I was so excited to read this since I absolutely loved The Charm Offensive, but I had to admit I didn't love this one as much. This story is definitely more cozy, which I loved, but the cuteness felt a bit over the top for me. I liked Ellie and Jack, but I'm not sure I was completely rooting for their relationship.

I'll start with what I liked—the cozy, holiday setting was so lovely and added a warm glow to the entire story. I also loved the supporting characters (and I kind of wish their stories weren't wrapped up so we could get some full-length novels about them). Dylan's superb sense of humor always brought the edge to a scene, and Jack's two grandmas were absolute hoots. I wouldn't mind teleporting into their Christmas celebrations if I could.. but maybe without a fake fiancé.

But I found the webcomic chapters to be really frustrating. They were basically flashback chapters poorly disguised as a webcomic in a chapter header, but with no actual webcomic-ness in the chapters themselves. I wish they had either gone all out on the webcomic idea with full art and maybe fewer chapters, or just pulled back and branded these chapters as flashbacks. There just wasn't enough to sell the concept to me—it felt underdone.

I also wish there had been chapters with Jack's point of view. Ellie's voice got more and more annoying as I read, especially with the superfluous descriptions, and certain descriptive phrases repeated at length. I think if Jack's POV had been included, it would be effective in making Ellie's voice more enjoyable, and add some depth to Jack's character that was a bit lacking.

Even so, this romance is still super cute, and a great read for the holiday season! The fake dating trope was really fun, and the story is full of funny, sweet moments. It'll make any holiday grinch love the season again.

Five huge well deserved stars for Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun. After reading and loving The Charm Offensive, I knew I needed to check this one out. It was perfection! A very solid queer romance story with some fine holiday fun added in. I cannot recommend this one enough!

I adored everything about this book. The humour was subtle and well placed. The pop culture references were spot on. The secondary characters were great, especially Lovey and Meemaw who were so feisty and fun! I loved the LGBTQIA+ "love trapezoid" as it was lovingly referred to. I loved the forced proximity trope as well as the fake engagement. It all worked so well. The main characters were genuine, well thought out and easy to root for!

Seriously, just trust me and add this one to your holiday reading. Or read it at any point throughout the year, because it's just that good. Honest, romantic and charming - you need to pick this one up!

ALL THE STARS!! I need an option for more than 5 stars to only be used very occasionally - and Kiss Her Once For Me is that occasion. Do you love the movie While You Were Sleeping? Do you love the book The Charm Offensive? If the answer to either question is yes - immediately stop reading this review and go get your hands on this book to start reading it!!! I started reading without knowing anything other than the same author as The Charm Offensive - and I think that’s the perfect way to go in. Don’t read the synopsis!

If you need a little more - I’ll tell you the author’s note shared that it was inspired by While You Were Sleeping and I could see that through this book in all the best ways - particularly the overwhelming in the best ways introduction to the family. The grandmothers are absolute stars!

Alison Cochrun has become an absolute must buy author for me and I can’t wait to read anything else she writes! Thank you to Atria and Netgalley for the free advance reading copy. I also immediately bought a copy for my shelves before I even finished because I knew this was a new favorite!

Not going to lie I was not the biggest fan of the charm offensive. It was one of those books that while I appreciated the book when really dissecting it, as a whole it just did not work for me as well as it worked for others. With that being said I am not one to just write off authors so I decided to give her another shot and I am so glad that I did. This was such a feel good Christmassy sapphic romance. I actually loved it so much that I ended up getting myself a physical copy. Something about Alison that I really appreciate is she makes characters that feel real. It is not one of those unattainable stories that leave you feeling like it is implausible or kind of leave you feeling a little bad about yourself, but rather real characters that feel flawed. Come to think of it I think that might have been my biggest issue with Charm Offensive as it just hit a little too close to home. But back to Kiss her once for me, I gained a whole new appreciation for her writing style and it just felt like a nice holiday read, and one that I kept wanting to pick back up again. I definitely am a fan and will be reading anything else Alison Cochrun comes out with.

