I loved the author’s previous book, so I had high expectations for this one. Kiss Her Once for Me has a lot of cliches and is predictable, obviously, but books with cliches can still be entertaining. But this one misses the mark a bit.

I liked the storyline, but characters not revealing their true intentions and causing miscommunication just isn’t my favorite trope. I wish there was more chemistry between the characters.

This was a cute book, but I wasn't as into it as I was with the Charm Offensive. I enjoyed following along with the story, but didn't find myself as attached to the characters. Overall it was a sweet holiday book.

I will read absolutely everything Alison writes, give me a shopping list, an opinion piece, their daily to do list - I want it all.

What a sweet romcom right here! I enjoyed the banter between characters in this story! Kiss Her Once For Me was a quick read that I seemed to fly through!

Love, love, love! I loved the romance and the characters so much. As unbelievable as some parts felt it was easy enough to put aside for the holiday vibes. I will read anything Alison writes.

This gave me such warm fuzzies, an absolute mug of Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows of a book. A solid addition for libraries with strong romance readership looking to add queer representation.

A super sweet romance, loved the disability rep. As always, the miscommunication killed me. I'd recommend this to romcom lovers who dont mind a strong miscommunication trope.

This sapphic holiday romance features a second chance romance, a love trapezoid, and a whole lot of snow days. After agreeing to enter a marriage of convenience with her landlord, Ellie discovers that his sister is the woman who broke her heart last Christmas. I felt like Jack was too hard on Ellie sometimes given her own mistakes / choices, but overall I really loved this one-- especially the ace / demi rep!

I struggle to put into words how much this book meant to me as an Ace Woman. I thought The Charm Offensive was the most relatable book I'd ever read and then Alison comes out with THIS?!?! I was moved to tears multiple times. The romance was amazing, the writing was beautiful, and the Taylor Swift references were the cherry on top!! 100000/10

“All love and ways of loving are love.”

HELLO WORLD ALISON COCHRUN HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!! This sapphic Christmas romance kept my pulse racing and my heart swooning the whole time. The setup for KISS HER ONCE FOR ME is this: Ellie is broke, feeling like a failure, and emotionally frozen after a year of struggle. She agrees to fake-marry Andrew, the landlord of the coffee shop she works at, so he can inherit his trust fund and she can claim a portion. Except when they arrive at his family’s cabin outside of Portland to win them over, Ellie realizes Andrew’s sister is Jack, the butch lesbian baker she had one incredible day with last Christmas - and the woman who broke her heart.

It’s an absurd romcom premise, distantly inspired by “While You Were Sleeping”, that is delightfully executed. There’s miscommunication, inconvenient interruptions, forced proximity, and “I just can’t not kiss you” levels of desire all wrapped up in that kind of stupid holiday magic we all suspend disbelief for. Ellie and Jack’s banter is perfect and their chemistry is electric. Ellie has generalized anxiety disorder, and the way her spirals and almost-panic attacks are written is so powerful, especially how Jack responds and supports her. I adored the side characters, which include a pair of party grandmas, a knife-sharp enby with a soft center, a spreadsheet-inclined mom who’s passionate about family bonding, and an adorable dog who, through no fault of his own, is named after my least-favorite GBBO judge.

Also! The demisexual rep! We love to see it! And the “we’re gonna do what queer women do: talk about our feelings” bits! Damn why am I a queer person I would love to avoid my feelings just like Ellie! Also Ellie being a perfectionist bisexual trying to control her whole life HAHAHA Alison, joke’s on you I can’t relate!! And the picture-perfect Portland setting! And Jack’s nonstop aughts bops playlist! And the Powell’s Books meet-cute! Over FUN HOME! I went absolutely feral!

It’s a hilarious, tender, sexy novel about dreams, fears of failure, learning to take risks, and finding the people you belong to. Thanks to Atria Books for the review copy! This book is out 11/1 and trust me, you do not want to miss it.

Content warnings: biphobia, toxic parents

This was a very nice holiday rom-com! Lot's of LGBTQIA+ representation, great story and character development!

