Alright.. I did not love it. Insta love is not my favorite, so that was a hard pass for me. I do appreciate the mental health rep and racial topics . However, the dialogue felt a bit forced at times. I do feel that I would like to try this author again, and would recommend this to the sporty romance girlies.

This book was surprisingly deep and I am here for it! I loved Khalil so much and how the author wrote his story. Vanessa was great too and I loved seeing these two come together.

Definitely not a rom-com! This book confronts some heavy topics: mental health including depression and suicide, racism, toxic relationships, complications around interracial dating, and more. All topics are handled with such care, but don't be fooled by the lighthearted cover.

Vanessa was an awesome MC. I really enjoyed her growth throughout the book. I also liked how in touch with his feelings Khalil was.

Khalil and Vanessa's romance builds slowly, and the pace felt very realistic given who they were as people. This one is open-door and eventually turns steamy, and I loved watching these two characters get their happily ever after.

Gia de Cadinet is one to watch! I loved her writing style and will definitely read more books by her in the future.

Not usually into sports books but I really enjoyed this! The characters are fun and they had a lot of chemistry! Solid read!

DNFed - I requested this before I was an influencer and familiar with NG and how it works. I didn't get a chance to read it, and it's no longer downloaded on my Kindle.

It’s too bad that I waited as long as I did to read this book because now I regret not reading it sooner. I loved this little burn build up to this love story I really enjoyed the connection these who made, and how they immediately address any barriers that would get in the way of their relationship, but found a way to make it work in a very healthy way. This book addresses a lot of stereotypes and mental health concerns, but it explains it in a manner where you are endeared to it. There were some parts where it seemed a little excessive when it came to stereotypes and slightly hypocritical. The author mentions a lot of stereotypes towards certain demographics, but then it quick to call white males dudebros, repeatedly. I think by doing that it takes away from the message she’s trying to convey because then why would you do something or call them something when you are bothered when it’s towards to you? That was just a slight observation in this story, overall, the story is very cute and inspiring.

This was cute, I don't mind insta-love, so that did not turn me off at all!

I appreicated the effort to address interracial dating, and mental health,

This one definitely had potential, but the MCs romance was instalove and felt to forced. Not only that, it was uncomfortable reading about a white man using AAVE.

I first read Getting His Game Back in 2021 and I still find myself thinking of Khalil and Vanessa two years later. These characters are so well written with fantastic chemistry. Khalil's struggle with his depression especially resonates with me. This is a fantastic story by this debut writer.

Many positive viewpoints and topics were discussed throughout Getting His Game Back. While the many points of view spread throughout had me flipping back and forth in confusion, this was a solid debut that I recommend for anyone looking for a fast paced read.

I got more than halfway through this one before I sadly had to DNF. I can't really do the insta-love trope, and I couldn't connect with the characters or their love story.

To start off the review, I must admit that as a romance, the book has everything I love in the genre: a lovely connection between two amazingly written characters, the strangers to lovers trope I adore so much, an exquisite slowburn that gave me enough romantic material to feel entertained but always had me pleading for them to kiss, great steamy scenes, and true emotions. I really didn't come across anything to dislike. Khalil and Vanessa both had strong, empowering personas that made it easy for me to fall in love with them, and the two of them together were the ideal combination.

The characters are well-developed and multi-dimensional, making them feel like real people with relatable struggles. The pacing is brisk, keeping the reader engaged and invested in the story until the very end.

I found the characters in this story interesting, and enjoyed the build up in backstory. Something about Khalid and Vanessa stood out to me as a person of colour, not that I've had to go through their struggles.

The chemistry between them is sweet and charming, the flirting heartwarming. In a way, they gave me shy teenager vibes.

The progress is much slower than what I had anticipated and the plot not really special.

I'm not really a fan of insta-love so I don't think I'm the right audience for this book. It was just an ok story.

When I read the synopsis of this book, I was excited because it was a premise I hadn’t read before. A black woman in a male dominant world and a white man dealing with traumatic depression find each other and fall in love. Sadly, this one didn’t really work for me. I felt that the insta love trope didn’t make sense, and I found the spicy scenes a bit cringey. I was glad there was mental illness discussed in the book though, and it was refreshing to see it was a male dealing with depression.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory.

im so into the multicultural representation in books nowadays. I loved the banter and the love story. I really enjoyed the plot as well as I felt it was well fleshed out and not just thrown together.

Getting His Game Back by Gia De Cadenet has more depth than the cover might indicate. It covers complex topics like race and dating, mental health, abuse, and workplace discrimination. This isn't a reason not to read the book, but readers can decide if they are ready for a book with these topics.

Apart from this, some of the character development of Khalil seemed a bit lacking for me, but I'll still look forward to more from this author.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

Unfortunately, I could tell right away this was not the book for me and did not finish it. A few comments regarding homophobia were made and maybe that was properly fleshed out later in the book, but I wasn't interested in working to find out at this time.