Name: Ian Brakspear's review of Love Is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann
Item: Love Is for Losers
Rating: 4
Author: Ian Brakspear

Wibke Brueggemann

In this wry and hilarious queer romantic comedy, fifteen-year-old Phoebe realizes that falling in love is maybe not just for losers.

Did you know you can marry yourself? How strange / brilliant is that?

Fifteen-year-old Phoebe thinks falling in love is vile and degrading, and vows never to do it. Then, due to circumstances not entirely in her control, she finds herself volunteering at a local thrift shop. There she meets Emma . . . who might unwittingly upend her whole theory on life.

This is a laugh-out-loud exploration of sexuality, family, female friendship, grief, and community. With the heart and hilarity of Netflix's critically-acclaimed Sex Education, Wibke Brueggemann's sex positive debut is required reading for Generation Z teens. Think of this as Bridget Jones' Diary, if it were written by Bridget's daughter.

Love Is for Losers

Carmen

This is a Beautiful book thats written in Diary entries and is a coming of age story following Phoebe a 15 year old who is dealing with loosing her best friend to her new Boyfriend, Her absent Mother (For a really great cause), Being lonely and developing new feelings for a new friend. This book has it all, Friendship, Life Lessons and she finds this all thanks to her Godmother’s Charity Shop; Which is a place Phoebe once detested.

This is a Super Easy to read book and one where it is so easy to get lost in the story as while I was reading I was taken back to my School days and the memories of sitting my own GCSE Exams. Phoebe is super relatable to any 15 year old reading this book. She is growing, changing and has a lot on her plate to deal with feelings, family, friendships, school, and sex. It’s all so much. It’s very True to its word as you never know what each chapter is going to bring and it covers it all the highs and lows of being a teenager at school.

All the Sporting Characters are a wonderful bunch of people as well and I love how they are there to support and help Phoebe along the way. Emma is such a sweetheart in this and I love the dynamic between her and Phoebe along with Phoebes relationship with her Godmother (Who looks after her while her Mum is away).

Overall, A fun UKYA F/F romcom that I'd certainly recommend to younger readers who want to find an LGBTQ+ novel with a younger heroine who is still figuring things out.

Ian Brakspear

This is a Beautiful book thats written in Diary entries and is a coming of age story following Phoebe a 15 year old who is dealing with loosing her best friend to her new Boyfriend, Her absent Mother (For a really great cause), Being lonely and developing new feelings for a new friend. This book has it all, Friendship, Life Lessons and she finds this all thanks to her Godmother’s Charity Shop; Which is a place Phoebe once detested.

This is a Super Easy to read book and one where it is so easy to get lost in the story as while I was reading I was taken back to my School days and the memories of sitting my own GCSE Exams. Phoebe is super relatable to any 15 year old reading this book. She is growing, changing and has a lot on her plate to deal with feelings, family, friendships, school, and sex. It’s all so much. It’s very True to its word as you never know what each chapter is going to bring and it covers it all the highs and lows of being a teenager at school.

All the Sporting Characters are a wonderful bunch of people as well and I love how they are there to support and help Phoebe along the way. Emma is such a sweetheart in this and I love the dynamic between her and Phoebe along with Phoebes relationship with her Godmother (Who looks after her while her Mum is away).

Overall, A fun UKYA F/F romcom that I'd certainly recommend to younger readers who want to find an LGBTQ+ novel with a younger heroine who is still figuring things out.

Pam Sartain

Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann is a YA story of 15 year old Phoebe in her GCSE year, with her doctor mother off helping everyone else, and her best friend having fallen off the planet as she's gotten a boyfriend.

This is written as a diary, which works so well as you get such an insight into Phoebe and her feelings.  I enjoyed this book, and wanted to see what would happen next.  I thought the situation was well created, and Phoebe's feelings of abandonment, uncertainty and stress was well written.

P.S  Love is for Losers  by Wibke Brueggemann was published on 21st January, and is available from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

P.P.S You can follow Wibke Brueggemann on  Instagram .

P.P.P.S I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Pan Macmillan .

Jessica 

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Tik Tok | You can find my review here.


  As always, a copy of this book was provided by the author or publisher in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.


