Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read Going Dutch in return for my honest review.

I found that the writing was extremely well done. The author has an amazing way with words and does a great job describing surroundings. Although the main character, Richard, was not the most likeable person, I felt that he resembles many people in the dating world. He is fickle, selfish, and somewhat lazy. He can’t decide what he wants so for awhile he tried to have everything. He starts out using Anne for her talent. He is silently obsessed with Patrick. He sees a potential future with Blake and then sabotages it. Anne is a desperate woman and is also relatable to many in the dating world. I would give this book. 3.5/5. It was well written and had decent character development. I just found it difficult to read at times because the story itself just fell short.

Once I got oriented to the main character Richard's world, which is very different from mine, I hung in for the ride. The story goes somewhere interesting as Richard is between the possibility of finding a boyfriend (future husband material? in Blake and a different sort of intimacy and relationship with fellow grad student who is a woman (who may or may not be aware or care this his gay). I enjoyed this book, but it is one in which I wasn't really rooting for or identifying with any of the characters. There is definite tension as Richard commits to being in two different relationships at once.

Though the writing was often too smart for its own good and many readers will likely find the tone and the main character himself altogether intolerable, I enjoyed this awkward look at Richard's overlapping love & professional lives and the many asides to how depressing and difficult dating in the NYC is.

Pile on writer's block and the exhausting city summer and Richard is soon floundering. He is probably relying too much on his school colleague Anne to help him complete papers which he's been stuck on due to an obscene case of writer's block and ennui- but his future is riding on regular submissions to his course advisor as he's on a scholarship that pays for his whole life. He has a pretentious group of friends and bad luck finding a boyfriend (who should be husband material, his friend Patrick is always reminding him).

This is a laser-focused introspective novel full of haltingly cringeworthy situational dialogue. It was hard to put down as I kept turning pages wondering if Richard's agency would take hold now- or now- or now- or if would keep running from his obligations to his squalid apartment, waiting for everything he's worked for to crumble around him.

Did not finish. I tried several times, but this book just was not for me. The pace of it, the problems with his studies... I just couldn't be drawn in to try yet again.

I was given an e arc from netgalley in exchange for an honest review,all opinions are my own.
I unfortunately did not live this one. I couldn’t connecg with any of the characters and found most of them to be annoying and often time whinny. Really let down by this one.

Received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 
Going Dutch was a decent enough read. But the protagonist was very unlikable. The only reason I didn't dnf this book was because of the extremely eloquent narrative style. 
The story revolves around a 20 something single gay guy pursuing his Doctorate in New York with a very low self-esteem and seemingly incurable writer's block.
At first glance, Richard appears as a nice nerdy guy with relatively normal relationship struggles, insecurities and an empty wallet. But he turns out to be a selfish, pathetic liar who cheats on two lonely people and calls it his due for all the lonely years he has spent without love. He uses Anne, a fellow doctoral candidate, to get ahead in his career and pay for his extravagant dining habits. He gets into a pseudo relationship with her, treats her like dirt, yet plays the victim card every time she takes a stand. Simultaneously, he gets into a relationship with Blake, a lawyer he finds online, and builds everyday fantasies around him, only to walk out on him when things don't go his way, claiming to be suffocated in an unequal relationship. Whatever deep rooted pathological issues Anne might be having, she could have just said 'No, thanks' when Richard comes around the second time. Even Blake was pityful, playing second fiddle in a completely messed up relationship. There was not a single halfway healthy relationship portrayed in the book. 
Fickle and unreliable, I had a hard time seeing Richard as the good guy. Sexual ambiguity apart, he was two timing and taking advantage of a lonely, desperate woman. I don't think I can sympathize with a character like that, no matter how hard his life is or how desolate.
Even the awesome writing couldn't save this insipid storyline. 3 stars, and that too only because I'm feeling generous.

I appreciate that the author was trying to create a narrative about how LGBTQ dating in a large city can become overwhelming. However, I thought the narrative was a bit too cynical to become intensely attached to, and the character not very approachable. I think if the narrative was a bit more concise, I would've been really interested in this read. I overall found the read to be entertaining, but at times a little bit convoluted when the narrator would go into stream of consciousness or tangential threads.

I made it 50% through this book before I was forced to DNF it because I found I was struggling to continue reading it. The main character of Going Dutch, Richard, is immensely unlikeable. The entire first half of the book I made it through consists of Richard's internal monologue about how much his life sucks. He uses his friends, especially Anne, and then feels inconvenienced by them when he's expected to care about them. The characters fell flat for me and I found that I couldn't identify with any of the characters.

