'Like Other Girls' by Britta Lundin: Blog Tour Review on Sapphic Romance & Football (+US Giveaway!)

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Today I’m excited to participate in the Book Tour for Like Other Girls by Britta Lundin hosted by Rockstar Book Tours! Like Other Girls is a YA coming-of-age story that challenges preconceived notions of gender, sports, sexuality, and friendship, and it was published on August 3, 2021, by Disney Publishing.

Title: Like Other Girls
Author: Britta Lundin
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Pub. date: 3 August 2021
Series: none
Page count: 384
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Genres: young adult, contemporary, LGBTQ, romance

“What if I played football?” I ask. As soon as it’s out of my mouth, I feel stupid. Even suggesting it feels like I’ve overstepped some kind of invisible line we’ve all agreed not to discuss. We don’t talk about how Mara is different from other girls. We don’t talk about how Mara is gay but no one says so. But when I do stuff like this, I worry it gets harder for us all to ignore what’s right in front of us. I direct my gaze to Quinn. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s frickin’ genius,” he says.
After getting kicked off the basketball team for a fight that was absolutely totally not her fault (okay maybe a little her fault), Mara is dying to find a new sport to play to prove to her coach that she can be a team player. A lifelong football fan, Mara decides to hit the gridiron with her brother, Noah, and best friend, Quinn-and she turns out to be a natural. But joining the team sets off a chain of events in her small Oregon town-and within her family-that she never could have predicted.
Inspired by what they see as Mara’s political statement, four other girls join the team. Now Mara’s lumped in as one of the girls-one of the girls who can’t throw, can’t kick, and doesn’t know a fullback from a linebacker. Complicating matters is the fact that Valentina, Mara’s crush, is one of the new players, as is Carly, Mara’s nemesis-the girl Mara fought with when she was kicked off the basketball team. What results is a coming-of-age story that is at once tear-jerking and funny, thought-provoking and real, as Mara’s preconceived notions about gender, sports, sexuality, and friendship are turned upside down.
Britta Lundin’s sophomore novel will give readers all the feels, and make them stand up and cheer.

Content warning: bullying, consumption of alcohol, homophobia, physical assault, sexism & misogyny, sexual harassment, sports injuries & hospitalization, vandalism

I have been dying to read more sapphic romances and when I saw this blog tour open for sign-ups, I was ecstatic! I am not a huge sports fan, so I didn’t know how that part of the story would sit with me but I was attracted by the promotion of challenging gender norms and such. A YA doing all this just sounded too good to pass up and I am glad I jumped at the chance to review Like Other Girls.

Mara Deeble has always hung out with her brother and his best friend and played basketball on the school team. When Mara punches a fellow teammate at a basketball match, she gets kicked off the basketball team. Her only option to join back in? Prove that she can play a team sport without punching anyone.

Mara would choose pants over a dress and playing outdoors with the boys over gossiping with girls, so when Coach Joyce puts her on the volleyball team Mara doesn’t really fit or want to fit in. Then she decides on joining a different team sport entirely: football, but the boys’ team! At first, Mara settles in slowly but things start heating up when four other girls join the team and it becomes a political statement that runs through the whole town.

Mara has always seen herself as one of the boys, but now she’s got gorgeous Valentina, activist Carly, theatre nerd River and lightning-quick Tayley. With the boys resenting them for breaking into their team and Mara not wanting to be just like all the other girls, she soon finds herself questioning who she really is.

1. Mara’s character growth.

This was my top favourite bit about Like Other Girls! I love it when a young adult book actually explores the main character’s character growth in the span of a single book! It’s more impactful and moving honestly. Mara made me proud by the end of this story. I think the best way to describe her character is that she blossomed in this book. I just wanna meet her and hug the life out of her at this point!

2. Heartwarming sisterhood.

I love how realistic the sisterhood here was. The wine nights, the fights, the team spirit! I just wanna join a women’s sports team right now! LOL! It was wonderful to read about how this group of totally different girls learnt to get along and developed this beautiful sisterhood. It made me miss my friends while being stuck in lockdown!

3. Brilliantly challenging misogyny.

If I had to count on my hand the number of times I got riled up by the blatant and obnoxious misogyny these girls had to face in this book, I would run out of fingers. But it never felt forced in any way. I could actually relate to quite a few myself and I was cheering on the Elkhorn Five literally every second of this book!

4. The LGBTQ+ representation.

I liked how we got a whole cast of LGBTQ+ characters who broke stereotypes and were just themselves! The rep in this book is just wonderful! The author wonderfully portrayed how each of her characters as people whose identities weren’t really defined by just their LGBTQ+ status but by their likes, their traits, their clothes, their habits and their everyday lives. But at the same time, she effectively broached the stigma and the uncertainty that goes with being gay in a town like Elkhorn.

5. Football! Football! Football!!!

As I said, I’m no football fan, so all the football lingo here sort of flew over my head, but oh boy! I still got excited by the rush of the game and the team spirit. I feel that if I managed to enjoy it without knowing anything football, someone who actually understands would just love this to bits!

Like Other Girls surprised me with its depth, warmth, and its delicate handling of growing into your identity as a teenager. With great football scenes and a wonderful cast of characters, including multiple LGBTQ+ characters, this young adult coming-of-age story gave me one heck of a read that left me yearning for more!

3 winners will receive a finished copy of LIKE OTHER GIRLS, US Only.

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Britta Lundin is a TV writer and author.

She’s written for shows such as Riverdale, Betty, and The Big Leap and is the author of the young adult novels Like Other Girls (out August 2021) and Ship It.

Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she lives with her wife, kid, and dog in Los Angeles.