Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy of this novel.

Unfortunately I seem to be on a string of novels that just don't fit what I'm looking for. While I like character driven, I feel as though character without any discernible plot for a quarter or more at the beginning of a novel is simply not enough to keep my attention. I'm struggling at getting myself into these types of books, and this was, unfortunately, yet another example. I hate to rate books like this because for me it's more about style and preference than "quality." Thus, take this review with a grain of salt as ymmv depending on what you're looking for.

This is my independent review.

It must be an an author's nightmare when your first book does so well and then your second book is just okay. I do like the author's writing style and she has very sharp observations. I agree with other people who said that there were a million characters (but then again that's how it is when you're a RA and trying to remember everyone). I liked Millie's POV, I felt like there were too many unnecessary details with Agatha's past, and for some reason I wanted to skim over Kennedy's chapters (also the "thing" that happened at her other school felt like it could have been left out). It took a long time for things to get exciting and then I felt like everything was wrapped up really quickly and was just...done. Overall it was okay but people are going to be disappointed if they're expecting the same caliber as [book:Such a Fun Age|43923951].

2.5 stars, rounded up.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"come and get it" is a novel about... well,
about nothing. the plot is very loose, and most of the novel is completely pointless.

millie is an RA at bellgrade dorm in the university of alabama. she's one of the few black students and experiences racism at the hands of the freshman, the administration, colleagues, and just about everyone else.

agatha is a black professor at the university who starts a research project interviewing students in the dorms about weddings, but then it switches to students' financial situations. she immediately connects with millie after one of her residents calls her "ghetto." as they build a relationship that borders on romantic, millie stops being the best RA she can be.

while this novel wants to say something about racism in predominantly white universities, it really falls short. while this novel wants to say something about lesbophobia and biphobia, it doesn't. at the end of this novel, i just felt it was all pointless prattling.

however, it was very atmospheric. it reminded me of my freshman year in a dorm to such an extent that i felt a sense of homesickness and nostalgia.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, there wasn't much of a plot. On the other, the author is adept at creating characters that are multilayered and compelling. Entwined are issues of race, sexuality and abuse of power.

I absolutely loved "Such a Fun Age" so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read this advance ARC. This novel was a bit slower-paced for me but there were many thematic similarities. Kiley Reid is talented at creating complex characters and I really like her writing style.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book but it didn't quite have the impact Such a Fun Age did.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Kiley Reid expertly creates a cast of characters who are both flawed and extremely likable. I found myself caring deeply about how the lives of these individuals would turn out. The story is gripping with plenty of surprise twists, and Reid manages to address weighty topics such as privilege and race with sensitivity and humor.

I was pleased to receive this book centering on the higher education community where Millie, an RA wants to move into the next phase of her life, but needs money. A visiting professor, Agatha, has a proposition for Millie to help her achieve her goals; Millie begins to help Agatha with her research into weddings, and then Agatha begins to figure out how she can use this information for her personal self. This is predominantly a character driven book and therefore, it seemed as if there was no plot or purpose for the majority of the book. If you like storylines, rather than just reading about the interactions of characters, this book is probably not for you. But if you like to get a glimpse into the lives of characters and how they intertwine, pick up this book. The book could have also been a bit more thorough in its delivery.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Come and Get It is Reid's second novel.

It deals with a variety of issues - primarily centered on the lives of college students, a professor, a love affair, and a serious look at the morality of them all.

I highly recommend this book.

I can't recommend this book highly enough! The dialogue was funny and realistic and I loved the setting of Fayetteville. You were rooting both for and against the characters throughout the book- they were nuanced and authentic. The professor-student relationship trope is often unappealing and flat, but this book approached the topic from a new perspective.

I loved the author's first novel and wasn't sure that this one would live up to my expectations, but it was a delightful read start to finish. It

I love Kiley Reid’s debut novel and was excited to read Come and Get It. The book started off slow and I almost stopped reading because Millie’s introduction dragged on with so much unnecessary and frankly, uninteresting, detail. Before I quit reading, I wanted to get to the multi-POV and I’m so glad I stuck it out. Once I was further into the book, I couldn’t put it down and enjoyed the world Reid crafted. There were a few too many characters in this book, but the three main characters will well-developed and engaging.

As an alum of University of Iowa, I was impressed with how Reid nailed the descriptions of Iowa City and its unique culture while telling Kennedy’s story. Reid has an incredible ability to write dialogue and multi-faceted characters who are deep, empathetic and frustrating at the same time.

I didn’t love this as much as Such a Fun Age (a 5-star read for me) but overall, I rate it 3 stars. I look forward to reading what she writes in the future.

Uhh I’m really surprised I finished this book. So many characters that didn’t need to be in the story. I didn’t feel like there was an actual plot.