I wanted to love...but it had insta love and I just can't with insta love. Its even set in Portland! I love Portland! And the holidays! But ugh. I might try again later this year but this one was just not it.

Ellie’s life was a lot different a year ago - last Christmas, she had her dream job and her dream girl…until she didn’t. This Christmas, she’s lost her job and is barely making ends meet, so she agrees to marry Andrew in exchange for a chunk of his inheritance. Spending Christmas at her fake fiancé’s family cabin gets a lot more complicated when she finds about his sister is her dream girl from last Christmas.

This was fine - I loved The Charm Offensive, and this didn’t measure up in my opinion. I think the premise was a little too unrealistic for my taste? It’s still a solid three star book!

This was a quick, cute read! It picks up quickly in the beginning, which I always struggle with with books.

Again I wanted to love this but I could not. I did not find the characters likeable and I wasn't invested in their story. Which is why I put off reviewing this.

One year ago, on Christmas Eve, Ellie not only had her dream job but also managed to fall in love in just one night with Jack. A year later, she is working at a local coffee shop when her landlord proposes a marriage of convenience to help them both. When she meets his sister, she is surprised to realize it is Jack, the woman from the year before. Ellie is faced with a dilemma - stick with the security the fake relationship guarantees or risk it all for a chance at true love?

There is not a single character in this story that I did not love (well, maybe Andriew’s dad). While they each had their own baggage, they were also all simply incredible and people I would want in my life. They were fun, chaotic, relatable and really endearing. I loved the flashbacks to the one night one year prior that showed what went down between Jack and Ellie and seeing Ellie navigate all her relationships in the present day kept me on my toes. This story also had a fun winter/holiday setting and the Christmas references made my heart so happy. The love trapezoid was a bit wild but despite its messiness it somehow worked.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

3.5 - I read this book really quickly around the holidays and it was pretty delightful! It is extremely gushy so if that's not your type of romance, maybe skip it. But overall very solid even though some things could have used tweaking.
My main issue was with the webcomic chapters, which just didn't make sense to me. I think they should have hired someone to make actual comics for the book, or at least the storytelling should have been formatted like a comic. Since that wasn't the case, it should have just been presented as flashbacks. They later reveal the names in the webcomic were different (bc fictionalizing is just changing names apparently??) so we weren't really reading the comic? Idk it just took me out of the story every time. I also wish Ellie had eventually apologized about fully using real people and stories in her comic.

In general, I like romances with two POVs better than one, and in this case I really wish Jack's POV was included. Ellie makes a lot of snap judgments throughout and complains a lot. I think it's supposed to be her anxiety but it became overwhelming at times to be in her head.

The sex scenes were pretty good, not overly detailed but sometimes that's for the best lol. I wasn't sure what to expect after fade to black of The Charm Offensive.

Thanks to netgalley/publisher for the eARC!

Alison Cochrun made her mark with Charm Offensive and Kiss Her Once for Me just keeps the momentum going.

This is definitely a more vulnerable book than her first one, but all of that helps to make this just a wonderful read. These characters are so real and complicated in the best possible way. I was not expecting fake dating in this and the fact that it was a subversion of the trope? Delightful.

This book has so much heart. Cochrun’s writing is so specific and her voice is woven seamlessly into these characters. This is a Christmas romcom that I’ll probably come back to each season. I think there’s so much here to unpack with subsequent readings and I can’t wait to fall in love with it annually.

4.5 stars rounded up.

This novel has a lot of things I love; a sapphic love story, great representation, it's a Christmas book that isn't cheesy, I related a lot the main character, it has the one bed trope, and it's a second chance romance, where she was able to make a 24 hour love story believable. It took me a while to find my stride with this book but once I did I ended up really enjoying it. This was my second Alison Cochrun and I will definitely be reading anything else she releases.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance reader's copy of this book.

I had high hopes for this book after loving The Charm Offensive, but this was a painful read. Why do authors think we want to see the same description of characters over and over again? If I ever see the words "half-moon smile" or "smells liked baked bread" again, I will stab myself in the eye. Also, the whole time I kept thinking of my babies' poop when they were breastfed, because it smelled like baked bread. Killed the romance of the story...