*An ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Receiving a copy of this release in no way changed my opinion of the book*

Best friends Lola and Grace start a report to gather intel about what love is. Along their journey they get boyfriends, they see break-ups, they make new friends, and they think they learn what love is. I think this book had a really good premise, teaching young people what love is and can look like and how it looks different. Also how to keep yourself safe in relationships. But it was just too juvenile. They attempted to depict a familial fight but since this is middle grade the book stopped with the parents calling each other "jerk" over and over. I feel a fuzzed out bubble where you are simply supposed to assume what is being said would have worked much better than actually putting text to page. The same scene would have been just as effective and not feel so childish. I also found problem with our characters judgment of others. Calling girls they had never met bimbos or sluts, and even still referencing these other characters by these terms after they learn they are not like this at all. That made me feel really icky. I understand it's middle/ high school and these terms get thrown around. But in a book where we are trying to learn what love is, we should also learn that respecting women is a massive part in learning what love is too. Especially after we find out Adele's story. I really wanted to like this. But the dialog was so childish, and we circled around and around at times that it took pages to get a point across that could've been done in one scene block. But other more hard hitting topics we just glanced over quickly and never came back too.

3.5* rounded up

A well intentioned and touching book about teen girls making sense of love in all of its forms.

I loved the illustrations and character design, which really suited the vibe of the comic. I also appreciated the learning curve of the characters as the story emphasises the importance of friendship and familial love, as well as the more serious problems which can arise from things, like divorce and slut shaming.

The comic shows typical teen drama attitudes with the main characters, with our main characters displaying their judgemental and internalised misogyny, which was relatively disappointing, however the girls do confront these perceptions and move past them. While I appreciate generally what the comic was saying, I do feel it was a little clunky at times in trying to get it's message across.

Ultimately I think this is a positive and important comic which teen girls will enjoy and can learn from.

When I first saw this I thought this was such a cute book! Don’t get me wrong it was! I loved how by the end they showed so many different types of love even though they were focused on relationships. It was a quick read. The only issue I had was some of the reading on a phone wasn’t the easiest! But other than that I loved it! It was a great story line that is so much in everyone’s lives no matter the generation!

Super cute and sweet story. The illustrations are beautiful. Seems to be the first in a series, so I look forward to the next volume
Thanks Netgalley for an advance copy

I enjoyed this graphic novel. Kids have a difficult time understanding what love really is. This story was about friends trying to figure out what love really means. The book takes different perspectives on adult love and children love. As a speech therapist, I work a lot with kids and feelings and describing them. This book will help my students see the different types of love and feelings that are in the world and how people react to them.
I am also recommending this book to the guidance counselors in our district.

Best friends Lola and Grace decide to investigate love at their school and create a shared journal of their findings; definitely a bit darker and more serious than you might think based on a first glance at the cover. The character designs are adorable and the art is really attractive. Our main characters are allowed space to make mistakes and have realistically messy friendships. I liked the overall messages of the book (the focus on friendship, the idea that people are often more complicated than they appear) but some of the ‘teachable moments’ felt like they could have been addressed a little more explicitly - one of our main characters, Grace, repeatedly calls another girl a “bimbo,” and while eventually our main characters learn that the secondary “bimbo” character is actually different than they assumed her to be, we never really get an explicit scene where any character acknowledges that slut-shaming and/or name-calling is wrong. I would have loved to see Grace’s internalized misogyny addressed a little more clearly. Some of the other heavy topics felt a little under-addressed as well, like the sexual assault and parental abuse in Adele’s storyline. Overall, the strongest parts of the book were definitely the charming art and the focus on female friendships.

The Love Report follows two middle schoolers as they try and find out the secrets behind love as they observe and interview students at their school.

I think that this book had some good intentions and good moments (Lola standing up for herself at the end as she confronts Noah), but it also had some very not so great moments that didn't really see any consequences (the slut shaming and internalized misogyny). If this had been maybe a little longer I think it could have gotten the point or moral of the story better across. It felt like it went from low stakes teenager crushes to divorce and sexual assault out of nowhere.

The art was very well done and draws (pun intended) the reader in. But I think that was the most compelling part for me of the graphic novel to be honest.

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for making this available in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to start off by saying that the art was adorable! The graphics style was very in line with how I would imagine it to be for this kind of subject matter and audience. Lola was also a lovable main character, and I liked the message at the end of the story and the focus that is shifted to the importance of friendships over romances.

However, I do have to say that there were a couple of things that didn't sit well with me in the execution of the story. This includes girls being referred to as bimbos and easy towards the beginning of the plot. While I understand the intent of establishing that these pre-conceived notions are wrong by later showing the true personality of these girls, I still didn't like the judgmental language associated with certain perceived actions. I think this spreads the wrong message to the target audience.

Overall, this was a 3-star read for me with the potential for improvement based on the manner in which ingrained misogyny is handled in future volumes.

THE LOVE REPORT is a middle grade graphic novel about two best friends - Grace and Lola - who want to understand how love works. As they start observing and analyzing peers, their friendship waivers. I think this graphic novel would fit best in middle school libraries with large budgets or public libraries with large collections and a dedicated middle grade sections.

While the story tries to tackle some interesting middle grade topics (first relationships, fighting parents, new friends, rumors), the work is heteronormative. I don't think it reflects what a teen today would experience if they went to understand how love works.

Thank you to #NetGalley, BeKa and Maya, and the publisher of this book for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
Grace and Lola are best friends and are obsessed with romance and love. They decide to start a journal called the "Love Report" where they keep notes, interviews, and observations.
As they complete they find things that are surprising, hurtful and new things as well.

