**3.5 Stars**

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Kiss Her Once For Me is a holiday LGBTQ+ romance with a little more substance than most holiday books. Ellie is almost overly depressing as a character. She's down on her luck and stuck in a terrible life rut. Her sadness just oozes off the pages which is a testament to Alison Cochrun's writing. I just felt for her.

I loved all of the Christmas traditions, the family atmosphere, the sibling bond and the character growth for not only Ellie but for Andrew, Jack and Dylan as well.

My major gripe with the plot was the lack of communication. The characters are in their late twenties and early thirties. A lot of little things - excluding Ellie's rut - could have been resolved if they just talked it out. I also have another issue but I am not sure how to articulate it so I will leave it here for now.

Readers who are looking for a holiday themed book with a little more punch will definitely want to read this one.

Enjoyed this cute, very holiday, story. Characters were enjoyable and realistic. I liked the flow of the scenes and enjoyed the settings. In the end, I’m not sure that the main relationship will work out, but they both are better off personally than they started out.

First I’m a huge fan of Cochrun’s first book The Charm Offensive giving it five stars. So I came in with high expectations. It has things I normally love; a one perfect day together, a surprise meeting again, a fake relationship, and lots of representation. But sadly, I never cheered for these two to be a couple.

Ellie Oliver moves to Portland for her dream job as an animator. On her first Christmas Eve she meets Jack at a books store and they spend a magical day (and night) together. Nine months later she is working as a barista, rent is rising and she is barely getting by. Wealthy customer Andrew drunkenly suggests a one year marriage of convenience so he can get an inheritance from his grandfather. In return he will pay her 10 percent. It would be a game changer for her. Now she just needs to survive a family Christmas gathering with his family. She is stressed even before she meets Andrew's sister and realizes it is her Jack.

This all sounds cute and fluffy but it isn’t. It is complicated by Jack’s best friend who Andrew has feelings towards. Ellie jokingly refers to the situation as a love trapezoid. Other than Ellie none of these people are very likable. Andrew sets up the situation but Ellie gets blamed, Jack cheat’s but Ellie gets blamed for leaving, Grandma knows about the fake relationship and lets Ellie take the fallout. Ellie has to humiliate herself as part of her grand gesture when in fact she is the least culpable person. The more I thought about the underpinnings of the story the less I liked it.

Failure and the fear of failure is one of the main points of the book. But it is also exhausting. Jack at one point says if her business fails she has her trust fund to fall back on. But she turns around on Ellie and Andrew for wanting to help her secure her trust fund saying that means they thought she would fail. That may have been true for Andrew but it wasn’t for Ellie. Giving a negative motivation to her intent and making her apologize for it is a lot. Because if you look at it from Ellie’s viewpoint, money and something to fall back on is a good thing because she has never experienced that.

I think the most positive person in the story is Ari, the friend who helps Ellie by helping her downsize, and make new friends. I’m sorry this didn’t work for me and I know I’m in the minority of reviewers. I will absolutely read the author again. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was going to be an absolute new favorite but a few things irked me enough to knock my rating down a star. First things first, if you're looking for a sapphic, Christmas romance, this has been my favorite one I've read so far. It was extremely sweet and cozy and had a ton of great tropes. Unfortunately, the author described one of the heroines smile the same way a million times and constantly wrote about the scar on her lip. This may have stood out to me because I also have a noticeable scar on my lip that I'm pretty self-conscious about and its always talked about in a positive light but I was just ready for some different descriptors to be used. Also this is super insta-love which is never my favorite either. This is definitely something I'd still recommend you pick up if you're interested though. I overall had a great time with it despite the drawbacks.

