The Life Revamp
Grade : B

Kris Ripper brings zir The Love Study series to a warm and satisfying conclusion with The Life Revamp with Mason and Diego’s tale.  Funny, sweet, and tender, the book is wonderful to dip into but has a couple of flaws that keep it from the DIK shelf.

Doctor Mason is in hot pursuit of true love.  He wants to get married, and he wants to have a family and move to the suburbs. The only thing standing in the way of any of this is the fact that he cannot find a man with whom he shares a romantic spark.

Then he meets Diego, a handsome fashion designer, through a blind date with his co-worker Claris.  Diego and Mason fall deeply, passionately in love with one another.  But there’s just one problem with that – Diego is already married…to Claris. The couple does have an open relationship -  Claris enjoys more loosely defined, brief affairs while Diego is looking for something more long-term.  Mason has never considered polyamory to be a romantic option for him; his visions of the future have always been more traditional.  Can he figure out the difference between what he idealizes and what he truly wants?

There’s only one flaw in The Life Revamp – Claris is pretty much reduced to a side character, shoved off to the edge of the narrative so Diego and Mason’s love story can come to the forefront.  Sure, they’re engaged in a poly V relationship, which means that Mason isn’t interested in Claris sexually or romantically while they’re both interested in Diego, but it still feels like Claris is missing from the story for much of the narrative.

I adored creative and sweet Diego, and could empathize with Mason’s pull toward what is conventional versus where his heart truly lies. Their romance is filled with humor and banter and Ripper lets zir rollicking talent for dialogue shine throughout the tome. There’s a little bit of angst, too, as Mason has to decide between the predictable and the extraordinary. There is a beautiful sense of time in place in Ripper’s writing as well, which draws the reader in and makes them feel at home in zir universe.

The other characters from The Love Study all pop up to try and help Mason through various emotional crises connected to his relationship with Diego – especially Declan, Mason’s former fiancé. I love how supportive their group is, and how much they care for one another throughout the crises and travails they are exposed to.

Overall, fans of The Love Study books will likely enjoy this big-hearted conclusion to the series, even with its minor flaws.  You can read The Life Revamp without having read the other books in the series, but it’s satisfying to make it through the whole trilogy and see where these characters end up.

Buy it at Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer

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Reviewed by Lisa Fernandes
Grade : B

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : December 16, 2021

Publication Date: 11/2021

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Lisa Fernandes

Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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