I want to start off by saying that this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I absolutely loved The Charm Offensive, Alison Cochrun’s debut novel, but something just didn’t work for me when it came to Kiss Her Once for Me. I really struggled finishing this book and considering DN’ing multiple times.

Last Christmas, Ellie spent one magical snow day with a women named Jack. It’s been months since that one special day, but Ellie hasn’t stopped thinking about Jack and all that they shared. This Christmas, things are not going well for Ellie. She’s stuck working for a terrible boss at a coffee shop and is about to be evicted from her apartment. When the landlord of the coffee shop, Andrew, suggest a marriage of convenience, so that he can gain an inheritance, Ellie agrees in exchange for a portion of the substantial inheritance. To make their engagement real, Ellie agrees to spend Christmas with Andrew’s family… only to discover that Jack is Andrew’s sister.

From the beginning, I had an issue with the instant love between Ellie and Jack, which was the foundation for the entire story. As the two of them interacted and as we saw flashback to that fateful snow day when they meet, I struggled finding any chemistry between them.

Another of my issues with the story was that I didn’t find any of the characters likeable. All the characters seemed judgemental, mean, and/or self-centered. I also didn’t really didn’t like the cheating-not-cheating that was happening in the book (not was it ever truly addressed). Ellie, who I should have been routing for and cheering on, got on my nerves. I understand the trauma and the hard times she has gone through, however I found her emotional immature and I had trouble relating to or feeing bad for her. I found her dialogue lacked depth and was underdeveloped.

Miscommunication after miscommunication occurred in the book and I found myself wishing that the characters would just stop and have mature adult conversations with each other, instead of constantly jumping to conclusions or doing whatever they thought was best without consulting anyone else.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

<review>In the foreword, the author, Alison Cochrun, says she was a huge fan of the 90s hit movie, While You Were Sleeping, and that it served as a sort of inspiration for this story. As a child who did most of their growing up in the 90s, I read this statement and was sold on this book immediately.
The main character is Ellie, and she’s been dealt a bad hand. Her parents are absent and her mother only calls when she needs money, she lost her dream job, her best friend moved halfway across the country, and her rent is going up. Through a series of events Ellie ends up drunkenly agreeing to marry Andrew, the landlord of the place where she works, so that he can get his $2 million inheritance. Of course, she’ll get a cut of the money, and she thinks her cut could go a long way to solving most of her troubles.
When she goes to Andrew’s family cabin for the holidays she becomes more sure that she made the wrong choice in agreeing to this marriage of convenience, and her fear only worsens when she meets Andrew’s sister, Jack. Jack is the woman Ellie fell in love with over the course of one perfect, snowy day, last Christmas.
Pick up this book to see how Ellie and Jack manage being stuck in the same house for a week, and if the feelings they seem to still share are enough to bring them together for real.

Oh my fucking stars. This was absolutely magical, gut wrenching, laugh out loud with your whole body funny, sickeningly sweet, and just utterly enchanting. Cochrun does it AGAIN with the perfect blend and balance of depth and romantic comedic humor, all while not shying away from representing fully so many of the sides of ourselves we would like to hide and shy away from.

The feeling of not being enough. The fear of failure. The constant battle between anxiety and our intrusive thoughts and the logic know we posses and calm we know we deserve. Thew way we want to ignore how the pain from our familiars and parents affect us, how we can feel and be starved for affection, and just how damn lonely life can be. Don’t take this the wrong way, that’s not to say this is a downer at all, in fact, its the opposite. It’s taking all those things, those fears, those less shiny parts of us, and holding them up to say it’s ok, that they’re valid and that we are still deserving of love in all types of forms no matter what.

