If you’re looking for a cute little sapphic romance, this is for you! It’s a relatively quick read and once I got into it I couldn’t stop!

I admit, some things frustrated me:
* Ann’s job.
* Everybody’s negative viewpoint toward themselves.
* I felt like Ann was supposed to fix everything for everyone and didn’t even have time to focus on herself.
* What exactly is Ann and Racheal’s relationship based off of aside from Ani-min...
Some things I did like:
* Connor! Franny! I love my adorable children! And their friendship!
* Showing how difficult it can be to be a single mother, and how hard Ann worked to accept that.
* Rachael discussing her bisexuality and how she’d never been with a woman before. Her nerves about sleeping with Ann.
* Ann being a lesbian who dated men in the past before she figured herself out! The discussion of how she figured out her sexuality!
* The discussion of biphobia in the lesbian community. And the stigma around lesbians who dated men in the past.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this. Gotta Catch Her is a lighthearted romance with minimal angst (but at least the angst is for a good reason!). And I really loved how the title came into play. All I can say is: this story is super cute.

This was an adorable and fast-read F/F book wich made me giggle more than one time! I wish there was more, the ending seemed a little rushed - a little bit like there should be more pages but that was just because i wanted more.

I enjoyed this story. It dealt with lesbian/gay issues sensitively. The characters were very well developed and this made it a good story.

Review:
What drew me into this was their use of a Pokemon Go game/augmented reality game wrapped into a romance story. That and the love interest is a bisexual woman. The conversations and the real life thrown into the story is there and happens naturally.

While we’re seeing Ann in her work environment — it’s often the worse part of the story in my opinion. It talks about things that she’s going to have to do..then she has a conversation about what she’s going to do. So, we’re getting double-dippings of the going ons with her in the job world. I know IRL, that’s literally how you have conversations with your co-workers, especially, if you’re not interested or close to them.

Her interactions with Rachael and her son are quick glimpses before she’s pulled back into her work life. It feels like we’re supposed to be reading about the work life and the writing just remembered in spurts that there was also supposed to be romance.

The writing and the interaction with the characters feel more natural and flow better when it’s focused on the relationship. Overall, it’s a short read — while the romance is slow to come to the surface and things get moving.. it’s good enough read to recommend.

Downloaded from Netgalley thanks to the publisher / netgalley — free eRead in exchange for a truthful review 🙂

This story was cute and sweet. I liked the characters' dynamics and enjoyed their development, although this could have been pushed further. I feel like there wasn't enough time for the story to really get going. There was opportunity here for the writer to develop this much further from a novella into a novel. I loved the family dynamics each character had and wished that the ending showed what happened after instead of how it did. That would have been a preferable note to end on than a 'fade to black' style.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this review are my own.

Reading Gotta Catch Her was an absolute treat. I really loved how different the two MCs are and their situations are in life, yet there is no judgement from them. They have real problems, including the single mother feeling a little unworthy of the childless woman working the well paying job (forgive me for not remembering their names, it's been a few weeks and I have brain fog!), while the childless woman is a bit scared of getting involved with someone who has a child. I love how they're able to work things out though, and the inclusion of the son, the dog, and the phone game are all very charming!

This would have been better if the characters were more fully developed and if it was a full novel instead of a novella.

Ann is a carefree, young adult who is segueing into next level career ambitions and the responsibilities that mark a more committed romantic relationship, all the milestones of being a genuine grownup. Told from 1st person pov, I definitely felt Ann’s awkwardness and self doubt as she tried to figure out next steps but it’s all new territory for her. When she meets Rachael and her son, Connor, at a park where they are playing an AR game, the story grows from there.

What I liked best about the book were Ann’s bumps and lumps as she took two awkward steps forward then one back. At first, she didn’t know what to expect from dating a single mom but it got better as she learned to make compromises and ask for what she wanted from Rachael and for that matter, her job as well. Could have used much less job description and more relationship chapters. That would have made a stronger story, I think. Surprisingly, the AR game served as a pleasant story background and excuse for Rachael and Ann to get together. It didn’t bother me at all. Sweet story and cute couple

How do you write a f/f romance around Pokemon Go that doesn't hook me???

I should be the target audience for this book. I'm always craving more f/f and I love Pokemon Go. I grew up with the games, and I've been playing Go since it came out and still play it daily. When you give me a book that combines the two, I should love it. And I don't. I was so bored I dnf'd a novella. A novella! I never dnf novellas for boredom.

