Very glad to get through this one. Woowee.

Richard was just insufferable. I knew things were going to implode for him. Anne is completely pathetic. I can't believe it ended the way it did. Anne lived up to her pathetic nature.

It is very hard for me to enjoy a book when there are zero characters I like and can root for.

I was expecting a fun gay romantic comedy and got a middling gay story that wasn't very funny. I enjoyed Gregor's writing but this was a bit of a miss for me!

There were several times when I tried to pick up this book, but I couldn’t get past the first chapter. This time I managed to actually finish it but the book really wasn’t for me. I thought it was boring and the characters were all rather unlikeable. In my opinion the plot lacked any progress, the same kind of things kept happening and Richard also really lacked some necessary character growth.

Good, solid writing but awful characters who I just couldn’t connect with making this one a miss for me. Would try more from the author though

James Gregor's debut novel, Going Dutch, is a multi-layered look at one man's life. It combines the search for self, relationships, belonging, sexuality and understanding. I won't say that Richard is the most likeable character- he is flawed, as we all are. It is the deeper sincerity of the character and his struggles that are the most compelling. Richard is lost is a city (NYC), lost in love versus loneliness, and lost in himself. His connections with Anne, Blake and Patrick, are markers and indicators of Richard is and who he might want to be.

I received a coy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 7%. This one wasn’t connecting for me and after reading other reviews I decided to stop here. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review. Unfortunately I’m not the right reader for this book.

The premise of the book is great and the author really delivers. Great read. Highly recommended. .

DNF.
I tried to read this, but it did not hold my attention and was not what I was expecting. I ended up DNFing it, but do hope to one day finish it.

I had to DNF this book 35% in.

I struggled to connect with the characters and I found the story overall relatively depressing, which I wasn't expecting seen as this was sold as a comedy. Richard was insufferable and made it very difficult to read the book.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for providing me with an ARC

2.5 stars

Richard is a gay graduate student in New York City struggling to complete his doctoral thesis due to writer's block. His living money is dependent upon him continuing to write papers and win grants, and he just...can't. He's eternally depressed, and pines for his best friend--a situation that doesn't get any better.

It's a bit of a crisis, this not having money, and his advisor is less than helpful. Richard's fortunes seem to change when one of his fellow grad students, Anne, offers to help him with his writing. All she wants is his company. And, not in a sexy way. She's wealthy and lonely, and they get along. They're friends...of a sort. Richard actually doesn't have a lot of close friends. Richard isn't above having Anne write any and all work on his behalf. He doesn't outright take credit for all the work she's done, but he also doesn't admit to how little of the writing he does in their "collaboration" either.

Richard looks for love in the way of young urban men in the digital age--via his apps. And it seems like he gets a bunch of duds. One disastrous date with Blake seems to put him off looking for men altogether, and that's okay, because he has Anne's odd fascination/friendship to prop him up and help him feel somewhat worthwhile. Spoiler alert: Richard isn't really that worthwhile, at least, that's how he feels and that's how he came across the page to me, as a guy biding his time fore the Bigger Better Deal he couldn't actually accomplish for himself.

As Richard commits more and more of his time to Anne and her desires, while sponging off of her generosity, he and Blake actually make a latent connection. And, it seems like Richard will FINALLY make a good choice, one that will jump start his lackadaisical approach to everything. And...I got my hopes up too soon on that one.

This book is billed as a "dramedy" and a comedy of manners, but my Midwestern manners didn't align with Richard's by any stretch. I thought I could connect because I was once a starving grad student who had to write her thesis in order to get paid, too. Unfortunately, Richard's a guy I wouldn't want to be friendly with, for fear he'd be looking down at me while simultaneously holding his hand out for a payout. His handling of relationships with both Anne and Blake definitely qualified as falling into the "user" category, and that's never how I like my MCs. Despite the dubious character flaws, I found the prose interesting and compelling, causing me to read on even when I knew I was traveling into parts I wouldn't care for. And, even though I didn't much care for any of the characters or their choices, they had a gritty authenticity and enough texture that I could see these vapid sort of folks as real beings. They were just the sort of people I don't like to spend time with, even when it's time on the page. I'm sure the plot is like some great and timely show on TV, or a movie about urban folks doing their urban thing, but I don't watch a lot of that stuff, so it didn't resonate with me as a reader.

That said, if you like contemporary urban gay fiction the book might be a winner for you. It had some great press behind it upon release, which was why I chose to read it.

Quite a depressing book when it is being flaunted as a comedy. I found the protagonist, Richard, to be a bit whiny and self-possessed and was disjointed with his flip-flopping between relationships. I understood that was the premise before reading the book, but still - he was very unlikable and it made for a very surface level read,

I try to read more LGBTQ+ books, because there are really some good out there.
I tried to hard to like this book, but it's difficult when I didn't like anyone of them.
I have to say, I was intrigued by the guy dating in New York. However, the main character Richard was whiney, and blamed everyone else for his mistakes. He decided to date two people, while saying that he was monogamous to both of them. And it was just super awkward when he got caught.
Anne was a person who got annoyed when Richard couldn't hang out. I liked that she has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, however, I just felt like that wasn't talked about. I get that this is Richard's story, however, I feel like this should have been talked about more.
I liked Blake in the beginning, but then he became this possessive person who wanted to spend every single second with Richard. Not that that's a problem, but I just got annoyed because I don't feel like you need to spend every single second together.
I wanted to like this book, but this just wasn't for me.