While the premise for Going Dutch was intriguing, the execution was not captivating enough for me. I did not connect to the characters or find the exploration of Richard's choices meaningful. However, it is a fast read that provides some interesting starting places for discussion.

Firstly, thank you to Netgalley for an early proof of this.

I was very much hoping to like this book, it has a lot of what I typically look for and yet somehow I feel quite let down. With everything in the media (and constantly from older generations in real life) I am tired of hearing about self-centred wishy washy millennials and that is what this book felt like. The main character - through both his personality and his actions - was incredibly unlikeable and it was far too long a book to not like the lead.

The writing itself was very good and I hope that someone finds this book useful for themselves or finds some enjoyment from it - the more LGBTQIA+ books on the shelves the better!

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Absolutely loved this book! Couldn't put it down until it was finished. Will definitely be recommending to customers at my work!

This was rather disappointing. Gay man (who may actually be bisexual, but that's a horribly bad word in this book, because how dare anyone actually be bisexual) squanders fellowship on expensive OKCupid dates and whines about it, then meets a well-off depressed woman and takes advantage of her but plays the victim when she thinks he cares more than he does. It's just wholly toxic. There's not a single healthy relationship in this entire book, and that's not really what i'm looking for in LGBTQIA lit.

Always a pleasure to be the first to review the book and have nice things to say. I almost passed by this book, the dating woes of New York millennials didn’t seem especially alluring. But something did…enough to pick it up. And I ended up liking it considerably more than I expected, so let’s call this one a pleasant surprise. And also a most auspicious debut. The writing is, in fact, absolutely terrific, absolutely the shining star here, more than enough to outshine its tedious cast of characters, which is no small mercy. The descriptive language, the psychological discernments, the way the subject of a novel decisively takes a much heavier, much more complex and interesting direction the flimsy premise might suggest…awesome. It leaves you thinking and thinking. Wherein the plot alone, the love triangle with one side straight, one side gay and one side confused, that just sounds like a trite romcom. But seriously, seriously, it isn’t, it just seems that way. The confused side of the triangle is our (whatever the opposite of intrepid is) protagonist. Is it inept? Well, he’s certainly challenged. In many ways…his graduate school work has stalled jeopardizing his only source of income, his romantic life is nonexistent, his unrequited love for his best friend is…well, unrequited, unspoken even, and generally quite sad. The dating apps are a failure. So what’s a gay boy to do in the brutal spirit sapping New York but to get himself a ladyfriend to adore him, feed him and help him write his papers. Thus develops a wildly unbalanced codependency that does seem like a relationship in many ways. Until he meets a guy who embodies all the things he always thought he always wanted. Now it’s a triangle, with both Blake and Anne inexplicably competing for a man whose main characteristic seems to be lukewarm amiability. Weird. Weird choice for a protagonist, weird for him to be the least likeable thing about the book, his ambivalence, his milquetoast personality…what’s the appeal there? The only compelling thing is the choice. And that’s actually really compelling indeed, because it brings up so many interesting questions about the nature of love, romance and relationships. Which organ to follow? Which considerations to prioritize? Does comfort override passion? Is being accepted for who you are just as you are more or less valuable than being pushed toward some sort of character elevation or a more conventionally accepted family structure? Is being taken care of outweigh other more frivolous less materialistic aspects of a relationship? The protagonist eventually does make something of a decision, but those things are just fascinating to ponder. Because it does elevate above the ugliness of the modern dating scene (especially the male gay version, which has a sort of single minded carnality that’s just offputtingly aggressive) and the ugliness of desperation at least as it pertains to trying to make it in the most overrated city of all. And (this may be neither here nor there) but how often can someone go out to eat? In one of the most expensive cities in the world no less. Is that why no one ever has any money? I don’t think I’ve ever read a book featuring quite this much dining out. To be honest, gay male characters have never done it for me in a book (I’m certainly no Anne), not just the carnality, but the overwhelming vapidity and superficiality of the culture…just no. This, in fact, might be the only such book I actually enjoyed. Because, as mentioned before, there’s so much more to this book. It’s the writing, it really is, the author shows such magnificent command of the language, some paragraphs are pure magic and some turns of phrase he uses…it just makes me want to remember them and throw them into conversations. It’s that good. And it poses smart questions, which is always appreciated. That pretty much makes up for the unlikeable characters, it seems. So yeah, this might very well be the cleverest book on modern dating disguised as a silly love triangle and I’m glad to have taken a chance on it, despite any initial misgivings. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.