Andie Rose always has a plan. Her current plan involves transferring from her local community college to her dream school, Blue Ridge State, to surprise her boyfriend who is attending there. But, when she arrives, her plans start to fall apart. After befriending her roommate, her tutor, and her cute RA, she realizes her plans falling apart could be the opportunity she needs to begin again.

This was my first book by Emma Lord, but her other books have been on my TBR forever. I’m not sure how this compares to her other books but I enjoyed it. The friend group and interactions reminded me a bit of The Sex Lives of College Girls (but definitely not on the same level of spiciness), which I love. The magic of college and the friendships you can make there came across so strongly through Emma Lord’s writing in this novel. Milo is one of my favorite book boyfriends now, I mean he has dark curly hair and green eyes so how could you not love him? I also loved all of the side characters, especially Andie’s badass grandmas. There were a lot of different stories going on at once in this book but they meshed fairly well together. Some of the logistics for some of the storylines were a bit muddled to me and I felt like some things wrapped up too easily. YA can be hit or miss for me, but overall I liked this one.

CW: parental death, grief, abandonment, infidelity

Begin Again was a cozy, fantastic book I could not put down! I’ve been getting more into YA lately & this book is an amazing piece to add to the genre. It’s an amazing coming of age/finding yourself story, plus a hint of romance which makes it *chefs kiss*!!

Andie Rose is amazing, and I want her to be my best friend! She’s caring, helpful, and driven, and although I can see pieces of myself in her, I want her to be an actual person so I can be friends with her. The connections she makes throughout the book are lovely, and my favourite one is the connection she makes with herself.

I could talk about this book for ages, but to sum it up, Begin Again is amazing & I recommend it 110%! Also, I love that the title is also a Taylor Swift song!

****Publishing January 24, 2023***


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A hopeful and heartfelt story that is highly entertaining! One that will keep you wanting to know whats next for Andie!

Andie Rose’s life was full of new beginnings. The first being when her mom died and both her grandmas moved in to help her Dad raise her. The second being when she transferred to Blue Ridge State, her dream school. This was the college her mother attended and had made a big impact, so wanted to follow her in her footsteps.

When Andie’s Mom dies in high school, she feels like people are walking on egg shells around her, so she decides to start up an anonymous advice column in her highschool newspaper which is a huge success. This carries over to college when she does this for the school radio station, her mom had founded. But is it what its all cracked up to be? Can she find her way?

I love how this author weaves important topics such as: grieving a parent’s death, new beginnings, transitioning from high school to college, the ups and down of college, and navigating love and friendships in this highly entertaining YA novel! A great book for high school book clubs or those students who are about to embark on college!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, I was provided an ARC of Begin Again by Emma Lord via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

After falling deep in love with YA romance in 2021, I found myself moving away from the genre in 2022. However, stories like Begin Again remind me why I love the genre so much and I am excited to dive back into it in 2023.

“You know you don’t owe anyone your help, right? Like, you don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”

“Sometimes your friends will need help. And sometimes you’ll need it. But that doesn’t mean that we have to solve everything for each other.”

As an enneagram two, I can’t even begin to explain the tears I shed as I read through this book and saw bits and pieces of myself in Andie. Her growth throughout the story was outstanding and the group of friends she surrounded herself with was the perfect kind of found family.

And Milo. Sweet, sweet Milo. I loved watching Andie settle into her feelings for him, though I wish we would have ditched Connor earlier in the story so we could have had a few more JUST KISS ALREADY moments between them!

All in all, this is a touching coming-of-age story and another reminder that Emma Lord is a gem who should be protected at all costs.

I loved this cute little meet-cute romantic comedy. Andie's find a solution for everyone in her circle attitude endears to her. She develops a great bond between her friends as she finds solutions for them. Her slow burn relationship with Milo makes this book a sweet read. I enjoyed the writing, it draws you in and pull at your heart strings. It's a must read for sure!

Begin Again is now my favorite Emma Lord book. I swear each one of her rom coms just absolutely blows my mind with how much charm and heart bleed out of the page.

Emma Lord is like Meg Cabot and Sarah Dessen had babies. The drama, family dynamics, but humor and absurd situations that leave major impressions upon the reader.

Begin Again didn't disappoint.

Thanks to Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio for the free copy.
When I start an Emma Lord book, I know I’m in for a treat. She always writes about such relatable experiences for young adults, and I could even relate to some things in this book as a full-fledged adult. Andie is a fixer and planner, but when her plans start to change due to outside forces, she has to figure out what happens next. I loved the exploration of friendship and what it means to be a good, supportive friend, without overstepping. There is a thread of grief and parental legacy that I thought gave such heart to the story. It’s one of discovery, growing, changing, and beginning again. I enjoyed every second.

