Review: "How You Get the Girl" by Anita Kelly

How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly
Published February 2024 via Forever
★★★★

We all have a childhood hero(ine) or two, and we don't expect them to walk into our place of work...but for Julie, that's exactly what happens when Elle, a former basketball star who was a few years ahead of Julie at university, turns out to be the guardian of the newest student on the high-school basketball team Julie coaches. Occasional brush-ins turn into Elle becoming an assistant coach turns into...well, this is a romance novel.

This is a four-stars-and-a-caveat book for me. Kelly writes well, and these are fully fleshed out characters with interesting stories and (hurray) some solid doses of common sense. Things don't always go to plan (as well they shouldn't, in a romance novel), but I am always thrilled by the bare basics of healthy communication between romantic leads. (I grew up with very mediocre category romance and bodice rippers and haven't actually expanded from that as much as one might expect when it comes to the romance I read, so my standards are in some ways shockingly low. Rest assured that we get more than the bare basics here.) One of my favorite things here is how Julie and Elle's athleticism is treated: at their prime, they were both very, very good...but they weren't the best, and that's okay. They're no longer at their prime, and they recognize that, and that's okay too. It makes for a nice sense of balance and realism that you don't always get in romance.

The caveat: This isn't specific to this book, but golly gee I'm over the TikTok tropes. Again, Kelly has the writing chops to pull it off, but it's starting to feel like every big-publisher romance I read lately has been written with #EnemiesToLovers or #FakeDating or #GrumpyAndSunshine in mind. Grumpy millennial and all that (and I know full well that these tropes aren't new), but I suppose I just prefer plots that feel like they could happen in a version of the real life that I know (see: Julie and Elle's quiet, not-a-megastar lives). When was the last time anyone you knew started a fake romance or fell head over heels for their sworn enemy or whatever? Not that it's physically impossible, but...given the choice, I lean toward both real-like scenarios and romance-novel setups that feel a bit more plausible.

Ah well. On a less rant-y note: If you read Love & Other Disasters and Something Wild & Wonderful you'll recognize some of the secondary characters here—Kelly makes good use of them, keeping them to scenes that move plot and character development forward rather than just serving as a reminder of those characters' previous happily-ever-afters. (Did make me a bit bummed that there's not a lesbian version of Something Wild & Wonderful, but...what can you do!) The books can all be read as standalones and feel quite distinct, but there's plenty for fans of the earlier books as well.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.