilson triumph!

I adored the sizzle between the main characters Lily and Jay (especially their early lido scenes! Perfection). They were both complex characters with issues to overcome, and I was so rooting for them to get together and complete each other. The author had obviously worked hard at creating their backstories to make them well-rounded and fascinating people.

Jay was such a perfect hero. I want me one of him! And his love for his sister melted my heart.

Hooray for Bristol as a setting! It's a vibrant city that fitted the characters and the story so brilliantly.

There were so many side characters and sub plots to love here too. I so enjoyed all the drag queen action, which was painted so vividly that I could imagine myself there. And the cat and cactus stories - hilarious! (And ouch.)

If you love a quirky tale with some darkness and depth, I thoroughly recommend this.

The Love Experiment was fun, factual, and easy to fall in love with. Lily is the “love doctor” therapist/podcaster who gives amazing advice to everyone around her but doesn’t take her own advice… much like all of us in the world. She’s a commitmentphobe and would rather be having one night stands then long term relationships, until she meets Jay. Jay is this handsome well mannered gentleman who meets Lilly and is smitten with her from the moment he meets her! The characters in the novel were so easily likeable especially Kevin aka Jinx (drag queen Extraordinaire ) the friendships that are formed in the book really warms your heart. I loved how this book was a you choose your family type book… I did find it a tad long but honestly so worth it. I don’t want to give too much away but I’d definitely give this a good 4 stars ⭐️! The friendships, family life, support for the LGBQT community is truly beautiful the love story is super cute too!

Thanks NetGalley and Harper Collins for giving me this opportunity to review this book 💕

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book didn’t quite hit the mark for me. It was actually really hard to decide how to rate this, because I found I was more invested in side characters than the leads. Before I get into the plot ups/downs, I want to note that this book really needs to have character labels at the start of each chapter to advise of the change of POV. It was very confusing.

Lily and Jay have a great meet-cute but they are determined not to date, both for their own reasons. They end up falling for each other, and have to get over their emotional hurdles.

Things I liked:
- Jay was so charming and he deserves all of the points for honesty and excellent communication. He’s not the therapist in this book, but golly he knows what he’s doing
- The great drag scene and little side story with Dan/Kevin
- PCOS representation (but more on this in a moment)

Things I didn’t like:
- There was way way too much monologuing. I think this book could have been a lot shorter. Readers can infer many feelings/thoughts from the character interactions - I didn’t need it all spelled out for me
- The PCOS representation came with some body image matters, and I think the body image conversations in this book were problematic. Even with the notes on Kevin losing weight. I felt fat shamed reading this
- Lily experienced serious trauma and I think her character needed her own therapy. She was very immature

In short: there are bones of a great story in here. There was good banter and chemistry between Lily and Jay. I just got lost so many times while I was reading, and felt very uncomfortable with the body image talk.

Note for publisher: some misspellings of “Lily” and “Lilly”, “Jay” as “Jack” and a few random capital letters mid-sentence.

A slow romance, confusing in places.
Lily is a psychologist and a podcaster known as the Love Dr, she try`s to keep away from relationships until she meets Jay but he is looking for a permanent relationship with marriage and children.
I enjoyed the storyline of Lily and Jay but it seemed to go off on a different story with Lily`s flat mate but it just didn`t flow easy for me and the chapters were not marked who was speaking so got more confused so not for me.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the ARC

The Love Experiment by Kitty Wilson is pitched as a rom-com. However, it contains no romance and no comedy. If you are looking for psychotherapy, you also shouldn’t read this book because it reads like psychotherapy but there’s nothing therapeutic about it.

If you read this, prepare yourself for an extremely traumatic description of Lily (the female protagonist) – as a teenager – getting tied up by a group of young men and just barely avoiding what one has to assume would have been a gang rape. All I can say about this is that it is horrifying, handled extremely poorly by the author and traumatizes the reader without building to a healthy conclusion that gives us necessary relief from that really dreadful experience.

In fact, Lily – a literal therapist – dismisses her sexual assault as not a big deal. WTAF?! This character is supposed to be an incredible therapist who has a podcast about sexual health and yet she describes her own sexual assault as not a big deal? Awful. In every respect.

Now that I’m on my soapbox, here are a couple other problematic elements. First, let’s talk about the way the author handles Lily’s polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) diagnosis. Lily – remember, she’s a therapist! – hates herself because of her PCOS. She has disordered eating and drinking. Her negative self-talk is constant and destructive. She requires near Herculean coddling during her menstrual cycles and she’s verbally abusive while she experiences her cramps and bleeding.

Next … for a sexual health therapist, she has a big problem respecting the sexual boundaries of her male love interest, Jay. He tells her that he can’t have sex with her and she actually seduces him into sex. Rom-coms that feature non-consensual relationships are a big NOPE for me. No means no, regardless of the amount of lust in the room. We won’t talk about how she handles the post-sex relationship which is so full of red flags it could be a post on Reddit.

I’m also not going to address how incredibly selfish Lily is and how mean she is to the people who care about her. To do so would require me to think more about this book and I just can’t stand to put any more energy into dissecting why this book is so terribly depressing to read. There’s no love in this book. There’s no affection in this book. It’s just … ugh.

