I absolutely hate that I have to write a bad review for a book. As a librarian I love great stories and unique concepts and plots. This book just fell through the cracks. The plot was all over the place, the game mechanics made no sense and contradicted rules at times, and the exposition made it near impossible to understand what was happening right off the bat. I loved the concept for this book. The end result has to be a result of bad editors and publishers. Hopefully I can see redemption for this author in future novels!

A gorgeous combination of complicated teenage friendship, hidden family secrets, and a game that will force everyone to come to terms with secrets they didn’t even know they had.

This is a book that uses the plot - three estranged friends reunite to play a game created by their missing fourth friend - to slowly unravel the truth about what happened all those years ago. Secrets are brought to the open, personal traumas are fought through, and eventually by the end everyone learns some truths that will change the rest of their lives.

This book was an emotional journey, and I absolutely wasn’t expecting to cry while I read it - but I did!

I would absolutely recommend this novel to anyone who likes stories that focus on friendships, hardships, and the strength of families we are born with and those we choose. Every character in this novel is unique and has their own hardships that they’re forced to live with - and while this friendship broke apart and ended, the only real villain of this narrative is intergenerational trauma.

A huge thank you to the author, Netgalley, and Flatiron Books for providing me a copy for review.

I have never read a book like this. I really enjoyed how it didn't feel like the characters got sucked into just any old adventure, but it was definitely a video game they were experiencing. This was a great story of sisterhood and grief.
There were some great twists that I didn't see coming, as well as a few that you could feel you were being led to.
I really enjoyed The L.O.V.E. Club, but the four chapters where the girls are in the different levels were really long, and I wish there had been some kind of separation of those chapters.
This book has some heavy themes and topics, so I feel like it should've had a trigger warning at the beginning

It’s like my memories of the L.O.V.E. Club are a painting that, once chipped, reveals another fully realized work beneath the surface.

As kids, Elle, O, Liberty, and Vera were treated as outcasts in their conservative community, and formed a tight-knit group of friends- The L.O.V.E. Club. Then Elle disappeared, and the group fell apart. Years later, the remaining girls are reunited and sent on a journey to confront their past.

This was a really interesting exploration of the weight of family secrets and shame, the difficulty of living in an oppressive community—and the friends that help you survive. A cycle of violence and misogyny has affected each of the girls, and their families, in different ways, and the book explores how pervasive it can be. Liberty, Vera, and O are forced to grapple with what happened during their time apart and hidden truths about their friendships.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

I loved Lio Min’s last book and I was excited for their sophomore novel. I’m not much of a video game person so books that deal with games don’t appeal to me as much, but I was still heavily invested in this story. There’s a lot here about identity, being transgender, questioning your sexuality, and dealing with racism. I always love when books like this can pack a punch. There’s plenty of found family elements and I always root for the outcasts so this book was perfect!

3.5

This was certainly a different kind of read and I mean that in a good way. I like the way it delves into friendships, grief and what I feel is the main plot which is friendships. The plot and world building was unique and although I felt like I was getting lost in the words at times the story and mainly the characters kept me interested. Lio has a such an interesting way of lacing words together that both keeps you invested but also creates this sense of vulnerability. The L.O.V.E. Club was a fresh, beautiful and great read!

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the setting! Such a cool idea! I also really love the message that Min was able to convey throughout the book. However, there was a lot going on in this book! Sometimes it was hard to fully understand what was going on, but it was still a great read!

The LOVE Club by Lio min, the book is about four teenage girls who all became friends because in the third grade they were essentially all outsiders. It’s senior year one of the friends L has been missing for three years and her best friend oh has been stagnant in morning her loss. Vera and liberty moved away around the same time L went missing but it’s senior year and their back. The three remaining girls all unknown to each other meet up at their middle school hang out and before they know it they’re in a game called morning glory set up by their missing friend and believe if they finish the game and beat the bosses they will see her again. Something oh is banking on especially since she has no memory of why or any of the events surrounding El going missing. I love RPG and video game type stories and we’re so excited to read this one although I did feel as if something in the game didn’t make sense. There’s four levels in each level is a girls “story“ and although I found a lot of this book interesting it seemed there were a lot of things that left me confused as I said overall I really enjoyed the story the mystery and really liked all the girls liberty was my favorite especially given her backstory and challenges, although I must admit when it came to oh there were some things about her that truly irritated me but as the book went on I really liked her. through each girl story we get to know them and I think if you love video games and likable people to root for this is definitely a great book to read. I would have given it more stars if there was a little more rhyme to the reason throughout the game but even with that bit of confusion it was an interesting story with a great mystery. #NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview,#LioMin, #TheLOVEClub,

I loved the way this book was constructed and written. Min created a wonderful concept and executed it quite well!

