I requested an ARC of this title because the blurb had me hooked with some of my favorite things: a sapphic, opposites attract, enemies to lovers, trying to get the wrong girl romance? Sign me up! But this book was so much more than that. Though most of the story was the sweet rom-com that we're lured into by the description, the authors really take on some tough topics along the way.

Alex Blackwood is headed to college as a pre-med major. Does she really want to be a doctor? Nope. But it's the only path she sees to a financially secure future. She has spent too many years trying to support herself and her mother, and never again wants to have to feel the weight of the world upon her shoulders. Her relationship with her mother is complicated; of course she loves her, but the burden of having to deal with an alcoholic parent is too much. College and the future it offers is her escape from that life. And then there's Alex's girlfriend, Natalie. Alex never feels quite good enough for her, but she intends to show Natalie that she can be the person she needs.

Molly Parker is also new to campus. She's shy and awkward, with her mother as her only real friend, but she is determined to try and break out of her shell when she starts college, because it's time to finally win the girl she crushed on all through high school - the beautiful and perfect Cora Myers. Molly finds an unlikely ally in Alex, who has decided that helping Molly get her girl is the perfect way to show Natalie that she can be a good person.

I think more authors should write books about the freshman year of college. It's such a time of tremendous transition in life. You move from the relatively sheltered existence of your family and your town and the small domain of high school, to the intense, foreign world of a university campus, where even small things, like knowing which direction to walk to get to your next class, can be challenging. I identified so strongly with Molly as she struggled to put herself out there amongst the sea of new faces and experiences that college brings. I was that same shy, sheltered, socially awkward girl during my freshman year. Reading Molly's story actually brought back a lot of those feelings of loneliness that I experienced that year, because I was not fortunate enough to have an Alex in my life.

There are some heavy topics dealt with in this book. Alex's mother's alcoholism draws attention to just how hard it is to love someone with this insidious disease. It does not just affect the addict, it changes the lives of their loved ones as well. Alex longs to feel like a "normal" teenager, one who can fully embrace the freedom and adventure that college brings, but at the same time she feels obligated to care for the mother who so obviously cannot care for herself, and this responsibility weighs so heavily on Alex's mind and spirit.

Molly's mother is also dealing with her own issues, the biggest of which is the sudden change in her relationship with her daughter. Throughout Molly's life, her mother has been her friend and her confidante. They spend a lot of time together, and Molly feels like she can tell her mom anything. But now Molly is at school, away from home for the first time, trying to spread her wings and fly on her own. And that has to be so hard on her mother. As a mom of a college student myself, I can identify with this so much, because isn't that what makes parenting the hardest job in the whole world? If you do it right, the reward for all those years of love and tears and sleepless nights is having your wonderful child leave you.

Other content warnings to add for this book include toxic relationships, references to parental neglect, internalized racism, and references to racially motivated bullying.

Overall, this is a sweet, slow-burning YA/NA rom-com with depth, a lot of humor, well-developed, complex and relatable characters, great chemistry, a dual-POV narration (my favorite), and a well-earned HEA. I can't wait to read more by these authors.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First, thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Second, "She Gets the Girl" was arguably good, but I personally am leaning somewhere between neutral and good. I would have loved more character development, and there are moments where the writing fell a bit short for me. There are times where I also didn't quite like the main characters enough to want to keep going. It's just not what I'd wanted or expected.

That being said, I DID keep going, and I'm glad I did. The shakiness of the first half of the book starts to level out, and I thoroughly enjoyed the second half. The overall plot structure was well-done, and by the end of it, it was a pretty good read!

However, I absolutely can see why others really love this book and can see its appeal, and I might even pick it up again in the future!

3.5/5

Lovely Young Adult/New Adult LGBT romance told from the alternating POVs of two college freshmen. Molly comes from a supportive, almost too supportive, home. She has crippling social anxiety and is counting on her freshman year of college to help her not only overcome it but also to finally connect with her crush, Cora, from high school. Alex's life couldn't be more opposite. Her mom's an alcoholic and Alex has had to be the adult in that relationship. Her girlfriend of five months is going on tour with her band and doesn't trust Alex to be true. Molly and Alex form an unlikely friendship as Alex coaches Molly on how to pursue Cora. Molly, on the other hand, teaches Alex how to be young again. I laughed. I cried. I was rooting for both of them!

