Fans of comic yet wise romance will delight in a story that celebrates sex and love in middle age. Daisy is a spunky, strong-willed woman with high standards and a lot of self-respect. Sitch’s sex scenes are frank and adult while still serving the overall narrative. While a light read, Love, Lust, & WTF skilfully uses Daisy’s dating experience to touch on pressing issues of the day, including unsolicited pornographic images, consent, and respect for women. The pandemic is also interwoven well into the narrative without overwhelming it.
The novel is light on plot and skips over some beats that romance fans might expect. Daisy goes on a string of fairly disappointing dates, and while we are rooting for her, there’s no one promising prospect that readers will root for her to be with. The result is that the novel, like actual online dating, can feel a little repetitive, with Daisy being let down again and again. Some of these relationships proceed quite quickly–one man tells her he loves her, she seriously considers co-parenting another date’s child–only to end abruptly, and fans of more traditional romances may wish for fewer relationships more deeply explored, especially as her last paramour, Brad, is introduced quite late in the novel. Still, this story is a fun, sexy, often insightful look at dating in middle age.
Takeaway: A fun, sexy novel about online dating in the pandemic that, like its protagonist, is in want of a male lead.
Great for fans of: Andrew Shawn Greer’s Less, Jane More’s Love @ First Site.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: B
