Thanks NetGalley and Harlequin books for this read. This book was good but I think I needed to do a better job at reading the premise. I still enjoyed it. The book was well written and it did what it set out to do. The book to me seemed like a slow burn and it was achieved in my view. It is not super slow but it was a slow burn.

WOW THIS BOOK COMPLETELY BLEW ME AWAY. From the discussions of bisexuality and neurodiversity to the ways in which Barrett captured the difficult nuances of being an adult and making friends as a millennial (and the issues around academia), I felt seen top to bottom in this book. Oh, and its spicy and consent based and funny. Perfection.

This book is like super soft, super horny sunshine.

I truly feel like I could leave my review at just that, but since I read an advanced copy of this book, I’ll gush a little bit more about it, because it is so lovely & wonderful & fun & feels like cuddling up in a nice blanket on a rainy day (perfectly cozy). But also while bringing solid horny vibes & the silly situations that come with two people who just can’t admit their own silly feelings.

I love both Jesse & Lulu & I see myself in both of them (metaphorically, but also…~ahem~). With Lulu, I know what it’s like to somehow simultaneously feel like I’m too much & that I’m not enough; I feel this almost every day. And with Jesse, I know what it feels like to mourn the person we used to be & to struggle to accept that we can never go back. (I think there are a lot of us out there who will identify with one of these two, if not both.) And together, I just want to pick up these two like Barbie dolls & smush their faces together while saying, “NOW KISS!” But I also love almost every side character in this book, too - a beautiful, queer, found family who takes no shit when it comes to the happiness of those they love.

If you love a grumpy/sunshine pairing full of pining & warmth & big feelings, then ‘The Friendship Study’ is for you. This romance is so refreshingly modern & real & I need more books like this, pretty please.

Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin for providing an advanced digital copy of this book for review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

All this book made me do was sob!!
This is the first book I’ve read by Ruby Barrett but it won’t be my last.
Lulu and Jesse are such raw and vulnerable and relatable characters like…
I LOVE THEM YOUR HONOR

I know this book is about 30 year old millennials and I’m barely about to turn 25 this year but damn…
It IS hard to make friends, it IS hard to trust yourself, and it is so hard to find a place to belong in. It can get very lonely after a while and just learn to seek isolation. This book spoke to me on such a deep level and I will forever love it. These characters went through so much change in such a small period of time, it’s not easy to get that life back or move on, because you just yearn for what used to be comfortable. But god, I loved that both Lulu and Jesse were able to find that comfort again 🥹 I loved their friendship and conversations and how they just kept each other safe.
Lulu is me and I am her and I will protect her at all costs. Thinking you’re too much? Yep that’s me 😭 her internal dialogue just had me screaming ME! the entire time
And Jesse, my sweet boi, a simp, and a bi icon, god he hurt me the most but it was so beautiful seeing him heal and find something for himself 🫶🏼🥹
Have I mentioned that I love them?!!? (it’s just that I do so much 🥹) they deserve each other and they are just so soft for each other it pulls my heartstrings



please check for cw


Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for the eARC!

4.5 stars (rounded up)

this is my first book by ruby barrett and i have to go back and read the rest of her work. the way she writes and tells a story is so, SO beautiful. everything about this felt so pure and wholesome, even the sex scenes felt emotionally driven and landed on me pretty heavily. the way she writes vulnerability in both her characters literally made me sob in my bed at eleven o'clock at night -- sorry karma (my dog who had to bear witness very uncomfortably).

lulu and jesse are right - it's hard and, let's face it, sometimes awful making new friends. it sometimes feels especially hard (and, for me though i don't know why) a little embarrassing, making new friends now that i'm 26. it's especially hard when you grew up finding it so easy to walk up to people and talk to them. i'm still considered a social butterfly in my family even though i would rather jump off a bridge without a cord/harness than interact with the person taking my order on the other side of the drive-thru speaker most of the time.

reading about why lulu and jesse find it so hard to make friends (trauma, too self-critical, over-expecting or putting too much pressure on yourself and other people) almost made me feel like i was the one who was going through therapy. this was a good reminder that most of the dread that's going on in your head, all the worst case scenarios and the talk of being too much or too less of yourself for other people, is just that: in /your/ head. people are much too busy worrying the same thing about themselves to worry about whatever baggage you think you're carrying and whether it's too much for someone else to shoulder.

like most of my reviews, i've probably ranted too much about a whole lot of nothing, but it's so special when you can relate to characters, see yourself in characters, and learnt o appreciate and love yourself a little more because you see so much of yourself in these characters -- that you wholeheartedly love and want to defend. and i love and want to defend the hell out of lulu and jesse. friends to lovers done so right it hurt in a lot of ways.

also they're both really, really hot. my bi ass was LIVING.

This was a MOST anticipated 2024 romance for me and it sure didn't disappoint!! Friends to lovers perfection with two queer, neurodiverse characters plus great mental health and disability rep. It's rare when books come along that truly speak to you on a deeply profound level and that was this book for me!!

Ex-firefighter Jesse and History Professor Lulu both find themselves in lonely places and sign up for a 'Friendship study' that is seeking to evaluate the way depression, anxiety and loneliness is increasingly a problem for single people. As the two become friends they also realize their feelings are far from platonic.

I can't recommend this book enough, especially for anyone who's felt lonely or like they were 'too much.' Your people are out there and you deserve to be loved for exactly who you are! This book delivers on all the feels and you don't want to miss it!

Many thanks to the author for writing such a moving story that does a great job of balancing humor, spice and emotional depth!! Also thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and the Harlequin Publicity team for sending me a beautiful finished copy in exchange for my honest review!

Steam level: open door

Despite the illustrated cover, this book is not a rom com. It’s serious, intense, and on the sad side. It’s well written but not for me.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

*4.5

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for the free arc in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book so much!

The friendship study is a friends with benefits romance book, so trust me when I saw I DEVOURED this book up.

The friendship study features Jesse, a bisexual grumpy ex firefighter (had to quiet due to injury) who has isolated himself due to personal circumstances. We meet Lulu, a Neurodivergent professor who has a hard time making friends. George,a friend that they have in common have them both join a psych study meant to research millennials who struggle to make friends. And soooo the romance begins 👀

I loved everything about this book, the friendship build up between Jesse and Lulu made my heart super soft. I am always a sucker for a romantic relationship built of a firm friendship foundation. I also loved how Lulu and Jesse were able to grow with one another and also grow apart.

Adding on the fireworks between Jesse and Lulu were there, I was reading this book before one of my lectures and was blushing so HARD.

Let’s talk about the representation!

I loved the bi rep in this as well, Jesse hit close to home as a bisexual myself. P.S. All bisexuals rise 🙌.

There’s also mobility aid representation, although I myself cannot speak on the accuracy of the representation I thought it was worth mentioning. The author also highlighted that she did extensive research on mobility aid relied on the experiences of individuals in her life that have used mobility aid.

An extra note: Lulu is confirmed as a neurodivergent, although she has not been given a proper diagnosis within the book. The author shares that the reason behind this is due to the struggle that many woman go through in being later diagnosed as neurodivergent in life or even going through their entire life without a diagnosis. She also calls out the stereotypes behind symptoms of neurodivergent individuals, while highlighting that neurodivergence is not a single universal experience but one that is incredibly diverse.

I definitely recommend reading this book, I hope you are all able to enjoy this book as much as I did!

Jesse being a bisexual man who paints his nails was a win in my book 😮‍💨👏

Since a key smash is not an allowed form of review I have to actually find the words to describe how much I loved this book.
I went in completely blind not knowing what to expect from this book because it was my first Ruby Barrett and honestly I was completely blown away. It literally made me cry.

Lulu and Jesse are both trying to start fresh, getting out of feeling stuck and to be honest I could resonate a lot with that, but the thing that really hit close to home was Lulu's desire to make friends and create a new community around her after uprooting her life. I could so get that, I was seeing myself a few years back.

I was rooting for both of them from the start, their bond and relationship grows throughout the book at a very good and balanced pace. I feel like many people will expect a slowburn, but I don't think it would have worked for them. I just loved these two softies so much, my heart was so full at the end.

