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emmas_bookshelf's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is such a wonderful sapphic book that manages to have lightheartedness and humor while still touching on heavy topics (addiction, foster parenting, being unsure of your sexuality, and more). I loved Julie, Elle and Vanessa and was rooting for all of the characters to find their own happiness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, and Addiction
the_book_bee's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Chronic illness
deetabz's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Chronic illness, Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Mental illness
Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, and Transphobia
kelly_e's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Title: How You Get the Girl
Author: Anita Kelly
Series: Love & Other Disasters #3
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: February 13, 2024
I received a complimentary eARC from Forever, a division of Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted #Ad
T H R E E • W O R D S
Mature • Charming • Authentic
📖 S Y N O P S I S
When smart-mouthed Vanessa Lerner joins the high school basketball team Julie Parker coaches, Julie’s ready for the challenge. What she’s not ready for is Vanessa’s new foster parent, Elle Cochrane—former University of Tennessee basketball star. While star-struck at first, soon Julie persuades Elle to step into the unfilled position of assistant coach for the year.
Even though Elle has stayed out of the basketball world since an injury ended her short-lived WNBA career, the gig might be a way to become closer to Vanessa—and to spend more time with Julie, who makes Elle laugh. As the coaches grow closer, Elle has a hard time understanding how Julie is single. When Julie reveals her lifelong insecurity about dating and how she wishes it was more like sports—being able to practice first—it sparks an intriguing idea. While Elle still doubts her abilities as a basketball coach, helping Julie figure out dating is definitely something she can do. But as the basketball season progresses, and lines grow increasingly blurred, Julie and Elle must decide to join the game—or retreat to the sidelines.
💭 T H O U G H T S
How You Get the Girl, the third book in the Love & Other Disasters series by Anita Kelly, was quickly added to my 2024 most anticipated list after I read (and absolutely adored) Something Wild & Wonderful last year. I was grateful to get access to an eARC ahead of release and went into it completely blind.
Written in dual POVs, this Sapphic romcom introduced the reader to realistic and flawed characters that felt like friends. As a sport fan, I enjoyed the sports content. But I would say it's more sports adjacent than a sports romance. The aspect is fairly present in the beginning, but slowly fades as the narrative progresses. I think my enjoyment level would have been a little higher if the team and school setting would have played a larger role.
Anita Kelly writes and explores depression, chronic illness (migraines), queer identity, and fostering with great care. Certainly lighter in tone than book two, it still unpacks a lot - insecurity, injury, job displeasure, neglect. The chemistry between the two main characters was believable and they were so supportive of one another. I love how there are some real (albeit hard) conversations throughout and the themes of self discovery and found family were both fantastic.
Overall, How You Get the Girl wasn't Something Wild & Wonderful amazing, but it was still a solid romance with depth and great characters. I enjoyed getting a little glimpse into the lives of past characters and I definitely think I will be picking up book one at some point. I will continue to keep my eye on what this author publishes next.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• women's basketball fans
• readers looking for queer romance
⚠️ CW: mental illness, anxiety, depression, addiction, alcoholism, drug abuse, eating disorder, chronic illness, sexual content, addiction, foster care, injury/injury detail, abandonment, acephobia/arophobia, cursing
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"That labels weren’t meant to confine, only to bring comfort to those for whom they were useful. That Julie didn’t need to ascribe to any of them, if she didn’t want to"
"Any relationship that’s worthwhile, whether it’s friendship or romantic or sexual, only really works when you try."
Author: Anita Kelly
Series: Love & Other Disasters #3
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: February 13, 2024
I received a complimentary eARC from Forever, a division of Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted #Ad
T H R E E • W O R D S
Mature • Charming • Authentic
📖 S Y N O P S I S
When smart-mouthed Vanessa Lerner joins the high school basketball team Julie Parker coaches, Julie’s ready for the challenge. What she’s not ready for is Vanessa’s new foster parent, Elle Cochrane—former University of Tennessee basketball star. While star-struck at first, soon Julie persuades Elle to step into the unfilled position of assistant coach for the year.
Even though Elle has stayed out of the basketball world since an injury ended her short-lived WNBA career, the gig might be a way to become closer to Vanessa—and to spend more time with Julie, who makes Elle laugh. As the coaches grow closer, Elle has a hard time understanding how Julie is single. When Julie reveals her lifelong insecurity about dating and how she wishes it was more like sports—being able to practice first—it sparks an intriguing idea. While Elle still doubts her abilities as a basketball coach, helping Julie figure out dating is definitely something she can do. But as the basketball season progresses, and lines grow increasingly blurred, Julie and Elle must decide to join the game—or retreat to the sidelines.
