I've read all of Emma Lord's books and I've enjoyed each and every one. Begin Again was no exception. I will say guessed the twist/ conflict in the story early on, but I still found the ending so satisfying. I adored these characters!

When say Andie was relatable... sheesh. The helper, the planner, the organizer. Totally me. I Aside from her, Milo was my favorite in the book. Emma writes great heroes. As this takes place in college it was more NA than YA and it worked for me! This one was great and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

Tender, funny, and perfectly relatable--three things I expect from every Emma Lord release, and three things we get with Begin Again! Reading this book felt like wrapping yourself up in a cozy, well-loved quilt. It was warm and fun and the perfect book for anyone needing their next read to be a cozy pick-me-up. I loved the characters, I loved the setting, I loved the found family. Begin Again carries the charm and tenderness I've come to associate with Emma Lord, and is perfect for fans of Emory Lord, Jenn Bennett, and Lynn Painter.

Begin Again
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: YA Romance
Format: Kindle eBook and Audiobook
Date Published: 1/24/23
Author: Emma Lord
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio
GR: 4.02

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

My Thoughts: This story rang college experience 101. Andie switches to one school to be with her boyfriend, while he secretly switches to another school. Through Andie’s college experience, you can feel her triumphs, her fallen grace, and the connections she makes along the way. I have not read a Emma Lord book before, but I will be reading more of her stories.

The story is narrated by Andie, in her perspective. This takes place in a college setting. There are not your typical social cliches, which I absolutely appreciated. The characters are flawed, and make mistakes, you can see the human side of the equation, and it just makes them likable. Andie is outgoing, independent, and fierce, and she really grew throughout the story. Milo is the RA that is quiet, hooked on coffee, and just lovable. The characters were well developed, had witty banter, connective, and creatively woven. The author’s writing style was crisp, straightforward, funny, swoony, and kept me engaged.

This was a cute, fun story about finding who you are, navigating young life, and the relationships along the way. I had the pleasure of receiving both the ebook and audiobook and preferred the audiobook on this one. This story is definitely a journey, one that I think a lot of readers will be able to connect to. I recommend picking it up!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝙁𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙥 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮, 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙟𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙮, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙆𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝘼𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮! 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚, 𝘽𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙪𝙣𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙔𝘼 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣.

📍 Read if you like:
• Friend Groups
• College Stories
• Campus Settings
• Well Developed Characters

This is my first book by this author but definitely won’t be my last. It starts with a miscommunication that worked, usually, that’s a trope I don’t love - but in this story, it was done perfectly.

One of the strongest aspects of this book was the friend group. As much as I loved our main characters, the supporting characters were so lovable.

I loved the campus setting, I’m a sucker for stories set in colleges. Blue Ridge community college was perfect!

Andie was such a sweet and caring character. But Milo definitely stole the show - he was so wholesome and relatable.

The book does talk about some deeper issues, like our MC Andie dealing with her memories of her mother who passed away.

This whole book was an amazing experience. Some moments did feel a bit obvious, but I loved the book as a whole. The characters were so flawed and genuine, especially their friendship. The college vibe was so fun to read about: scavenger hunts, trivia nights, and vampire games.

If you’re looking for a heartwarming contemporary YA rom-com then I would highly recommend checking this one out!

Begin Again is YA Romance (and Emma Lord) at its finest. I’ve enjoyed all of Lord’s work, but this one felt different and more refined? Perhaps it was the college setting or maybe just the storyline in general, but this is a very sweet and uplifting story of a girl finding her own way against deep, internal pressures and expectations. Lord has a special way of making me relate to her protagonists, and Andie was no different. The overachieving teenager in me always feel *seen,* but never judged or belittled, by her characters and writing style.

Begin Again features a really fun cast of characters that strengthen this story immensely. Shay, Val, and Milo are my favorite trio and I loved how they all built each other up. Each of them had their own personal tribulations and it felt deeply rewarding to watch them sort through those feelings and come out stronger. I loved how Andie’s “fix-it” personality wasn’t played as a joke, but instead as a piece of armor that was able to be dismantled throughout the story. Watching these characters grow, and watching And make choices that ultimately make HER happy was my favorite part of this story.

EL has proven herself a master of YA contemporaries and I think that I’d write anything that she publishes at this point. This may not have been my favorite of her four books thus far, but it’s deeply enjoyable and worth a read!

Thank you so much to Netgalley & Wednesday Books for the advanced copy.

Andie Rose transfers to her dream college with two goals in mind: surprise her boyfriend Connor and gather enough ribbons to join a secret society. When she arrives on her first day to find her boyfriend transferred her to her old college, she must find a way to find her own path at school.