As a high school teacher and the sponsor of my school's Gay-Straight Alliance, I think my students would really enjoy this book.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

Jacket Illustrator Poppy Magda and Jacket Designer Lizzy Bromley have done a fantastic job with this cover. It is original. It refers to a critical point in the story. Plus it is so cute. I love it.

Rachael Lippincott and their wife Alyson Derrick join forces to give us a new adult college makeover romance with some hard-hitting topics thrown in to give us plenty of angst.

I had competing thoughts about She Gets The Girl while I was reading it. One, I really wanted it to be like My Bodyguard (Dir. Tony Bill, 1980) and two, I wanted it to be like She’s All That (Dir. Robert Iscove, 1999). I love the premise of the story where Alex is trying to be a better person for her girlfriend and helps Molly fall in love. Part of me really wanted Alex to be true and stick with Natalie. I think that is more my personal prejudice and heartache than anything to do with the characters though - which is something I had to remind myself often in the beginning of the story.

By the time I got to the middle of the book, I did not care who ended up with whom. I just wanted Alex and Molly to be friends forever. Lippincott and Derrick give us amazing characters with depth. Alex struggles with an alcoholic parent who she takes care of while working full-time and balancing school. She is nothing like the beauty queen she looks like much to the disappointment of all of those around her. She constantly has to hustle to survive and take care of her mother. Alex has had the weight of the world on her shoulders for too long and does what is necessary to find relief where she can find it.

Whereas Molly has had all of the stability that Alex hasn’t. She has had too much of a good thing - to the point where she is isolated and has only her mother as her friend. Her anxiety has made getting out of her own way a huge obstacle. She is hoping that college offers more opportunity, but alas runs into situational challenges. Then there is the stigma of her Korean heritage which she has been taught by society and her mother to disdain. She lacks the confidence in herself and her outside world that Alex has been surviving in all of this time.

When opposites meet sparks fly and it is awesome for us. I love the repartee. I love how their friendship grows and becomes a solid foundation. The interactions between Noah and Beth with Alex made my heart melt. I just love how this whole friendship dynamic plays out. How they both improve each other.

She Gets The Girl plays out just like a movie…a movie I want to watch over and over again.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

Thank you to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster, Rachael Lippincott, and Alyson Derrick for this ARC digital copy in return for my honest review.

This was one of my top books in March. It is perfection. I absolutely adored both Alex and Molly. They were both so different yet so complimentary of each other. Also who doesn't love an enemy to lover troupe?! My favorite!

If I didn't love this book enough, it is set in Pittsburgh! It was awesome to read about places I have been and seen. Molly and Alex both attend the University of Pittsburgh so hearing all about their classes and adventures felt like home to me.

This is a must read for all romance fans. It is one that I plan to buy and having on my personal shelf as well.

She Gets the Girl is a total delight. Its sweet, funny and very real when it needs to be. Its a romance that doesn't shy away from the hard stuff and I really appreciate that. So much of this worked for me and I think it will work for tons of YA readers.

The first thing I appreciated was the college setting. Not enough mainstream YA takes place at college, so this already had points in my book for that. This book is honest about how daunting starting school can be, but it also shows all the good stuff. We spend time at common room game nights, coffee shops, and most importantly, giant libraries. I was hit with a wave of nostalgia for my own college years, the good and the bad.

Another great part of this story was the relationships these girls had with their mothers. One was way too codependent, the other was trying to take care of her alcoholic mother. I thought both were done well, and honestly. I deeply related to Molly, and I was very touched by Alex. I loved seeing Alex create her own little chosen family with Molly, and her food truck boss, Jim. These girls were able to bond over their maternal issues while helping each other through them, and it was so sweet and at times, heartbreaking.

Lastly, we have to talk about the super sweet romance at the center of this. I loved. These two fit together perfectly as friends at first, which is a great setup for a romance. I love how understanding they are of each other's flaws, and how they learn to take care of each other. Also, it was a great slow burn. I rooted for them every step of the way.