💭 T H O U G H T S
How You Get the Girl, the third book in the Love & Other Disasters series by Anita Kelly, was quickly added to my 2024 most anticipated list after I read (and absolutely adored) Something Wild & Wonderful last year. I was grateful to get access to an eARC ahead of release and went into it completely blind.
Written in dual POVs, this Sapphic romcom introduced the reader to realistic and flawed characters that felt like friends. As a sport fan, I enjoyed the sports content. But I would say it's more sports adjacent than a sports romance. The aspect is fairly present in the beginning, but slowly fades as the narrative progresses. I think my enjoyment level would have been a little higher if the team and school setting would have played a larger role.
Anita Kelly writes and explores depression, chronic illness (migraines), queer identity, and fostering with great care. Certainly lighter in tone than book two, it still unpacks a lot - insecurity, injury, job displeasure, neglect. The chemistry between the two main characters was believable and they were so supportive of one another. I love how there are some real (albeit hard) conversations throughout and the themes of self discovery and found family were both fantastic.
Overall, How You Get the Girl wasn't Something Wild & Wonderful amazing, but it was still a solid romance with depth and great characters. I enjoyed getting a little glimpse into the lives of past characters and I definitely think I will be picking up book one at some point. I will continue to keep my eye on what this author publishes next.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• women's basketball fans
• readers looking for queer romance
⚠️ CW: mental illness, anxiety, depression, addiction, alcoholism, drug abuse, eating disorder, chronic illness, sexual content, addiction, foster care, injury/injury detail, abandonment, acephobia/arophobia, cursing
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"That labels weren’t meant to confine, only to bring comfort to those for whom they were useful. That Julie didn’t need to ascribe to any of them, if she didn’t want to"
"Any relationship that’s worthwhile, whether it’s friendship or romantic or sexual, only really works when you try."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Chronic illness
Moderate: Sexual content, Cursing, and Abandonment
Minor: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Acephobia/Arophobia
anxiety, depression, foster caresepti's review against another edition
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Chronic illness, and Mental illness
Moderate: Alcoholism and Child abuse
Minor: Eating disorder
addiesbookshelf_'s review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
“But that when it came to identity, when it came to queerness, the whole point was that there were no tryouts. If you were even thinking about it, you were already on the team.”
Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for providing an advanced reader copy of this book!
Summary: Julie Parker never expected her former idol to show up in the gym of the high school basketball team that she coaches, but that’s exactly what happens one day when a new girl joins the team and her aunt/new foster parent come to pick her up. Elle Cochrane, meanwhile, never thought that he reintroduction to basketball after eight years would be assistant coaching a high school basketball team and thinking that the head coach was too cute for words. And when Julie admits to Elle that she’s never been in a relationship and just wishes that she could have some practice, it only makes sense that Elle would be the one to help her out, right?
What I liked: As always, Anita Kelly blew me away with how fun, cute, and earnest this book was. I absolutely fell in love with both Julie and Elle from the beginning, and I had such a good time watching their story unfold. In particular, I thought that Julie was the sweetest and I really identified with her journey of figuring out her identity and feeling sure of it all for a long time. I also really loved just how down bad Elle was for Julie from the beginning.
Another real highlight of this book were all of the side characters. I loved not only getting to spend more time with London, Dahlia, Ben, and Alexei from the first two books in the series, but I became instantly obsessed with Vanessa (Elle’s foster kid) and the entire basketball team. In particular, when Vanessa said that “If you and coach don’t get married by the end of the season the entire team is going to be disappointed,” I absolutely cracked up laughing.
What I didn’t like: If had to choose one thing I didn’t like about this book, it was the fact that, after they started practice dating and it became pretty clear that it *wasn’t* practice for either of them, the road to actually dating for real was really long and kind of wonky. It just left the vibes in the last portion of the book feeling a little weird. But all in all, I still really enjoyed this and highly recommend, like I always will with an Anita Kelly book!
Read this if you love:
💕 Sapphics playing sports
💕 Sapphics simping for each other
💕 Earnest love stories
💕 Sassy and on-the-nose teenagers
Genre/Type: Contemporary Romance
Format: Physical 📖
Length: 384 pages
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️
Series or standalone: Series
Tropes or themes: Fake dating/practice dating, sports romance, queer awakening (kind of)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Sexual content
Minor: Homophobia
sambshep's review against another edition
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Abandonment, Addiction, Sexual content, Chronic illness, and Alcoholism
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