I really enjoyed this book and the story of Ellie and her heartbreak. A heartbreak that happened during now fateful Christmas Day and said fate will intervene again a whole year later to shake her world.
Ellie is frozen, stagnant, after she lost her supposedly dream job and had her heart broken by a girl after they spent a day together under the snow, in bookstores, bars, etc. A fake engagement will bring her in front of Jack, the girl who broke her heart who is the sister of the guy she is fake engaged with the ultimate goal of earning money to live. This unfortunate event that has fate written all over it, will transform a week with Andrew, her fake fiancé, and his family into a week she will never forget.
I really enjoyed the back and forth between the present events and the flashbacks ones told in Ellie's webcomic. Ellie is an artist and she uses her talent to draw a sort of diary of what happens to her.
There was the right amount of drama, steam to make you sweat, fun times and tense times, a bit of angst, and as usual a lot of heart. Perfect read for Christmas!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for the ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #NetGalley #KissHerOnceForMe

Love a PNW rom-com. I'm just twitterpated about reading a lgbtq+ rom com in PDX! At Christmas! Golly what a great book. HEA, thank goodness! But so much character development and modeling of good relationships and communication. I just geeked out knowing all the Portland allusions! I really connected with the protagonist and felt validated seeing someone struggle through fear of failure and anxiety. I love the fluffy but realistic family dynamics. Some of the family dynamics could have been more fleshed out, but not pertinent for the story. Excellent read and I highly recommend.

Ellie and Jack met on Christmas Eve one year ago and spent an incredible holiday together. Ellie hasn't forgotten that Christmas, but as Christmas approaches the following year Ellie is anything but cheerful. With career and financial woes, she agrees to a marriage of convenience with Andrew, a landlord, who stands to gain a lofty inheritance if he gets married and "settles down." Upon arriving at Andrew's family cabin to celebrate Christmas, she meets his sister who is none other than Jack! The story alternates between present day and the previous Christmas being depicted in Ellie's webcomic, "Snowday."

I absolutely loved this book! I started reading it during the hottest time of the year, but immediately found myself becoming absorbed in the setting of Kiss Her Once For Me. I loved how atmospheric the writing was. Portland, bookstores, coffee shops, snow, charming airstreams, Taylor Swift, and the Christmas activities depicted in this book were all giving me cozy vibes and making me wish I had a cabin to spend the holidays at with my family. Beyond depicting several great Queer characters, Cochrun also gives us some great representation of mental health, trauma, and familial problems in the character of Ellie. I also thought that using the webcomic to provide context for Ellie and Jack's relationship and show readers what happened last Christmas was extremely fun and creative.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, Christmas rom-com, and can't wait to read more of Cochrun's work!!

I feel the same about LGBTQIA+ romance as I do about science fiction novels: as long as the plot is engaging, the setting is strong, the characters compelling (and their names pronounceable), I’m in, even though I don’t self-identify as a science fiction fanatic or queer. I selected this from NetGalley’s offerings months ago, tugged in by the twisty premise of demisexual girl gets fake engaged for money to her ex’s brother. I felt like I just wasn’t in the mood for a queer romance, or a holiday story, and avoiding cracking open my ARC until there were only about 3 days left on the ticking clock of the review window. I could not put this one down and finished it just in time.

Told in flashbacks that describe a webcomic series based on a perfect romantic snow day with a mysterious Jack one a year ago, and Ellie’s present day dilemma (should she confess the terms of the engagement to Jack? Disclose to Andrew Jack is the manic pixie dream butch from last Christmas?), the only thing that could make this more perfect is if the comic-format were actual panels…or if the entire book was a graphic novel, hint, hint, @SimonAndSchuster, get on it already!

Ellie is an empathetic character. An animation school grad who got her dream job and then got let go for not being able to cut in at their competitive business, she landed at a coffee-shop job with a terrible boss where Instagramming foam creations on lattes is her artistic outlook. Up for a promotion and facing eviction because her terrible! mother is exhorting her as payback for RAISING her, a wealthy investment banker/hedge fund type overhears her plight, takes her on a date, and suggests they catch two birds with one stone and get engaged to solve her financial troubles and allow him access to his inheritance that will only be unlocked if he marries. Ellie drunkenly agrees, and Andrew whisks her off to a family holiday in the cabin (read: mansion) to solidify the relationship. His sister Jacqueline/Jack turns out to be the beautiful butch baker from last year’s Powell’s excursion. In a side plot, her best friend–trans tattooed kindergarten teacher Dylan–was Andrew’s super-sekrit hookup last year when Jack was skipping the family festivities.

