They say it's better to have loved and lost than to never love at all. Jeffrey Brown ponders this question through silent sketch comics about a long-distance relationship, and the numerous heartbreaks along the way. When is love obsession, and when is he certain that he loves his partner?

Jeffrey paints and draws comics. He opens up if a date or crush wants to read his material, and will take off his clothes when prompted. Yet love is not that simple. Girlfriends have questions, and he does too.

There are a lot of mature scenes in this one, in the sketch comic style. Keep that in mind before you start reading.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the arc!

I'm sure there are a lot of readers who love and will love to read this book but it wasn't my cup of tea. The illustrations I could put up with but the plot - not really. Maybe it's my lack of experience? There was nothing to relate to. However, I doubt that's a good enough reason because I do read and like romance. I imagined it would be something similar to 'You Are Home' by Catana with darker and sadder take on relationships. I love those kinds of comics. They are so *fluffy* and cute and they make me want to daydream about falling in love. While I knew from the synopsis that this book isn't all rainbows and sunshines, it wasn't what I was hoping to read. In fact, there are a LOT of explicit scenes. I almost coded blue when my mom came to check up on me.

Unless you're uncomfortable with reading graphic sex scenes, I encourage you to give it a try. It is raw in its description and honesty is a quality I appreciate everywhere.

I found it very hard to download the file and when I did, it was inaccessible.
I really wish I read this but if I find it somewhere else, I'll read and come back to update my review

A nice collection of his previous work all together. It is funny, well done, and has something to say. It won't be for everyone, but it will find an audience for sure.

Unfortunately, I could not get the file to download so I was unable to read this one. I tried several different methods and none of them worked so I clearly messed something up along the way. Unfortunately I won’t be able to give this an actual review. I will say that I liked the idea of this graphic novel from the cover and the summary of it. It seemed like an interesting premise and I generally enjoy graphic novel memoirs. I’m going to give it the average rating consequently because I don’t want to lower it unnecessarily.

Was really looking forward to this but no matter how i tried...i just couldn't download it. Wails. So upset about that
If there is another way i can load this i would be so grateful

Updated rating.
I must say that I had not read any of Jeffrey Brown's works prior to reading this (yes, not even the Star Wars books), so I was in for a surprise. I had thought this to be a "cute" type of graphic novel (for a lack of better wording), but it turned out to be more mature content. I thought that the stories depicted here are very realistic and relatable, and every young adult in the modern day could see glimpses of themselves or at least someone they know in this story.

So, this is 3 love stories, apparently true: the ups and downs of relationships, sex, drugs, break-ups, young love, first love, and so on. The graphic style is really scrappy, especially at first, but I really grew to like its raw honesty. The content is sometimes funny, and often really, really sad: I started to feel really good about my own love stories. (You know how you think your own path is uniquely bad, until you hear about someone else’s).

Jeffrey Brown does an excellent job with the graphic memoir genre, which is truly my favorite style of graphic novel. I enjoyed reading these relatable portraits and accounts of falling in and out of love; all of the exhilarating, dull and painful moments.

⭐⭐⭐.75
This memoir in comic form is of 3 of Brown's relationships of his youth. It was refreshing to read about love and relationships that is so real as their based on Brown's own experiences. I think it captured what it is to be young and in love really well, while also showing how relationships can be unhealthy and end.

The arc of these relationships were told in vignettes that showed the relationships progress with a series of 'firsts'. There were pieces missing and sometimes it was difficult to understand the thread of the story, but this definitely improved. It also took me a little while to become accustomed to the art style as its kinda scrappy but it suits the story and it grew on me.

I enjoyed the first of the three stories, clumsy, the most as it is relatable and depicts the highs and lows of a long distance relationship. The second relationship was mostly enjoyable, but it did drag a little, which is probable a reflection of that relationship. This book also gave a glimpse of what life was like in the early 2000s for adults, and some of their comments/observations were funny ('I'll never own a cell phone!').

It is rather brave of Brown to share his stories that are intimate, especially as he doesn't come across particularly well. He is often overly needy, sometimes controlling, passive aggressive and held some pretty gross lesbophobic and anti-sw views. The events of these stories happened ~20 years ago so I hope Brown has since grown and interrogated these views.

Overall, I enjoyed reading about an imperfect person in imperfect relationships that didn't always have a happy ending. Thank you to #netgalley and IDW publishing for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A compilation of three separate graphic novels selecting different loves, I thought I would adore this collection. It fell so flat for me and I felt like I was sifting through a middle school boy’s sketchbook with all the nakedness and sex scenes. The art style isn’t for me and was filled with sex scenes that are somewhat crude and just not good- love and intimacy is so much more than this. The narcissistic traits and co-dependency made the main character very hard to attempt to like.