<b>“I wanted someone who would see the whole mess of me—all the feelings and the perfectionism and the desire for control and the shape of my heart and the ache of my dreams, the wild, imperfect hunger of me, and the fear that keeps me from ever feeling full—and wouldn’t get freaked out or turned off. Someone who would kiss me anyway.”</b>

At the time of writing this, Cochrun shares in her acknowledgements that she was filled with fear — fear of failure and vulnerability as her debut, <i>The Charm Offensive </i> was releasing and the pandemic itself, and that this book was her “way of processing that fear, of trying to convince [herself] that some things are too spectacular for fear”. Let me just say….she pulls it off SO DAMN WELL. Ellie’s journey through her fears, her anxiety and loneliness cut me to the core so many times and her complicated dynamic with her parents, her mother especially, AND during the holidays when those cuts and hurts feel especially sensitive, made me so emotional. I loved Ellie for all her wins and even though her many mistakes and stumbles. Periods of frozen burrito-ness plague all of us and I think many will feel seen and heard in Ellie’s struggles.

“One of these days, I will stop ugly-crying in front of the only people who can tolerate me, but that day is not today.”

In typical fashion, Cochrun doesn’t just give us a damn amazing MC, but every supporting character had something to add to the story that felt so purposeful and valuable and necessary. From the grandmas (seriously so jealous, I would like them please), to Dylan and their wry ways, to Meredith— damn we all need a Meredith. And Jack - oh darling lumbersexual Jack.

“Some of us fall in and out of love easily. Some of us don’t experience romantic love at all. Some of us have to fight to let ourselves be vulnerable enough to fall in love.[…] Some of us have to fight to let other people love us.” […] All love and ways of loving are love”. HOW DOES THAT NOT MAKE YOU SWOON AND MELT INTO A PUDDLE.

Jack’s character was full of so much feeling, so much personality and flair and honesty — it was so refreshing. She doesn’t let the miscommunications slide, as she says “miscommunications are for the straights” and damn if she isn’t right. Let us have the monopoly babe, we apparently thrive on terrible romantic chaos.

Jack’s story within her own family was so interesting and her relentless love for herself was a balm to see. It’s not that she’s perfect or unafraid, but damn if she isn’t her own best cheerleader and I love that for her. Her banter and chemistry with Ellie was literally coming off the page. Those two, ugh, my heart.

Clearly I’m in love with this book. It’s got love and heart, swoon worthy characters that still feel like friends I could have IRL, truly and deeply discusses so many key themes regarding mental health, boundaries, and family. It’s even got great fucking music. Because have I got news for you….. THEY’RE BOTH SWIFTIES. That said, teeny tiny points off to Jack for having Lover as her favorite album, I’m with Ellie on this one. Ilysm Jack but NO. The rest of your tastes are perfection and I would like to stop by the Butch Oven ASAP please.

Please please PLEASE go read this wonderful holiday romance. Read it, love it, gift it. Cochrun, thank you so much for putting this out in the world.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

I loved Alison Cochrun's The Charm Offensive, and I have been so excited for her sapphic holiday romance set here in Portland. The initial scenes were perfection, describing the exact reactions of Portland to snow days.

The book incorporates a web comic as a means to have two timelines. I really appreciated this artistic choice. It was such a unique way to approach a second chance romance. Ellie and Jack met at Powell's Books and had a perfect snow day together on Christmas Eve. Now it's a year later, and they haven't seen each other since. And the web comic device continues in present day, allowing neat meta discussion of the tropes occurring in real time.

I don't think I have ever highlighted so many parts of a book. Alison Cochrun's characters speak to me. I read Ellie's voice, and I felt seen, too. There's absolutely amazing representation of both anxiety and ADHD. I would have liked Jack's perspective a few times, as I actually thought she needed more reflection and growth on her part of the relationship struggles.

Jack's family is amazing, and I would love to join her grandmothers and the rest for Christmas in their log cabin. It pulled lightly from While You Were Sleeping, and I absolutely loved the reminiscences there.

I expect to read this multiple times. I'm so glad it exists.

Happy Pub Day to Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun! I fawned over The Charm Offensive so I already knew I was gonna be in for a real treat with Cochrun's sophomore novel but WOW she stunned me even more than I thought possible. Ellie and Jack were everything to me and I loved all of the tropes weaved in (fake dating and "only one bed" girlies this one is for YOU). I loved that while this was a romance it was also something deeper about fears and how we deal with them. I will never stop screaming about this book!

Man I wanted to love this, and I DID love parts of it. I appreciated the mental health rep, I appreciated how diverse the LGBTQ rep was (not limited to gay/bisexual men, which is most prevalent in LGBTQ romance), I liked the fake dating trope (one of my favorites), the supporting characters were great, and the main characters were realistic and imperfect.

Unfortunately, this got really repetitive to me. I also am NOT a fan of miscommunication being the primary source of conflict, and it was here.

Based on my love of her first novel, I will absolutely read this author again, but this one just didn't do it for me.

This book is the feeling of a perfect bite of Thanksgiving dinner. It’s the feeling of family or friends gathered around a fire with lights twinkling in the background. It’s peppermint and chocolate and cheer and love. It captures the holidays and it's a warm hug of a romance.

Again, a bit of a heads up about a good bit of alcohol usage/content. If you’re trying to avoid that, this one probably isn’t for you. But for the rest of ya, I definitely recommend this one!

This story has a lot of classic tropes and it’s so fun! But not only is it fun, it has so much depth. It has solid mental health rep. It shows legit conflict where the characters actually talk through their issues.

Summary: A struggling barista enters into a marriage of convenience with her landlord. When she attends his family’s holiday gathering at their ski “cabin”, she finds out that his sister is the woman she met a year ago that she can’t get out of her mind. It features the tropes of: marriage of convenience, insta love, only one bed, love triangle - kinda, forced proximity, and probably many more. It has characters who are: ace/demi, bi, unlabeled queer, trans, anxious, and probably has other rep.

Ultimately, I adored every minute with this book and cannot recommend it enough. I will happily re-read this one every holiday season.

Alison Cochrun has a gift for writing romance with the most lovable characters. They are broken in some way, and need to find strength in themselves, which they do through falling in love. She does a good job letting the romance be an impetus for the characters to work on themselves, and not the only motivation. I admire her skill in creating stories and characters that feel true to life and help me understand the queer community better.
This story is loosely inspired by While You Were Sleeping, and it made me want to watch that film again. Ellie finds herself in a hilarious yet tragic “love trapezoid” one Christmas holiday, and she has to figure out how to make her way in life as well as love.
This is perfect romance reading for the holidays. I did have to skip several pages that got too steamy for me—I’m getting really good at anticipating these scenes before they even get going. 😆
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital arc!

Included as a top pick in bimonthly November New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

Read this book if you like: LGBTQ representation, anxiety disorder representation, Hallmark movies, fake relationship

Last Christmas Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation in Portland. She has a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. The next morning chaos began in her life when she had a betrayal, lost of her job soon after. This leaves her alone, desperate for money, and dealing with her narcissistic mother.

Now a year later she's working in a hipster, still struggling. Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan. He suggests a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack. She's the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

A Sapphic Christmas story?! I immediately had to read it. This book was SO well written. The characters are developed perfectly. Check the triggers as there is one unlikeable character (Ellie’s mom) that can be triggering to some. The romance was well done. The pace of the story was realistic. I love the marriage of convenience concept and loved that she showed up to see she is fake engaged to the brother of a former love interest. So funny. 🤣 It desperately needed an epilogue in my opinion. I was left with questions and I prefer to have things wrapped up. I highly recommend this book. This is my first by this author and won't be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Atria for the gifted e-book! ❤️

Happy Pub Day! I finished in time to say that!

This one was…complicated for me. I absolutely LOVED just the general vibe of cozy PNW Christmas and Alison Cochrun writes great characters. However, the ethics of all this was MESSY! Cheating is one thing, but lying to your grandmothers!?!!? I am going to round this up from a 3.5 to 4 stars and I will still read what Alison Cochran writes next because I love her writing style, but this one definitely wasn’t as stellar as The Charm Offensive (pains me to say this it really does).

P.S. to Ellie, Andrew & anyone else who need it, a drunk contract on a napkin can absolutely be legally binding, so stay safe out there.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted to Goodreads 11/1/22.

One of my most anticipated reads of the year, Kiss her once for me DID.NOT.DISAPPOINT!!!

A loose While you were sleeping remake (which just happens to be one of my fav holiday movies!) this book started off strong and delivered on so many fronts!!

The story follows Ellie, an aspiring animator who is toiling away as a barista while experiencing rent increases and financial demands from her toxic mother. When she gets an offer to fake date/enter a marriage of convenience in exchange for a significant sum of money, the last thing she expected was to find out that her fake fiancé's sister is the woman she's been pining after for a year.

This was a wonderfully messy, relatable queer holiday romance full of a wonderfully diverse cast of characters, great ADHD and bisexuality/demi-sexuality/nonbinary representation and lots of steamy one bed/snowed in scenarios.

Recommended for fans of Helena Greer's Season of love or Courtney Kae's In the event of love. I loved the great mental health and ADHD rep and the second chance/forbidden love story lines. GREAT on audio narrated by my fav Natalie Naudus.

This book is full of all the holiday feels, found family and seasonal magic you could ever want. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. Alison Cochrun is an auto-buy author who can truly do no wrong in my opinion!!

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

My rating: 3/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you enjoy
🎄 holiday cheer
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 LGBTQ main characters
🥸 fake dating
🤪 family drama
🌶 spicy elements

Elle is a cartoonist recently let go from her dream job. Now working at a coffee shop, she finds herself without a lot of money, sad and not sure what to do with her life. When the landlord of the coffee shop overheard her conversation on how her life is a mess, he thinks of a plan that will benefit the both of them.
When they agree on a fake romance, a person in Elle’s past that she spent all of last Christmas Eve with, comes back into her life.

This book was pretty good but I think I was a little disappointed because I feel like this story has been done before. I actually just read a book super similar to this a few weeks ago so it made this one a little lackluster for me. I did enjoy the holiday themes and there were some funny relatable moments but this one just wasn’t a favorite for me! I have heard that the authors book The Charm Offense was amazing, so I had high hopes for this one but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I will most likely read that one in the future to give the author another chance. I always feel bad when I don’t love a book that is so well loved by others, but I have to give my honest review! ❤️ it was definitely a good read but just average comparatively to other books I have read recently!

Thank you netgalley for this ARC! You can read this one now as it was just published today, November 1st!

My most favourite Christmas read of all time is now Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun, after finishing it on the first of November as thick snow flakes fell from the sky.

I think I'm going to start off by saying how this book made me feel... just to set the scene. This novel felt like I was sitting in an oversized comfy armchair underneath a weighted blanket, sipping a warm cup of hot cocoa, with Taylor Swift playing softly in the background, while snow lazily falls outside the window and cookies bake in the oven.

This novel is that kind of magic.

It was atmospheric in a way I didn't know I needed. It's a warm hug from a family member, the smell of fresh baking, a cacophony of Christmas songs and chatter making your ears vibrate happily, cinnamon dancing on your tongue and fluffy snow-globe flakes falling outside. The brisk bite of cold on your cheeks as you breathe in crisp winter air, listening to the sound of snow crunch under your boots as you haul your toboggan up to the top of the sledding hill.

Now that you can picture and hear the essence of this novel, add in the most perfect multi-dimensional characters, lust that will have you begging for someone to pounce and a dual timeline situation that I've never experienced - but one that is so true to memory. This book is a perfect cocktail: providing internal warmth, sweet with a little spice and leaving you feeling satisfied.

I found parts of myself in Ellie, parts of myself in Jack and felt represented in such a different way than what I've ever experienced before. This book was everything I needed, and then some. It was pure perfection.

I honestly didn't take many notes as I read this book, but this one note more than makes up for the lack of others. My one quick, rapid fire thought: "I AM ABOUT TO BURST INSIDE" I said to myself as I set the book aside to listen to All Too Well (Taylor's Version).

This is my first by Cochrun, and I will be reading everything she ever writes from now on (and I will obviously go back and read The Charm Offensive too).

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the complimentary copy to read and review.

Every time Ellie hears the song ‘Last Christmas’ at her coffee place where she works, she can’t help but remember the perfect night that she spent last year with Jack. They spent a perfect day and night together only to part the next morning without even exchanging last names.

This year, Ellie’s life has changed dramatically; no longer at her dream job, not able to make rent and with her mother constantly needling her for money. She’s had a terrible day, and when she wakes up the next morning, she realizes in a drunken evening she has agreed to marry the owner of the building in a marriage of convenience.

When she meets up with Jack again this Christmas, will she be able to stick with her marriage plot, or will what she feels for Jack derail all her plans?

This was such a sweet and fun Christmas romance! There were so many incredibly fun characters made up in Ellie and Jack’s lives, and their connection is such an amazing argument for love at first meeting! The different roads that each character has taken in getting to where they are the next year weaves itself into such a powerful story that addresses mental illness, familial prejudices and obligations, and trusting one’s self and their own feelings!

Thank you to Atria publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book.

You definitely have to suspend some disbelief for this one (a fake engagement to her true love/one night stand's brother?), but, hey, it's Christmas! Cochrun follows up The Charm Offensive with this new holiday rom-com. Ellie Oliver finds herself alone and jobless before finding work at a coffee shop. Her landlord, Andrew, makes an unexpected proposal: A marriage of convenience to help him secure his inheritance. Ellie is on board with the plan until she meets (and falls for) Andrew's sister...who just so happens to be her magical one-night stand from last Christmas.

Kiss Her Once For Me is a Saphic RomCom and my new Christmas comfort read.

Ellie agrees to a marriage of convenience to her landlord, Andrew so that he can get his inheritance. He promises her a big amount so she agrees, in hopes it will get her life back in order. When they spend Christmas with his family, she gets blindsided by the fact that Andrew’s sister Jack, is none other than the girl she spent a night with last Christmas and instantly fell in love with.



I cannot say enough how much this beautiful story made me smile. I have never finished a book and immediately wanted to read it again. Ellie and Jack’s love was gush worthy and a breath of fresh air. I could not get enough!

Thank you so much Allison Cochrun and Atria Books for the digital ARC!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
a book about an ohio-born swiftie who moves to the pnw and has to deal with all of her toxic ideas about failure? *and* fake dating with a twist? i can’t believe alison cochrun wrote this book specifically for me. while i did gleefully highlight every mention of both taylor swift and ohio, i have to talk about how *good* the actual plot of this book is. elle’s fear of failure is tangible on the page. you can feel it as she feels it. it’s a really incredible feat of storytelling. and the way i, a hater of instalove, fully believe that elle fell in love with jack over their one day together the previous christmas? even more incredible. their relationship is real and painful and beautiful and everything i want in a romance book. and the supporting characters are amazing and fun and lovely. i am so glad andrew was written the way he was. i was (unfairly, because i should’ve known alison cochrun wouldn’t do this to me) scared i would feel bad for andrew and want him to have his own hea, and then dylan was introduced and i nearly threw my kindle across the room because what a perfect opposites attract subplot!!! anyway. this book is perfect. go read it.

taylor swift vibe: tis the damn season (obvs)

recommended for: people who like romance and christmas and found family and character development and taylor swift.

A sapphic Christmas rom com? SAY LESS.

I recently read The Charm Offensive and loved it so much I instantly knew I would forever read and love anything Cochrun wrote. I’m not even remotely surprised by how totally I adored this book.

The hallmark of a great writer is the ability to make readers visualize the scenes, to allow them to feel like they’re living these stories alongside their characters, and that’s absolutely how I felt with this book. Every detail was vivid, cozy, and downright memorable. The meet cute is officially one of my all-time faves. Every single one of the characters was well fleshed out and wonderful, the kind of people I want to be friends with in real life. I celebrated their triumphs and mourned their losses. Cannot say enough good things about this book.

I absolutely ADORED this book! Alison Cochrun has a way of writing characters you fall in love with. She also writes such captivating stories and handles mental health and LGBTQ+ representation in the most stunning of ways. The entire time I was rooting for Elle and Jack, but I also found myself beyond excited for all the side characters (I freaking LOVED the Grandmas!!!) this book was funny, heartwarming, and filled with all the joy I needed to kickstart the holiday season.