Not only a romance novel but one with self discovery in it as well. Rachel lippincott is the author who wrote five feet apart and I highly enjoyed both of these books. I really enjoy when books have more in them, then just romance. It makes me want to keep reading to see you the character development and self discovery. If you haven’t read this yet, you need to. Beautiful cover and characters you will fall in love with.

Such a fun and real story. I felt Mollys anxiety. I felt Alex’s need for control. The characters were so authentic I thought maybe I’d be able to meet them at the food truck for a cheesesteak and fresh cut fries!
A wonderful character driven story, with believable and likely characters all around. Well, except that one girl (if you know you know). So touching and infuriating at the same time. Totally loved it.
4.5 stars
Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

She Gets the Girl • Rachel Lippincott & Alyson Derrick ⭐️ - 4 stars
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I don’t usually read yea novels but this one peaked my interest and I really enjoyed this one!
I loved how it was more then just a romance novel too, there was some self discovery that would happen in this stage of life. They helped each other grow, Molly came out of her shell and Alex developed a sense of self worth and deserves respect.

Also the authors are wives which I found absolutely ADORABLE!

Thank you to @NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

Alex Blackwood is a strong confident flirtatious young woman. Before she leaves for university Alex flubs an opportunity to show her true feelings to her girlfriend. Her girlfriend who is a singer in a band is set to go one tour. Parting on a bad note Alex is determined to make amends.
Molly Parker is a super organized in control type of girl. She feels awkward in her interactions with her peers. Molly is determined to overcome her anxieties and try to get to know Cora Myers a girl she has had a crush on since high school.
Alex and Molly meet at a party. Though they don’t really like each other they find out they can help each other attain their relationship goals. Alex will help Molly get a date with Cora. Molly agrees to provide Alex’s girlfriend with proof that Alex has changed her ways and she helped Molly.
As the two young women get to know each other better a bond starts to form but they both wondered what does it mean.
I really liked SHE GETS THE GIRL. You know early on which direction the story is going but the characters are so likeable you are happy to go along for the ride. Great read.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced digital edition of this book.

She Gets The Girl was super cute and easy to read. There were several laugh out loud moments and many scenes that left a smile on my face. I was able to relate with Molly’s character at that age, and loved seeing her and Alex’s character growth. Definitely recommend giving it a read!

She Gets the Girl is sweet, funny, and will absolutely steal your heart. I'm in love! This book reminded me of all the teenage rom-com movies I watched as a teenager, in the late 90’s, except for that the mains in this book are queer. Where was this book when I was growing up?! .The blurb mentions how this had the feel of She’s All That, and it definitely had that feel to me, and I adored that movie. The story here is really nothing new, and there are a few “authors writing together for the first time” bumps, but overall this book just works and it is a read I would easily recommend. It was a sweet, best friends to lovers romance. When done well, this trope is really enjoyable to read and makes for a good romance which was the case here. This is VERY slow burn, and I do wish it was a little less slow because the characters could have used more “couple time” but this book excelled in the feels part. While there was a lot of sweetness, and lightly funny moments, I was surprised that this book had me close to tears more than once. There are some very emotional parts, and even just feeling badly for a character that is embarrassed or hurt - because it’s like you take a bit of the hit with them. There were some parts of this book that were really well written, and I am definitely looking forward to checking out more from this author!

Loved this such a classic enemies to lovers but still felt fresh. Just the right amount of cheesy love

I was a little worried when this started that I was gonna hate it.
I'm looking at you Natalie.
Lucky for me, Alex & Molly are amazing characters that I totally fell in love with!
If you haven't read this yet...seriously what is stopping you?
Gorgeous cover, relatable characters and a super fun plot!
Much love to NetGalley and the great folks over at Simon & Schuster Canada for my DRC.

Like so many members of the online book community, I grew up on YA literature – most of which follows high school age characters and deals with themes relevant to people in that age group. Also like many others in the community, I was frustrated when I aged out of YA and couldn’t find anything about characters my own age. It’s like authors and publishers think that as soon as you graduate high school, you become a full adult with adult privileges and problems.

Really, why high school? How many people actually think high school was the most interesting point in their life? And why are there so few books about being university-age?

This is why the summary for She Gets The Girl grabbed me. This story follows two girls navigating the epic highs and lows of the first few months of college. Molly Parker is impossibly shy, desperate to reinvent herself but with no idea how to go about doing it. Alex Blackwood is fun at parties and an incorrigible flirt, but bad at opening up to people and maintaining relationships. When the two girls meet at a party, Alex decides to help Molly win over the girl of her dreams… and hopefully prove to her own ex-girlfriend that she’s a good person.

You’ll never guess what happens next.

In these two protagonists, authors Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick give us a painfully accurate depiction of what it’s like to move away to university. It’s a love story, yes, but it’s also a story about putting all your hope into a fresh start only to fall back into the same patterns. It’s about realizing that people are far more complicated and much less scary than you thought. It’s also a story about how your relationship with your parents changes when you move away and become your own person – something that isn’t talked about enough in fiction considering how many people struggle with it at this point in their lives.

As someone just out of university who definitely went through the whole “trying to reinvent yourself and then not changing at all” thing several times, so much of this book felt so cathartic to me. There’s something really special about seeing your own experiences reflected on the page and realizing that other people have gone through the same thing. Whether you have trouble meeting new people or with maintaining relationships, whether you have overbearing or absent parents, whether you spent your undergrad years partying too much or feeling lame for not partying, I think there’s something that anyone can relate to in this book. Moreover, even if you somehow can’t find anything of yourself in it, it’s still a great read because the characters are so well fleshed out. I’m extremely impressed that the authors managed to pack so many serious topics into a book so short and so light-hearted in tone. That takes skill!

Of course, the main draw of She Gets The Girl is the love story. Sapphic novels are still tragically difficult to come across, and this one promises lots of fun tropes. It delivers on those promises, too.

I don’t want to spoil anything about the romance, because I know it’s the main appeal of the book, but I will say that the pacing was great and the slow burn very believable. It’s one of those couples where they complement each other so well and each one makes the other a better person. I will be thinking about them for a long time!

I’d recommend She Gets The Girl to anyone looking for a fun sapphic romance that’s easy to read but still makes you feel things. It’s an especially good read for anyone in their late teens or early twenties who’s a little tired of reading about high schoolers. It’s already one of my favourite books of the year!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was such a fun read. Just feels like a comfort book

If you're looking for a sapphic feel-good rom-com, this is perfect. May not be a popular opinion, but I feel so much LGBT+ media is showing people in pain from difficult coming-out stories and unaccepting communities, and I think it's important for those stories to be share, but I felt it was really nice to get to read a cute little rom-com where the characters had more story to them than "they were gay, and that was hard". Other tropes you may love that you'd see? Friends to lovers! And a trope I absolutely hate but didn't see? Miscommunication! Thank god. Lots of love for this book and its authors 💕 thank you for this Rachael and Alyson.

~ goodreads synopsis ~

Alex Blackwood is a little bit headstrong, with a dash of chaos and a whole lot of flirt. She knows how to get the girl. Keeping her on the other hand…not so much. Molly Parker has everything in her life totally in control, except for her complete awkwardness with just about anyone besides her mom. She knows she’s in love with the impossibly cool Cora Myers. She just…hasn’t actually talked to her yet.

Alex and Molly don’t belong on the same planet, let alone the same college campus. But when Alex, fresh off a bad (but hopefully not permanent) breakup, discovers Molly’s hidden crush as their paths cross the night before classes start, they realize they might have a common interest after all. Because maybe if Alex volunteers to help Molly learn how to get her dream girl to fall for her, she can prove to her ex that she’s not a selfish flirt. That she’s ready for an actual commitment. And while Alex is the last person Molly would ever think she could trust, she can’t deny Alex knows what she’s doing with girls, unlike her.

As the two embark on their five-step plans to get their girls to fall for them, though, they both begin to wonder if maybe they’re the ones falling…for each other.

4.5 stars

She Gets the Girl is a sweet, fun, heartfelt read. It reminded me of the tropetastic 90s teen romcoms I grew up watching and loving, except with queer characters.

We have Alex, the ‘screw up’ character who looks for love in all the wrong places because of emotional trauma in her home life, and Molly, who has a great home life, but who has lived a sheltered existence and has major social anxiety. Alex wants to prove her worth to her (horrible) girlfriend, while Molly wants to be able to even speak to the girl she crushed on all through high school. Both girls get a fresh start when they head off to college, and they form a tentative alliance when they meet at a party before school starts.

This was a classic opposites attract, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Alex and Molly’s relationship progress. They were such well-developed characters, and I absolutely loved their growth throughout the book. I sympathized with both girls (and saw a lot of my younger self in Molly), even when they did things that made me want to knock their heads together. The story was funny and mostly light, but had serious undertones that pulled at my heartstrings. Alex and Molly went through a lot of growing pains throughout the course of the story, and I found their struggles and the ways they dealt with things realistic and relatable.

I’ve said this before about queer YA and NA books, but I really do wish there were books like this when I was a teen and young adult. I’m so glad today’s teens (and even people like me who are FAR from teens) get these happy, feel-good books where queer characters are living their lives, falling in love, and thriving. It makes me so happy. Now I’d like to see a resurgence of 90s-style teen romcoms with a book like this, please!

370 pages of trying to get the girl, 10 pages of crushing on the new girl then declaring your love for her before the story abruptly ends…sounds about right for a romance.
This as a movie? I would watch the hell out of that...would probably even become a comfort watch.

Enemies-to-lovers? Sapphic rom-com? Dual POV? Freshman year of college? I mean...Sign me up!! was cute but was missing a bit of something and would have liked the relationships to be explored more (like...literally any of them. Alex and her mom, Molly and her mom, Molly and her brother, Molly and Alex, Molly and the friends she started to make???)

