Thank you Wednesday Books for the digital ARC. Emma Lord writes such relatable characters. The main 4 of this book, Andie, Milo, Shay, and Val, are flawed but fabulous. I would absolutely want to be friends with them. Begin Again felt like a comfort blanket, one that I refused to let go of. I inhaled this one in just over a day. For those looking for a fun YA romance and friendship story, this one absolutely fits the bill.

An immersive dive into self reflection for Andie. The story explores family and who they are in regards to who you are. I liked the way she found her people and how that impacted her life.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of "Begin Again" by Emma Lord.

This is my second Emma Lord book and it did not disappoint. Andie Rose has transferred colleges mid year, which is almost unheard of, to be with her boyfriend. who has transferred back to their home town at the same time. This comedy of errors sets off a thoughtful, fun, and lovely contemporary romance story.

The backstory for these characters takes center stage over the romance which is great and I loved the twists and turns that Lord has added to this story that just keep you guessing once the reveals start. Not everything goes the way that you think it will but in no way was I angry about this. This book was fun and enjoyable as a quick two day read that made me want to read again.

4 stars.

I was drawn by this cover and was excited to dive in. In practice, though, I have to be honest that YA is no longer my personal taste. I did not finish the book. Thank you for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Another great book from Emma Lord! This is the third of hers that I've read and it doesn't disappoint with all of the cozy college vibes.

Andie is a problem-solver and advice-giver that transfers to Blue Ridge State to follow in her mother's footsteps and surprise her long-distance boyfriend is already going there. Once she arrives, she realizes that her boyfriend has transferred to her old school to be with her, she's having a hard time transitioning to her new school, and everything seems to fall apart from there. Rather than prioritizing herself, she focuses on fixing the problems of all of her friends and peers, which eventually all come to a head and force her to reevaluate her life and choices (and leads to a cute new romance or two).

This is a really sweet story all about the value of family and friends that I think is true to the experience of starting over. My only complaint is that the main character curses in the form of foods she likes, which always makes me roll my eyes. Otherwise, a solid read!

Andie has just transferred to a new university where her boyfriend is attending, but more importantly, where her deceased mother attended and hosted an illegal college radio station kicking off years' of legacy. Andie wants to follow in those footsteps, but she quickly realizes that her boyfriend also switched schools, the classes are much harder than she'd anticipated, her distant father reaches out to try to reignite a relationship after he left her after Andie's mother died, and she struggles to find her own place at the school that she feels is haunted by her mother's footsteps. In the process, Andie meets Milo, her grumpy RA and the new radio station host in the role her mother once held, and the two of course grow closer as Andie struggles with her long-distance relationship.

This book actually made me tear up a couple of times, because of the father-daughter relationship issues which is pretty much a guarantee at making me cry. Andie also dealt with a lot of anxiety and panic issues, which was pretty relatable and I appreciated reading that her character was struggling with that. My favorite part of the book, however, is the relationship between Andie and Milo. I thought it was well-developed and sweet. Andie's friends Shay and Valeria also didn't feel like one-note side characters, and they each had a story of their own that was deserved. 3.5/5 stars.

Each Emma Lord book is cure for all of your troubles, sadnesses, pains, dark moods! Their promising, heartfelt plots provide pure happiness, joy, positive energy! You get healed after reading a few chapters!

I think I loved this book more than her previous works! I enjoyed to read the fresh perspective to the college life! There were no regular cliches in this book. Characters are flawed, making mistakes, dealing with their own baggages and all of them are so much likable.

Ribbon scavenger hunts, trivia nights, vampire games, pirate radio station honoring the new host a.k.a new Knight, snow fights, dreamy bagel combinations…I loved each of them! I just wished to teleport to the past to enjoy this kind of fabulous college experience!

Andie is high achiever heroine, a fixer who focuses other people’s problem : she has an anonymous column giving advises to people to solve their problems. But this is a kind of mechanism to avoid her own problems: her resentment to her father, her yearning for mother, her rocky relationship with her boyfriend.

