4.5/5 stars

I don't know if I've ever read a book about two people who I loved more than Jesse and Lulu. This book was warm, tender, heartfelt, emotional, raw... it puts the reader through an entire rollercoaster of emotions and that's what makes it so perfect. The way Jesse and Lulu compliment each other which being their own people and having their own issues and flaws was so well executed. I found myself laughing and tearing up in equal measure, and I already know I'll be re-reading this book many times.

Amazing job, once again, by Ruby Barrett. whose books are a gift.

*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to Carina Adores and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts <3

Holy crap!!! The yearning in this one. The Friendship Study reminds me of why I love friends-to-lovers so much. These characters come to know each other so deeply that it's impossible for me to not want them together. Their chemistry was just off the charts electric!!! It also doesn't fall into the trap that penetrative sex is the end all be all in a relationship (freaking hot!!!!).

Ruby Barrett treads into some often forgotten about territory in the premise of The Friendship Study. Why is it so hard to make friends as an adult? Is loneliness all that we're meant for if we struggle to make friends? Is it too late to discover who we are again? I felt so seen in various aspects of this book.

The bisexual rep in this was amazing!! MF romances often feature a bisexual heroine, but TFS features a bisexual hero!!!! I loved it so so much. Jesse also lives with chronic pain and uses a mobility aid from a previous injury. You could see the care that Ruby Barrett put into the representation. Although it's not confirmed on page during the story, Barrett mentions in the author's note that Lulu will be diagnosed with ADHD as an adult.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a queer romance or a friends-to-lovers romance. It was stunning!!!

this is such a soft and emotionally driven book. I felt for Lulu and Jesse with how hard it is to make friends. At times I felt like I could relate to Lulu more because she felt autistic coded, especially with buying books to try to figure out how to make friends. I loved how Jesse opened himself up to Lulu and honestly just could go on and on about how beautiful this book was.

Why would Ruby Barrett write this?? (I mean that in the best way because how is it possible for a book to make me sob and giggle so frequently.)

God, I loved this book. Jesse and Lulu were SO relatable.

This is a story about all the ways starting over as an adult is isolating/lonely and falling in love with your best friend.

The Friendship Study was a lovely read that made some choices near the end that I didn’t love. The first thing that I loved about this book is the cover. It’s gorgeous and really conveys the feeling of the book. I don’t usually care much about covers, but this one is an A+.

In 2021 I felt like all the books I was reading were about grief. This year the theme has been loneliness. Grief is still a big factor in so many books, but isolation and loneliness are taking center stage. After an accident that ended his career as a firefighter, Jesse has been solitary. Even though he is lonely, he avoids his friends and former co-workers.

Dr. Eloise Banks, but please call her Lulu, is back in her hometown after her best friend had an affair with her boyfriend (she’s more upset about the end of the friendship). Her father got her a job teaching at the university where he is a well known professor and Lulu feels like her nepo baby status stands between her and her colleagues (she is correct).

Jesse and Lulu go on one blind date that ends with some kissing and a no thank you. They don’t see each other again until they join an adult friendship study. The study (which is being run by their mutual friend George) is exploring why adults, mostly Millennials, have such a hard time making friends. They are asked to journal, take part in individual and group therapy, and do friend things with the other participants. I would like to take part in this kind of study.

They take small steps towards just being friends, but the attraction between them leads to some rule bending shenanigans. Both of them are dealing with issues around identity and expectations. Jesse is bisexual, but he hadn’t worked up the courage to tell his grandfather before Alzheimer’s stole his memory. Lulu is trying to understand why she never feels like she fits. In a lot of ways, I identified so much with Jesse. He gets in his own way a lot because he is afraid to speak.

I wish there hadn’t been a third act break-up. I am not opposed to them in principle, but in this book, I think it was unnecessary and I wish Ruby Barrett had made a different choice. I understand why she made that choice, but I hated reading it. Once they tentatively start a friendship, Lulu and Jesse are so soft and kind with each other. I would have loved for that kindness to continue. They both had plenty of external stressors that I didn’t need for them to be mean to each other.

Ruby Barrett is a fantastic writer. I fell in love with her characters enough that I’m mad at her for making them break-up (they do get back together).

CW: death of parents in distant past, family member with Alzheimers, aging parents, friend break-up, betrayal, multiple injuries, car wreck in past.

I received this as an advance reader copy from Carina Adores and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

I am new to Ruby Barrett's writing, but this was such a pleasant surprise! I cannot wait to see what else she comes up with!

One awkward blind date and makeout session should have been the end of it. And yet.
Lulu is a new professor, desperate to fit in after returning home from the UK, chased away by a devastating breakup. But her colleagues keep her at arms length, convinced that she got the job through nepotism (not necessarily wrong), and she struggles to make friends - too chatty, too awkward, too much. Jesse is just desperate for things to go back to the way they were before the car accident that took away his career as a firefighter and before his grandfather's disease made him forget who he was. So, of course, it's only fitting that they get paired together when they both sign up for the college's millennial "friendship study." The biggest rule? No romance.

Everything about this book and these characters were just so relatable that I felt them down into my soul. How often have I, as a millennial, whined about the difficulties of trying to make friends in the real world in today's day and age? I'd love something like the friendship study in this book even if I would be an absolute Jesse about it and try to hide away. Friendship in the modern world is so complicated and difficult to start and maintain, and Barrett is aware of that with her writing.
And then there are the characters themselves. Lulu, who always feels simultaneously like too much and not enough and just desperately wants to fit in, and finally gets the help she needs to discover that maybe some of her behaviors have just been a way of masking a lifetime of neurodivergence. What if everyone leaves her the same way that her ex and best friend did? Should she even give them the chance to? And Jesse, who is bi but mostly just withdrawn and depressed about life. He can't disappoint people if he never lets them get close enough to even try. They're both so different but to watch them as individuals and then grow and learn to love each other (and themselves. and those around them) - Barrett's writing is masterful in this.

Genuinely, this takes its place as one of my favorite contemporary romances. I hope everyone gives it a chance!

Three and a half stars.

Jessie and Lulu are set up on a date by their mutual friend, George. It doesn't go great, exactly. Soon, since George is both their only friend and a Ph.D candidate, they're wrangled into a study about why millennials have a rough time making friends where they reconnect. One catch - study participants aren't allowed to have sexual relationships and Jesse and Lulu are finding it hard to follow that rule. Oops.

Number one: this cover is stunning. It's got early 1990s YA vibes and I am here for that. Number two, both characters are dealing with quite a lot and they really do grow over the course of the book. Jesse is dealing with an injury that ended his career and with slowly losing the man who raised him to dementia. Lulu is trying to fit into her academic department, a situation complicated by her father helping her to get her job.

I really liked their chemistry. Jesse did a lot of top-tier care taking, when Lulu was hurt.

There are a few plot details and threads that didn't work as well for me, but overall an enjoyable read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to Carina Adores, Harlequin Publicity Team, and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this!! All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

This book was an absolute damn delight. From its diverse, well-developed characters, to discussions of feeling lost in adulthood, to the swoony, hot romance, everything about this was fantastic.

Following a bi hero who is struggling to rediscover his place in the world after a life altering accident, and a heroine who feels lost after losing her job, best friend, and partner as they navigate friendship in adulthood.

There are just so many things this book excelled at. The discussions of rediscovering yourself, identity, missed opportunities, relationships and more were all done exceptionally.

The way this highlighted the struggle of finding friendship in adulthood, especially outside of work, I think will resonate with so many readers. This book was quintessential millennial in so many aspects and I couldn't help but see myself in so many of these situations.

The hero Jesse is disabled after a terrible car wreck that shattered is left leg. Now he uses mobility aids and struggles with chronic pain. I think the author handled this entire topic with such care and grace. You got to see his occasional struggles with feeling betrayed by his body, but how strong and capable he is regardless.

On top of that, he is struggling with the degeneration of a loved one. One that he feels like he never got the chance to be honest with about his identity as a bi man. This book really highlights his struggle with the loss, guilt, and regret. But also focuses on his ability to grieve and eventually move on.

The heroine is a bit of an endearing hot mess. She's a people pleaser who constantly feels like burden of the group (relatable). While she never gets an official diagnosis in this book, she is facing the possibility of being neurodiverse. While I couldn't relate to every way her ADHD manifested, there is something so special about seeing yourself in a character. Especially a character with an HEA.

This book was so sex positive - a hero who wants to use toys in order to please the heroine? yes please. And I loved how sex was highlighted in so many different ways - not just automatic magical penetrative sex.