Putting all that aside, the book is difficult to read for another reason. The author loves long sentences – like full paragraph length. However, at least in this book, she seems to be using a keyboard that lacks working punctuation keys. There are few commas, few periods, and almost no semicolons. You might asphyxiate if you try to read this aloud.

And finally, the author has written this as a first person narrative, switching between protagonists. Unlike other authors, though, she doesn’t tell us readers that she’s switched between Lily and Jay. You’ll eventually figure it out and then you’ll have to re-read because it’s very confusing and easy to get lost.

In summary, this book is toxic and depressing and hard to read. It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t romantic. I will never, ever read it again. And I wouldn’t recommend it to a moldering corpse.

I received a digital arc from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book was an ok read, but it didn't quite live up to the hopes I had for it. The writing style is a little confusing and the heroine was hard to connect with. I would try another novel from Wilson as I think her writing showed promise, this just wasn't the book for me.

Thank you Netgalley, Harper Collins and One more chapter for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This book follows the story of Lily, a psychologist and well known from her podcast Love Doctor, and Jay, who works in the community to create safe spaces for woman and has a sister in a toxic relationship. As Lily is all for one-night stands and Jay is looking for a long-term commitment, will they be able to work with their attraction and find a common ground?
What I liked:
- LGBTQIA+ representation.
- Female character with polycystic ovarian syndrome. I think it is very important to include characters with PCOS, endometriosis and other similar disorders. It is important to normalize that periods are not supposed to be painful, and that several conditions, of which some are very difficult to diagnose, may be causing that pain. Please bear that in mind and share the knowledge with friends you know suffer with pain and have not been diagnosed.
- Inclusion of fertility problems
- Inclusion of a toxic relationship.

What I think could have been done better:
- Including the name of the POV on each chapter. I hope this would be fixed in the final version of the book
- The book was written in a way that explained to the reader everything that was happening, every thought that the characters were experiencing, leaving no room for readers to use their brain.
- I hated the way the excess weight issues were addressed as they felt a bit fat-shaming.

Unfortunately, the story and writing didn’t work for me. I wanted to like this book as it covers many important topics I would like to see discussed more frequently. However, I couldn’t like Lily neither get invested in her story. I found her very futile and absolutely and unhealthy obsessed with her physical image. I would hate establishing Lily as a role model for anything really, she needs therapy.

Dr Lily Galbraith with her ‘Love Doctor’ podcast tries to solve people’s love problems, yet she is determined to stay single. So when she meets Jay Hooper, her world is thrown into a spin. Jay has made a bet to stop dating and searching for ‘Mrs Right’ for six months, so when he meets Lily, he has to fight his feelings for her.
An interesting rom-com that was more than what the blurb suggested, with some pretty complex issues such as infertility and relationship abuse. Yet the romance is sweet, and there are plenty of secondary storylines, that might sound busy, but seemed well carried off. I am not sure if I would have picked up this book knowing what would transpire, but overall this was an interesting read.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

There is a lot to enjoy in The Love Experiment. Lily, better known as "The Love Dr." from her dating advice podcast is great at giving relationship and sex advice to everyone but herself. Jay,is so busy looking towards the future in finding a life partner he can't stop long enough to live in the present and get to know his dates. When the two meet, both of their worlds become disordered as, of course, romance ensues. I found the chemistry and banter between them delightful and their insecurities relatable. This is a humorous feel good romcom I think many will find entertaining.

Even so, three things keep this story in the "good but not great" category for me. I liked Lily's character a lot. She is sympathetic even though she struggles with a high need of control. One of the areas that Lily is super vigilant is her weight, fitness and overall appearance. I was uncomfortable with how her weight loss and maintenance was presented as something she does the "right" or "healthy" way in dealing with a medical condition because she is just that disciplined while the book also acknowledges that others could do the same thing and not see the same result- (which for her is the perfect skinny body). For someone with disordered eating and body issues, Lily's character may be hard to read. It's like the author was saying- "yes. diet and exercise can only go so far and some people can't be skinny no matter what because bodies are different, but isn't it great Lily found the way to be smoking hot "the right way." This is only made worse by the fact that Lily is also a therapist and should see through this herself. I do think the author takes pains to show this through Lily's POV and leaves signals that we as readers should pick up on to see this is rationalization as opposed to truly healthy- but readers should be aware of the possible triggers here before reading.

Secondly- I am always happy to see well developed side characters in romances. It's important to see romance in the context of life, and relationships with family and friends don't just fade into the background once you meet that right person. We have a great circle of characters here. But doing so can be a tough balance, and I think the book tries to do too much at once. Jay worries his sister is in a toxic relationship and needs to get out. Lily's friend Kevin is in a fledgling relationship that may or may not work, all while he is also coming out to his parents as a Drag Queen. While each plot line on its own may work, taken together they made story feel far less cohesive.

Finally- We get narration from both Lily and Jay's point of view. This is always an effective way to see how the character's own issues cause a breakdown in the relationship and/or how much they really do care and makes for great character development. It works well here, but the chapters don't always have a clear rotation of whose point of view you are in. I found myself having to take a few paragraphs to tell, am I still with Lily or is this now Jay? Also, there is a little too much repetition where we see them work something out in a conversation with a friend, and then again together etc without much change, which slowed down the overall story a bit too much for me in places.

All of this aside, the novel is a satisfying read if you enjoy humor, witty banter, and a feel good romance.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins publishing for providing an advance e-copy in exchange for this fair review.