Ok this is genuinely the best book I’ve read in a while. Thank you so much to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Emma Lord for an e-ARC. Spoiler free as always!

First of all, I know Emma Lord is a huge Taylor Swift fan. There are SO MANY hidden (and not so hidden - hello Begin Again) references in this book, it’s incredible that she fit them all in so seamlessly. I fell off the TS bandwagon a bit ago, so I only caught some of them but Sabrina caught more in our unintentional buddy read. I appreciated that they fit so well into the story and didn’t detract from it.

There are so many layers to this book and I honestly saw so much of myself in Andie so many times throughout it that it almost physically hurt. Also a huge fan of her full name but I’ll let you learn that one the way I did because it is super fun.

We start off this book with learning that Andie has worked her butt off to get into her dream school and surprise her boyfriend from childhood, Connor, only to learn that Connor has transferred back to their community college two hours away to be with her.

We meet Milo, Andie’s RA, and right off the bat he has quite possibly one of the worst first impressions of any love interest I’ve ever met. We later learn that this is partially due to the fact that he has become overly addicted to caffeine and has a special blend he creates/sells at the local Bagelopolis. One of Andie’s first fix-its is to help him off this addiction. Grumpy, meet Sunshine.

As the story unfolds, we watch Andie spend the majority of her time fixing other people’s problems in an attempt to ignore her own. In the meantime, she’s such a light to everyone around her and creates friendships for people who previously just went about awkwardly ignoring each other. She slowly learns that facing your problems is the only way to deal with them, and it’s easier to do when you’ve created the family you missed out on growing up.

To be honest, my favorite thing about this book was its parallel to so much of my own life at that time. I saw so much of myself in Andie; I think it’s a pretty common response to childhood trauma to become a fixer upper for other people as you get older.

Watching the dynamics between Milo, Andie, Shay, and Valeria was so much fun. Truly a great found family. Valeria and Shay were really great characters and I loved that they were both huge bookworms.

Despite his inability to function without coffee (to start, obviously Andie helps to fix this as well), Milo is so much like my husband that I found myself swooning so hard. From the beginning, he believed in Andie 100% and never let her give up on herself in exchange for helping other people. Though a bit of a recluse, he has such a secret heart for other people’s well-being and is there for his friends through everything. The way he lifts up Andie and encourages her through her healing stepped him up in my mind.

When *person* tries to destroy everything Andie has done for herself and tells her that she doesn’t even fit in in this new school, Milo is right there to remind her exactly how strong she is and how many people she’s helped to become a better version of themselves along the way.

Y’all I think I could go on for a long time lol. I’ll stop here but

TLDR; I liked this book.

Emma Lord continues to write some of the most charming coming-of-age stories out there. With the characters in this one a little older than her usual high school seniors, we now join overachiever Andie Rose as she transfers mid-freshman school year to the university of her dreams in hopes of following the plans she's had half her life. The thing is that even the best-laid plans are not guaranteed to work out when one considers that life is messy and not everything can be planned, analyzed, and workshopped into perfection.
Andie is really likable and the people she's surrounded by are equally as entertaining and relatable. It's a story full of all the pressures one faces when enrolled in a competitive university with the added pressure of a long-distance relationship and trying to live up to the greatness of a parent that's no longer there.
The big reveal is obvious long before it's revealed simply because, of course, that's what happened (you'll know what I mean when you read it), but it's also a great motivator for Andie to finally face all she's been pushing down and distracting herself from. It also leads to some of the best character exploration I've ever read from a YA title, so extra kudos to Lord for that.
Overall, it's a quick, very charming, very enjoyable read that got me to care for every single character almost from the get-go and continued to give me reasons to love the story from beginning to end.