This GN is super cute. I the scratchy drawings and bubbles. And I love how at times it’s incredibly relatable.

But alas, the things that I didn’t like. For one, the format of the book. It was only available through Adobe Digital Editions which I had to make an account for after realizing that’s the only way to read it. ADE is the worst platform. Half of the pages didn’t even load. I fell like Jeff was a bit narcissistic at times. Where if the attention was not on him, the obviously there was someone else they were talking to. He came off a bit controlling. The way he made people give up stuff and not be able to have that alone time. Sometimes the relationships just felt a bit toxic for my liking. Which I think why sometimes it was pretty relatable to me as my last relationship was with a narcissist.

Nonetheless, this is a great GN for people looking for a cute fast read.

Thank you to NetGalley and to IDW Publishing for this eARC.

I’m not a huge reader of graphic novels — probably because the digital form is always so difficult to consume, and I’m a digital first reader. I also didn’t know at all what to expect, going into this one — but what happened was that I stayed up late reading it, and finished it early the next morning.

So, this is 3 love stories, apparently true: the ups and downs of relationships, sex, drugs, break-ups, young love, first love, and so on. The graphic style is really scrappy, especially at first, but I really grew to like its raw honesty. The content is sometimes funny, and often really, really sad: I started to feel really good about my own love stories 🥺😅 (You know how you think your own path is uniquely bad, until you hear about someone else’s).

There’s also a whole lot of sex depicted in here, but it isn’t gratuitous. Just a reminder that this is about young adults, and is aimed at adults, presumably, if you’re monitoring what your kids read, etc.

So, in all, an unexpectedly good read, really heartfelt. I hope Mr Brown found a good thing in the end.

Rated: 8/10. Read if this is your genre, and if you like things like the NYT’s Modern Love podcast/blog.

I just could not get into this. I don't know if there was supposed to be a storyline, but if there was, I couldn't follow it. I didn't care much for the art either.

I honestly could not get through the whole book. It was something that enticed me at first, but then after reading a few of the pages (I can't really tell how many, since I was reading it on my phone) I felt that I could not finish it. It is very interesting but I guess it is not for everyone. If there are people who love the art style and are wanting something that may trigger a bout of sadness because they relate to it, then this book may be for them.
However it was somewhat cute and telling for the bit that I read, and I felt a small connection to the characters, but overall it was not enough to keep me invested in this graphic novel.

My thanks to both NetGalley and Top Shelf Productions for an advanced copy of this graphic novel memoir.

First love, lost love, love gone wrong, love gone weird, all make great stories or graphic novels. Plus the audience is familiar with the subject matter and what is being written about. If you are lucky to have had love, you will understand the feelings, if you have been unlucky in love, agin you will understand the feelings. If you have never loved at all, well that is why we have writers, artists, poets and lyricists to rub salt on those wounds. Though after reading about the love life of Jeffrey Brown, writer and illustrator for Loved and Lost: A Relationship Trilogy, one might considered themselves lucky to have lived the celibate life.

The book is a collection of three previous books, Clumsy, Unlikely, and Any Easy Intimacy. Each book details a separate relationship, a long distance one, a first one in many ways, and the final one details his loves with a co-worker from a video store. There is a lot of painful truths and uncomfortable moments, words that you immediately wish you could take back, actions, thoughts, awkwardness in different ways. Love, especially young love seems so permanent, that when it is gone, people seem even more lost. That is shown here in some details. There is a lot in here that I am sure that many will relate to.

The art seems is a tad crude in the beginning, as is the hand lettering, but it does have an attraction. By the third book, Mr. Brown seems more comfortable in his art and style, and it shows. The stories are one sided, but it is Mr. Brown's memoir so that makes, sense, I would love to know what is going on in the other person's head, but I say that enough a day as it is. Also the reader does want to grab the people in this comic a few times just to tell them to stop doing what they are doing. That I guess is a sign of you caring about the characters, on the other hand it could be because they are driving the reader crazy. Again amour fou.

There have been a lot of memoirs in graphic novel form recently. This was one of the first, and it shows, as it does seem dated, in a way. Well working in a video store might show that. Being one of the first might not make it as groundbreaking as it was originally, but it is still very good, very interesting, and if read together as a couple, could start a good conversation, or a great argument. I'd like to know where the others in the stories are now, but that is the romantic in me. I wish the young Jeffrey Brown knew how his Star Wars cartoons would change his life, and I hope he is happier than he sometimes appeared in this comic.

Love and Lost: A relationship Trilogy, is about the life of one man's relationships. It is autobiographical of the man's love life. The stories were heartbreaking but true to what real relationships go through.
It was a fast read, and easy to follow.