I don't usually mind first person pov, but this one was so clunky. Ann's pov was colourless and gave us no insight into who she is. She has no personality? There's also a huge amount of telling and not enough showing. Speaking off, there wasn't much of personality to Rachel either, apart from "has a kid, is frazzled". I didn't feel any chemistry between the heroines. Why did they want to go out? To date? I still have no idea! And I was so bored with the writing that I will never know!

Also at a certain point, I realized this book is going to be about climbing a corporate ladder at a very, very boring job, and by god, I hate books about that. Once of the reasons I barely read any contemporaries is that I don't enjoy offices as a setting. So that definitely made my choice to stop reading much easier.

Speaking of the game they play, it was so underutilized. Or misused. Judging from other reviews, for people who aren't fans of Pokemon Go, there was too much of it and it was annoying. For fans like me, it didn't use the game as a framing device well and it was grating. PG related meet-cute sounds wonderful! Even I, a complete shut in who avoids people I don't know, had wonderful experiences meeting other players! PG is such a great, useful way, and generally, people love comparing their experiences! "We went to a raid and caught a legendary" isn't all there is to the game as this book would make you think. How's their collection? How many not-pokemon are they missing from certain generations? Who's their walking buddy? Who's their fave? Do they nickname their pokemon or do they give them specific trading-related names? THEY DIDN'T TRADE A SINGLE NOT-POKEMON!!! Don't tell me they didn't compare their collections and didn't go 'oh man I'm missing this one and I have the one you need, let's trade!'

And I know this is stupid amount of pokedetails, but that's exactly my issue! Either don't use as many details as the authors had that ultimately prove an empty experience, or go properly in and really show why these characters care about the game!
Also, no matter how strongly you feel about the game, you do not spin pokestops on a first date??? WHAT EVEN WAS THAT.

This was a cute book. I liked the dynamic created by Haworth and the story that they create. The Pokemon go style story was way too obvious and it would have been nice if this viral game element had been more creative. The characters, Ann and Rachel, were generally well developed but there were a few places where they felt flat. I loved the family dynamics each woman had and wished that the ending showed what happened after. That would have been a better note to end on than a 'fade to black' style.

I read a lot of m/m romance- mostly, but not always, historical. I have recently decided that I need to make more of an effort to find and read more f/f romance. So, when I saw Gotta Catch Her by Kelly Haworth on Netgalley, I knew that I had to check it out.

Ann spends most of her time at her job, so in her downtime, she likes to unwind by taking her dog for walks and playing Ani-Min Move, a phone game that is just like Pokemon Go without any pesky licensing issues.

One day at the park, Ann meets Rachael, a single mother who also plays the game. There’s clearly a rapport, and there’s potential for their friendship to change into something more, but there’s never enough time for them to get to know each other- Ann’s job becomes more demanding, Rachael’s son gets sick; it seems as though their fledging relationship is doomed to fail. Is something so new worth fighting for?

This was a cute book. It’s a bit long for a novella but short for a full-length novel. I loved how much thought Haworth put into her worldbuilding: although based on a real game, Ani-Min Move is its own beast, and both the primary characters and background characters really seemed to be enjoying themselves. It’s always nice to see people connecting over a shared interest.

Most romance novels feature a dual perspective, but this book is shown solely from Ann’s perspective. She’s a pleasant protagonist; she’s intelligent, but not very confident. She’s always second-guessing herself, and this proves beneficial because the reader is placed in the same position as Ann: we also don’t know what Rachael’s feelings are.

I would recommend Gotta Catch Her. It’s a quick read, and it’s sweet. Ann and Rachael clearly care about each other, and their frustration at their failed attempts to get together is palpable. I am looking forward to reading more from Haworth in the future.





I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book.

I suppose the premise was interesting and different enough--two women meeting by happenstance during a Pokemon Go-esque "raid". At the same time though, I didn't really want to read about them constantly playing this game--including a bizarre first date which included frequent phone checks to collect spawned items. That alone took me out of the story permanently. Well, that and Ann, the lead protagonist, leaving work in the middle of the day to play the game; I'd consider this a concerning problem and not an adorable quirk. Honestly, it's just not that interesting to read about people playing a mobile phone game. The other protagonist, Rachel, is a single mother which apparently just means that every sentence out of her mouth has to somehow include mentioning her son in some way. There is literally no scene where she doesn't bring him up as a topic of conversation--and it's not like he's given any sort of treatment to endear himself to the reader; the dog is given more development and character.
None of this book worked for me, neither the romance story or the b-story (which was more or less given the same weight as the romance) of Ann working her extremely mundane job. This story was just begging for more life and excitement, or at least more for these characters to do than simply playing on their phones. You get to see this every day just walking down the street; it doesn't make for interesting stories.