Ah young love! This was a cute graphic novel that I think will appeal to young readers. I hope the young readers also realize that true love is out there and it's okay to wait for it.

This was very sweet, and will hit home for many young teens that are confused about crushes and love and all the intricacies. Honestly, I was very glad at Lola telling off Noah at the end, 100% deserved. The friendships were really the highlight of this graphic novel for me though. I often get asked at work for early teen books that have friendship as a main theme but without it being catty. Lola and Grace were sweet but realistic, and the issues they deal with within their friendship and outside of it were very poignant.

Adele was a character that really came out of left field and partially stole the show. I think she did a good job of taking these girls under her wing, but her story was another one that was heartbreaking to read. Felicity was another favourite, I love a character that thinks critically about why people like them and if they truly know them. Definitely more than a bimbo. I'd highly recommend this for about 12-15 year olds, but it could resonate with older teens too. Also, a huge shout out to Lola's mum at the end.

I would like to being by thanking Astra Publishing House/Hippo Park for the ARC of 'The Love Report'. Review contains minor spoilers re: content, but does not mention character names in relation to those topics.

A touching and beautifully illustrated middle grade graphic novel that's sure to be a hit with its audience, 'The Love Report' captures the different kinds of relationships and love we see day to day. Lola and Grace's friendship is delightful and honest, and the connections they make as they pursue the meaning of love are not to be missed. The novel handles more mature topics with the same finesse as it handles it's first crushes and kisses. It touches on topics of consent, divorce, first love, single parenthood, friendship, how people view you, etc and none of it feels out of place. It also does an excellent job of showing how strong the bonds of female friendship are, and how it feels to be a preteen/teen girl navigating love in a chaotic world.

BeKa and Maya's first GN is a delight, and I am excited to see more from them, and learn how Grace and Lola's Love Report ends.

First, I want to say that I enjoyed the artwork in this graphic novel. The story of "The Love Report" revolves around BFFs Grace and Lola that likes to talk about everything related to romance. Both Grace and Lola are trying to unravel the mystery of romance with a plan to observe, study, and analyze the ways of love at their middle school. It's a good start, but it was rushed in the middle. A lot of topics were addressed in just several pages that were not fleshed out properly. I would have thought it could have been divided into two volumes to adequately address some topics much better and let it be educational for the young readers it was geared to—just my honest opinion.

The illustrations were done in a cute style and the storyline was ok, but the dialogue felt stilted and cringey in a lot of places, and the characters felt like caricatures.

I still think this would be a good addition to a middle school library collection even though I didn't love-love it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
I actually really enjoyed this! Obviously as a 21 year old I’m not the target audience for this but I really enjoyed it, the art was great, and I really liked the messages that it encouraged! I could definitely tell it was a middle grade book at times which in some parts of the book that mildly detracted from my enjoyment. However, overall I had a good time reading this and liked this quick read.

*ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review*
Introducing teens to hard topics and preparing them to better comprehend the romantic, and not so romantic, world around them?! COUNT ME IN!

The Love Report focuses on two teens trying to decipher love, and they come across all types and variations. I think the important factor I love so much is that this novel doesn't hide romance under rose-colored lenses, it tells the truth. Love can be painful, it can be misleading, it can tear your sanity and self-worth to shreds. But it can also be beautiful and found in ways you never thought before.

It highlights a girl who was slut-shamed because the boy she kissed lied about her, it showcases arguing and divorce and how it can create havoc in families, it discusses the reality of SA and how it can impact someone, it shows how people will leave you for their own self-interest and (theoretical) preservation, and it shows how a heart can break.

However, it also teaches us the ultimate lesson that love is more than just romantic sexual (kissing in this case) relationships. Love can blossom in recognizing your own self-worth, and most importantly it can be discovered in your found-family and friendships.

So, maybe love isn't perfect, but that's okay.

The love report has so much potential to be cute and truly a memorable story about love, but it fell flat. I think that the characters were adorable and had so much personality in their 3 seconds of screen time, or should I say page time? But it tried to cover too many deep topics that it didn't have time to dig deeper and provide a much more impactful statement. I do think that it has the characters, but it does need some more building in the important topics in the story, such as sexual assault and divorce. Furthermore, I was put off because it says they are in middle school, and they are kissing and dating every 3 seconds. I was just sort of uncomfortable by those moments. Overall, it's cute, but there's just some work that needs to be done, and it can't be saved by the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a sweet graphic novel and I really like the art style. I like how this book really highlights how life changing romance feels when you're young and in middle school. The way things are very back and forth and so importantly and life changing.
This is definitely something I would recommend to younger kids dealing with first loves and crushes. This is sweet but also deals with those subjects in serious ways.

This was pretty cute, and there were good messages for young readers. My favorite thing about this though was the GORGEOUS artwork - really fantastic.

2.5 stars?

The Love Report wants to say things, but it is clumsy and uncomfortable at times.
I did not like that one of the main characters' entire personality is spreading rumors and gossip and that's just viewed as normal and okay. There is also a lot of moments that I think don't bring anything important to the story and could be harmful, because the book isn't clearly framing them as things that shouldn't happen.
I also found the passing of time to be quite confusing, sometimes having multiple pages happen in one day that felt like many and then it skips weeks and it feels like important parts are missing.

That said, I truly believe the intentions were good and the ending is sweet, but it needs some polishing story and character wise.


Thank you NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the opportunity to read an Advanced Copy.