Many happy thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the charming early read!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 5/5 stars

What an adorable romcom/coming-of-age story. Begin Again is about Andie Rose, who transfers to her dream college, Blue Ridge State, to major in psychology and be closer to her boyfriend. However, all of her carefully laid plans go out the window when she discovers her boyfriend transferred to community college..to be closer to her. To avoid fixing her own problems, Andie focuses on the problems of those around her. This includes her roommate, tutor, and her swoony RA, Milo. Throw in a radio show, ribbon scavenger hunts, and a ton of banter and you have the sweetest college romance.

I just loved this book. Andie is such a likable heroine that you immediately root for. Milo is the SWOONIEST leading man. Emma Lord writes the best cast of characters every time. I also really enjoyed how Begin Again was set in college. I loved the atmosphere and all of the hijinks (I want to go to Blue Ridge State). Basically this book has everything - romance, comedy, EMOTIONS, everything. I loved it all. All the stars.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I know I won't be able to fully convey how much I enjoyed this book, but I really loved it. The characters were well written and developed. I loved their storylines and all the secondary characters too. They all worked together to form a heartwarming, funny, coming of age story.

Andie's life has had a few obstacles and when she finally gets into her dream college, things don't go as planned. Her RA Milo plays a pivotal role in her first semester at college and I love how their stories intertwined and he & her roommate Shay showed her what friends outside of her small town can be like. I also found Milo's family to be great additions and they helped the story have multiple layers.

The only negative I could find was how long a certain character stuck around. I honestly don't know what either person saw in them.

Trigger Warning: Parental death, semi-absent parent

Andie Rose transferred to Blue Ridge State as a mid-year freshman to surprise her boyfriend, Connor, only to find that he transferred to her community college. Both of Andie's parents went to Blue Ridge State and were members of the school's infamous secret societies. Andie has always dreamed of following in their footsteps and sacrifices her weekends for participating in the ribbon hunts that students need to qualify for the societies. In the midst of the chaos of losing time studying, she begins to question if she really belongs there at all. But with the friendship of her roommate, her RA, and her tutor, Andie finds herself at home on campus.

Emma Lord does it again! I was hooked from Tweet Cute, and I'll continue to read anything she writes. The characters in Begin Again were so genuine and well-developed. I became attached to all of them very early on, and I appreciated that one of the characters had a bookstagram. While some moments were a little predictable and cheesy, I loved following these characters and was rooting for all of them to win.

"You need to decide what's important to you, or then nothing is important. You understand?"

Emma Lord writes such lovely contemporaries. This is my third of her books and I think it's my second favorite! (Tweet Cute being my all-time fave).

Besides the fact that Emma Lord wrote this book, I requested an early copy for one main reason: IT TAKES PLACE IN COLLEGE!! I'm so glad this is becoming more common, especially in YA, so I had to get my hands this one. And, unsurprisingly, the fact that it took place in college ended up being my favorite element.

This book has a lot to offer—insight on parental issues, grief, long-distance relationships, co-dependency, and more. I think going in, readers should know this is NOT a romance. Yes, there is romance involved and a happy ending, but there are probably only like two romantic scenes. This is a contemporary novel about a girl's first year at college, and I really appreciated that.

I think this book would be incredibly healing for anyone going through similar issues as the main character, Andie. And even if you don't relate to all of them, anyone who is starting college or about to would find this extremely comforting and relatable.

I'm obsessed with the friend group at the heart of this novel, and while I didn't get to experience that in college (mainly because of COVID, ew), it made me even more excited for my upcoming study abroad experience! I'm hoping it's a built-in way to... you guessed it... begin again. ;)

Another adorable YA novel from Emma Lord about finding your place in the world! Emma is absolutely an auto-read author for me (although I have to admit I still haven’t read Tweet Cute yet… oops); her characters are always so endearing and her writing is both fun and warm, with a lot of emotional resonance.

I adored Andie as a main character. Other than our first name we honestly have so little in common but I really enjoyed being in her world and was rooting for her all the way! I also loved the found family that Andie created at school and the support they all gave each other – it made me nostalgic for those early days of college. And Milo was a total sweetheart; the slow burn of their friendship turning to something more was lovely to watch.