A fun read, specially if you have played Pokémon Go at some point!

It was shorter than I thought it would be, so the quick progression of the book surprised me at first. I loved seeing the main character, Ann, deal with work. Sometimes these books focus solely on the relationships and this part of life gets forgotten... well, this book didn't. I enjoyed that about it.
The other woman, Rachael, she struggles to get her life together as a working mom. Seeing how people think that women should have it all figured it out, she hadn't. We are allowed to struggle with life, and she clearly was. Sometimes she didn't know how to juggle everything and hey, that was fine.

The romance was... too fast for me, specially considering that one of the parts has a kid. But maybe it's just me!

*~~*ARC kindly provided by the author to me in exchange for an honest review *~~*

This book got my attention when it was announced on Twitter and I especially loved the super sweet blurb. When I got my copy I was hooked from page one and I can definitely say this F/F contemporary story is a page turner.

Ann is a charming character, we follow the story through her eyes, the first person POV fits very well to the overall tone of the book.

Like the blurb says it's dealing with the new app sensation Ani-min, a smartphone app where you catch virtual fantasy animals/pets with nets to collect and fight with them (in a team against others). The idea is of course not uncommon if you are a bit informed about popular smartphone games and it was a charming experience to see Ann and Rachael so hooked by it. :) Even if you're not a player of the game the terms aren't that overwhelming and I think you can follow their excitement pretty easily. :)

The playfulness in the book is well-balanced with the exhausting workload Ann has to deal with. Her struggles and her long hours at work are very realistic and while she and I don't have the same work field I totally got her exhaustion. She is a dedicated woman who's giving 100% if not more, wants to do her work good. I loved this part of the book and how nice her colleagues were even if there was a high competitve strike. :)

I was also very mesmerized by Rachael and her little boy is just adorable. Yet although he is a nice guy you definitely see how Rachael is struggling being a single mother. Sometimes during the book she made decisions we - as told in first person POV - didn't really got explained or at least we only followed Ann's POV, her thoughts and emotions. We have a few blank points when it comes to Rachael and I was pondering if Rachael might have more problems than just being overworked being a single parent and if she is maybe depressed. Although we never have it claimed on page it's just an assumption on the things we get through Ann's descriptions.

The growing relationship, from tentative friendship to more felt natural and sweet, Ann and Rachael are a well-balanced couple and I really see that they have a promising future before them. :)

This book definitely was sweet but also hot, their sexting definitely gave the book its heat. :) 5 out of 5 stars.

Review originally posted on my blog with added content Mikku-chan / A world full of words

Gotta Catch Her is a novella featuring two women who meet by chance playing a phone game call, “Ani-Min Move”. The game serves as a break from the reality that our ladies are going through in their every day lives. Ann is a project manager undertaking a massive audit at work, while Rachel is a single-mother running after he young son in the park. I was stoked to see a story featuring a premise like this one. Two characters meeting due to a video game.
The pair meet up with each other during raids a few times before Ann decides to ask Rachel out for coffee. Due to commitments at work and commitments at home, several of their dates get canceled, cut short, or interrupted. It’s how life truly is, but it got frustrating because the point of a romance is for there to be romance! Right?
I feel like if this had been longer, there would have been more interaction between Ann and Rachel this would have been a real treat. Almost all of the scenes revolve around Ani-Min Move and even their first ‘date’ included them playing throughout. Call me old fashioned, but if my date is on their phone its probably because they aren’t interested in me.
Ann and Rachel were just starting to get to know each other and then book ended. There was a romance scene that felt out of place for me, but that’s totally probably a just me thing. It would have read just as well if that scene hadn’t been included.
Did I enjoy it? Yeah, it was a good, quick read. It just left me wanting more for Ann and Rachel.

DNF @ 80%

This f/f novella has a ton of cute references to Pokemon, which is a huge part of why I wanted to pick it up, but also it did not work for me. Our two main characters, Rachel and Ann meet at the park doing a raid for a game that's essentially Pokemon Go. Rachel is a single mom and she has literally no time for a relationship. I'm not going to say this is unrealistic, but the fact that she had no time for a relationship means that Ann is essentially pining after a person who is never available and I'm not clear why she's so intrigued by Rachel. Not to mention, Ann's inner dialogue is a lot of not understanding and not having interest in the child, but knowing that a kid is always a good and easy topic of conversation.