A heartwarming coming of age story that features friendship and taking a chance on yourself. A fantastic reminder that we’re all exactly where we need to be.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for a fair review.

Emma Lord has had a new book come out every January for the past four years and I've loved every single one. They have everything I will forever love about most YA Contemporary: self-discovery, heart, and a little romance. Begin Again was no exception—now diving into college!

Andie Rose worked her butt off to get to be a mid-year transfer to her 1st choice college which is also where her boyfriend Cooper was accepted to right off. She decides to keep it a secret from him so she can surprise him, but when she knocks on his door someone else answers and says she has the wrong place and that he's never heard of him. She doesn't have time to figure anything out since she needs to get to her dorm, meet her roommate and attend an event on the quad and then on to her first class. Later she finds out he transferred back to the community college she'd been attending as a surprise to her.

She immediately hits if off with her roommate, Shay, is mostly amused by the RA, Milo, but after hitting the quad is late to her first class and the entrance exam with lots of math without a calculator on her and panicks and takes off. Milo talks her down from leaving for home. In an effort to make new friends she gets the whole dorm to attend a game and starts building a found family at school.

As she struggles to do everything and help everyone she overwhelms herself and is on the verge of failing a class. She gets a tutor who also becomes a good friend. Andie's other thing is this school is where her parents met & fell in love. When her mom died of cancer when Andie was 11, her father kind of distanced himself and let her grandmothers raise her. Everywhere she goes on campus she feels like she is in her mother's shadow.

I really enjoyed Andie's journey to find and not only define but re-define herself as her own person. I'm pretty sure at this point I will read anything Emma Lord writes. This time she had me when the group attends trivia night and Andie is so sure she'll be useless until the category of tv & book vampires (or something like that) and she rolls up her sleeves and says in true Edward Cullen fashion says "Hold on spider monkeys".

Andie Rose has plans for her life and she’s finally making them happen. She transferred out of her community college so she can be at her dream school, be with her boyfriend, and study psychology. Just one problem: while she was secretly transferring to surprise her boyfriend, he was doing the same thing.

This is Emma Lord’s first college book and it did not disappoint. It still has the same quirky charm but it’s slightly more mature. And Blue Ridge State is the perfect college setting. The traditions, the games, the professors, the town, the ties to Andie’s parents. I love it all.

Andie thinks she has her whole life mapped out but she’s starting to realize she can’t fix everyone without working on herself first. It’s such an interesting look at the way grief can shape us in our choices and our actions. Andie needs to figure out who she is as her own person rather than following in her mother’s footsteps.

Every character in this book is just so sweet! Andie’s roommate, Shay, is a bookstagrammer and her whole aesthetic is everything. The romance with Milo may be a slooow burn but I love him so much. And you can’t forget the grandmas. What’s a book without a set of spunky grandmas?

Everything Emma Lord writes is a must read for me and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Read this book for:
-college fun and games
-grandmas
-grief and healing
-nods to bookstagram
-lots of bagels with a variety of cream cheese flavors

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

🎗️☕ Book Review ☕🎗️

#beginagain
#emmalord
#teens&ya
#romance
#NetGalley published 1/24/23
#wednesdaybooks

☕☕☕☕/5

This was a great story of finding one's tribe and love. Andie grew up longing to go to her parents' Alma mater. She needed to feel closer to her late mom. She decided to try to reinvent herself and succeeds in finding the real Andie.

She is the type of kid I would have loved to have found my freshman year in college! But the reason for the minus one star is that everything almost came just a little bit too easy for her. The conflict happened before the book starts. I think that's what I was missing in the story. EL does describe it but it doesn't feel like conflict. It only feels like memories. And not necessarily bad ones. Something does happen in the story to stir things up at one point but it seems minor when the reader expects it to be a major conflict.

But hey, thankfully, there is no miscommunication in this one as there is in most romances. That is my least favorite part of a romance!

This is not my first EL book. I definitely enjoyed this main character and supporting characters much better than I did in the other book of her that I read. I will continue to read/review her books as I bump into them. They are a nice light break from some of the other books that I choose.

#stmartinspress
#ya
#collegeromamce
#bookstagram #bookrecommendation #bookreview #booknerdigan #bookish #booknerdbookreviews #bookaddict #bookaholic #booklover #booknerd #readingaddiction

Begin Again by Emma Lord is a heartfelt adventure following Andie as she experiences the highs and lows of her first year of college. She transferred from a community college to be with her high school boyfriend Connor. Blue Ridge State is Andie's dream school because both parents attended and met there. This place is extra special now since it holds many dear memories of her mother, who has since passed away. Andie forms some deep friendships and discovers herself throughout this book. I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was delightful! I highly recommend it!

this was a solid emma lord book. it was cute and adorable, messy and realistic. loved the characters, as always.

