What is love? Grace and Lola decide they want to tackle the topic of love like a science report and together they reach out to various classmates to get their perspectives. There's the class gossip, the goth, and the girl all the boys crush on. No one is what they seem in this story and the girls learn a valuable lesson not to see someone by their first impressions. There is first love, tough love, and heart break throughout this tale and in the end, Lola and Grace find love is not quite so simple.

This is a gentle middle school story that tackles bullying, heart break, family issues, friendship, and more. Readers will absolutely benefit from this work.

★ARC review!★

I gave this book 2.5 stars

At the heart of it, this was a sweet story about to girls who delve into what love is. The art is very pretty and I enjoyed looking at the art panels.

I do think that this book had problems juggling a lot of issues at once, which made it incredibly hard to focus on the problem at hand. I found the plot being a little clumsy at times and the way in which the girls talked about other girls (slutshaming) handled poorly.

★Thank you NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the opportunity to read an Advanced Copy.

The Love Report is a graphic novel for tweens and young teens that deals with exploring love and relationships in general. The main characters, Grace and Lola, are BFFs that decide to investigate what love is and compile their findings into the love report. They initially start investigating on their own, but quickly realize that they need insider information. They begin interviewing their peers and a whole cast of characters is soon involved in the story. Grace and Lola learn that love can be romantic, stupid, blissful, annoying, and even heartbreaking.

I really enjoyed the way that this book dealt with so many aspects of relationships. There were characters with crushes, characters being crushed on (including those with no romantic interests), characters in relationships, and characters that broke up. There were characters that were casual acquaintances, characters that were BFFs, and characters that became friends eventually. There was also some mention of families including single parent families, blended families, and divorce. Overall, I felt like this book covered the range of relationships pretty thoroughly.

There were a few aspects of this book that I was initially hesitant about, but I feel like the situations were adequately dealt with by the end of the story. First of all, two of the female characters that are described as "cute" and "dressing sexy" are also referred to as a "bimbo" and "easy". As the story unfolds, both of their stories are given more context and readers have the opportunity to learn more about each character outside of the stereotypes present at the beginning. I was also a little concerned about the way many of the female characters appeared as "boy crazy" and were willing to overlook various indiscretions in the name of "love". Fortunately, there were also a couple of scenes where the same female characters displayed amazing strength.

Finally, I don't feel like I can properly review this title without discussing the illustrations. The manga-style illustrations are absolutely adorable. I feel like the artist did an excellent job giving each character their own personality. I was impressed with the amount of detail in each panel. I noticed tiny details as I was reading (like the books on the shelves in the library), but I felt like they contributed to the experience of the story rather than being distracting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the opportunity to review an eARC of this title.

This was such a cute read! Loved the graphics of it and the friendships in it. It was cute to see such young littles trying to figure out what love is about and different ways it’s expressed.

This is an amazing graphic novel for young readers. It's a coming of age story that talks about love what love is. It also touches on friendships making friends and family. Touchs on parents separating and single parents. I personally thought it was done well.
The art was beautiful, the colors conveyed the feeling, the tone, and the vibe of the graphic novel. The dwanings and pannles flowed well in telling the story as the colors enhanced the story along.
I really thought this was a cute story and I enjoyed myself reading. Definitely recommend for the target audience.

Thank you for allowing me to have an ARC copy

The illustrations in this book were absolutely beautiful and incredible. Every panel had the bittersweet feeling of adolescence. They were easily my favorite part of the book. I did admire the concept of the book, and enjoyed the focus on friendship and the complicated nature of friendship and relationship in tween years. However, some of the characters felt stereotypical and I was really uncomfortable by the use of the word "bimbo" in the book. It took me out of the story and as a result I didn't feel like the emotional arcs were ultimately satisfying. However, i am very excited to see and read future work from this team of writers.

Lola dreams of romance and one boy in particular, but she's never had the courage to ask him out. She and her best friend Grace concoct a plan to create the love report, which will be the ultimate guide to understanding middle school romance. But as they interview key players and learn more, they discover that love is a bit more complicated than they'd anticipated. Other drama plagues the friends, but they come to realize that love isn't just a romantic feeling.

This book makes some good points about young love and the trials that come with middle school dating. The illustrations are adorable, and the feelings real. I don't particularly care for love as a topic, and the beginning of the story is pretty slow, but I think young people who enjoy middle school drama will have a good time with this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This was really cute and I adored the art. It was also so very accurate to how kids act and talk, especially when it comes to relationships. They really are out there celebrating week-long relationships, thinking that's the marker for a happily ever after (which I believe may be the fault of pop culture, honestly), and spreading rumors about people they've dated or kissed or tried to hurt. I can totally see a couple of middle-graders doing their own report like this and I've no doubt many actually have.

There are many great lessons in this too, some that are very wise and mature. Love is absolutely all of the things they discover. I appreciate Lola's mother's explanation at the end as well. It was heartwarming. I really like how Grace and Lola work through their own relationship and theirs with others, all of it very realistic and relatable. It's a healthy and positive way to deal with these situations and I hope that becomes a blueprint for how the readers navigate their own relationships.

There are some problems with this story, however. One goes back to the accuracy of how kids act and talk: the slut-shaming and uses of derogatory terms like "bimbo" never get addressed as issues. Yes, it's accurate to how kids actually speak, but because it's never really pointed out to be a problem, the readers will likely think it's okay to still talk like that. Another is while there are talks of queer relationships and Adele even has a pride flag in her room, no one is portrayed as queer... I thought Chloe and Cleo were going to end up together, or maybe even Adele and Grace, but nope. All cishet relationships.