The majority of this book up to now has been focused on Ann's job, which has NOTHING to do with Ann and Rachel's relationship. I just did not feel like the romantic arc of the story is making enough sense for me to continue reading the last 20% when I kept getting more and more frustrated with the book.

CW: biphobia

Given that Pokemon Go was really popular only about four years ago and MMORPGs are still really popular, I like the concept of two women meeting because of a game that seems to combine both. Also, being a gamer, this is probably one of my dreams come true.

Both Ann, a corporate finance person, and Rachael, a put upon single mom use the game, Ani-min as a means for escape. So, when Ann sees Rachael and chats with her about the game, she develops an instant crush on the single mom. From there, they exchange their social media information and basically begin dating the way that so many millennials do: chatting to each other through DM's, texts, and post mentions.

There are some aspects of the relationship that totally annoyed me, such as Ann being in a relationship but not actually supporting Rachael, who is slowly falling apart. Though Ann knowsRachael is on the cusp of breaking down, she doesn't really seem to put Rachael's needs in front of her own. Ann is under a lot of pressure herself, with a huge messy project that she is insisting on doing herself, but there were times where I thought Ann could have put off some of the work for another day to help Rachael. Which is weird, because I felt like Ann was also trying to be Rachael's white knight, but absolutely failing on that part. There's some commentary here about actually talking to the people you care about, instead of mostly communicating through text, but it doesn't quite get there.

I loved the idea, loved the integration of gaming into a romance (frankly I wish there was more of this), but the characters felt off, and thus the romance felt off, too. If you don't squint too hard, this is a light romance with a cute-meet over games, and I'm okay with that.

An interesting concept for story.

Ann has a corporate job and is struggling with a client audit. In her free time, she plays a game called Ani-min, that takes you out to places to find objects and have battles. Rachael is a flustered single mom that also plays Ani-min as a way to get some kind of time for herself. They meet in a park one day.

Since I was always a big 'gamer', I thought this story sounded intriguing. A nice change of pace from all the formulaic romances that are being released. But this didn't meet my expectations. It had several issues that took me out of the story.

The dialogue felt very adolescent and bland to me. We are in the head of Ann the entire time. And I couldn't help but not like her. She frustrated me a lot. It felt as if she was infatuated with getting 'a girlfriend.' Not having a relationship or falling in love. Over and over she vacillates between are we girlfriends or almost girlfriends or just friends? She brushes Rachael off a million times because of work, and then has the nerve to think that the relationship would be progressing better if Rachael cared about her more.

Another thing that seemed immature was that they constantly have conversations via text message instead of talking in person. Literally anything important happens over text.

You can tell the author is super excited to be writing about this game. Nets and creatures and whatever. But it didn't translate as fun to the reader. It was as if this was written for only people who already know of this game. I couldn't get into it.

I definitely think the author has promise. The concept was good and the writing was OK. There is an opportunity to work on matching dialogue and actions to the age of characters.

I recommend to adults that enjoy games, romance, climbing the ladder, and dogs.

<i>I received an ARC from the publisher for an honest review. </i>

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this to be pretty ordinary, it’s a novella but I had to tamp down the urge to skim parts of it, which is never a good sign.

The premise was different, in that the two MCs meet via a phone game (a play on Pokémon Go) but there was way too much detail given about the game and Ann stopping to play it during work hours seemed unrealistic, especially given how hard she was supposed to be working. I also found it ridiculous that she played it during their first ‘date’. Even if they both liked the game, that’s just rude.

Neither MC was engaging by themselves, nor were they engaging when together. Ann did nothing but work and play the game until she met Rachael, at which point she incorporated dating her into her world with no hesitation, which I found weird since the start of the book played up her anxiety, but jumping into dating seemed to be no problem. All Rachael does is whine about how tough it is to be a mother and how she never gets to do stuff that doesn’t involve the kid, I got sick of that pretty quickly. Ann’s work was also boring, so no help to be found there. Both characters also call the other ‘girl’ which annoyed me, not sure why, but I found it grating.

I also found the writing a bit... underwhelming I guess, there’s no lyrical prose here, and I found the dialogue a bit clunky.

Anyway, safe to say this wasn’t my cup of tea. 2 stars.