I wanted to like this book but it was soooo dull. There's a huge disconnect between the description/blurb and the actual content of the book. It's not funny or quirky, as I expected. Instead it's slow and kinda sad. Our protagonist is Richard, a 29 year old grad student in NYC who is gay, single, lonely, and broke. When he begins spending time with a female classmate for companionship, he starts to question his sexuality. This all could have been more relatable, but Richard is just so dang unlikable. I didn't connect with any of the characters and got to a point where I didn't care about what happened, I just wanted to finish. This one had potential but fell plat for me. I wouldn't recommend it.

GOING DUTCH provides some great social and current commentary about the LGBT community. I got a bit tired of the main character, Richard, complaining all of the time, and it was harder for me to continue reading. The prose of the book is great, but I didn't find myself falling in love with any of the characters.

I struggled with this book because I'll admit a human bias, "as a reader, there's this feeling of connection, where you hope to and sometimes if you are lucky, you connect to characters or a character in a book," in this one, I found Richard to be quite mopey and he whined a lot, often taking pity on himself as he struggled to find his bearing in life and love.
It may be an awesome read to someone else, so, give it a try.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

I've been trying to request more LGBTQA+ books from NetGalley recently, since that's what I'm most interested in reading these days. This is one of the books that I got earlier in the year and finally made time to read.

Unfortunately I never even finished this book. From beginning to where I stopped reading, which was about 40% into the story,  I found the writing style to be over the top and pretentious. It also gave me intense feelings that world around me was hypocritical and not to be trusted, which wasn't my favorite feeling to get from a book.  All of it drove me crazy. 

You have the characters, Richard, a gay man tired of failed dates and tired of school. He was so boring and mopey. Seriously all he did was whine and complain about life, which got tiring after awhile. Especially since it didn't really feel like his life was all that terrible. Then you have Anne, a brilliant woman with her studies who seems to be clueless in love life. She falls for Richard and shows it by doing everything for him, which drove me batty because I HATE it when women do this for men. 

The plot was slow and meandering, which is one of the main reasons I ended up quitting it. Nothing was happening. And then when things started happening, things were weird. The whole relationship between Anne and Richard was fine, until they slept together. I just found it all unrealistic and strange.  

I never even made it to the point where Richard starts seeing this guy Blake. I couldn't stand to read any more of the story.   I wish I knew more about the author, does he even identify as a member of the queer community? Or is he just a straight man writing a story about how he thinks gay men date? I couldn't tell.  

I really wanted to like this book, I think a critique on the dating and social worlds that queer people try to fit into would be fascinating. Unfortunately, it is not this book and I gave it one star on Goodreads.

As a thank, you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced readers copy I shall give an honest review of Going Dutch by James Gregor. The novel examines modern dating in New York City, with a protagonist by the name of Richard. The reader follows our protagonists’ journey as a graduate student who is experiencing difficulties in both his academic and romantic life. Tired of the dating scene as a gay man he is surrounded by people entering relationships and is feeling the pangs of loneliness. This is only heightened with his stress as a graduate student examining the close relationships formed within his academic social circle. In this experience of anxiety and loneliness does Richard explores his sexuality in an open and honest way. The setting is New York City and is a playground for our characters. The city as a character shown its accessibility for our characters to form close relationships and spoke to the reality in which many people experience in urban settings. Overall the writing style of James Gregor was fluid and beautiful with an exact look at what interpersonal drama manifests itself in a plausible experience. Gregor’s use of humor, drama, and modern sensibility added to the strength of this novel. Overall I give this novel 3.5 stars and on good reads shall give it 3 stars.

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A promising, if uneven, debut about dating in New York, academia, and the weird, wild, often sad world of dating in the digital age. I loved that it was a queer dating story in New York City, and the writing was sharp and funny—I really felt anxiety for Richard. It unraveled somewhat towards the end, but I'll definitely be looking out for the next book by James Gregor.

Unfortunately, I didn't love this one the way I wanted to. I found myself slightly bored, skimming through the book at times simply to get to the end. It had potential to be a lovely lighthearted romance, but I could not get into it.

Ugh...I did not care for this book at all. I wanted to like it but the characters were so unlikable and the story so depressing that I just couldn't get myself to enjoy it. Richard is a gay man in New York. He dates/hooks up via the online dating apps. He is also a graduate student but he is having a major case of writer's block and his grant is in jeopardy. Richard seems to have a love/hate relationship with every person in his life and in general seems to be pretty miserable. This is what makes him so unlikable. Although he is a gay man, he starts to have an affair with a female colleague. It starts out pretty innocuous as he is just using her for a free meal here and there but it quickly shifts to a physical affair wherein she is also helping write his papers to maintain his grant- although they both call it "collaborating." Richard also starts dating a man that he really liked named Blake and so he is is dating both a gay man and a heterosexual female at the same time. When the love triangle is uncovered at a really uncomfortable dinner - everything falls apart and Richard is once again single. During this time, he fights with everyone he knows, questions his sexuality and continues his writers block. He does not seem to be able to see anything outside of his own perspective. He eventually gets back together with both of them individually and the story ends. I wish the author could have given Richard some redeeming qualities so that maybe at some point in the book he realizes his wrongs and tries to become a better person but alas - it isn't so and the man seems like a drain on society. Pretty disappointing story. The author appears to be highly intelligent and writes extremely well but in this case, the story is a drag. Sadly, the portrayal of the LBGTQ community in this book is not a good one.