For reasons unknown to me, I kept procrastinating Love Is for Losers. Although it sounded like an absolute must-read, in my opinion, I was a little nervous that I might be hyping it up a bit too much in my mind. Unsurprisingly, I was wrong and absolutely need to climb to the roof to shout about how much fun I had reading Love Is for Losers.

The format made the experience all the more intimate and humorous.

Love Is for Losers has so many desirable traits to it, that makes it one of the best explorations (in recent memory) of growing up, self-discovery and something about it feels achingly authentic. Not once does Love Is for Losers feel like anything but the coming of age tale it was destined to be and that is so very important. When I was younger, I remember there were far too many young adult books where teenagers didn't feel--or act--like teenagers.

What makes it so refreshing in terms of its characters is just how flawed and young they really are. I found myself easily seeing the me of years ago in Phoebe. Watching her grow and make the effort to really learn, and understand, the world as she sees it was some of the best character development I've seen in YA this year. And it makes her all the more obtainable--kids, and adults, will easily feel for her and see parts of themselves within her.

No, really. I love that these characters consistently think in a way that is ignorant, but that they learn from it. It's so endearing and frustrating and it feels like life. Love Is for Losers, too, has its spotty parts that make for an engrossing read--it is so easy to cringe, and then laugh, at many exchanges or parts in the narration.

Ultimately, Love Is for Losers tackles many topics of importance that are highly relevant in the day to day lives of teenagers. Wibke Brueggeman never underestimates the target audience and creates a fun, engaging, and honest novel of epic proportions that absolutely cannot be missed. Love Is for Losers has a little something for everyone and will surely be a beloved favourite within the literary community.

A laugh out loud look at first love, loss and trying to avoid the girl of your dreams. What a stupid expression that is in the first place: To fall in love. Like you fall into a ditch or something. Maybe people need to look where they’re going. As far as Phoebe Davies is concerned, love is to be avoided at all costs. Why would you spend your life worrying about something that turns you into a complete moron? If her best friend Polly is anything to go by, the first sniff of a relationship makes you forget about your friends (like, hello?), get completely obsessed with sex (yawn) and bang on constantly about a person who definitely isn't as great as you think they are. So Phoebe isn't going to fall in love, ever. But then she meets Emma . . . Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann is a hilarious, life-affirming novel about all the big stuff: love, sex, death, family, heartbreak, kittens . . . and kisses that turn the whole world upside down.

Love is for Losers

Sydney Sophie Simon

This is a laugh-out-loud exploration of sexuality, family, female friendship, grief, and community. With the heart and hilarity of Netflix's critically-acclaimed Sex Education, Wibke Brueggemann's sex positive debut Love Is for Losers is required reading for Generation Z teens. Did you know you can marry yourself? How strange / brilliant is that? Fifteen-year-old Phoebe thinks falling in love is vile and degrading, and vows never to do it. Then, due to circumstances not entirely in her control, she finds herself volunteering at a local thrift shop. There she meets Emma . . . who might unwittingly upend her whole theory on life.

Nomin-Erdene Tsogtgerel

Liwia Drewnik

Vanessa 

ayah ♡

Lola Money

Megan

Love is for Losers is a hilarious look at the life of one teenage girl who thinks love is to be avoided at all costs.

Mirella Hetekivi

Hilu hOffren

A laugh out loud look at first love, loss and trying to avoid the girl of your dreams. What a stupid expression that is in the first place: To fall in love. Like you fall into a ditch or something. Maybe people need to look where they’re going. As far as Phoebe Davis is concerned, love is to be avoided at all costs. Why would you spend your life worrying about something that turns you into a complete moron? If her best friend Polly is anything to go by, the first sniff of a relationship makes you forget about your friends (like, hello?), get completely obsessed with sex (yawn) and bang on constantly about a person who definitely isn't as great as you think they are. So Phoebe isn't going to fall in love, ever. But then she meets Emma . . . Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann is a hilarious, life-affirming novel about all the big stuff: love, sex, death, family, heartbreak, kittens . . . and kisses that turn the whole world upside down.

Carmen &
Love Is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann

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Love Is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann