Hannah Hearts Romance's Reviews > How You Get the Girl

Disclaimer: I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. I am mutuals with the author on social media.

I have been trying for days to write an organized, articulate, informational review of this book. But I'm giving up. I loved this on a deep, personal level. I cannot be objective. Without getting too personal on the world wide web, I have never felt so seen by a romance novel. Anita Kelly writes such caring books and I feel so safe reading them, which allows me to feel all the big feelings. Elle and Julie feel so real and relatable without being the kind of raw that would give the story sharp edges. I love them, and I love the cast of characters, and I love the gentle humor, and I love the unrelenting queerness of the whole world.

Reasons to read How You Get the Girl:
- tall lesbian MC with a penchant for well-tailored suits (!!!)
- tall acespec (? who needs labels) who basically only wears basketball shorts
- sympathetically foul-mouthed teenaged ward doing her best
- unquestionably accepting friends and family
- Snoozles the cat
- healthy grains

Please note that basketball is not on that list. Which, if you're a basketball fan, it may be on your list. But I couldn't care less about basketball (even with lesbians), so that was more incidental for me. If you're wary of sports romances, fear not.

I am honestly unsure if this is a rom com; it's certainly lighter than, say, Something Wild & Wonderful, and it made me laugh out loud a couple times, but I had so many big emotions I wouldn't say it's entirely comedic. Others may have a different take. Don't be fooled by the label, though: addiction and child neglect are important parts of this story if not the central elements. There are other serious moments as characters wrestle with deeply personal matters. Farcical romp this is not. But I wouldn't want this book to be sillier than it is. It's just the right amount of serious.

Five emotional stars from me! And I managed to even keep this review vaguely cohesive.

Overall rating: 5
Hannah Angst Scale rating: 2.5
Content notes: sexual identity questioning; foster care; parental neglect due to addiction; chronic migraines; depression; pet gets sick and has to have emergency surgery (positive outcome); passing mention of someone with ovarian cancer; brief mention of minor character's eating disorder; past sports injury requiring surgery; on page alcohol use; open door sex scenes