Getting His Game Back by Gia de Cadenet: Vanessa is busy building a successful tech empire, after all she has earned the 
nickname the ‘app queen’, so the last thing she has time for is to start up a romantic connection to the guy from the barber shop. Now Khalil would be the absolute perfect guy except he isn’t Black! After having her fair share of bad inter-racial relationships Vanessa can’t help but feel extra cautious getting involved with Khalil, but there is just something about him that naturally draws her in which leads to their easy friendship which slowly builds to something so much more.
Khalil has been going through a lot this past year, having faced a bout of depression and having to seek out therapy, however things are finally starting to go back to normal. Now all Khalil needs to do is focus on his chain of barbershops while also helping give back to his community. The last thing Khalil expected was to form such a strong connection to sassy tech queen Vanessa. However for some reason Khalil can’t help but hold back a piece of himself, the question now is could this be the one thing that breaks what could be something amazing with Vanessa?
Getting His Game Back was definitely an interesting read, as much as I loved parts of this book there were a few things that just did not work for me, but for the most part this was a really great read. I loved that this book was so character driven and focused mainly on their ups and downs rather than getting side tracked by side characters.
I loved that Vanessa was a women in STEM and that she was a woman of colour. To some part her over awareness on colour and race did take away from the story for me. Granted this is a fact that many women of color face in the dating and work world, I will say that Gia has done a great job with conveying this topic.
Both main characters is that they both faced trauma, which largely helped connect these two. I absolutely loved their initial connection and chemistry. I really liked Khalil’s character, not only was he such a sweet guy but he had also had to deal with his own depression. I really liked the way that mental illness was handled throughout the novel and that it highlighted the fact that anyone can face mental illness.
Overall Getting His Game Back was an interesting read that I would recommend.
Book Info:
Publication: January 25, 2022 | Dell |
Khalil Sarda went through a rough patch last year, but now he’s nearly back to his old self. All he has to do is keep his “stuff” in the past. Real men don’t have depression and go to therapy–or, at least they don’t admit it. He’s ready to focus on his growing chain of barbershops, take care of his beloved Detroit community, and get back to being the ladies’ man his family and friends tease him for being. It’ll be easy . . . until Vanessa throws him completely off his game.
Vanessa Noble is too busy building a multimillion-dollar tech career as a Black woman before age thirty to be distracted by a relationship. Not to mention, she’s been burned before, still dealing with the lingering hurt of a past breakup. Besides, as her friends often remind her, she’ll never find a man who checks all the boxes on her famous List. Yet when she desperately needs a shape-up and happens upon one of Khalil’s barbershops, the Fade, he makes her reconsider everything. Khalil is charming, intelligent, sexy, and definitely seems like he’d treat a woman right . . . but he’s not Black.
Vanessa may be willing to take a chance on Khalil, but a part of him is frustratingly closed off, just out of her reach. Will old patterns emerge to keep them apart? Or have they both finally found a connection worth throwing away the playbook for?
