I appreciated the short story, and I certainly enjoyed the concept of this book, especially how it switches back and forth between the main female character (whose name we don’t know) and the two male characters, Lucas and Cameron. The juxtaposition of the two males is intriguing when you get insights into their thoughts and how it drives their actions. There’s quite the vibe of Holden Caulfield when we’re reading from the female perspective. I am only giving it three stars because I think it’s such a good start, but I don’t think this dives in enough into the psyches of all characters and gives me the feeling like it is unfinished.

Lover Girl by Nicole Sellew is a raw and electric debut that captures the intensity of young love, heartbreak, and self-discovery with striking honesty. Sellew’s voice is fresh, bold, and unflinchingly intimate, drawing readers into a world where emotion pulses through every line. It’s a compelling exploration of vulnerability and desire that feels both timeless and sharply of the moment.

3.5/5

* ty to net galley and clash books for the arc!

This book is a very personal POV from a nameless, purposefully unlikeable, character who cycles through different men and life choices more or less on a whim. I get that she is supposed to be unlikeable because it's literary fiction but at times her decisions were very surface level, unrealistic, and shallow and they were never really meaningfully reflected upon. Although, I liked the deadpan humor and the style of the authors prose, it was really fast and honest which kept the book fresh. The main character lives in the Hamptons and she's very brash, rude, and honest which was a unique perspective to read. I liked the vibe of the book and the setting but the main characters inability to have a conversation or see anyone untainted from some sexual innuendo was not the best to read. The book left me kind of confused and even after reading a first person perspective I felt like I knew nothing about the characters, they didn't have many distinctive traits or likable qualities. Overall, I liked this book fine on the surface but the characters and plot were incoherent and disconnected, you will probably like this book if you are into off putting literary fiction or unlikeable but raw characters.

felt very similar to happy hour, a good summer read that does a nice job of tracing the listlessness of being a young adult

The quick blurb was what made me want to read the book but instead of following the narrator’s downward spiral, this book sent me on my own. Quite honestly, I don't feel comfortable giving any rating to this book. I would give it a 0 if I could. I like loser girl lit fic like the next person but this was not it. I unfortunately can’t recommend this book. The entire book felt icky from start to finish. Not only is the narrator a woman hater, but there were terms used in this book that were completely unnecessary that I felt like the author just added in for shock value, such as the use of ‘Indian Summer’ (which it not an acceptable thing to say). Also, I know this is an ARC but I hope trigger warnings getting added or listed somewhere. Maybe I missed it but be warned there is SA and talks of SA in this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and CLASH books for the opportunity to read and review this book, it was just not for me.

Let’s start this off by saying I went in thinking this was going to be a completely different book than it was.

I don’t like the main character even remotely and I think I can honestly say my dislike stemmed from about 2 pages in. She is juvenile, petty and her self hatred wears on you through the course of the book. There has been absolutely no redeeming qualities and the obsession with sex and repeating the same things over is rather frustrating. If I were to meet her in real life I would run…fast.

I just don’t think I’m the target audience and the blurb is entirely misleading.

Nicole Sellew’s Lover Girl is like stepping into a diamond-studded daydream. Set against the opulent, sun-soaked sprawl of The Hamptons, where old money still reigns and nepo babies glide effortlessly through life in linen and legacy. But make no mistake: beneath the sheen of designer shades and waterfront soirées, this novel has teeth.

Our protagonist is everything you'd expect from a golden girl born into privilege; gorgeous, effortlessly cool, with a last name that opens doors she doesn't even have to knock on. But Lover Girl isn’t content to coast on aesthetics. What starts off as a champagne-fizzed ride through the glamorous rituals of elite East Coast summers slowly unfurls into something more introspective: a meditation on choice, self-definition, and the quiet, relentless pressure of inherited expectation.

Sellew masterfully captures that suspended state of early adulthood where every decision feels like a referendum on your worth—especially when you're a product of a world where image is everything and deviation is seen as failure. Girl, there's a lot to unpack with this one but to be young, lost and confused at The Hamptons? I'm in.

Thanks Netgalley for the copy, I appreciate it :)

I would like to thank @Netgalley and @CLASHbooks for providing me with the advanced audio copy of “Lover Girl” in exchange for an honest review.

I think I just read three months' worth of raw journal entries of a Gen Z’er who is deeply toxic, narcissistic, depressed, privileged, and insecure. It was difficult to get through and left me feeling quite sad for both this character and the generation as a whole, as I suspect it reflects some real-life experiences in today’s world of dating/finding love. The only moment that offered a glimmer of hope for the main character was when she prayed to God, as it showed she recognized her actual need for help. Two stars for her newly discovered self awareness.

