A lovely LGBQT story. Romantic, sexy (at times) and I fell in love with the main characters, all a must for me!
Am catching up on all the reviews I haven't left over the year, so sorry this is late, but my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the reading copy.

*4.5 Stars*

This was a solid romance. the characters were interesting and I liked getting to know them, seeing their background. I really enjoyed all the basketball aspects of this and it was intertwined into the story. I also liked all the fostering talks and how big of a part Vanessa played in the book. I was a really thoughtful and delightful book and I'm really looking forward to more books in this world and to reading more Anita Kelly romances.

A massive thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this e-arc!

I really loved this book. I found myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it and I constantly was thinking about the characters throughout my day which is always a good sign.

I feel like it did slow down a little around the 60% mark but soon picked itself back up. The representation of this book was excellent and I think if someone is struggling with sexuality this book would really help them with reassurance!

A solid 4.5 stars!

This was my first book by Anita Kelly and it did not disappoint.

A charming an easy read. Loved the main characters so much.

I didn't love Something Wild and Wonderful but this was definitely a return to form for me. I loved the slow building relationship between Julie and Elle, especially as it started off as more of a friendship. It made the relationship transition much more believable.

I also enjoyed the depiction of children in the care system, and fostering a teenager. It was a truly interesting part of the narrative.

While it was so lovely to see the characters from previous books in here, I do feel that it sometimes took away from the development of Julie and Elle's story.

Giggling, kicking my feet in the air, screeching like a love-stricken teenager. This book was everything, I absolutely loved it OMG. Julie and Elle's relationship was just so incredibly well written, I actually don't have the proper words to express how much I loved this book.

I flew through this one. I really enjoyed this book, the author managed to create characters that felt realistic but likable and I warmed to them very quickly.

I would definitely recommend it! Although I feel the ending came around very quickly, almost rushed. Although this could be my personal preference.

This novel was okay. The writing style was good and the first half was interesting to read. I don’t really care for basketball but that didn’t impact my reading experience negatively. However, the last third was very rushed and weird, and I had to force myself to finish the book. Julie and Elle were completely fine protagonists and their subplots were fine as well. I would say that Julie’s subplot of figuring herself out was more interesting than Elle’s. The final three chapters were irritating at best and cringe at worst. This is not the first time that a romance book ended fast and cringy, and left me dissatisfied, so maybe that’s an US thing/literary tradition that I just don’t get?

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
🌶️🌶️
⛹️‍♀️🏆🏳️‍🌈🍕🐈

How You Get The Girl is book 3 of Love & Other Disasters, but I read first in the series, and you definitely can make sense of it. Book 3 follows London's twin sister, and Ben's best friend, Julie, a high school basketball coach, as she learns to accept herself and who she is. I found Julie's story very relatable. I didn't know how I fitted into the queer spectrum, and following her journey was really heartwarming.

I loved the instant connection between Julie and Elle and LOVED the fact that Elle was Julei's childhood celebrity crush. I loved how they hit it off, became great friends, and then did the "practice" girlfriend stuff, even though we all know, including everyone around them, that it wasn't practicing at all.

The book was funny, light-hearted, and romantic and I loved the basketball aspect of the book. I don't play, but it was so easily readable that I could picture every movement in my head as if I were watching it live. The characters were forking great, and I loved Vanessa, and I hope she gets her own story.

Antia Kelly does a wonderful job of representing the queer community, including trans and non-binary, and how she included all the queer characters from the previous stories into this one, but I loved how she told Julie's story about how she thought she was demi. It was well written, and relatable and it didn't feel pushed aside, like some stories out there.

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for a copy of the ebook. This review is left voluntarily.