An absolute delight of a romance--poignant, fun, and queer. I loved the dual POV and the voices were so clear. What more could we ask for?

This book was super cute. I absolutely love the expansion of the YA genre that includes college age and to see that with a queer story is something that's definitely needed and valued. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone!!

Content Warning: alcohol abuse,toxic relationships and racism
Truly this is a beautiful love story ; the ending was a bit predictable but in the best way. This is the way I hoped it would end and in the back of my head I predicted it around the 5th chapter but I love a predictable book. Watching these characters grow in themselves and with each other is an amazing journey. Even though I'm very different from all of them I see parts of myself in them. They're very recognizable and relatable. I didn't want it to be over ; I wanted to see that flash forward to the lunch date with Molly's mom and I wanted to see them go back to Noah's to tell him what happened. I was so happy to see them confront their issues and grow together. I hope there is a sequel very soon.

This book is incredibly charming! I had so much fun with the characters, even laughing out loud at some parts.

My favorite thing about this book is the age of the characters. I’ve read so few YA novels that take place in college and often they end up skewing younger or older. This one really works though as the characters actually feel college-aged.

The one negative is that this book has side plots about some heavier topics that don’t feel fully fleshed out. The authors were trying to make the story more well-rounded and make the characters feel more dynamic. However, I think some things feel a bit shoe-horned in.

I would say to go in expecting a cute, light-hearted lesbian romance! I enjoyed this book immensely despite its flaws and genuinely didn’t want it to end!

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book! Where to begin? This was an incredibly sweet story, full of humor but also full of emotion. I love each character and seeing them grow throughout the book. I definitely want to purchase this for my collection at home!

3.5 stars.

Stick with the story even if you find yourself frustrated with Molly’s pining and Alex’s “girlfriend” (not each other).

Molly Parker (18, half-Korean, lesbian) has crushed on the very cool Cora Myers for the longest time. Now they’re both in college, and what better time for Molly to make a move than now? With Alex Blackwood (~18, lesbian) seeking to prove to her sort-of girlfriend Natalie Ramirez that she doesn’t flirt with all the girls she meets, Alex offers to help Molly get the girl. But will Molly end up getting Cora?

I have to be honest that the book and I got off on the wrong foot. Maybe my initial hopes for this were too high. Sapphic YA written by wives? Sign me up!

While I generally cannot picture characters, I can see the settings and the characters do things clearly. This might be an advanced copy issues, but in the first few chapters, there were so many confusing things: how did Noah open the door with one hand holding a pizza and the other a bottle of honey? were Alex walking to the bus stop while Cora talked about her major or were they already at the bus stop? etc. Yes, these are very minor details that are completely unimportant to the story, but they left me confused. But as Molly and Alex spend more time together, I found myself starting to enjoy the story. The buildup was nice so SHE GETS THE GIRL ended up being an enjoyable read.

Molly and Alex are so cute together! I would say it is a *very* slow-burn romance as they spent about 98% of the story (not exaggerating) dating someone else. Despite this, they have a lot of cute meet-ups that felt like dates in a sort-of-platonic sense.

I love the side plot about alcoholism: Alex’s absent mother and the sober food truck owner Jim, who is awesome. There is also the struggle of heritage on Molly’s mother’s side. It touches upon being a Korean adoptee in a white household. Also, while Molly and her mother are very close, like best-friends-close, there are also times Molly needed space and I think those were well-done details, too.

I read this as an ebook and have not listened to the audio version, but it is narrated by Natalie Naudus and Valentina Ortiz, and I would recommend checking it out.

[content warnings: absent parent, manipulation, abusive relationship, alcohol abuse, recovering alcoholic, recovering drug addict, internalized racism, underage drinking, dui, vehicular accident, anxiety, ableist language]

Okay, the title says it all on this one. She gets the girl! It's a really sweet sapphic romance. While Alex and Molly start out enemies, they soon move on to frenemies and, eventually, friends, and then - well, let’s just say it has a happy ending. (Come on, it’s literally in the book title).