Loved this story! It was a cozy read filled with so much heart! The anxiety rep was spot on! I related so freaking much to Ellie! The drama and romance was EVERYTHING! Even the side characters romance was great! I was also reading it during the same exact time of the book's setting which was so cool lol. Overall, such a fun read with so many lovable characters! Thanks NetGalley & Atria Books! This was a wonderful story.!

I absolutely adored this one! This is the perfect holiday read. It was cozy, sweet, funny, and touching. I couldn't believe how often I chuckled while reading it.

I loved the character development of such a diverse group of characters. All of the characters were interesting with great development. The characters' behavior and reactions made sense considering their pasts as well.

A sapphic holiday romance filled with Christmas magic and all the best tropes.
I’ve been reading a lot of webtoons lately and this book really brought that vibe. Ellie even writes her own webtoon and it is creatively used for flashbacks and world building.
The characters were all so relatable and engaging. I really loved watching the main and side romances progress.
Bookstores, bakeries and snowed in cabins set the tone for a sweet cozy romance perfect for Christmas.
Thank you Atria Books and Netgalley for the e-arc.

My busy schedule this time of year prevented me from reading this quicker than I was hoping to, but after a week and a half I'm finally finished Kiss Her Once For Me! Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for a review copy of this LQBTQ+ romance novel.

The Charm Offensive remains my favorite of Allison's so far, but Kiss Her Once For Me was a perfect romance novel for this time of year! I love knowing that the author has no shame displaying her love of Taylor Swift through the course of the story... she made me see evermore as a holiday album for the first time ever. This had a fun spin on romance "second chance tropes" with the main character pretending to marry a guy only to find out his sister was the one person she fell in love with last Christmas after spending one day with her. This led to a fun holiday vacation at the family cabin filled with crazy grandmas, adventurous skiing, and being trapped in a strong snowstorm. I also really liked the webcomics sprinkled throughout the book, I think that allowed for a good break within the overall plot and I wished the author could have included one more of those for the very end. Overall though this was a very cute story and I cannot wait to see what Allison writes next.

I'm a sucker for anything romance + coffee shop. I'm honestly not sure why, but the cover hooked me immediately. A great Christmas romance that was a quick read and quirky characters.

Swoon. I adored this Christmas rom com. After loving The Charm Offensive, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Alison’s second book and it didn’t disappoint! This was the perfect blend of very funny, sweet, serious and Christmasy with allllll of the mental health and LGBTQ+ rep. I truly laughed out loud so much. It also had so many good tropes - some that I always love, like fake dating (WHY IS THIS IS THE BEST TROPE?!), and some that I typically hate but somehow worked perfectly here, like insta-love (well, because it’s more than that and makes sense for once!). I loved the MC, Ellie, so much. Fear of failure is such a powerful, relatable theme throughout and I loved seeing Ellie’s growth. Jack was also great and their romance was just the best. LOVED IT!

Fun Christmas romance with an interesting cast of characters, messy relationship drama, and Taylor Swift references! It was a quick read that kept my interest and I enjoyed the way it ended.

While you were sleeping s my family's Christmas movie, so when I saw this, and saw the description, and knew it was the author of The Charm Offensive, which I also really enjoyed - I was so in.

This is a super fun Christmas romance, and while you can feel the influence of While You Were Sleeping, it very much isn't just a regurgitation of it ether. This book is its own thing. The fake engagement is different, the way the MC falls for the sibling is different, but the warmth of the family and falling in love? That is all here.

It is exactly the book you want to curl up under the Christmas tree with this holiday season.

3.5 stars --- I loved the Charm Offensive and I love the idea of an insta-connection made in the aisle of Powell's Books so I was really excited to read this one. While this book was a sweet holiday tale, it didn't hold my attention. I continually was putting it down to do something else because the characters didn't grab me in the way I hoped.

The author knocked this novel out of the lRk. A brilliant second novel. Steamy, romantic, fun amd endearing. Not to be missed.

Kiss Her Once For Me - Allison Cochrun

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Another cutie holiday romcom review for ya!!! I absolutely loved this one. It’s a sapphic second chance romance with a dash of marriage of convenience and all the sweet, snowy PNW vibes you could hope for!