I decided to read this book because I'd heard positive buzz and I love geek romance, and was promised Pokemon-like geekery in a cute f/f romance. Also, that cover completely grabbed me. Isn't it great? Gotta Catch Her was definitely a light f/f romance, and the MCs do play a Pokemon-like game. (I'm not a Pokemon player so I can't speak to how much like it this game is.) It also has a great dog, that was a highlight of this story for me.

One of the things I appreciate in queer romances centering cis characters that are written by trans and/or non-binary authors is that they are less likely to include the cissexism that is often present in queer romances, and this book is a good example of that. I can relax in stories like that, which make them cozier for me as a trans reader. I also appreciated the way that the love interest's bisexuality was not an issue at all for the MC, as this is a rare thing to find in a lot of f/f romance, and another thing I'm often bracing for. This is a book that might hit the spot for folks wanting low-conflict, low-angst, light contemporary f/f.

That said, Gotta Catch Her didn't hit the mark for me, overall, as a romance.

This book has three central tropes: it is a meet-cute romance, a geeky romance, and a single parent romance. For me, the most satisfying of these tropes was the meet cute. I enjoyed the adorable start, the awkwardness, the dog's role in the meet cute. That scene really worked for me, and was the most engaging one in the story.

I was especially excited for the geekery, and it felt like this book skimmed the surface of it, which was a disappointment. One of the things I love about geek romances is the way characters get really focused on their special interests, read things through the lens of them, think about life through associations with them, get tremendous joy from thinking about them, engaging with them, and meeting others who are also into them. I don't need to also be into the special interest to enjoy stories that are geeky in that way, because I can ride along with the joy the character feels, the investment they have, and I can recognize my own self in the relationship with the special interest, even though my special interests are different.

In this story, I couldn't feel either character's joy or investment in the game; the game mostly felt like a device to bring them together. I wanted more detail, more engagement in this aspect of the story. It felt more like a thing the MC felt like maybe she shouldn't be into because it's for kids, but I didn't know why she was into it or what it was about it for her or see her engage deeply with it. I know this is a novella, and allowing for that depth might have meant sacrificing other things in the story; I personally would have preferred less about Ann's job, and more about her geekery, especially given that this was marketed as a geeky romance.

I was a bit unclear as to why we spent so much time with Ann at her job; for a long time I thought there might be an antagonist that would emerge at work, related to the audit, someone that was doing something shady. I felt like the text was cueing me to look for that by spending so much time on it and having all these workplace interactions that didn't seem to serve the central storyline or create a character arc for Ann. I still am a bit baffled at how much of the story centered on her at work, as it didn't actually lead to a secondary arc. It left the book feeling muddled to me, and created disappointment around the main tropes in the story.

The single parent trope went in a surprising direction that I don't often see in romance, and it made me uncomfortable. It felt like the love interest being a single parent was the central obstacle in the story. (This may partly be because there weren't other stronger conflicts or issues to take the limelight.) We have an MC who resents her love interest's child and the way he interrupts her dates and time with her love interest, the way he gets Rachael's focus and attention. This really did not work for me.

I don't need characters to be perfect, but this feels like an unresolvable issue. Unfortunately, there is not even an attempt at a resolution to it, the MC just stops mentioning it, and I guess we're supposed to believe this isn't a big deal and will just go away once Rachael commits to a relationship with her? I didn't buy that, which made it rather hard to buy into the happy ending; I wasn't at all sure these characters were well suited or belonged together, and a big part of that was that I see this as a very big deal. Resenting a single parent for prioritizing her child's well being and having an unpredictable schedule because she's a parent is a set up for disaster, in my view. In addition, I feel that this approach to a single parent romance misunderstands what readers are wanting from that trope. In order for this resentment to work, it meant that the MC never got to know the kid, so neither did the reader; he barely seemed to have a personality. We never got to see the MC bond with the child, or share the load in caring for the child, or create intimacy with her love interest around understanding new things about the difficulties of parenting. These are the things I really want from this trope, and Gotta Catch Her took it in a completely different direction.

Overall, this book didn't work for me as a romance, in the way it used two of the central tropes. The characters didn't engage me as deeply as I'd like, and I didn't feel a strong chemistry between them. The characters also felt a bit thinly drawn, which I think was partly because of the workplace subplot that took up so much space in the story but didn't really add much to it. I wasn't invested in them as a couple, and for me that's one of the bigger signs a romance isn't working for me. I want to be rooting for them to be together, that's part of what makes a romance enjoyable for me.

Representation
Lesbian woman MC.
Bisexual woman love interest.
Pansexual non-binary author.

Content Warnings
Sex on the page.