This was a simple, fun, easy and quick read. The perfect type of book for your holiday, beach, pool kind of read. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Anita Kelly has become one of my go-to authors, and I adored their latest book. It was a joy to get to know Julie in far more depth, having met her briefly as London's sister and Ben's best friend in the previous stories. Not only is she a wonderful coach to her basketball team, she's caring and funny and kind, and has a tendency to blurt out whatever's on her mind. Yet, she's also fairly insecure, not least because her lived experience has, for most of her adult life, felt out of whack with those of the majority of her friends. While it was hard to see her so lacking in self-confidence (she's amazing!), I got it, and I felt for her in that. I'm really glad that her exploration of labels that might help explain her experiences did not lead her to settle on any particular thing. Labels can be hugely valuable in exploration of identify - it can be a joy to stumble across a term that seems to fit, that helps us to feel seen and less alone. But when we don't feel that we totally fit any of the identity terms / labels out there, that can leave us feeling just as alone and lonely in the way we encounter the world. Julie finds her way, and on that way, Elle never tries to pin her down on any aspect of who she is, which is one of the many wonderful aspects of who Elle is. She might have a stronger sense of self, and feel more confident in her own identity, but that has been hard won, and she certainly has her own insecurities too. So these two find each other and we go with them as they continue to figure out who they are right now, alongside who they are to each other - and what that might mean.

I learned a lot about basketball, loved the teen humour, 'The Good Place' references, tattoos and bags of grain. There's mental health rep, and fostering, and what it looks like to have firm boundaries. I loved seeing glimpses of London and Dahlia's life together, and getting to know Ben as a best friend (and some Ben & Lex moments too). But those were delightful glimmers - as I said at the start, I fell head over heels for Julie and Elle and their story, and I'm so glad I got to read it.

Okay so this is up there with the best romance books I have ever read.

I didn’t realise that this was the third book in a series and since I haven’t read the second book, I felt like I was missing context at times, however it didn’t stop me from loving it. I actually enjoyed it more than Love & Other Disasters. I don’t know whether it was the sports aspect, or the celebrity crush aspect, or just that I related to this more, but it was perfect… When I realised what Elle got Julie for Christmas I could’ve died.

5 stars, would definitely recommend.

My first Anita Kelly book and I’ve been missing out! The writing was so warm and engaging, everything felt so real, and I love that the author let us spend some extra time getting to know people and having intimate moments not just with the main characters but with the other characters, as well. This isn’t something I read a lot in romances and I loved that. Everyone was so caring and full of love for each other with empathy and compassion.

There’s stuff like figuring things out later on in life such as your sexuality and a career change, which I love! I hate that we have to know who we are and what we want so early on in life and things don’t realistically work out like that, a lot of the time. I especially loved the asexual rep. I rarely see it in adult romances and it brought so much joy to my heart.

Alongside that, there’s also rep for chronic migraine sufferers, nonbinary people, depression, lesbians and foster parents! With some heavier themes, also, that involve addiction and parental neglect. It was heavy but very well handled.

There was also lots of emphasis on consent, in all contexts, and about how whoever you are is whoever you are and it’s all okay.

All in all, a mostly comforting read that made me feel loved and supported with some heavier topics that were handled with all the respect they should have been handled with. I can’t wait to read more from Anita Kelly!!

I loved this book so much! I gobbled the majority of it up today, I just couldn't put it down. It's dual POV, the characters are obsessed with each other in the most delectable way, they're so kind and respectful to each other the whole way through, it almost feels formulated in a lab specifically for me.

I loved Julie's character - the way she struggled with understanding her sexuality and whether she was ace was handled so well and made me cry multiple times. Her and Elle together are so sweet and wholesome, they way they are sooooooooooooo obsessed with each other is just perfection.

I also felt the story arc surrounding Vanessa, her mother's struggle with addiction, and Elle's struggle with suddenly fostering a teenager was handled with so much care and it was such a heartwarming read.

The only thing I struggled with was keeping track of all of the side characters - I didn't realise this is technically the third installment in a series of romance books, and I would probably have kept track better if I had read the other two first.

3.8 ⭐️ This was seriously cute sapphic romance.

If you’re looking for something low angst with themes of first attraction and later in life coming out this is for you. Coming out was handled so well in this, as was the lack of pressure surrounding labels.

An ex pro athlete meets high school basketball coach romance with a dash of spice that will have you smiling so much.

Rep/ Lesbian MC ( who lives with chronic migraines and occasional depression), Sapphic & questioning demi MC, non binary SC, Gay SC, Sapphic SCs. Central relationship is WLW / Sapphic.