In The L.O.V.E. Club, O can’t remember what happened to her best friend, Elle, three years ago. Liberty and Vera, the other members of the L.O.V.E. Club, left town. When they return, all three of them are thrown into a video game seemingly created by Elle that will uncover more truths than they might be prepared for.

I really enjoyed this book! I will say that I’m not super well-versed in video games, so I had a bit of trouble visualizing all of the gameplay, but it was still an excellent read. I personally love plot lines with characters that also don’t know what’s going on, and you, the reader, get to figure it out with them.

O, Liberty, and Vera were such vivid characters, and learning about them through video game levels was such a cool concept. The novel touched on topics like grief, cycles of abuse, and friendship in ways that were incredibly creative, and they were handled with care without changing the overall tone of the book.

I did find some of the prose overly flowery (pun intended) and hard to follow sometimes, but it didn’t deter me from continuing to read and enjoy the book.

Thank you to Flatiron Books, NetGalley, and Lio Min for the eARC!

DNF @ 30% This concept and writing style were so intriguing and there’s definitely moments when you’re hit with one of those sentences/paragraphs that make you stare at the wall for a second because they’re so good—but overall, the story felt too wordy and confusing to me. There’s constant flashbacks and “I remember this one time”-s that really break up the story’s progress and though I see the intent, I don’t think we executed quite right.

LOVED the trans representation (from more than one character!) and discussions on racism and sexism. Ultimately I think some people will love this, it just wasn’t for me.

It took me a little bit to get into this story only because it started so abruptly and was filled with chaotic action from basically the very beginning. I felt like I didn’t know the characters well enough and they were going through this challenging quest that requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. Of course once the three main characters go through their levels and O regains some memories there’s a gut-punch of a reveal and the emotional ringer I expect from Min’s work. I’m not sure I vibed with the S.T.A.R. epilogue. The friend dynamic was cool but I’m not sure it added to the core story. Overall, Min delivers a compelling story and I will always read their books.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Flatiron for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Probably closer to a 2.5??

On a high level, the concept for this book is great. Dealing with personal traumas + cyclical community traumas through the lens of a video game is a classic move, but effective in the right hands. It also does some interesting things with style across the whole text.

My issues with the book is that pacing in it was a nightmare, my suspension of disbelief was regularly shattered with the force of a hammer against glass, and that the style.of the book matched the style of the protagonist: labyrinthine and overly purple prosey. I wanted to like it, and there are certain scenes that landed home really nicely, but the plot of the whole thing felt overly contrived and deeply flimsy in ways that made me rush towards finishing it because I wanted it over with, rather than because I was excited.

I will say that one of the joys of this book is how much it's rooted in a sense of place, but I think that was the main thing that landed home really well.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Flatiron Books for accepting my request for an ACR of this book!
2.75/5
“Four levels. Four bosses. Four stars. Four girls.”
Overall, the book did I really good job in really flushing out all the characters. The way that it also showed the group wasn’t the first generation was very interesting, but at the same time I felt it got crowded. There was just so many characters it was easy to care for some more than others. I partially didn’t enjoy the long chapters, because for me it made the story feel longer than it was. Overall, it was a very touching story, but I felt the pacing was slow.

This book is an emotional labyrinth of friendship, grief, and self-discovery, woven into an immersive gaming narrative that feels both nostalgic and haunting. The way it blends reality with the digital world is nothing short of mesmerizing, pulling you into a story where memories, secrets, and longing collide in the most breathtaking way. The friendships are messy, raw, and achingly real, making every moment between these characters feel like a punch to the heart. The writing is lyrical yet sharp, carrying the weight of unresolved emotions and the lingering ache of what was lost. I loved how the story explored the complexities of growing apart, the desperation of holding on, and the bittersweet realization that some answers might not bring peace. This book is an unforgettable journey, and I couldn’t put it down.