But I think what made me fall so hard for these characters, was their friendship. These two have immediate attraction and chemistry, but are insistent on becoming friends. And their friendship was just as beautiful as their romance.

Overall I thought this was an amazing romance that I will definitely be recommending again and again. If you're looking for a diverse, soft-yet-steamy romance, check this one out!

This is a beautiful story of learning to trust (yourself and someone else) and learning to be yourself (with yourself and with others). The story of Jesse and Lulu is going to stay with me because it spoke to me on so many levels and I think I’ll need to come back to it - the depth of the character development and beauty of the writing was just so touching and relevant.

To pick only three things to tell you that I loved was hard but here we go: I just loved that Lulu has a favourite tree. I loved the Alzheimer’s storyline which highlighted a really beautiful relationship between grandfather and grandson. And I couldn’t help but love the so many ways that love and adult friendship is explored throughout the novel and it’s cast of characters.

Bravo!

The story of Jesse and Lulu, two lonely people who were brought together by George - mutual friend (and in Jesse’s case, ex boyfriend) - who convinces them to join his Phd study about the difficulties millennials have making new friends.
One of the main rules of this study in building friendships is that romance (or hookup with) with any of the other participants while it’s going.
I’m sure you can guess where this is heading?
They are going to strain the boundaries of those rules 🔥

You ever get that fear, when a book opens in a way you love So Much that you’re terrified the rest of it won’t live up? Can’t possibly?
I got that fear in the very first chapter.
Fortunately, I should *not* have worried, because I loved this book the whole way through.

There is so much to love.

First off, it’s a hot af romance - Refreshing plot line where it’s not an awakening thing *and* not just a throw away sentence about a label but is relevant to their characters.
The tension as they’re trying to go as far as possible without technically breaking the rules of the study? Nice. And when they blow past that line? Even better.

The relatability of how hard making new friends as an adult is, especially without ‘work friends’ to fall back on. And the character growth of Jesse, Lulu and all the other study participants.

That, even though Lulu was betrayed by the two people she should have been able to trust most, she hadn’t turned so bitter she rejected the idea of new connections. She’s was just having trouble making them.

Jesse taking back the parts of his life he’d given up on post accident, and finding a new path. And even though it was hard because he didn’t remember him any more, that he’s still unfailingly loyal to the grandfather who raised him.

I appreciated how the things they were dealing with didn’t have easy fixes, it’s not all about getting back something lost but sometimes it’s making something new that will fit better.
I was all sorts of emotional by the end. Messy messy feelings (ugh, lol)

I would happily read so many more books like this one!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for the arc!

The Friendship Study-a standalone

By: Ruby Barrett-1st time author for me

Publication: 2-13-24, Read 2-11-24

Format: eBook, 318 pgs.

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley and Carina Adores/Harlequin for this ARC💙 ! I voluntarily give an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖📖
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧 🧧
Overall View: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

⚠️TW: SA (h's past), car accident/injured H, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety/depression

The Main Protagonists

The Hero: Jesse Logan (30) ex firefighter, home security guard w/o medical benefits for therapy on leg & walking w/ a cane. Jesse dated George- his best friend and Lulu's colleague He. never met his mother and was raised by his grandparents. He was close to his grandfather Pop who suffers from Alzheimer's & dementia.

The Heroine: Eloise/Lulu Banks (30) history professor@ University of Wilvale in PA. Moved from UK to hometown PA after being cheated on by her boyfriend and best friend. She lives with her parents- both academics. She believes she talks too much, overcompensates, and has a hard time making friends.

Summary: Jesse and Lulu are two lonely people who have been beaten down by life. Career, relationships, and finances have caused hardship and heartbreak for them. Enter George, a mutual friend-who sets them up on a blind date , and later a paid psychological study about the difficulty making friends as adults. It monitors the effect on physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

What I Loved: The sweet, quiet friendship between Jess and Lulu. Connecting over loneliness, something so many people including myself struggles with. I had friends in school, but after college I became Lulu and my friends became Calliope Singh-married with kids. I also loved the relationship between Jess and Pop even though his grandfather doesn't recognize him anymore.

What I Struggled With: N/A

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Adult Fic
Character Types: history professor, firefighter, security guard, shy, ADHD/neurodivergent, LGBTQIA+
Tropes: friends to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, friends with benefits, small town

Book Perspective
dual POV H/h
Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Relationship

The Friendship Study gave me a lot of warm, fuzzy feelings. Even though I did cry at one point.