I do wish there had been a bit more romance. I loooove a slow burn but I could have used more payoff at the end of it. Having said that, this is a YA novel, so maybe I should just manage my expectations.

I’m still hoping for a sexy adult romance from Emma Lord one day, but in the meantime I am loving these cozy young adult books!

Fun fact: my full name is Andishé and two of my nicknames are Andie and Shae, which are two of the main characters in this book! Probably the closest I’ll ever come to having the same name as a book character, haha.

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The part of me that remembers being 18 and lost LOVED this book!

I adore stories about found families. They're just as - if not sometimes more - important as blood families. There's something truly special about making the choice to support someone because you want to, not out of familial obligation. I really loved the family Andie found in the end.

All the characters are great. I felt like Andie got a little repetitive at times but I just had to remind myself that she's 18 and the annoyance went away. I want to sit on a quad and quietly study with Milo. I want to nerd out about romance novels with Shay and Valeria. I want to spend an afternoon causing mischief and mayhem with Andie's grandmas.

The journey Andie goes on is beautiful and heartbreaking and empowering. It made me so happy to experience, a balm my 18-year-old self would have appreciated.

I'll be recommending this to everyone!

Let me tell you, this book tackled a lot of feelings - leaving home, long distance relationships, life plans falling apart, mourning parents, and more - and I think it did a great job of tackling each one. I don't think I even realized how many things were going on until after I sat and reflected on the book for a bit. It was all done so seamlessly. This story is definitely character-drive as opposed to plot-driven, so you know it's going to be good.

Andie is a planner, so when her plan to surprise her boyfriend by transferring to Blue Ridge backfires, everything for Andie seems to slowly come apart for her. She does make some good friends throughout the semester, and uses her "fix-it" urge to help with their problems as a distraction from her own. She does eventually face her problems, with the push from her friends, and learns some lessons from it. Her main character arc was to learn that plans don't always go the way you want and sometimes you have to embrace the spontaneity of life. 

Meanwhile, I loved her relationships with her grandmothers, who raised her after her mother passed away. They were a funny duo and I wished there had been more page time for them. I especially loved how Grandma Nell's trait of using food as curse words was one that Andie picked up.

The friendships Andie made with Shay, Milo, and Valeria were all just so pure and funny at times. I was a fan of all three of them. They were each fantastic characters and all had traits that I loved about them. First of all, Shay is a bookstagrammer and loves reading and reviewing books (which is all of us reading this, or most), and she has a great sense of humor and her immediate connection to Andie was so sweet. Milo - I just adored him, and I loved his addiction to his own brew of coffee, Eternal Darkness, that's borderline legal on the caffeine scale. And Valeria was a fun addition, as well as an interesting one, as she is the rare combination of being good at math while also being a writer. I felt her hesitation when she was asked by Shay and Andie to read her manuscript because I've been there. 

The dialogue in this book is one of my favorite things about it. The characters are quick with their wit and I found myself smiling at the things they'd say to each other. Shay especially had that quick wit about her, as any great side character does, and again, she was probably one of my favorites in the story.

There's so much more to this book that I could go on about, but that would make this review a novel of its own, haha. I'll leave it here and just say that this was a very enjoyable read, and while it's listed mostly as Romance on Goodreads, I feel like this book is more of a contemporary read because it doesn't really give all its focus to the romance. The book is definitely more about leaving home for the first time, making and breaking friendships, and learning that plans can change at any time in your life.

I highly recommend this one!

I absolutely loved this book. 4 1/2 solid stars.

This is the story of Andie, a college freshman transferring to the school where her boyfriend started his freshman year. It's the school where her parents met, and fell in love, and she grew up longing to attend the same school, to have the same experiences, to walk in the shadow of her parent's love. Andie's mom passed away, so it's extra special to her that she gets to transfer mid year and participate in the same activities that her mom did, she yearns for those memories to come alive.