Being Again is a YA book, focusing on Andie as she transitions to a new University halfway through freshman year. She has ostensibly transferred to be closer to her long term boyfriend, who has.... transferred to the school Andie just left to be closer to her (oh no!).

While this book seems like a standard 'potentially falling for your RA when your long term high school boyfriend is far away', it's actually an in depth look at the impact of grief on a young woman trying to find her place in the world.

I was very pleasantly surprised at the coming of age aspect of the book, when the story started I was groaning to myself because it was so trope-y, but it actually focused on Andie having to learn about how to deal with expectations that have been placed on her since she was a child (mostly by herself which... been there).

I also enjoy the near fairy tale description of the university: ribbon hunts! trivia! secret radio stations! that had real implications. Turns out Andie forgot to study while enjoying campus.

Overall it was an enjoyable read, with a lot of well rounded characters and a satisfying conclusion.

I love Emma Lord, and I ADORED this book. It has everything I look for in a YA novel: teenagers dealing with messy situations through friendships and romance. These teens are funny and resourceful and good to each other. Andie is a transfer student at the school her mother attended, and she feels a lot of pressure to live up to her mom (deceased). She is also dealing with a long-distance relationship with her best friend and boyfriend. All the while, she is making new friends in Valeria, Shay, and Milo. Lord does a fantastic job of giving all of her characters great depth. Milo is a sometimes ornery, always kind, generous, and talented radio personality. He and Andie become new best friends, and work together as well on the radio show. The pace of the plot is fast because there's also a scavenger hunt type hazing on campus. There are so many fun elements to this book! If you're looking for something you can really get immersed in, this is the book.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book.

I'm so sad I didn't like this one more. I think this author's writing is great and I always love the premise of her books, this one just didn't work for me.
I was a little bored through the first 30% or so. Things started to pick up but it didn't go in a direction that I really enjoyed.
I thought this was going to have more romance in it, but it really ended up feeling like more of a coming-of-age story that happened to be set at college and really just the MC figuring herself out. There were lots of life lessons discussed -but it was almost too much? It’s like every 5 pages characters are confronting their life’s big problems and it feels like a spiral where they just keep going back to the same flaws and having the same conversations about them.
For the little romance that was included, I couldn't really get on board with it. It felt like very close to cheating and that's never something I enjoy in books regardless of what gets revealed later on in the story.
The MC was annoying. I was not a fan of Andie and her saying-cutesy-food-words-instead-of-swearing thing. This was supposed to be an older YA novel as it's set in college but it felt juvenile. I did really like some of the side characters like Milo and Shay.
I've come to expect fun books from this author that still have some substance, but this just didn't feel fun.
At least there were Taylor Swift references.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this book; my first by Emma Lord. This did not read like a YA and had tough topics that were handled with sensitivity and understanding (cheating, death of a parent, non-traditional family, LGBQ+). Andie was an easy character to connect to and reading about her freshman year in college brought back memories. I thought Lord did a great job covering some tough topics in a way that didn't have the book feeling heavy or sad. The way she wrote brought the reader right into the moments and the ending gave a future glimpse without feeling like you missed a big chunk of time. Fans of Lord need to add Begin Again to their TBR and those that are new to Lord, like me, should give her a try with this one!
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Instagram review post was published December 9, 2022 - https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl8jfbxrTmw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I loved this one. Andie's desire to do everything, to have a list for it all, to make everyone happy (to her own detriment, at times) really spoke to me. Her journey in discovering that her parents were whole humans with stories she didn't know also really warmed my heart. Emma always does a really good job of making characters human with flaws and all, and it makes you love them. This is no exception!