The characters are three-dimensional and pop off the page, and they are also delightfully messy and unexpected. Andrew and Jack’s Korean-Americanism is a subtle undercurrent. Rich widows are best buds with an it’s five o’clock somewhere attitude, and in spite of their imbibing, are more astute than they initially let on. Only Andrew and Jack’s father is stereotypical, with a piece on the side and outdated, unsupportive, critical attitudes. Pop culture is a strong secondary character in the novel, with Alexa playlists popping up to provide the perfect pop music soundtrack. Cochrun pays homage to Taylor Swift, Celine Dion, Fun Home, and While You Were Sleeping. Portland has a life of its, with its lack of snow planning, coffee culture, and queer pride.

It’s difficult not to contrast Kiss Her Once for Me with Not The Plan, which I read in the same week. Both couples have a keyword that means time to tell the truth; “honesty game?” works for Jack and Ellie in a way “blunt, honest?” does not for Isa and Karim. The slow burn and careful respect is hot with Jack and Ellie, and plodding and wooden with Isa and Karim. The detailed sex scenes in Kiss Her Once For Me incorporate sensory detail and delicacy, emotion and acceptance, and make unsexy parts sexy, instead of focusing just on erogenous zones. Bodies in Not The Plan are described as in gym-honed terms, firm and perfect, while in Kiss Her Once for Me the imperfections are adualated: stretch marks and soft bellies and hairy legs are celebrated as “so fucking perfect.”

Ironically what makes Kiss Her Once for Me a 5 star (perfect!) book is how it celebrates messy, looking at failures as falls you can pick yourself back up after. “It’s not a failure to let people see you imperfections, it’s vulnerability,” says the best friend who seems to have her shit together but failed her bar exam. Words to take to heart.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #KissHerOnceForMe from #NetGalley

What an absolute gem this book was! I gotta give a huge shoutout to NetGalley and Atria for the advanced copy of the ebook because I LOVED it!

I will say the story started out kind of slow. We had a lot of characters to introduce and quite a few backstories to establish so it took a hot sec to get to the really good stuff, but honestly once the story really took off it didn’t stop! I LOVED this story. It was not only a perfect holiday read but a lovely second-chance romance story , as well a wonderful story about friendships and family dysfunction. I loved Ellie and Jack of course but I loved all of the Kim-Prescott clan, especially the grandmas: Meemaw and Lovey - they were the real MVPs of the story!

I truly cannot wait for you all to read this because it is such a knock out. Kiss Her Once for Me drops November 1!

Kiss Her Once for Me was an amalgamation of several of my favourite tropes that I hoped would make the feel elated while I read it. Instead, it did not do much of anything for me.

I am unsure where the book lost me considering my expectations were high. I think I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters or the plot itself, despite trying really hard to. I felt there was so much more to Jack and even Andrew but their presence and development were very surface-level to me.

Similar to my thoughts and feelings about the characters, none of the relationships felt like much of anything. There were incredibly repetitive moments and thoughts (from Ellie) about the relationships but I didn’t necessarily feel like of any it was truly as deep as we are made to believe. I wanted to feel the yearning and the tension, especially between Ellie and Jack while in the cabin, and it felt to flat to me that the ending was just as flat.

I think this book will be a hit for many people, especially those who enjoy pop culture references and cheesy rom-coms. It’s okay that it wasn’t for me and I hope the author continues to write about queer romances with levity because other readers might need and appreciate and enjoy it more than me. Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Alison Cochrun for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

The Charm Offensive was one of my few 5 star reads of 2021, so I was very eager to see how Kiss Her Once for Me (KHOfM) stacked up. While this novel wasn't a 5 star read for me, I did enjoy it.

As always, positives first.

Jack & Ellie were beautifully written characters. They both contained multitudes, & there was real depth to their characters. Jack, despite her privilege, had relatable struggles & was a very easy person with whom to empathize. Likewise for Ellie, although she lacked the privilege with which Jack was raised. The very different worlds from which each woman came added to their character and their storyline as a whole. There was the right amount of humour in the novel to qualify as a rom-com without having too much or too little of it (which is a hard balance to strike). I appreciated Jack’s “unconvential” beauty & how it was emphasized, rather than mentioned rather shamefully just once. It’s always nice to see demi characters in rom-coms, as it’s still a misunderstood orientation, & people tend to learn better when they don’t know that they’re being taught. Similarly, Andrew not having a label was refreshing. He’s just doing his thing & living his life. In a world that has a bit too much of a thing for labels, I appreciated the lack of one. As with many a good rom com, the "one bed" scene was delightful. The way Cochrun set it up did not make the scene obvious from the beginning, but was more so a detail that was revealed if you were paying close attention. This was a nice change from the usual theme of they have to share a hotel bed/bed at someone else's house etc. It is my general opinion that sex scenes in queer rom coms are superb to those of hetero rom coms, & KHOfM did not disappoint. Finally, after the inevitable conflict, I very much liked how certain people worked their way back into Ellie's life.

On to the negatives:

Don't get me wrong, I love a good fake dating to real dating novel. In fact, I think I've read 90% of the contemporary rom coms that involve this trope. So the next part does not come from a dislike, but rather a love. The fake fiancé storyline seemed unnecessary & cumbersome in this novel. I got the impression that the fake romance was set dressing more than anything, & it felt awkward & poorly developed. Personally, I think there were better ways to bring Jack back into Ellie's life without relying on Andrew as the catalyst for the two meeting again. There was the occasional feeling of too many storylines happening, between Jack & Ellie, Katherine & Alan's marital issues, & Andrew & Dylan's will-they-won't-they saga. I will fully allow for the fact that this is strictly a me problem, because I can get confused easily. This next critique may be unfair, but I didn't love Dylan's "tragic" backstory. I know that not everything is rosy & beautiful in the lives of queer people, but in a book that was largely about queer love & joy, Dylan's background felt out of place to me. Finally, I have two quibbles with the end of the story. The conflict felt off. Ellie knew that Jack was going to look at her art, so it was odd to me that Ellie wouldn't try to dissuade Jack on the basis that she would find out what had been going on. The ending also felt rushed, which was unfortunate because this story deserved a beautiful end.

Thanks to NetGalley & Atria Books for this ARC.

DNF. Nothing against the author or the book itself, but once I discovered the love interest was a queer person of color, I didn't want to read it. As a queer POC myself, I've had too many bad experiences with white authors not accurately portraying queer POC and their experiences. I don't think I'm the right target audience for this book.

I enjoyed Kiss Her Once For Me much more than I expected! While the characters seemed exaggerated and annoying at times, I loved the friendships and found family in the book as much as -- if not more than -- the romance.

Honestly, I would have loved more of Andrew as well as some of the story told in Jack's perspective. I also wish the book ended with another piece of snow girl/the arrangement to tie it all together.

Overall, it was a quick enjoyable read.

Alison nailed it again! I thought the web comic within the story as a narrative device was brilliant!

Alison Cochrun never misses. She writes romance in such a dreamy and realistic way that it’s truly swoon worthy. The writing makes it feel like Christmas even in the warm summer months. The characters were stunning and I truly felt like I was reading a Hallmark Christmas romcom.

This book was another wonderful novel from Alison Cochrun. I loved Alison's first book and this one was no different. I really loved the holiday season relationship and the animation centered career that one of the main characters has. I think this book is sweet and perfect for anyone wanting a cute romance this Christmas. If you are looking for a novel to get you in the holiday mood then this one is it. Preorder or pick it up in November wherever books are sold.

I really wanted to love this considering how much I loved The Charm Offensive but this one was a bit too depressing for my tastes.