What happens when all your plans seem to go wrong? This is what type-a Andie is attempting to deal with as she transfers to Blue Ridge State in the middle of her Freshman year. She has a plan. Attend college with her childhood friend and long-time boyfriend, Conner. Earn as many of the elusive ribbons as her mother did when she was at Blue Ridge. Continue to find ways to help others. But when she gets there, nothing goes right. Connor has withdrawn from Blue Ridge. Andie has a tough time keeping up with ribbon collecting while maintaining grades. And finding her voice to help others becomes a bigger task than she originally imagined.

I adored this story of finding oneself and finding your core group that becomes your family. Andie, her roommate, Shay, and her RA, Milo, all become a solid trio pretty much from the moment of Andie’s arrival. Shay quickly becomes the kind of supportive friend that we all wish we had. Milo is the dreamy boy down the hall that is fun to crush on. And watching Andie and the others attempt to experience college to the fullest is a blast. Andie and Milo both have deep loss in their life. I loved the conversations they had with one another about their loved ones and how to move on from that. The found family is strong here and may be the best part of this book.

Reading books about coming of age is great because, when well done like this one is, you get to see so much character growth. I cheered these characters on from the sidelines throughout and loved the ending that came about. This is an uplifting novel about family, friendship, and finding and accepting who you are and who you want to be. Highly recommend!

This book was cute and well developed and I enjoyed the coming of age, learning about yourself story and the in depth character development. The relationships were messy and flawed and real and I appreciated that too. I did get a little stuck though because somehow, even though the story went deep on each main character’s struggles and interests, I had a hard time feeling like I actually knew them, as people. I never really understood quite what drew Andie and Milo to each other—not that it wasn’t believable but just that I didn’t feel I knew either of them well enough, beyond surface characteristics, to judge either way whether they were a good match. So when we discover that Andie is an outgoing social butterfly who brings people together, I was confused by that because I didn’t understand her well enough to picture it. And, I felt like the book leaned in too hard on a few things that just didn’t matter that much. For example, why on earth would Andie’s friends be mad that she took a day to process before having a difficult conversation that she always intended to have? And the ribbon obsession was so consuming that I had trouble believing it. That said, it was a fun, thoughtful, cute book and a quick and enjoyable read.

I really love everything Emma has written and this book definitely hit the mark. As someone who thrives on plans myself, I felt deeply for Andie as she navigated all of her carefully laid plans imploding around her. The story was cute and often times profound and I found myself learning quite a bit about myself alongside Andie.

Innocent Andie heads to college mid-year with big dreams and the master plans of her life laid out, but what they don't include: her boyfriend transferring to her old school, her moody caffeine-addicted RA, and the fact she can't always fix everyone else's problems.

Once I got into this book I couldn't put it down I loved the ribbon hunt and the nostalgia it brought up as I pictured my college campus while reading. The characters were easy to connect with and you instantly wanted Andie and Milo to be together. I enjoyed the twist that included Val and her boyfriend. However, there seemed to be too many references to #trending items (i.e. bookstagram, fantasy novels, and T-swift) and it seemed more like a high school romance than based on a college campus.

In summary, this is a slow-burn YA romance. My rating: 3⭐'s

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this advance copy!

Such a cute read! At times, I was frustrated and annoyed with our MC, but then remembered that she's a college freshman and I should cut her some slack. The whole story was heartwarming and a lot of fun to read. Emma Lord always does such a good job balancing serious matters with cute and fun characters and scenarios.

Andie is used to being able to plan her way to success, but sometimes even the best laid plans go awry! What will she do when she arrives at her dream college and nothing seems to go right?

There were so many cute things I loved about this just arrived at college story. Great supporting characters definitely drew me in (yay for feisty grandmas and Milo, the cute but grumpy RA!) and had me laughing out loud! I did have a hard time connecting with Andie’s “head in the sand” mentality in regards to her boyfriend. Not only did they grossly miscommunicate, but she bent over backwards for a guy who made it pretty clear he wasn’t sure about wanting to be in a relationship with her. It frustrated me to see this go on for so much of the book. It was good however, to watch Andie mature as time went by and I very much appreciated the evolution we see in her relationship with her father as well as the found family she discovers at school. While this wasn’t my favorite by Emma Lord (Tweet Cute was the best!) I will continue to read everything and anything she writes!

