Rep: lesbian korean american MC, lesbian MC and SC, hate to love romance

TW: alcoholic parent, toxic relationship

Hitch the date doctor meets 10 things I hate about you…but make it gay.

Alex is beautiful and confident, she never had any problems getting the girl she wants. But being kind of a flirt and not good at talking about serious stuff and feelings she has problems keeping the girl.
So when her girlfriend dumps her she is hellbent on showing her that she can change.
Molly has been in love with one girl her whole life. Problem is, she doesn’t have the courage to ask her out. Or even speak to her at all really.
She is super shy and basically has zero friends, apart from her mum. But now that college starts, she wants to change that!
When Alex and Molly meet at a party by chance, it’s the perfect opportunity to help each other out. Even if they really don’t like each other.

I absolutely hated Alex in the beginning! She was a total shit and basically a fuckgirl.
She was rude and mean and flirted with everything on two legs.
But throughout the book you get to know her, her home life and how caring and protective she really is of the people she loves.
Molly is super awkward and shy and I immediately relayed to her a lot. She has zero self confidence and her mother is very overprotective of her.
These two balanced each other out perfectly and I loved how Molly hated Alex at first too.
She didn’t fell victim to Alex’ charm and I loved their bickering a lot.
I loved how Alex cheers on Molly and is so supportive. I loved how she slowly starts to trust Molly and opens up to her.
Molly has a huge character development as well. She finally gains confidence in herself and I loved how she realised in the end that it doesn’t do anyone good to completely change for somebody.

To sun this up: I loved everything about this!
From the banter to the heavy themes to the sweet slowburn romance.
Can’t wait to have the physical copy in my hands!

This is such an enjoyable and sweet read. I loved watching Molly open up, make friends and fall in love, it was so heartwarming to read. I loved Alex and all her confidence, and loved watching her fall for Molly, and see what love could be.

I think everyone longs for a fresh start, and a place to come into themselves, college is the perfect place for this. I also loved how these girls were all so open about their sexualities and that it wasn't a big deal at all. This was such a joy to read. Highly reccomend this book

Well, I basically read She Gets the Girl in one sitting while relaxing in the garden and enjoying the Easter sun. This story is a messy and punch-in-the-gut, slowest of slow-burn romance that I ended up liking a lot!

Alex and Molly are flawed characters, to say the least. My eyes widened, and my brows furrowed as I read the first chapter, and I would have almost laughed out loud if Alex’s situation hadn’t been do tricky. And although I frowned at Alex, I also immediately recognized she had a lot of pain inside to take care of.

Molly is lonely and nerdy, and I cringed many times. She just gets in one awkward situation after the other. That scene with the bananas and condoms or the ping pong ball in her cola … Somehow, I always start liking those characters a bit more than the outgoing ones (with so much pain underneath), but while reading the story, I also got to like Alex more and more.

This (enemies-to-)friends-lovers story perfectly balances harder-hitting topics and humor. Like I said above, this is a sloooow burn, and in some way, I wished that She Gets the Girl wasn’t a romance story but just a solid platonic friendship between two queer girls. It might have made the story even more powerful. Still, I liked it a lot!

She Gets the Girl was my first read by either Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick, and I’m definitely checking out their other (future) books! This couple (also in real life) made my day!

Love the lesbian rep however; the friends to lovers and guide to dating tropes are overused for me. But, I am glad that there is a lesbian version of these tropes.

<i>She Gets The Girl</i> follows the lives of two girls, Alex and Molly, as they navigate going away to college and what they are leaving behind in the process.

For Molly, it’s her close-knit relationship with her mom that has slipped unintentionally into being slightly codependent and her life as a “socially inept” loner with no friends. For Alex, who has become a caretaker to her alcoholic mother, for every step forward she makes - her home life back in Philadelphia pulls her two steps back. That, combined with turbulent times with her long-distance “sort of” girlfriend leaves her with a newfound self-awareness and a desire to change for the better.

This book has so much character growth. Both girls learn to navigate setting boundaries in unhealthy parent dynamics (with different levels of severity, obviously.) which is something I have never seen in a YA novel before. This is handled so well in both instances, and I wish I had this kind of representation as a teen. Nedra Tawwab would be proud of Alex and Molly!

In addition to the self growth the girls both have individually, the book itself is so well written and the story has such a natural cadence that I was actually surprised when I was almost finished with it. This was definitely a book that I wished there was more of, and can see myself re-reading again in the near future!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Simon and Schuster, for allowing me to read She Gets The Girl early.

It took me some time to get into this sapphic enemies to lovers story but eventually I got hooked. It's cute and sweet, and I loved the slow burn and the pining. And that cover! It's simply gorgeous!

ever since she can remember, Molly’s only friend has been her mum. and that’s why she is so excited for college, so excited for a new period of her life where she can make new friends and maybe even get the girl of her dreams, Cora.

Alex has dealt with a lot of trauma regarding her parents and she deals with this by running away. and that’s exactly what she does when her girlfriend, Natalie, tells her she loves her. she gets up, runs off into the night, and the two drift apart.

when Molly meets Alex at a college party, Alex can tell she has feelings for Cora and comes up with a brilliant plan: help Molly and Cora get together and show Natalie that she is capable of caring about other people and not sabotaging everything good that comes her way. as Molly and Alex’s 5-step plan begins, the two begin to question their own relationship and feelings for each other.

OH MY GOD THIS BOOK YALL THIS BOOK
THIS BOOK HAS 2 LESBIAN MCs, A KOREAN MC, DUAL POV, LOTS OF ENGLISH MAJOR DISCUSSIONS, AND A ROLLER SKATING DATE. THIS BOOK HAS EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER WANT IN A ROMANCE, AND ITS SAPPHIC!!!!

this novel has the perfect balance of comedy and emotional complexity. both Alex and Molly are extremely relatable characters, and they’re tremendously written. this is a masterpiece. get your hands on this right tf now.

big thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia for an ARC of this via NetGalley and a HUGE THANK YOU to my newfound faves, Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick for this absolute beauty of a novel.

This was a sweet, swoony read with depth. I read it in one day. Even though the relationship between the two main characters doesn’t become romantic until further in, the anticipation of them realising they’re right for each other is really satisfying and it feels well earned when they do realise it.

The issues that each main character is facing with their family add depth to their stories. Alex’s relationship with her alcoholic mother and the ramifications it causes in her own relationships was one of the more realistic, nuanced takes I’ve read. Molly’s relationship with her mother was also really interesting. I haven’t read anything in YA that touches on generational trauma related to race and adoption. Despite dealing with these heavy issues, the book didn’t feel overwhelmed by them. Both were really well balanced with the main plot, but dealt with respectfully.

I wanted read this because I read The Lucky List by Lippincott and really enjoyed it. This book was just as enjoyable and I liked that the characters were slightly older. There isn’t as much YA in the just finished high school age range. If you like books by Jennifer Dugan, Kelly Quindlen or Ciara Smyth, then you’ll like this book too.