This is also the story of Milo, her RA, who grew up in the town where this college exists, and his family life is so intertwined with the school that he's known as the source for work study jobs.

While I usually don't love books about college age characters, this one draws you in from the first page and doesn't let you go. I read it in one session. Refused to do anything else. Even read it on the treadmill.

Read this book. I have read all of this author's work and will continue to do so.

“‘Anything worth doing starts with a mess.’
I let the words settle, taking their own quiet root in me as I stare out past the woods with him.
‘I like that,’ I say. ‘Like—getting a new start doesn’t mean you have to wipe the slate clean. Just pick up the pieces. Begin again.’”

We love a title moment 👏🏼 and this book had plenty!

Easily my favorite Emma Lord novel to date. The college setting, the found family, the falling in and out of relationships, finding yourself, learning how to take care of yourself before you can take care of other people…every word of this was immaculate.

I ADORED Andie. One of my favorite YA protags to date. I loved her fix-it personality and how it wasn’t overbearing, how she knew when to step it and when to step back. The things she grappled with, in finding herself outside of her small town, with people who didn’t know her late mother, In the end, all the plans she had for herself went up in smoke, burned away by something so much better than she ever imagined.

I loved her friends: the bookish roommate Shay, the aspiring author/math tutor Valeria, and, of course, the RA turned friend turned SO MUCH MORE Milo. Milo is utter perfection. I will not be taking questions at this time.

All that to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this coming-of-age story. It was heartwarming and gut-wrenching, sweet and sassy, laugh out loud funny yet serious. Highly recommend!

Emma Lord has done it again! BEGIN AGAIN felt like the perfect book at the perfect time, as a freshman in my first year of university trying to find my friends and my place. It’s just about the perfect mix of YA contemporary and romance, giving Andie the time to become herself and make friends without the endgame relationship being the most important thing. It made me feel like I could make it through college, it made me make ridiculous reactionary faces on a plane, and it was enjoyable all around. Well worth the read in my opinion.

Andie Rose has a plan for her life, and her transfer to Blue Ridge State has her one step closer. But as soon as she gets there, it all starts to fall apart. And as she tries to get back on track, you can’t help but root for her and her friends along the way. There’s a secret society competition, a work study job, and the infamous anonymous radio show that her mom started back when she was a student. Any level of unreality in the book is completely overshadowed by how well the story is told. The romance is built up in the best way, with friendship coming first and delightful degree of quiet yearning.

As much as I loved the story, I also couldn’t help but love the characters. They felt like they were friends that were made for me, and I’m almost mad that they aren’t my friends. Andie’s roommate is a bookstagrammer (why can’t she be my roommate??), her tutor-turned-friend is a fantasy-romance writer, and Milo is a great mix of contemporary angst and loveability. They felt real and I wanted to root for them without fail. The relationships are nuanced, and there’s an emphasis on not just the romantic relationship, but platonic and familial as well. Also you get a side sapphic romance and I’ll count that as a win.

I went into this book with high expectations, and it completely surpassed them. It couldn’t have come at a better time and I wish I could read it for the first time again. BEGIN AGAIN is so genuine and heartfelt, and also just so fun. And it’s a great reminder that when it all goes off the rails, sometimes the best plan is simply to begin again.

This book was both cute and heavy at the same time if that makes any sense.
I somehow keep reading these books about grief and ugh its a punch to the solar plexus honestly.
I totally felt the chemistry btwn the 2 young MCs but I wish the ex boyfriend was not in the picture for the whole book
And that plot twist I knew from the 1st tutoring section.

Anyways I dont think it matters what age you are, you are forever learning and growing as person.

Mare~Slistsread

I am on the record saying that there are not enough contemporary YA books that take place during college so I had extremely high hopes with Emma Lord's new book and I am so happy to say my expectations were exceeded. Lord is one of my favorite voices in YA - you can instantly tell her zippy and funny voice from page 1. I really think with each book, Lord has gotten even better at balancing her irreverent tone with tender romance and lovely characters that grow in fantastic ways as her books go on.