Lulu and Jesse have an awkward blind date then unexpectedly meet up at a psychological study on the local college campus about the current generation having a hard time making friends. The rules of the study say there cannot be any romantic entanglements between any study participants…so Lulu and Jesse decide to try friendship.

And I loved the way their friendship developed. They both have their own problems; Jesse, dealing with his Grandfather’s Alzheimer’s and feeling adrift after no longer physically able to be a firefighter. And Lulu, imposter syndrome and feeling like she doesn’t fit anywhere. And slowly, they become friends, developing a real emotional connection…while secretly crossing the line with a little bit of “benefits.”

The third act break-up was painful but god, I love a good grovel so that made up for it.

Props to the wonderful bi representation. I’ll happily read more from this author. Thank you to Harlequin Books for the review copy.

4.5 rounded to 5 for Goodreads

The Friendship Study by Ruby Barrett is about two people who feel alone in life and struggle with making friends. They join a friendship study for adults and along the way become best friends and so much more.

I don't even know where to start with this one, so if I'm all over the place at any point I apologize in advance. Jessie Jessie Jessie was just perfectly imperfect and I loved him so much. The bisexual rep in this book all thanks to him is quality. He struggles with his self-worth since his car accident change his life. So much about his story hurt my heart, from his anxiety and his lack of self-worth to his relationship with his pop😭. He's a man of few words, not because he doesn't feel deeply, bit because he feels so much he can't pout it into words.

Lulu is a solid complex character and while she feels just as lonely as Jesse, her anxiety comes out as nervous rambling and impulsive decisions. I felt bad for her yearning to feel accepted by her coworkers and her struggling to find her place. I loved the way she brought Jessie out of his shelf and slowly broke through his walls.

Together they were wonderful. They understood each others anxieties and helped each other to be strong and face their fears. They quickly become each others best friends in the social study. They turn into friends with benefits when they can't ignore their chemistry but don't want to lose the connection of the study. They engage in mutual masturbation sessions that will make you melt and when they let themselves intimate engage with each other it's beautiful.

In the End , The Friendship Study is a Queer MF romance that begins with an unsuccessful blind date. A Bi Hero, friends with benefits, consent, mutual pleasure, s*x toys, hurt/comfort, group outings, making friends ,and realizing maybe we aren't as alone as we think we are.

I loved The Romance Recipe so I knew I had to read The Friendship Study by Ruby Barrett.
So cute!!! I already had a feeling I was going to enjoy this book because of how much I have enjoyed Barrett’s other novels, and I was absolutely correct.
I love how her characters feel like real people. Lulu and Jesse were super interesting characters and I loved seeing them interact with each other.
A sweet romance with endearing characters, engaging plot and wonderful setting.
This is such a sweet, swoon-worthy, friends to lovers read!

Thank You NetGalley and Carina Adores for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This bi-for-bi romance gave me everything I wanted out of a bi-for-bi romance and I'm quickly on my way to recommending it to so many reader-friends!

Not only were all the open door romance scenes full of chemistry (let's be real, Lulu and Jesse were full of chemistry whenever they weren't touching ALSO), but also spoke really realistically (and in the end, hopefully) about what it's like to be an adult when your life is fully changed due to the definition of who you are. For Jesse, that was the loss of his firefighting career (a dynastic career as his father and grandfather were both firefighters before him), and Lulu, when her (also dynastic, as both of her parents are doctoral-level professors) professorship takes a turn after being personally betrayed but also she has to deal with the very real consequences of nepotism (in her favor).

As someone an elder Millennial the subject of trying to make friends with people who are not just there by default-- classmates, coworkers- is a tough one, and one a lot of us struggle with so it felt very real to try to read these people just trying to live in a SOCIETY.

This book was only roughly 300 pages long but not only THAT, it gave us: dealing with a parental figure with dementia, a sort of "what if I--" guilt, ADHD pre-diagnosis manifestation, and hope. So much hope, not only for two people to find each other as friends and lovers and people who are really just like, Your Person, but the hope that we can make friends despite the things that worry us about doing so and the hope that one bad turn in life won't completely destroy us, that there are other paths and other things when we make that scary choice to pursue.

Anyway I loved this, thank you so much to NetGalley and Harlequin - Romance/Carina Adores for the eARC in exchange for review.

ALSO. THE COVER IS GORGEOUS.