There’s only so much repetition about the fear of failure that I can take when there wasn’t more to balance it out and make me fall for these characters. At least give me some good holiday feels but this is not a holiday romcom despite one attempt to make holiday cookies and getting a Christmas tree.

I love how Cochrun’s adding more queer romances to the world but this one missed the mark for me (it’s probably a me not you thing).

I loved The Charm Offensive deeply and was so excited to pick this one up, and it absolutely did not disappoint!! Cochrun is able to craft a rom-com that hits all the marks. Kiss Her Once for Me is trope-filled sapphic goodness with a fun holiday setting, side characters that are easy to fall in love with and a point of view that I felt a little called out by. I really enjoy reading her style and characters and this book just solidified for me that I will be picking up whatever she decides to put out. Plus all the Taylor Swift references really made me happy.

4.5 stars!!!

If this isn't the top holiday romcom this season, I will riot. Okay, maybe not, but I do think that this is my favorite Christmas romance I've ever read.

Last Christmas, Ellie had a once in a lifetime type of connection with a woman she'd just met. Spoiler alert: that lasted a single day. This year, not only is she still heartbroken, but Ellie is broke. Not "character in a book broke", but realistically flat broke. After losing her dream job, she's working as a barista and trying but failing to make ends meet. Enter Andrew Kim-Prescott, who owns the building Ellie works in and needs a fake bride in order to receive his inheritance. In exchange for a temporary blessed union and her presence at the Kim-Prescott family cabin for Christmas, Ellie stands to receive a remarkable amount of cash.

What Ellie wasn't expecting was to arrive at the cabin with her "fiance" to find that his sister is the baker who broke her heart just last Christmas, Jack. Add on that Jack's best friend Dylan has had an entanglement with Andrew, and you've got yourself one heck of a love trapezoid.

I have too many good things to say. The fact that Jack (oh how I loved Jack!) was a pretty great communicator really set the book apart for me. Kiss Her Once For Me has impeccable Hallmark movie level cozy little Christmas vibes and has the added bonus of adding in realistic and well done queer/demisexual representation. I will be re-reading this by the Christmas tree this year for sure.

Thanks so much to Atria books as well as NetGalley for an advanced galley in exchange for my honest thoughts.

4 stars

Cochrun's sophomore submission - another fun contribution to the queer love canon - is filled with great characters, holiday cheer, and one angsty protagonist who needs to think about Ru's favorite question: 'If you can't love yourself, how... ?' You know the rest.

Ellie, the m.c., is a challenging protagonist for anyone who's been in her shoes. She's at a rough point in her life: a perceived career failure, impending financial ruin, and lacking support from family and friends. Most of all, she's hampered by her own doubts and fears. This is why she often returns to a particularly magical past Christmas (P.S., you BETTER love "Last Christmas" because it *will* be stuck in your head during the first part of this novel!) with a special surprise stranger. The whirlwind concludes abruptly, but it never really ends in Ellie's mind (or heart - aaaaaw).

A year later, Ellie finds herself edging up on another Christmas alone and with the memories of last year making her feel somehow even worse. So, it's no surprise that she agrees to a truly wild drunken contract. This changes the course of not only her next few weeks but really her whole life and sense of self.

I am bananas - still - for _The Charm Offensive_, and many of the same great qualities exist here: charm, romance, great characters, and solid representation. For me, the pacing was way too slow throughout the whole first half of the novel. It did ramp way up, but I think if I hadn't had such a love for Cochrun's first book (and resulting belief about the potential in this one), I might have bailed too soon. I'm glad I didn't.

This is an enjoyable, if slow-to-start queer romance with characters whom I either immediately grew to love or ultimately accepted. Cochrun has a great voice and style, and I can't wait to read much more of her work in the future. She remains on my instant request list. Folks looking for a thoughtful queer romance - especially with some holiday flair - will enjoy this one with a heavy blanket, mulled wine, and a roaring fire (I say from a 90+-degree September)!