It is hard to decipher if it because of the amount of romance books I have consumed this year or the predictability of traditionally published adult romances, but I have not found a book that has knocked my socks out in a while. While this book didn't do that either, I appreciated what it set out to be.

Getting His Game Back is about Khalil and Vanessa. Khalil owns several barber shops and played basketball during his college years. He has also been battling depression for a while.

Vanessa is a highly successful woman in a tech company. One day, she enters one of Khalil's barber shops, the two meet, and sparks fly.

They openly talk about their mental health and their interracial relationship.

It felt refreshing and pure. I can't wait to read more from Gia De Cadenet!

I was intrigued by this book based on its description and cover, and it was not a bad read. Definitely a middle-of-the-road one.

Khalil needs help getting back in the game. He suffers from debilitating (at times) depression but won't go to therapy. He meets Vanessa by chance, when she needs a shape-up and winds up in his barber chair. Vanessa is a highly successful black woman in tech - not an easy job. She has no time for romance, especially with a white man (which is mentioned a LOT).

One thing I do appreciate a lot in this book is how it tackled male mental health - something that gets glossed over a lot. It was real and raw. I appreciated the author showing Khalil's journey.

Getting His Game Back has been one of my favorite romances I have read this year. It's a deeper contemporary romance novel that explores the difficulties that come with interacial dating and mental health struggles, specifically depression. I really liked both of the main characters and loved how their relationship developed. This was a great debut and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future!

Overall, this was a 4.75 for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing group for an e-arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

I would lean closer to a 3.5 on this, but I'll round up because there's no half-star rating. This book tackles important topics, including interracial dating and mental health. This was a great book considering it was a debut, and I'll definitely be reading more of her books in the future!

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 45 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

Any book that tackles mental health get a thumbs up from me! Add in that the book also dealt with toxic masculinity, interracial relationships, and feeling like the "other" -- it could have easily tried to do too much but Gia De Cadenet made it work. I'm already looking forward to reading more of her books.

I just love Gia De Cadeney and I really loved this book. I could not recommend enough!

This book was such an amazing story and honestly such a good escape. You fall in love with the characters and their world immediately. I can not wait to read more from Gia.

This was a cute book - and I loved that it talked about men and mental illness - that's definitely something that isn't regularly touched upon in the media. I also loved that the book dives into the intricacies of interracial relationships.

I loved the story and the general gist - the writing was a liiiitle cheesy at times, but it was a cute story with a lot of different dimensions to it.

While I liked the base concept and the sense of authenticity to mental health, this wasn't quite as balanced as I like my romances. I think if the shop manager storyline was cut out, I would have given this an A+, its a solid B+ as a contemporary romance rn.

I loved this book! This story was fast-paced and sweet.

I thought the romance was great and the overall story was engaging and it kept me turning the pages.

This was absolutely delightful! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and these characters! It was funny and easy to read.

I thought I was getting into a lighter read but was pleasantly surprised to find it’s a great story that shares the insight of how some battle with mental health along with so many other huge topics that I think a lot of relationships face currently. This story was so good and several topics I’ve heard my good friends share about the dating world. What a great romance novel hat has depth.

The title of this will have you thinking it is a light rom-com and a perfect beach read. It is, but it is also so much more. It explores multiple tough and truly important subjects such as mental health, love, interracial romance, gender stereotypes, familial expectations, internal expectations that include our own ideas of what the world expects from us when they do not align with what we want or need. Khalil is hanging on and trying to keep both his mental health and business plan on the planned path. He is sure all he has to do is stay focused and not deviate from the plan. Enter Vanessa and there goes the plan! She also has her own plan/direction. She’s building a huge tech company (no easy feat, particularly for a woman and one of color) and having been burned before she has zero desire to lose focus. Then she meets Khalil and uh oh! Its a great read to them figuring it all out.

“Getting His Game Back” was a deeper contemporary romance book that explored some of the difficulties with interracial dating in addition to going in deep with mental health issues of one of the protagonists.. At times, it felt like too much, too quickly, but I also appreciated the realness of some of these discussions. Then, the traditional bedroom aspects of the book and the buildup were sexy. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would read more by this author. 4 stars ⭐️. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for a review.

Was expecting a light hearted romance, got a deeper story. A little repetitive but I still enjoyed it.

I started this one and I had a hard time getting into the book. It just wasn't grabbing me at the time, so I did not finish... I appreciate the consideration!

What made this book really unique was its representation of mental illness. Having a character struggle with depression, a non-white male character at that, was great. I appreciated the nuance this character had with the ways his depression manifested (not what you may typically think of as depression) and how he actively sought help from multiple places (medical and family/friends).
A steamy read wit some discussion of mental health. A recommended read.

A smart, thoughtful, sexy romance novel about interracial dating and mental health. I loved the chemistry the characters had and can't wait to read what Gia does next!

I flew through this one, I couldn’t put it down! I loved that it was a multicultural love story, the characters had their own battles, and it had all the necessary romance portions. Definitely recommend!

This was perfectly fine. Entertaining, but nothing memorable or that I'd want to keep on my shelf. It also felt forced at times, and I found it weird that a white man would use AAVE – it felt like it was bordering on appropriation. As a white woman I'm not sure how that would read to a Black person, so make sure to read some own voices reviews before proceeding with this one.