Andie transfers into the prestigious Blue Ridge college to reunite with her hometown sweetheart boyfriend and to walk in the footsteps of her mother, a former "Knight" on the underground radio station of the college. Andie has lofty dreams of getting a degree in psychology, being with Connor forever and continuing her self-help column. Andie soon learns that college is its own beast, but as she begins her own journey, she meets wonderful friends - including roommate Shay and cute RA Milo. College is such a difficult and formative time and Lord really delves deep into what makes it such a challenging but rewarding time and how it can bring out the best in her characters.

The friendships and relationships in this book really shine and both Andie and Milo have a lot of past trauma that they work through together in ways that just made my heart want to explode out of my body.

Another fantastic YA book from Lord who is quickly becoming one of my 'must buy' authors.

Thank you SO much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Emma, I really wanted to take my time with this one and you really said, but what if I made another book you wanted to zoom through. Queen of YA contemporary that I love and my heart. Honestly.

I love any work my Lord, I always know it will be fun and comforting to read the world she’s crafted in every new book. I felt a little less attached to this book compared to any other one of her books. The writing however was good, as I’ve come to expect with Emma Lord!

This was a great YA fiction book!

Andie was a relatable protagonist who showed a lot of growth and her internal monologues were insightful. The side characters were also a lot of fun. The were quirky, unique, well developed and added a great layer to the story. The college town setting created so much nostalgia for me. I really felt like I was back in college with the lush descriptions of the setting and the college events.

This book was fun with lots of shenanigans but it had lots of depth and tackled big topics like grief, identity, and ____. The balance between the fun and the big topics was perfect for a YA book.. I loved the underground radio station and the air of mystery it added to the lighter plot lines.

My only complaint was that I felt the ribbon activities were underdeveloped. For playing such a crucial role in the protagonists identity and journey, I felt like they were kind of glossed over and not utilized to their full potential.

Overall this was such a delightful and relatable YA read. There was so much heart and soul and I definitely recommend it.

Andie is a perfectionist…….she is fixated on fixing others but doesn’t want to think about or tackle her own issues of her life.
Begin Again is a story showcasing how people can struggle with their self-worth.
I loved the humorous aspect within the story.
Friendship
Forgiveness
Romance
Growth
The beginning of the story seemed to drag a bit but it does pick up. I’m glad I kept reading on.
A cute YA contemporary read for those that enjoy that genre.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the arc of Begin Again. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

“The bagel is so perfectly pillowy on the inside and toasted on the outside, with this sweet tangy cream cheese unlike anything I have ever tasted in my entire life.”
Did that sentence leave you craving a bagel? Try a whole book full of imagery like this… and lots of bagels of course!
This story follows Andie Rose as she transfers colleges to be with her boyfriend Connor. She transfers to Blue Ridge State, a hyper competitive school, to pursue her dreams in psychology. Everything goes off the rails as soon as she arrives only to learn that Connor transferred out to be with Andie at her former school. Andie meets her roommate Shay who is trying to discover what she wants to major in, and Milo – her R.A. who disrupts all her ideas about love and relationships. Andie soon finds her place at the school as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station–the same one her mom founded, years before she passed away. Andie learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.

Things I liked:
- As I said at the start, the imagery of the food and characters was incredible.
- I wish these characters were real because they were so sweet and cozy, it made me so happy for Andie!
Things I didn’t like:
- Andie was a bit much at times. She uses terms like ‘snickerdoodle’ instead of swearing and it was annoying.
- I also didn’t realize how young the characters were when I picked this one up, so it really felt like YA at times.

Overall I enjoyed the cozy-ness of this book, and I would definitely recommend it to my YA lovers out there!

3.5 Stars rounded up.

I thought this was cute! However, I don't think that it was particularly memorable. I picked it up because it is a YA book set that is set in college. I do think this was a good blend of YA themes with college aged themes as well.