She worked hard and transferred to the college her parents graduated! The same college her boyfriend Connor attends: lately they get estranged because of long distance but now they can have their fresh start! Or not! Because Connor also gets transferred to the community college at their hometown where Andie previously attended!

This setback cannot break Andie’s enthusiasm to compete at scavenger hunts to collect more ribbons, honoring her mothers memory. She believes Connor will be back at next semester so she collects extra ribbons for him, too.

Her suspicions and insecurities to be part of the Blue Ridge community slowly diminish with the help of very supportive roommate Shay and their caffeine addict, charming RA Milo.

She even finds herself at college’s legendary pirate radio station accompanying legendary Knight as his squire: giving advises to the students who ask for her help!

Andie’s self growth, finding her true purpose, true love, making peace with her past are the best parts of the book.
Milo was spectacular hero! I have to admit at some parts I even loved him more than Andie! He was kind, mature, loyal, smart, playful.

I smiled and I also dabbed my tears! The book is genuine, heartwarming! I wanted to give long hugs to each character!

I highly absolutely extremely recommend it!
Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Content Warning: grief, death of a parent

I am a fan of Emma Lord ever since Tween Cute! I think it’s safe to say she’s an auto-read author for me. Here’s what I thought about Begin Again:

+ I feel like there isn’t enough books set in college and I loved that this one is, with Andie entering her dream college as a freshman transfer. So she didn’t get in right away, worked hard to get in and did it on her own merit which is admirable. And we watch Andie try to keep up with classes, class activities, have a social life and she struggles, which is so relatable. It reminded me of being in college and the struggles of being away from home, old friends, making new friends and enjoying college life.

+ Andie is an interesting character because she is grieving her mom, has a strained relationship with her father, and was basically raised by her awesome grandma’s after her mom’s death and things fall apart. She’s a capable young woman, who wants to make her mother proud but is struggling to find her own way. She’s a “fix-it” person because she hides from problems she doesn’t want to face but I found that relatable. The other characters like Milo, Shay and Valeria were wonderful.

+ So Andie has a boyfriend she’s known since childhood – they have a close bond until college happens. Andie meets Milo, her RA, and their friendship grows while Andie is learning more about herself and her relationship with her boyfriend, Connor. On the other Milo is dealing with his own heartbreak and family drama. I like how their friendship grows into something else – it’s very sweet. They make a good couple.

+ Things got emotional for Andie and her father at the end of this book and I almost cried. I love how it’s more than a story about a girl going to college and wanting to honor her mom’s memory. I could feel her emotional struggles, and it was so nice to see her make friends who had her back and how in the end a conversation with her dad really helps heals some festering wounds between them.

~+ The only thing that maybe would bother some readers is how Andie has a boyfriend but starts falling for Milo. Honestly, having been in a long distance college relationship before – I related to her feeling 100%. How do you quit someone you’ve known your whole life and made future plans with? And yet…how do you not if it means being happier with who you are? I’m glad it’s a realistic situation.

Tropes: first year in college

Why you should read it:
*sweet romance between Andie and Milo
*set in college, first year transfer student, realistic situations – challenges, making friends, falling in love
*emotional story about Andie, her mom’s memory and healing with her dad

Why you might not want to read it:
*Andie does have a boyfriend but I think things stay pretty friendly and innocent between her and Milo until she ends things with Connor.

My Thoughts:

I loved this one! I just liked seeing Andie grow and shed the things that she didn’t need to hang onto (Connor) and try and find herself at the college of her dreams. Her meeting Milo was icing on the cake because how amazing is he? I love that they both had their own issues to deal with and they do before coming together. There was an emotional scene between Andie and her dad that almost made me cry. I think this had a little bit of everything, a character with growth, new friends, college fun and struggles, family issues and romance. I will continue to read whatever this author writes!