Begin Again by Emma Lord
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“Anything worth doing starts with a mess.”
“Getting a new start doesn’t mean you have to wipe the slate clean. Just pick up the pieces. Begin again.”
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“We balanced each other out. I think that’s the most you can hope for when you’re in love; that you balance each other out. Make each other stronger.”
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Andie Rose has a plan: and that is to go to the same college that her parents went to. But the day she finally transfers to Blue State Ridge is the day her boyfriend transfers to the community college back home. Then her plans really start to go off the rails.
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Emma Lord writes really great books.
I shouldn’t need to write anything else in this review really. 😂
Andie is a loveable character and it’s easy to root for her. Her roommate is really cool. The grouchy RA, Milo, is funny.
There was sooooo much to love about this story. How Andie’s “fix it thing” is really covering for something in her life she hasn’t been able to fix.
How Andie misses her mom who passed away when she was younger.
The wonderful “found family” Andie cobbles together in her new college.
And I really enjoyed the whole “secret societies” competition part of the story. Along with a little “pirate radio”.
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With so much to love about this story it was easy to rate it 4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Maybe I’m just being picky but I felt like I couldn’t quite give it the full five stars, just because I loved Lord’s previous book (When You Get the Chance) SOOOO much! Lord is an auto-read author for me. So if you love YA reads with a lot of heart and some good laughs then you will enjoy this one.

In Begin Again, Andie Rose, a mid year transfer to Blue Ridge State, finally finds herself at the school she wished for, but finds her perfectly laid plans going awry. When she transfers to surprise her boyfriend and gets to campus to find out he transferred as well, Andie has to pivot and figure out what she really needs for herself. Enter an intriguing RA and some great friends and Andie is in for a fun year at Blue Ridge State.

Overall this was a well written book and I loved all of the supporting characters, but something about Andie bothered me. I think it was how naive she seemed to be that made me dislike her and not connect with her. There were so many times that I just wanted to yell at her and tell her to get her head out of the clouds, especially when it came to her boyfriend, Connor.

I really expected to like this book because I love college romances and coming of age stories, but I didn’t connect with this book like I thought I would. It was a good story and I loved the radio show aspect, but I just wasn’t a fan of Andie. Just because I didn’t love this book doesn’t mean the majority of people won’t, looking at the other reviews I am in the minority. If you think this book sounds interesting, it’s worth giving it a try. It is well written and has some good characters, it just wasn’t what I was expecting.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

This was a DNF for me. I love Emma Lord’s writing style but I REALLY didn’t like the main character.

I really liked Emma Lord's previous books but I was not a big fan of this one. I know the reader is able to discern that the first boyfriend is not the right one, but I just really didn't like the cheating vibes that were going on. Because of that I just couldn't get into the book the way I had hoped.

This is the second novel I read by Emma Lord and I am definitely a fan after reading Begin Again. I enjoyed reading Tweet Cute - but loved Begin Again. The book started off a little slow for me - but I soon became hooked! Emma really captured the feel of a college campus and adjusting to college life (although their class schedules were a bit of a mystery - they hardly ever seemed to have class). Andie and Milo are great characters and have adorable chemistry (Milo is such a cute curmudgeon). Andie spends so much time trying to fix other people's problems and help others - she finally realizes how much she has been neglecting taking care of herself and her own life. And she finds new, amazing friends in Milo, Shay, and Valeria who genuinely care about her, want her to be happy, and aren't afraid to push her to take risks either. A great read - will make you laugh, cry, and think back on memories of your own college days.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Thanks NetGalley and Wednesday Books for my ARC!

BEGIN AGAIN was another adorable YA story from Emma Lord 🥰 She writes this genre with very believable stories and characters and portrays family dynamics and parent/teen relationships so well. I really liked that this was set in college with a main character that had a lot of “figuring out her life” to do. Milo was the sweetest and Connor really sucked. I enjoyed many bookstagram reference 😊, the friend group of characters, the way the mom was remembered, and how much growth Andie showed throughout the story. I definitely recommend this upcoming YA release as well as all of Emma’s other books. She’s a favorite YA author of mine!

2.5 stars

I don't think Emma Lord's books are for me. I really enjoyed her Tweet Cute novel, but since then I've been pretty unimpressed. The low rating is because of a combination of the cheating plot twist (which I hate and think is overdone/lazy by this point) and because I really disliked how most of the situations were resolved. I didn't agree with Milo forgiving his brother and ex, I didn't agree with the way Andie resolved things with her father, who got off way too easily, and of course I didn't like the "oh-you-cheated-on-me-but-hey-we-can-still-be-friends-one-day" aspect of Andie and Connor's breakup. Lord's books are all about friendship and familial relationships, but that doesn't mean things NEED to be resolved with the MC forgiving everything. That really irked me with this one.

Emma Lords books are like a friend you can always turn to when you’re having a bad day. In fact all of the characters in this book are like that.

It was really nice to see this book make the move of high school & into college. It really captured the feeling of being on a college campus. Especially with Bagelopolis, the campus bagel shop, good Lord do I want to go there.

If you are a fan of Emma Lord’s other books you will not be disappointed in this one!