At the beginning of the book, both girls had major character flaws that made it a bit difficult to like either one of them. Alex’s fear of attachment leads her to have a pretty toxic personality. She’s had to grow up quickly in order to parent her alcoholic mother. Molly is painfully introverted and shy and lives in the shadow of her mother’s internalized racism. But these characters are not one-dimensional or static. Through the alternating voices of the authors (who are married to each other!), the reader is taken on a journey of growth and self-discovery. In the end, you will be rooting for them both.

Alex and Molly join forces in order for each to “get the girl”. Alex is trying to help Molly so her rockstar girlfriend sees that Alex isn’t self-absorbed. Molly hopes to finally date the girl she’s been crushing on for years. Alex convinces Molly that her five-step plan will help Molly wins her crush’s heart. As they work Alex’s plan, they both realize that reality doesn’t live up to the fantasy. As they grow individually and navigate evolving relationships with their mothers, Alex and Molly become friends and then realize that they are meant to be so much more.

It definitely starts out with the classic bad girl-good girl dichotomy, but these girls are both far more complex than that and this book sees them growing into self-actualization through each other’s support. Hard subjects are dealt with thoughtfully - alcoholism, parental neglect and abandonment, bullying, and toxic relationships. This was a very enjoyable read, well balanced between lighthearted and heavy, with a blooming romance to tie it all together.

This book was fun and playful, delivering lots of heartwarming charm. I loved both of our leading ladies, and enjoyed watching their friendship blossom. I think there was potential to go a bit deeper into some of the heavy issues presented, but overall I found this to be a lighthearted and entertaining read. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to review!

She Gets the Girl is a book about being vulnerable. It's about having the bravery to be who we are and to find who that person is. This book is seriously swoony. With dual POVs it's normally easy for me to have a favorite, but with She Gets the Girl it's impossible. I loved Alex's giving and protected heart and her desperation to make things work. At the same time, I deeply related to Molly being unable to confess her crush, but also her difficult feelings towards her identity.

Their character development is superb. I loved witnessing their friendship bloom. The ways that this starts as a mutually beneficial deal, but turns into two people, against odds, finding a friend. Just the banter alone is enough to rocket this to my fave list. And I loved how emotional and thoughtful this book is. We can get so fixated on someone, we realize that the person we saw, might not be the person they are. How we can take on the problems of those around us, just to not feel helpless.

Starting college is a whole new, and rough, ballgame. When socially awkward Molly arrives to Pitt and finds out she was assigned a single instead of a traditional dorm with a roommate, she fears the worst. By chance, she ends up at a college party with the girl she pined for all through high school, Cora, and new to town flirt, Alex. With classes together and social circles coming together, Alex gives Molly lessons on love and how to get the girl. Why is Alex giving free love advice? She has something to prove to her ex: that she can indeed be friends with other girls without falling for them or flirting with them. Is it all possible? Can Alex be a friend and save her relationship? Can Molly score her high school crush? Find out in "She Gets the Girl" by co-authors and wives, Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick.

This book has the classic awkward-and-helpless-at-love-pining-after-someone teams up with the flirts-too-much-and-is-too-good-at-love-for-their-own-good trope and I ate it up. It was so well done and enhanced by the dual perspectives and co-authorship nature of the writing style. Did I have ideas of what would happen in the end? Yes, but I was reading on because the "how will they end up together" was so exciting. There were heart gushing moments and times where I wanted so badly to reach through the pages and smack some sense into the characters to come to their senses sooner.