Lover Girl had all the ingredients for a fun, spicy, messy romance but sadly, it just wasn’t my cup of tea ☕️. The premise was promising and I can definitely see the appeal for readers who enjoy whirlwind emotions and flawed, chaotic characters. But for me, the pacing felt off and I never fully clicked with the main characters or their choices. There were moments of charm and heart 💘, but they got a little lost in all the drama.
⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ (2.9/5)
If you like your romance with a touch of angst, some emotional rollercoasters 🎢, and a protagonist who’s figuring it all out on the fly, you might have a better time with this one.

Big thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC 💌!

Thanks to NetGalley and Clash publishing for the ARC.

Another sad girl story. I liked the mood of the novel. It had me kind of nostalgic for my twenties, being naive and looking for validation in all the wrong places. However, I think the female character lacked depth and some of her observations were superfluous and vapid.

I really wanted this book to scratch a Sally Rooney itch that I've been having since Intermezzo was released. While the narrator had moments of relatability, she really just spent the majority of the novel being insecure, whiny, and horny. I felt that the writing style had a lot of telling, not showing,

I liked the idea of this book more than I liked the book. I love me some weird girl lit and I love unlikeable characters… and while all of our characters are unlikeable… they were also boring 🤣

Our FMC is a recent college graduate who is writing her first novel… but the whole novel thing was not flushed out at ALL and I really would have loved to see that grow and develop.

Everyone in this book is super privileged and there were definitely some lines that made me uncomfy.


I was waiting for the shoe to drop… but I was left wanting.

Thank you NetGalley and CLASH books for the ARC!

"It goes without saying that I'm not working on my novel because all I can do is think about sex." Oh girl, we know. Despite its title, there is nothing about love in this novel, just sex. The unnamed protagonist filters every single interaction through the lens of sexual desirability: whether someone will have sex with her or not, whether she is desirable enough or not. So, if you’re looking for anything beyond that, you won’t find it here.

"Something I'm realizing is that you can have sex with someone and it doesn't mean you know them any better than before you had sex with them." And honestly, that’s how I felt after reading this novel. I closed the book feeling like I knew nothing about its characters, not even the protagonist herself. They’re hollow, without depth, without a past, without any sense of motivation behind their thoughts or actions. In a novel that lacks a clear plot and relies almost entirely on its characters to drive the narrative, this absence of character development is a real issue. There’s no emotional connection, no exploration beyond the surface of desire. It all becomes repetitive, like reading a loop of fleeting encounters without any meaning attached.

This book reads like an episode of Girls directed by Wes Anderson. I had a hell of a time deciding if the writing style was intentional or lacked personality, and was very pleased to decide it was the former.

This book is for the women growing up in the 20th and 21st centuries believing that your value is measured externally - without someone to observe you and your performance, do you really exist? And specifically, if an attractive man doesn't grace you with his attention, then what the hell are you doing wrong?

At first I thought our narrator was vapid and brutally direct in her evaluations, but in all honesty there's a piece of me that feels some resonance with her general attitude toward men, herself, and the world. After all, who among us hasn't had moments of looming dread RE: our future?

Lots of kindle highlights for me in this novel, bright moments of dark and existential humor that brought much needed levity to what is ultimately a pretty bleak (but ultimately hopeful) six months in the Hamptons.

Big thank you to CLASH books for the opportunity to read an early copy of this book!

Rounded up from 4.5 stars on The Storygraph.

'Without an imagined gaze, I am not real.'

Lover Girl is a story that showcases the female experience of navigating the newly adult part of your life where you don’t have a sense of who you are or what you want, leaving behind this untethered sense that you’re not real - an experience that has you searching for validation, or some sort of a tether, in all the wrong places. It's the journey of being oddly attached to objectification and mistaking being someone's convenience for being someone's choice - for being wanted and possibly even loved by someone you have no business existing around.

Nicole Sellew brings us the written version of this life stage in a very lived-in way. With a nameless main character and an aimless stream-of-consciousness approach to the writing, the reader can feel like a part of the novel. Our main character can easily become an extension of ourselves, making the emotions and experiences in this book all the more potent.

There’s a quiet, or perhaps not so quiet, heartbreak in these pages. Between the cracks of the main character's coping mechanisms is the sensation of being lost and untethered, a carefully curated ennui, a hateful misery (a little hard to stomach at times, but honest), disappointment, frustration, and a sort of compounding heartbreak.