I always love the combination of sad and a little bit horny it makes the best stories and makes the happily ever after at the end even sweeter.

The Friendship Study follows Elouise (Lulu) and Jesse through their respective social/personal struggles. Each are friends with Dr George, a professor at the local University and host to a new study on making friends as adults. Jesse is looped into participating in hopes of helping him get back out there after a bad car accident and lots of major life changes related to that. Lulu is a new professor at the school and has been recently betrayed by an ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend. She’s always felt like “too much” and in the hopes of finding her place at this new job, she also joins the study.

These characters have a lot going on in their individual lives and at times I felt like it was almost too much? But there was a lot of very real and accurate emotions around their issues. I cried at a number of parts to this though because each of our main characters struggles with adult friendships reflect pieces that I’ve struggled with as well as I’ve grown up. As Lulu and Jesse form a friendship between each other and blur the lines of that friendship a bit, you can see how easily and quickly they connect. Lulu helps expand Jesse’s views more on what he can do and how he should reach out to people from before his accident. Jesse gives Lulu space to be exactly who she is, with her history talks or just her specific stories.

I really adored how Lulu and Jesse’s relationship evolves as well as all the intimacy they experience. It also has some great examples of sex and intimacy that isn’t direct P in V which is something that I haven’t seen as often in contemporary romances and was super well written.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed my previous experience reading a book by Ruby Barrett, so I jumped at the chance to read her next book, The Friendship Study, early. I had a pretty vague idea of the premise, with two lonely people in need of a fresh start meeting through the titular “friendship study,” and I really like how the story explored this, especially presenting a realistic situation that could help people who were eager to make friends as an adult.
The characters are both great. Jesse is bisexual, and I appreciate how this is discussed in the book, including the biphobia he deals with. He’s also now both dealing with a career-ending injury and navigating life with a parent with Alzheimer’s, and while I haven’t experienced either of these things personally, I appreciate how the impact of both issues were depicted.
Lulu is also interesting, and I really enjoyed her arc of finding her place within her career as well. And while it’s not stated on-page within the body of the work itself, Barrett confirms that Lulu has ADHD, adding context to her behavior, and Barrett also speaks of her own experience getting diagnosed while writing this book, and acknowledges how fraught the process of “official” diagnosis can be for neurodivergent women (a fact I know too well).
The romance itself is super-sweet, and I really liked how the study set them up as friends, with the taboo against romantic relationships. While friends-with-benefits is not my favorite trope (considering how many times I’ve ranted about this trope and its relative, enemies-with-benefits, as of late), I love the way Barrett executed it. Their interactions with each other are so tender as they open up and get vulnerable, yet there’s obvious passion and heat there too. And while FWB is a very temporary state, one of the cons that often turns me off the trope, I truly rooted for them to figure out that what they wanted was to be together, even as other opportunities got in the way.
I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to readers who enjoy contemporary romance with nuanced queer and neurodiverse rep, and a solid execution of the friends-with-benefits trope.

I think in many ways, this book has a lot of contradictions, and makes it difficult for me to pinpoint my feelings on it. I think there is an interesting way Ruby Barrett writes this story - there is a cadence that seems to be uniquely hers, and doesn't fit the typical "rom-com" style of writing. There is a freshness that I enjoyed and appreciate. There is something off about Jesse and Lulu, even though we get both of their point of views, I still feel like I'm not getting the full picture. Jesse for me, does not fit the "needing to find friends" category at all, as he is surrounded by different friends and friend groups that are including him. But its an attempt to get him to need to "find new friends" to fit the narrative of the study. However, for me this concept of the friendship study, while I think could have been a really interesting take, ends up falling flat. There are rules, but they don't follow them, or they tweak them oddly, and I think the tension would have been better if they didn't act on their attraction. Instead of feeling as though they're really getting to know each other, it ended up feeling like mostly physical. The conflict and the resolution at the end felt a bit juvenile. I think a lot of people will really like this book, as there is a lot of fun, and spicy, interactions, humor as well as personal growth and development. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.