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and Headline Eternal for providing me with an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

How You Get The Girl is Anita Kelly’s third and last book in the Love & Other Disasters series in which we follow Julie Parker, a basketball coach, as she persuades Elle Cochrane, one of her basketball idols, to become her assistant coach and to help her navigate dating life. This book can be independently read from the other two in this series, other characters just make some appearances but their identity is explained.

I chose to request this book on NetGalley because I read Love and Other Disasters back in 2022 and it was a five-star read for me. Although I did not enjoy this novel as much as the first one, I still liked it a lot. I thought that the basketball part of the story would prevent me from enjoying the book, but in the end, it was just a nice background, for it is character-driven and not plot-driven. Julie is such a nice character and I really related to her side of the story, questioning her identity and struggling to find a label that fits her. Elle’s side of the story did not resonate as much with me, but I still appreciated reading it. The story addresses some heavy themes (that you can find on the author’s website), but somehow, I found it to be a feel-good story because of its happy ending.

I really recommend this book if you like sports romance, F/F romance and character-driven books about personal growth and identity search!

Rarely am I as emotionally affected by a romance book as I was by this one. ‘How You Get the Girl’ features Julie, a high school basketball coach, and Elle, the guardian of one of Julie’s players, who also happens to be Julie’s basketball idol.

This book handles difficult topics sensitively, leading to it being very emotional (and often sad) without becoming gratuitously angsty. I loved every part of this book; I felt connected to every one of the characters, not just the protagonists.

Julie feeling left behind as her friends move to new stages of their lives is a situation I have read in a few books, but this is my favourite of these portrayals. She is emotionally messy in a way that really resonated with me - happy for the people she loves yet also terrified of all the changes, and unable to hide it. Meanwhile, Elle’s challenges of balancing her caring responsibilities for her niece with her own migraines and depression, were very well written. I also really appreciated how Kelly wrote the teenage characters to be actual people and not just flat archetypes. For example, I didn’t feel like Vanessa was included just to be a problem for Elle, rather that she was a character in her own right with a story arc and a personality.

The romance plot follows the two women practice-dating for Julie to gain experience as she explores her identity. This was well-executed and provided a lighthearted and engaging aspect to the book. From the start, I really wanted Julie and Elle to work out, and I absolutely adored the presents they give to each other at the end. It was incredibly touching.

I have been thinking about this book all the time since I read it, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

thank you to netgalley for this arc!

first of all, i didn’t realise this was in a series, so although i feel it worked as a standalone i was slightly confused when characters where introduced as if i should know them.

anyway, this book was so fun to read! i loved the talks about mental health, and how it showed it was okay to not always be okay. i also really enjoyed how it showed both that it is okay to love labels for yourself with a proudly lesbian character, but also that not labelling yourself is just as valid.

the romance was so fun and sweet, and felt real. overall 4.5 stars!

I loved this book. I loved both main characters and how fleshed out they were, I loved how the friendship and relationship developed and I also loved all the side characters too like Vanessa, London and Dahlia. It was also really nice to see a character who hadn't yet figured out who she was and highlighted the struggle to find the right label.
The practice dating was fun and I also enjoyed the brief sections of basketball which felt like just the right amount and didn't take anything away from the story.

Thankyou so much netgalley and forever publishing for the arc of this book! Anita has written such a beautiful story on how fluid love and identity can be. Julie’s journey on who she is within her sexuality and how she loves was such a wonderful read which made her a character I think everyone can relate to on some level; especially those of us who have gone through a journey or discovering who we are. I know the pressure of finding a label can seem so daunting, and while it’s very solidifying for some in the queer community it can be so terrifying for others trying to find what fits. Elle being so patient with her and helping her realise it’s okay to not have it figured out and that she’s worthy of love without a label was done so well by Kelly. I absolutely loved the dynamic between Elle and Vanessa and getting so see the way she cared for her grow throughout the book made it so bittersweet when Vanessa went home. I don’t really care for sports at all but I was so invested in Elles history and the team, I can always count on some well written sapphics to get me invested.