**** Metro, Sharon Lougher, January 2010

In the words of Wet Wet Wet, love is all around us – and its mindboggling complexity and influence is the subject of this broad-ranging new book from psychoanalyst Anouchka Grose, whose ponderings run from pop culture to the ancient Greek philosophers via psychology and science.

On one level we’re in self-help territory, as Grose’s framework is to wonder what one can expect from love in a society where anything goes.

But she’s something of a humourist, too, and delivers some effortlessly engaging prose.

Her analysis comes with a satisfyingly cynical edge informed by her own unlucky-in-love experiences and the hopelessness of her analytical case studies.

She compares Freud to Leonard Cohen when it comes to articulating thoughts about love and, in a particularly enjoyable instance, links a train of thought from a 400-yearold clam to Elizabeth Taylor.

Indeed, there’s nothing sentimental or cloying about this Realist's Guide to Romance, which should make refreshing reading as we approach the hysteria of Valentine’s Day.