I think Emma Lord has hit her stride with this book. I enjoyed the clever whit of "Tweet Cute" but was not a fan of "You Have a Match" so I skipped her 3rd. The premise of this was nostalgic for me and freshman college books are frequent purchases for me (being in a high school) so I was excited to try her again.
I found Andie to be very well adjusted and very mature for a college freshman. She's a great character for teens to read: she picks great friends and puts in the effort to BE a GOOD friend. She draws people out, she uses her strengths without apology or embarrassment. Her character GROWS without doing a 180 change. Great message on rebuilding relationships after losing a loved one and giving space for people that have disappointed you in your life to grow and change too.
The romance element is very respectful and very sweet.
Great read!
Thank you so much for the ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC.

I think my favorite thing about this is that it's set in college, which is not something that's seen enough in books. However, some of the college stuff didn't make sense to me.

Why is transferring to a state school for second semester such a big deal? It really shouldn't be but it was made out to be a huge thing that Andie was the only mid-year transfer. And what kind of school has students move in on the first day of class? That's extremely poor planning.

I felt like it was weird how attached Andie was to the school. She planned her whole life to go there (cannot relate) and was obsessed with it, yet still somehow fairly unprepared for actually being there, even though she'd already done a semester of college.

I personally found Andie really annoying and if she was real, I would not like her. I do not find using foods in place of swear words cute; it seems immature and obnoxious. She's also the type of person who butts in to other people's business and thinks everybody needs to be involved. Getting multiple dorms to play a game together every week like she did is so unrealistic.

This is partially a romance, but neither of the love interests were good. Andie talks a lot about how she and Connor have been together for years and they love each other and are best friends, but absolutely nothing shows that. All that's shown is that she's in a crappy relationship that she clearly wants no part of anymore. While I liked Milo, he and Andie had absolutely zero chemistry together and I didn't really want them to be with each other.

Despite all the faults I had with this, I do not think it is bad, and it is still a quick, easy read. I think people who are not quite to college yet will particularly love this, as well as people who are already big Emma Lord fans.

I’ve never read an Emma Lord book but she seems pretty popular so I thought I’d give her newest book a chance. Not too shabby! Super cute but really predictable. I definitely liked the first 25% a lot more than the rest of the book. It got a little slow for me after that and I found myself really disinterested in the plot.

Andie was a sweet character and easy to root for, but oh man did her pseudo-cursing drive me nuts. It just got more and more ridiculous as the book went on. It was even more ridiculous because the book had other characters cursing as it was. I’ve noticed this become more of a trend in YA book and can we please not make that a thing?

I liked the concept of a planner who needs to pivot as her life plan slowly falls apart. And her fix-it attitude is definitely more understandable as her storyline is fleshed out. Overall, just a likable story about personal growth, friendship, love, and grief that really captured what it’s like to be a freshman in college. There was a lot of questionable plot points though that just wouldn’t happen in real life and it was hard for me to overlook. I did really love the side characters and Andie’s resolution with her dad. Milo was a gem, but I would’ve liked more of a focus on him and Andie. I would say this isn’t really a romance novel, just a YA coming of age story with a romance subplot. Fine, but not really what I expected. I think it will definitely appeal to a younger crowd because there are some great life lessons covered.

3.5 ⭐️

Hmmm.... I am starting to think that Emma Lord is a constant 5 star read for me.
This is the third book I read by this author and they hit it out of the park again, in fact this is probably my favorite so far.
This is Andie's story of growth, friendship, love and grief. Milo is just too cute for words. The only thing I would have liked is for Connor's mom to get a good talking to... if you know you know...
I loved this so much, as soon I finished this book I told my roommate who is a high school librarian "promise me you'll buy all of her books for your school".

It’s not uncommon for me to read one book and listen to a different audiobook. What isn’t normal for me is for a book to grab hold like ‘Begin Again’ did.

I wanted no other story but that of Andi (New Girl), Connor, Shay, and Milo.