On a technical level, this was an enjoyable read. While the plot may feel a bit lacking to some, it is undeniably full of drama. The writing flows well and kept me hooked in, not wanting to put this down throughout my time with it. I also feel that Sellew really understands the story she set out to tell, giving the novel a fitting endpoint. Though I would have devoured another 100 pages or more, Lover Girl felt like it came to the natural and open-ended conclusion that it needed to, without overstretching or feeling forced.

In my honest and humble opinion, this is a book that the reader needs to connect to if they’re going to enjoy it. Though I enjoyed the writing from the start, the real value, for me, comes from the emotions that Lover Girl stirred up. The deep, dull heartache, the desire, the feeling of being seen for such an isolating and monumental experience in my womanhood. Otherwise, I can see how it could be perceived by a seemingly minimal plot and deeply flawed characters at face value.

A huge thank-you to NetGalley and CLASH Books for the opportunity to read and review this ebook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

After I finished this, I struggled and mulled with it for a while before I could write a review. First and foremost, TW to readers, as it’s casually mentioned/implied that the protagonist gets assaulted at a party, and then is immediately glazed over.

This book is extremely interesting as it would be the personification of ennui, where it just feels like each day is the same blase and boring day. I will say, it was a very fast read that kept me engaged from start to finish, and I really enjoyed the vocalization of what it’s like to be in a situationship, however, when I finished the book, I just thought “okay. cool” and moved on with my day.

This is a story about a young woman navigating life and relationships with emotionally unavailable men. Even though she’s described as a “lover girl”, she is more emotionally unavailable than any of them. Our heroine is your typical pick-me, not-like-other-girls main character. She is obsessed with her looks and hates every woman she encounters. She’s also lonely, and that is more honest than anything else about her. Maybe “Lonely Girl” should’ve been the title.

The men in this story are horrible, but that seems like a true depiction of the current dating landscape. Sex always feels like it’s being done to her, almost against her will. She’s never a participant in the act, her pleasure is never mentioned. I don’t know how intentional that is on the author’s part, but it blurs the line enough for me to be confused about her consent.

I don’t think the premise was honest about “escaping to work on her novel”. Her writing is mentioned a few times in passing, and by the end of the book we still know nothing about the nature of her writing.

I struggled through the first half of this book. The writing was stiff, the characters unlikable, the plot nonexistent. It definitely got better as it went on, but I don’t think I will be recommending it to people. To be fair, I don’t think the author is a lost cause. But this book could use a couple rounds of edits.

The main characters every action is determined by her perception of the male gaze and the quiet that comes with physical connection. This book encapsulates what desire feels like to someone deeply sensitive to the point of apathy.

I just finished Lover Girl and I’m still sitting with that quiet ache in my chest — the kind that only comes from reading something honest, raw, and beautifully defiant.
As a woman who’s lived a few decades, I felt the sting and sweetness of this one in my bones. Nicole Sewell has written a novel that isn’t afraid to get messy — with love, lust, shame, freedom, and the many masks we wear just to survive.
This book isn’t about tying everything up with a pretty bow. It’s about standing in the wreckage, picking up a shard, and looking yourself in the eye. There’s so much rage here. So much tenderness too. I saw my younger self in some of these pages. I saw friends. I saw all the ways women must shapeshift to be loved, or simply left alone.
Sewell’s voice is unflinching and intimate, like a diary written in lipstick and blood. It’s poetry and grit. It’s for the girls who never learned to say no — and the women learning to say it now, even if their voices shake.
If you want something safe and polite, this isn’t it. But if you want something that tells the truth in all its uncomfortable, beautiful, liberating glory — Lover Girl is a must-read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Clash Books for the ARC!

2⭐️ — Not for Me

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love Lover Girl—the premise intrigued me, and I went in with high hopes. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t land. It gave Normal People energy, but without the emotional resonance or depth I was hoping for.

I found it difficult to connect with any of the characters. The FMC is clearly going through a lot, but her choices felt frustrating, and her voice came across as whiny and self-sabotaging rather than sympathetic. I kept waiting for a moment of growth or redemption that never really came.

The writing had moments of potential, and there were themes that could have been powerful, but the execution felt uneven. I considered DNF’ing more than once, but pushed through since it was an ARC.

I hate giving low-star reviews, but sometimes a book just isn’t your match—and that’s okay. If you enjoy moody, introspective fiction with messy protagonists, this might work better for you.