Much like many reviewers, I loved Such a Fun Age and was so excited to read Come and Get It. Unfortunately it was not nearly as good and part of the reason why, in my opinion, is that the southern accents were incredibly distracting. I was having to translate in my head as I was reading and it really took away from the joy of reading for me. In addition to that, something about the way this story was written made it confusing to follow. I kept having to re-read paragraphs and pages to remember who no was reading about.
I did like the storyline and still think this author is a talented writer. This one just didn’t do if for me like her last one did.

I'm more than a quarter of the way through this novel that seems mostly about women on a college campus. It's professionally written. The prose and dialogue are well-handled. But the plot, at least so far, meanders in places and drags in others Plus, the characters are not all that interesting or conflicted. Having completed at least the first 100 pages, I'm finding myself not at all engaged, much less interested in learning what happens next. So, this will be a DNF for me. But it is professionally written and others may well feel differently.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with an electronic ARC. The foregoing is my independent opinion.

Sometimes a writer's style and your own reading style do not match up and I'm afraid this was the case here. I couldn't keep the students straight as they all spoke with spelled-out southern accents. (Tyler is Tahler? Really?)

It seems to be the story of Millie, a 24 year old senior and RA at the Fayetville-located UA. Or maybe it's the story of Agatha, an older (38) visiting professor there researching another book. The minor characters were difficult to keep straight. Is it Kennedy who is the slob, and too close to her mother? And which one is Jenna again? And did I really care to know?

Apologies to Kiley Reid for not liking the way she writes because I can tell she is talented. But for this reader I did not begin to enjoy the novel until the very end when some action came into the mainly plotless story.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC copy for an early read.

This book took a long time to say very little. I liked some of the characters and I felt like it was building up to something, but the pay off was a bit meh.
Thank you, Net Galley!

I enjoyed this book a lot 5/5 stars. Kiley Reid has a great way of creating characters that are realistic and love-able. She also does a great job of bringing up race, gender and sexuality in a way that still fits with the story. Overall, this was a very well written, interesting, engaging read.

I couldn’t put this book down! Start to finish, this book seriously delivers on drama, tension, riveting characters, and plot lines that you can’t look away from. Just like in Such a Fun Age, Reid uses common and cringey instances and interactions to lay bare some of the crud of our society and culture. She does so in a way that doesn’t feel heavy-handed, but rather feels completely natural. I’ll read anything she writes!

🌟🌟🌟
“Such a Fun Age” was one of my standout books last year, so I was *ecstatic* to read an advanced copy of Kiley Reid’s upcoming “Come and Get It” 🥳 There’s a few thematic similarities between the two novels—primarily being power dynamics between older and younger women, and the oppressiveness of racist microaggressions—but ultimately I didn’t love this one nearly as much as the former. I’ll try to break down some of the elements that factored into the 3 star rating!

The great: Reid’s prose continues to be delightful to read. She is so talented when it comes to seamlessly adding in world and character-specific details. And I loved Millie most of all; she was such a complex character. Her backstory, coupled with her current relationship dynamics, made her chapters the most intriguing to read.

The less-than-great: there’s a lot of characters, and it’s difficult to discern early on who is central to the overall story. Because the narrative is told from three perspectives—Millie, a dorm RA; Kennedy, a dorm resident; and Agatha, a visiting creative nonfiction professor—it’s easy to feel unattached to them. Or, possibly even worse, feeling as though the characters don’t even know their own place in the story; this was the case with Tyler, an antagonistic resident in the dorm. In a story that’s being described as character-driven, everyone feels like a passenger.

It felt like the bones of a solid story were here, but the execution didn’t create the same magic from Reid’s previous novel. I still have high hopes for whatever she ends up writing next, but this is a book I don’t plan on revisiting when it’s published in January.

Thanks to @netgalley and @putnambooks for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I devoured Such A Fun Story, but couldn’t get into this one. Plot was very slow and did not hook me at all.

I loved Reid's debut novel, Such A Fun Age, and was eager to read her sophomore novel. It's difficult not to compare the two. While Such A Fun Age deals with a serious topic with sensitivity, it is an easy and enjoyable read. Come and Get It is breezy read but the subject matter doesn't feel sensitively handled, leading the climax to feel like a mockery of the characters and their choices. I enjoyed the college setting and some of the characters, but there were large sections of the book that felt unnecessary. Many of the characters don't interact until well past the half-way mark, and many early chapters are dedicated to a romantic relationship between one of the protagonists, Agatha, and her girlfriend Robin. Robin feels somewhat peripheral to the plot and her minimal contribution towards the conclusion of the story could have been accomplished with far less detail about how she met Agatha, the evolution of their relationship, and their many arguments. Overall, I found the novel disappointing and a bit of a let down after Such A Fun Age.