Overview: Andie Rose is finally walking in her mother's footsteps transferring to Blue Ridge State halfway through freshman year. Her mom is a legend at the university, and after she passed, it felt like one of the few connections Andie still has left with her. But transitioning to Blue Ridge isn't without complications from blips in gathering ribbons to join a secret society to failing a stats exam to issues with her boyfriend, Andie is starting to doubt if her long held fantasy isn't all she built it up to be. Still, there's an epic roommate, an RA she's trying to deny sparks for, and an awesome student tutor that keeps her buoyed through the tumultuous times. Overall: 4.5

Characters: 5 I love everyone in this book. Andie is optimistic and sweet but also gets worn down by everything that college throws at you pretty easily. She has drive and determination, but she's also too willing to sacrifice herself and her happiness for others. She just exudes good person vibes in the least annoying way possible, and it's amazing to see her journey of learning that sometimes putting yourself first is the most important thing.

Then there's her family. After her mom passed when she was a kid, her two grandmas moved in to help raise her. There are so many cute scenes showing how her unconventional family has been so supportive and helpful, even in the face of a tragedy. Andie's dad is also an important part of the story, even thought they start the book barely speaking to each other. This storyline is handled so well as Andie and her dad start at an impasse of built up negative feelings and really work in a natural and honest way to resolve the hurt feelings in a healthy way. I feel like we don't get enough parent-child storylines like this, and I really connected to it.

Finally, there's the friends in Andie's like, most of who she meets at Blue Ridge. But before we get to them, I feel like her awful boyfriend, Connor, deserves a shout out. You can tell from the start that he sucks, but Andie's journey with moving on from that part of her childhood also feels very organic and realistic even though we know from the start that we shouldn't trust or like Connor. Then there's her friends that she makes along the way – Milo, Shay, and Valeria. Shay is her bookstagram famous roommate who has a super aesthetic half to the room and more books than you could imagine. Shay is supportive and can be tons of fun. Milo is the floor's RA, and it's clear from Andie's first meeting with him that there's undeniable chemistry there despite his cynical and sarcastic approach to life. Finally, there's Val who meets Andie when Andie needs a student stats tutor. She ends up blending into the friend group and having sparks with one of the friends. Each of the members of the friend group are so lovely and fully realized, having plots and journeys of their own that are equally weighted to Andie's.

Plot: 5 This is one of the most intricately plotted contemporary books I've read in a while. There are definitely moments were you can see the outline working and which moments are left as tells for what will happen later in the book. It means that by the end, all of the story threads perfectly stack together and snap into place to create a super satisfying ending where all the threads get tied together in a way you can't help smiling at. Andie starts the book with so much to figure out, and there's answers to every quest she begins (and yes, even though this is a contemporary novel, there is basically a quest). Also, Andie and Milo's slow burn love story is the first in a long time that's made me want to be in love like that.

Writing: 4 College YA is and has always been my soft spot, and this gave me the same joy and hope for my college experience (in admittedly a more PG way) as The Sex Lives of College Girls. Both the show and the book have such a comforting and hilarious feeling in their found family narratives and promise of community. Sadly, my college experience hasn't lead me to an idealized friend group, but I love seeing it in media about that time. The book does a great job capturing the trials and tribulations of that time of life from all angles. It feels very honest to the experience, and it was comforting to read as someone in the middle of her college experience but would also be a great primer for a high schooler looking ahead. It's been a while since I've read YA, and Begin Again was a good reminder of why I love these stories. Also, why do I love romance so much more when it's in YA stories?

http://www.readingwritingandme.com/2023/02/ya-book-review-begin-again-by-emma-lord.html

I discovered Emma Lord in the midst of the pandemic with her debut, Tweet Cute, which ended up being one my favorite reads of 2020, and since then i'm hooked, give me any book by her and i would devour it, and probably love it.

This one was no exception. Begin Again was a delightful read from beginning to end.

Andie was a lovely character in the throes of self-discovery who wanted to feel closer to her dead mom. Milo was the perfect blend of mystery and sweetness. I loved how their friendship bloomed and that he supported Andie from the beginning, helping her adapt to college life, and obviously, how they ended up getting together. It felt very organic and satisfying.

Shay and Valeria were awesome, too. Loved their friendship with Andie, and especially how Valeria acted during the climax of the story.

Overall, I think this book was great. If you like slow-burn, they get together at the end-kind of romances set in college this is for you!