That all said, if a kid is having relationship issues, I'd say hand them this book if they don't feel like talking. The overarching message is probably going to help them.

This manga took me by surprise by the artwork. It was so beautiful and paired well with the storyline. Not everyone understands romance and love. The two girls explore and seek out the truth. This novel does feel like a warm hug that I feel that middle-grade readers would appreciate and need. Overall, loved this so much. I plan to add this to my to-be-purchased pile.

I loved The Love Report. It was sweet and wonderful and timely. Everyone needs to read this book and feel the warmth and realness of these amazing characters.

This could have been a lot better. And hopefully some of the art gets fixed prior to publication because I think it's translated from French and Grace and Lola's names were Garance and Linon. The names were on a lock and Lola and Noah's names were on a lock. There are a lot of heavy subjects in this little middle grade graphic novel and it felt like there was TOO much and so the talk and resolution of each one was too little. It could have been an educational source but there isn't enough.

The Love Report by BéKa and Maya, 192 pages. GRAPHIC NOVEL. Astra Publishing House, 2023. $20.
Language: PG (1 swear, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Best friends Grace and Lola don’t understand love, so they decide to interview students at their middle school who do. Except maybe nobody knows. Maybe relationships – romantic or otherwise – are more complicated than that.
While initially the focus is on romantic love, I appreciate that Lola and Grace’s project expands to include friends and family, too. The relatable story and colorful illustrations convey the ups and downs that can happen in every relationship.
Grace and her family are depicted as Black, and Lola and her family are depicted as White. The majority of other characters are also depicted as White. The mature content rating is for groping, and the violence rating is for slapping.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Nice introduction to some heavier topics for younger audiences. The art is nice, story is fast paced. I liked the relationship between the best friends the most.

**An ARC was received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is no way influenced my opinion of the book.**

What initially drew me to this book was a cute art style. I will say the art did not disappoint! I enjoyed the story as well. Additionally, I felt that the female characters were very diverse and well fleshed out. However, the male characters were not. I would have liked to see more diversity with them and their personalities. All the male characters in this book were very rude. I also did not appreciate the language that was used in this book. At one point in the story one of Lola and Grace’s friends is called a “bimbo” and really slut shame her. By calling girls they had never met bimbos or sluts, I feel encourages kids that this language is acceptable and it is not. Even after they know these characters, they still reference them by using this language even after they learn that they were not actually a slut at all. I truly hope this book is being marketed to adults! It would be even better if the offensive language was removed. This really is not a graphic novel for preteen girls, which is who I think it was intended to be marketed towards. While I realize that this kind of language is utilized by this demographic, that does not make it acceptable. I do love all of the ways they represented love, however, I feel that they only focused on all the bad kinds of love. They never really focused on positives. Also a big part of love is respecting women and I feel that this concept was not conveyed at all. If there were more volumes I would read it. However, due to the language and not respect conveyed to women, I would not let a middle schooler or a younger child read this story. I wish they would modify the language to be less offensive and make this story more empowering to women.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are my own.

✨ Representation: Grace and her family are Black; a side character named Charlie is Asian; a side character named Adele has rainbow pride flag apparel/accessories but is not established as queer on-page

✨ Content warnings for: slut-shaming, bullying, divorce, absent parents, parental abuse, sexual assault, gossip/rumors, mild violence

I honestly thought this book was cute but, there is a lot of slut-shaming and bullying for a book that is aimed at middle grade kids. I know that both of these things are normal in schools but I don't see why it's throughout the whole story. I know that understanding love was the main point to this story and that it is a confusing topic at this age. I did think the way it's told is pretty accurate for middle school kids because everyone has a crush on someone and someone always gets their heart broken. I did like the fact that there were also depictions of adults having issues with their love lives because it's the main thing that children at that age look at. They see the struggles adults go through whether we think they do or not.

The artwork was done very well and the colors were very vibrant which is what caught my attention the most.

This was a cute graphic novel with pretty illustrations that will open the doors for middle-grade readers to talk about love and romance and all of its complexities.
It tries to do a lot in a short amount of time so it is like a survey course on love if it were to take the shape of a graphic novel. Some subjects go more in depth than others, but hopefully younger readers will use this book as a springboard to have deeper conversations with a trusted adult and read books tackling similar topics.

Such a heartwarming read, it reminded me of drinking a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day. The characters were a lot of fun, and I like that they encountered a wide range of complex issues. Although at times it came off as a little "after school special".

I received an eARC from the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

3.5/4 stars.

This graphic novel is beautifully illustrated and tells the story of a group of girls discovering what love means to them.

The female characters are diverse and well fleshed out, the male characters, less so. I would have liked to see more diversity within them and their personalities.

Overall though I did enjoy the story and the journey the characters went on.

Thank you to netgalley for a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this graphic novel. The art style was beautiful and it told a nice story. I was thinking it was going to be LGBTQ but it wasn't. I wish it was. I would recommend it still. The book delt with some heavier topics like Graces' parents, and Felicity's and Adele's background. I am not sure if I liked how it handled Lola's relationship with Noah. I see that this is the first book in a series so I will have to read more to find out.

Honestly, being in junior high is really difficult. We've all been there, experiencing the same or similar trials and tribulations that Lola and Grace face throughout the course of "The Love Report". This graphic novel does a heartfelt job exploring what love and friendship means through the lens of two young girls Lola and Grace. The Love Report fabulously exhibits the deep anxieties regarding relationships, both romantic and platonic, that tweens, teens, and even adults face. Covering topics of love, divorce, friendship, rumors, insecurity, The Love Report was an incredibly touching ode to what it means to be in the throws of youth. This is a book I certainly plan to recommend regularly after publishing!