I was caught off guard at how much I loved this book and how much I was rooting for the characters. I loved the representation of a bi male character and two neurodivergent characters. The chemistry, trust and friendship and love between these two was a beautiful journey to get to experience in writing. I found their gradual shift from friends to lovers to be super hot.

My one complaint:
At the end, Lulu starts to give Jesse road head. I found this to be out of character insensitive, even for someone super impulsive. Jesse has already had a tragic accident while driving and PTSD from it. I cannot see any world where he would be ok with that kind of distraction while driving and that potential risk. Just. No. He does pull the car over to resume activities, but I just didn’t love the author going there.

Whoa! Damn! Oh my! Ruby Barrett has created so so much magic with Lulu and Jesse's romance of acceptance and growth. I was feeling out of sorts at the start of this story, but Barret brings it home. Possibly one of my favorite epilogues ever. It was so freaking hot. That alone made this entire book worth all the tear jerking moments I read before. Run to your local bookstore and buy a copy NOW!

Thank you to Harlequin - Romance, Carina Adores, and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

This book was spicy, insightful, and completely relatable. Lulu and Jesse were a perfect couple to have try and find friendship but ultimately find love in. The mental illness and neurodiverse topics explored seemed so lifelike that it wasn’t so much of an escape to read but something to connect with. Highly recommend this book!!

This was such a beautiful and tender story of friendship, self acceptance, and love. If you've ever been told that you are too much, don't believe you fit in with others, or feel as if you have to hide the worst parts of yourself from others: you will probably see yourself in Lulu or Jesse (or maybe even both). The way their relationship developed while they were each at low points professionally and personally was really compelling to read. It was heartwarming to see how they were able to support one another and make the other challenge the overly critical and destructive views they had of themselves.

Not surprising with the cover, but this book is HOT. I was really blown away with how well Barrett was able to blend the physical and emotional chemistry the main characters have. I felt this book was the perfect balance of a book with well established storyline and character development while also containing ~5 heated scenes.

If you're a fan of Afterglow and Mirrorball by Taylor Swift, Beach Read, Love Theoretically, or Georgie All Along; I think you will enjoy The Friendship Study. Thank you Carina Adores and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This was the first book of Ruby Barrett's that I've read and I will definitely be adding her other work to my TBR!

One of the reasons I keep coming back to Ruby Barrett’s writing is for the tender way she writes her characters and treats their development. We get to see this skill in absolute spades in The Friendship Study. We’ve got Lulu and Jesse - both millennial adults who are having to redefine themselves after life altering experiences. They go on a pretty disastrous set up date and then find themselves both participating is a psychology study about how adults make friends. The one rule of the study? No romantic or sexual relationships.

I really loved how we saw both Lulu and Jesse grow and develop and really come into their own skin. They do this really before they become serious romantically, which made the first 30-40% of the book read a little slower than most contemporary romance. After that it picked up and overall I enjoyed this a lot.

Content flags: Jesse is recovering from a car accident; Jesse’s grandfather has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t remember him; Lulu’s previous relationship ended due to infidelity from her partner; there’s brief mention of a past experience of sexual assault

I voluntarily read a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was a really enjoyable read with two likeable leads in Jesse and Lulu who had really great chemistry. More than anything I loved that we got to see these two characters fall into friendship and find their person in each other. It really felt throughout each of their interactions that they were forming a genuine connection and it was lovely to see that expand into each of them finding themselves, where they fit in the world and with each other. Loved the alternating points of view and the way the author just dived right into both Jesse and and Lulu’s heads and their respective fears, insecurities, feelings of loneliness, loss and love. This made it so easy to relate to and connect with them both as characters and get really invested in their story. 4 ⭐️

so utterly cute oml! and as a bi guy myself, i utterly loved jesse. expected it to be slower but it was fantastic. thansk for the arc

This was a tough little thing.

I went through a roller coaster of emotions. I grew to love this story. I will admit I had a hard time in the first half of this book. But like I said, the characters and the story grew on me so much. I definitely think that maybe it will be a hit or miss for some people!