I loved these two. For me, a really good romance makes you loves the characters as individuals AND as a couple, and everything about these two made me so happy. Love the neurospicy rep and the bisexual rep, and I cried twice. This book is just so soft. And the, uh, zesty scenes are... *intense sweating*

My only issue was the at the third act breakup felt forced. Like it was wedged in because it had to be. I know folks have all kinds of feelings about the 3rd act breakup as a concept, but it's often the catalyst for personal growth, and these two definitely needed that nudge. The way it came about just felt... weird and inorganic. I'm not sure how to explain without spoilers, but whatever, if you read romance you know to expect that moment. I didn't love that part but I did love the rest of it.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley. As someone who's bi/pan, I have read a lot of books with lackluster bi rep, but this one gets my stamp of approval.

I liked a lot and this was a solid 3. The beginning was strong and the characters were sweet, broken and lovable. What lowered my rating to 3 is the steamy scenes took over the last piece of the book too much and the misunderstanding conflict at the end just was over the top.

A swoon-worthy story, with equally swoon-worthy characters. What will you find in this book? A lovely represented bisexual male main character, historical academia, firefighters, psychology studies, a realistic look into watching someone fade away with Alzheimer’s, a group of adults struggling to make friends, the slow realization of being in love, open and consensual dialogue during intimacy, learning to love yourself, and learning to allow others to love you. This was a lovely read.

4.5 ⭐️

Wow. Okay. This was a tender and vulnerable story with a lot of emotional depth.

I loved the MCs. I really felt their emotional connection. Sometimes the soft and the soft-spoken resonate the loudest. Sometimes there’s a lot to be said in the absence of words. And I feel like it was so incredible that the author was able to portray that.

I loved the whole premise of the story: our MCs join a study to find out why adults, specifically millennials, have such a hard time making friends. I mean…! This millennial surely relates to that!

I enjoyed this one, and would surely recommend it.

After their mutual friend sets them up on a date that leads to a great kiss and nothing else, Jesse and Lulu independently sign up for a social study meant to find out why millennials struggle to make friends as adults and how to help them do so. One rule: they're not allowed to have sex with other participants. Naturally, our two leads fall head over heels and try (not that hard TBH) not to hook up with each other.
Jesse is a security guard and Lulu is a contract history professor. They've both had professional and personal setbacks in the last couple of years that have led to their respective shortage of friendships and difficulty opening up to new people. People told me for years that once my kids started school, I'd make lots of new friends. That never happened. In the last decade, I've made a total of three IRL friends and only see one of them with any regularity. I absolutely related to Jesse and Lulu's struggles to put themselves out there and I would like to read George's study conclusions, please.
This is a fun, steamy book, but it also covers some weightier subjects. Before the characters decide to make a real go of a relationship, Barrett uses her proficiency for writing steam to craft several "parallel play" scenes that were scorching and emotionally vulnerable.
When Jesse was in a bad car accident and broke his femur, he had to leave his life's work as a firefighter and several of his hobbies. He sometimes uses a mobility aid and does a lot of strength conditioning to counter his mobility loss. The disability rep reads well to me, but there's quite a bit of soul-searching and I think some of it will read differently for folks who have always used mobility aids. He's also bi and that was handled really well. Not one quick mention and we're done, but not a source of angst in his relationships either. The grandfather who raised him has dementia and no longer remembers him, which leads to the main source of his bi angst - he never came out to his grandfather and it's too late now.

Lulu is an academic recently returned to the United States from England because her boyfriend and best friend cheated together and pretty much wrecked her life there. There's one scene in which the main characters are speaking about how they'd like to proceed with sex and she tells him she was raped by a past boyfriend and doesn't like to be held down during sex. She's gone to therapy and Jesse is the model of respectful partner. They check in with each other frequently and I'll hold this book up as an example of how ongoing consent can be on-page and still super sexy.

I read this on audio and in print and had to switch to print several times because I think my earbuds caught fire. Okay, not really. It's because I wanted to read faster! And yet I was sad when it ended. This is by far my favorite of Ruby Barrett's books and I suspect it'll be the rare book I reread.

Thanks to HQN and Harper Audio for the early reads!
***
Content Warnings: grandparent with dementia, past death of parents (not described), car accident (past, not detailed), past rape (FMC, not detailed). Additional content warnings are provided by the author at the beginning of the book.