I have so much to say about She Gets the Girl that it's honestly difficult to decide where to begin. First off, I absolutely loved it. I thought it was one of the most adorable, cute, wholesome books I have ever read, and yet it was still also deeply emotional and complex? There were characters that I loved, and they still had some negative aspects to them that made them full people. Incredible. I am so happy I got an ARC of this book and I highly encourage everyone to get around to reading it.
She gets the Girl is a dual perspective book written by a married couple, and I'm under the impression that each of them wrote a different perspective. There's Molly, a Korean nerd who is highly anxious and didn't have any friends in high school, and Alex, a white blonde canonically very hot party girl who sleeps around and stays emotionally distant from everyone. The novel opens with the two of them starting college, and they become fast enemies at their first party. That's right, this is an epic enemies to lovers slow burn. And it's gay. And it's new adult genre. I literally could not ask for anything more.
Although Molly and Alex are set up as opposites (and in the beginning, they believe they are) Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick (the writers) do a great job of showing us as readers their similarities right off the bat. We don't have to wonder why these girls are going to become friends (or more????) because we can see how they fit into each other's lives. That being said, the "enemies" part still felt very real and I never felt like they were just forcing an enemies thing to make the book more interesting. This book was just so well executed I cannot stop gushing.
The one thing I was a little iffy on in this book would be that I felt that in the very very beginning, Alex was a bit inconsistently paced. It became obvious pretty quickly what they were going for, but the first two Alex chapters felt a bit like character inconsistencies. All of these inconsistencies got resolved over the course of the novel, because they weren't really inconsistent at all, but when I first started reading that was how I felt.
If you are going into this book expecting all sunshine and rainbows, that just was not the case. Lippincott and Derrick gave their characters complex backstories that allowed them to be so much more than just the stereotypes that other people saw them as. Alex's parents are divorced, and her mother is a major alcoholic that left Alex to take care of both of them for years. Alex has hid that from literally everyone except her maybe-girlfriend Natalie, and because of that she feels like Natalie is the only one who will ever understand her. For Molly, her issues were a lot more relatable to me personally. She's super socially anxious to the point where her best friend in high school was her mom, and she has a crush on a girl from her high school (and now college), Cora, from afar.
In fact, that's how Alex and Molly start hanging out- alex decides to help Molly "get the girl", the girl being Cora.
Molly also has some family issues to work out. Her mother is clingy and doesn't want to let go of her going to college, and her Korean mother is also dealing with a LOT of internalized homophobia that Molly is just trying to avoid. She's also trying to hide that part of herself, and it makes for some cute revelations between the pair!
The story was well paced; it moved fast but we had so much time for introspection on the part of the characters, and their growth felt genuine. I wish I had a book like this to read when I was in high school, and I'm super grateful that I got to read it now!

(I will edit with links later when the review goes live)

This book was beyond cute! Dare I say the best book I’ve ever read! The characters were relatable, lovable and funny!
It’s been a while since I laughed so much.
Don’t get me started on the writing style because it had a great flow and the words/sentences just made perfect sense (I’ve used more tabs than I can count).

While this was marketed to me as a light-hearted YA romcom, the beginning pages don't feel that way. All that said, the book comes together in a nice way.

I LOVED this with my entire heart. If you have ever watched Set it Up on Netflix and wanted a book that felt like that...read this. I am BEGGING you. It's like gay college Set it Up.

It's funny because I've read so many adult romances that I forgot the third act of a YA romance book (or in the least a slow burn) isn't a break-up, but instead when the character gets with the wrong person or misses their shot and the end scene is when they get together for the FIRST time. Like a rom com movie!! Don't get me wrong, I love a good adult romance book, but something hits different when they don't bang first and then fall in love. I love the slow burn, mutual pining, missed chances, and running back to find each other bits. That's my favorite part of a romance—the culmination of it all.

And this book gets it so, so right.

I just adored this book so much. I loved the complicated relationship both girls had with their moms, how it explored their own personal lives and coming of age alongside their love story. I love how Molly realized she didn't have to be someone she was not, just more herself. While there's a classic romcom "makeover" scene in this, I loved that it was more about Molly dressing the way she's always wanted to instead of how someone else wants her to. I think that's the scene where it hit me just how much I am Molly because I think I'd look entirely different if I really were myself (and honestly...I think I've gotten a lot closer to the real me over the last year or two, finally broken up with the version of myself that wanted to please everyone but herself. But anyway...). Molly is just like a carbon copy of me, but that said, I really adore Alex and I relate to her too, in a different way. While I've never gone through the same experiences, I have been in a toxic relationship (friendship?) that I convinced myself was right for me until I realized too late that I was making a mistake.

Anyway, I just love how this was told. It has the same classic rom com feel but with queer characters who NEVER have to fight for their sexuality (love seeing that, it's so refreshing), with really heart-wrenching side plots, and so much love and joy.

10/10 recommend for a good time.