4.5/5 ⭐ to She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick. Thanks to Simon Teen and NetGalley for an egalley to review!! This book is Rachael's 5th novel and Alyson's debut, and it was fantastic! This is a dual POV college-age YA contemporary romance that is the perfect addition to your summer reading. We follow Alex and Molly as they both start their freshman year at university and have a meet-cute at a party. They team up when they realize they can help each other "get the girl": Molly has a secret crush on a girl at their school but doesn't know how to flirt, and Alex is an expert at flirting who needs to prove to her ex that she isn't totally self-centered. Out of this partnership is a five-step plan which should land both of them with their dream girls. This plan and the ensuing shenanigans were so fun to read and really reminded me of a good rom-com movie - mostly cute, quite funny, and a little cringe (but in a good way). I think what really makes this book stand out is the college setting, both the atmosphere and having characters that are slightly older and more mature. In YA it is mostly high-school-aged characters, and new adult books can have more explicit sexual content than some readers are comfortable with so I found this book to be a great story in the middle of that. In terms of Alex and Molly's relationship, I really enjoyed how it progressed throughout the book from them meeting to becoming friends, to ? (I'm trying not to spoil). It worked so well for the story as a whole and really made me root for both girls, and I was quite pleased and satisfied with the ending! I will say that they're not my favorite couple I've read yet this year as their chemistry could've been a little stronger, but overall it was very successful. What I also really liked about this story is how it deals with parent-child dynamics in the transition to college, and its different for both Molly and Alex. Molly is super close with her mom, even considering her her best friend, but in college she is determined to create lot more space between them so she can become her own person and learn to make friends on her own. But as the story progresses and Molly has all these new experiences - for better and for worse - she learns a compromise because she still loves and needs her mom. On the flip side - and probably is the most poignant part of She Gets The Girl - Alex is dealing with a dependant, alcoholic mother. She doesn't want to enable her mom and wants her to get help, but if she does nothing her mom will just go straight to some toxic people. Alex is also trying to deal with this all on her own, and it is putting a massive strain on her. Thankfully as their relationship develops Alex learns that it is okay to share this struggle with people she loves and trusts, and eventually shares this with Molly and her new boss and finally has some practical and emotional support. So yeah, as much as this is fun, romantic, flirty, and has party vibes this novel also has emotional depth and great character growth! If any of this sounds up your alley, I'd highly recommend supporting these authors and their book!

"She Gets the Girl" took me by surprise and stole my whole heart!

Imagine all of the 90s teen movies we know and love but make it SAPPHIC and remove all of the patronizing problematic patriarchal elements.

Tons of sweetness and giggle out loud moments, but the author duo mixes in some heavier and important topics in a tactful and not-too-shove-a-tough-lesson-down-your-throat way.

The authors managed to truly chisel out two well-defined main characters, full of life, angst and emotion that manages to draw the reader into all of the feelings.

Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers done right! I cannot wait for more from Lippincott and Derrick!

Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of "She Gets the Girl" in exchange for my fair an honest review.

I thought that this was a very cute LGBTQ read ideal for those who are (or are about to become) University/ College freshmen - it was almost like a PG version of "Fresh" by Margot Wood. I thought that Lippincott and Derrick wrote about Molly's shyness/ anxiety in an authentic way and I thought that the "steps" that Alex uses to help Molly break out of her comfort zone were very realistic and thought-provoking. Being a bookworm, I loved how Alex's safe place was the library (and I adored how the library also became a key setting in Alex and Molly's love story). In addition to fun rollerskating dates and shopping sprees at the mall, I appreciated that "She Gets the Girl" dealt with some more difficult topics like identity, cultural heritage, anxiety, alcoholism, financial struggles, self worth, etc. Overall, an engaging and quick read that I would definitely recommend to fellow YA readers. Lastly, I have to compliment the cover art as it is stunning and it definitely helped draw me to this book!

This is an incredibly fun and relatable sapphic story about two girls realizing who they are, what they want, and how to get the girl - the right one, not the one they've idealized. Sprinkled in are complicated family dynamics, growing up, occasionally getting knocked down, and learning how to pick yourself back up.

I read this book basically in one sitting! I found it so readable, and it was the perfect type of book that keeps you interested and makes you want to lie on the couch and read it all day. I really enjoyed both of the character's perspectives equally, which is a good sign for a dual perspective book. I liked how they both were trying to figure out how to be their true selves in a new environment, and how to balance their connections with their families. I also loved how this was a queer book that had absolutely zero story conflict about coming out!

I found the end of the book a bit unsatisfactory after the buildup of the story. I would have liked another couple chapters or an epilogue to make things feel more resolved.

!!!!! so so so good. with its classic romcom structure, trope-filled and exciting, heartwarming sapphic romance, and the setting, she gets the girl was a perfect light read!

4.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Thank you SOOOOO MUCH to Simon & Schuster for an ARC of this book!
I seriously LOVED this book! Such a fasted paced gripping read. I was never bored and could not but it down. To be honest I cried at the end (happy tears) I loved it so much! I would definitely recommend this to everyone needing a sapphic romance with a happy ending!