What I loved:
* This was not your typical marriage of convenience trope and I was HERE for it. Like helloooo she is faking an engagement with the landlord of her job but is in love with his sister!!!
* Pretty much the only time I can think of that I loved insta love- it was so well done and just made complete sense for Ellie & Jack’s relationship.
* Such great LGBTQIA+ and mental health rep!
* A wonderful cast of characters. Loved Andrew & Jack’s family and Dylan so much!
* This was so much more than just a romcom- it explores familial and mental health issues too.

Allison Cochrun is so good at writing romcoms with incredible representation and with people that are just so relatable and HUMAN. If you haven’t read this or The Charm Offensive, you need to pick them up asap!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Oh, I really enjoyed this. ☺️ It was funny, heartwarming, and had just the right amount of Christmas.
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Ellie and Jacqueline (Jack) meet one snowy Christmas Eve and spend the night together. A misunderstanding leads to their parting, until a chance fake fiancé arrangement brings them back together the next year—Ellie is fake engaged to Jack’s brother Andrew (to help him get his inheritance.)
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This book has it all. Tons of humor and swoon worthy moments. Tons of LGBTQ+ representation. Anxiety representation. AAPI representation. Found family. 🥹 There were a few lines that I literally had a physical reaction to. I’m talking my heart swooped and I got goosebumps. 😭
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I felt really attached to these characters and was rooting for them so hard. Ellie grew so much it makes me want to cry. Jack was so steady in chasing her dreams. Andrew found the courage to be himself. Dylan. Ari. The boozy grandmas. The whole gang really 🥹🫶🥹
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Also I’m not being dramatic but this might be my favorite grand gesture moment ever. It felt so real and authentic to me. I’m obsessed with the idea of your partner being a “witness” for your life. 🥹😭 I gave this five stars and enthusiastically recommend it!
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Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher fro my early e-copy!

3.5 stars

I’m not quite sure why this story didn’t completely grab me. It’s got a lot to offer: a main character (Ellie) who has anxiety and is working to overcome the disadvantages life has thrown at her; a meet-cute; a fake engagement trope; a diverse cast of characters who aren’t cardboard stereotypes; and lots of Portland, Oregon flavor. (I loved all the local color, since I know the Portland area pretty well.)

But somehow it didn’t fully engage me. It could be because I didn’t realize it was a Christmas-heavy story when I picked it up (and Christmas books aren’t my thing). Or it could be that I’d just finished another romance book with a wonderful main character who is dealing with anxiety and panic attacks. Or it could be that the timeline in this book was a bit confusing, going back and forth between last Christmas” (2021) to “this Christmas” (2022), along with excerpts from Ellie’s web comic, which was based on her experiences. Things kind of blurred for me.

So YMMV (your mileage may vary).

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book had the vibes. I’m so glad I picked it up during the holiday season. I loved the Charm Offensive and this is just as good. Alison Cochrun writes characters so well that they just work their way into your heart.
It wasn’t even until reflecting on this book that I realized it had a few things I don’t normally like, such as instalove and not being a dual POV. It was written so thoughtfully and with such heart, I still enjoyed it immensely. The found family aspect of this story (another Grandma fan over here!) was hilarious and I loved the cabin setting.
Thank you Atria Books for the digital copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoying, messy, beautiful, rom-com is how I’d describe this book. Im a sucker for fake dating and second chances so that pulled me right in. An overall cozy holiday lgbtq+ read.

I LOVED this book! I had not read anything by this author before, but had heard how wildly popular her last book was so I was excited to pick up this holiday read.

Jack and Ellie have such a cute story, I was rooting for them the entire time. I liked the dual time lines when we were able to revisit the one day Jack and Ellie spent together before being thrust back into each other's lives in the most unexpected and unideal way.

This was a cute holiday read that had the perfect amount of Christmas magic, some fun family traditions, and an over-all message of second chances.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy - I loved this book 5/5 stars! Would definitely recommend!