The beginning was slow for me, but by the fourth chapter I was hooked. (Waiting for my next sip of Eternal Darkness maybe?)

This is not my first Emma Lord story, and it won’t be my last. I enjoyed the wit of the characters, the raw depth of storyline.

It was an adventure full of ribbons and snow storms that for me caused quite a flurry.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC, I look forward to pub day so you all can tell me what you think!

Very cute book with enjoyable characters! I loved this cute relationship and can't wait to read more of Emma Lord's books! The writing was well done and I'm so glad I got to read this.

Thank you NetGalley and Emma Lord!

Stayed up WAY too late to finish this wonderful read! And, man oh man, did I cry??? Like, a real lot!!! It was just so perfectly, heart-wrenchingly sweet and sad and lovely. I'm a BIG fan of Milo, of course, but also the rest of his family. I also really dig the Grandmothers...Maeve and Nell are just such well-drawn characters and I wish I knew them. I also deeply appreciate the development of the secondary and even tertiary characters and the fact that the setting plays such a pivotal role in the story. Finally, I appreciate that Andie is so real...so almost unlikeable at times with her nosiness and buttinsky tendencies. This is a great book! I loved it! ♥♥♥

I really love Emma's book "Tweet Cute" and was hoping this would be similar in the way it made me feel. It was there for the first 45% of the book but I became quickly uninterested after that. It almost felt as though the storyline/romance arc lost it's spark. I think that maybe if I were closer in age to the target demographic for this book I would have liked it more.

I was really looking forward to this book since I enjoyed Tweet Cute; however, this book just did not hit for me.

I found the overall premise to be interesting and relatable.
But about halfway through, I had lost almost all of my interest in the characters and what happened to them.

Overall I enjoyed Andie and Milo’s characters and the progression of their relationship, but I didn’t care about anyone else (except the grandmas 🤣).

One thing I think Emma nailed was capturing what it feels like to be a freshman in college and be at a new school. I found this part of the story to be very relatable.

Additionally, there were several instances where this book had me laughing out loud; yet, those few moments were not enough to hold my interest for the majority of the story.

I think the writing was good, but the pacing was a little to slow for me. Additionally there was more language than I like to see in YA novels.

However, I do want to try some more of Emma Lord’s books in the future! Ultimately, compared to other YA novels I have enjoyed in the past, this one just doesn’t compare.

Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy to review.
It took me 6 weeks to get through this and it is completely work’s fault not the book. This might be my favorite Emma Lord yet, though Tweet Cute might be overdue for a reread. I absolutely loved how the romance was there but not central to the story. What a great build of friendship and family growth. There was a slight twist I didn’t expect and I absolutely loved that it threw me for a loop. My only wish is the book mentions caramel stuffed peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and it didn’t have a recipe so now I have to go look for one. Emma is a favorite Instagram follow and I felt so much of her throughout this book: between baked goods, the mention of Taylor Swift, and other things. I truly loved this book and I hope it gets recognized when it’s published. ❤️

Oh, this book was fantastic. Andie lost her mom as a child and is doing her best to follow in her footsteps at her alma mater. She has also laid out a plan for her future that she is intent on achieving. This book follows Andie during her first semester of college, as she finds her people, learns more about her mom, and discovers even more about herself. Another wonderful read from Emma Lord!

This is the fourth ARC that I've read by EL and I always enjoy her writing. I felt that while this was a funny page turner with relatable characters, there were some aspects that kept this from being a five star read.

Reading Emma's books is like watching her grow up through her characters. The age of the MCs gets older each time and they are at different points in their lives. What I have noticed however is the voices are all extremely similar and I'm struggling to separate them. While still unique, Emma's voice carries through strongly in all of them. As a reader of her buzzfeed articles (which makes me biased I know lol) I find myself wanting for some diversity in her writing of her books, maybe even switching from first to third person. Because Emma is so funny and I love her quirky characters, I dont want to necessarily 'lose' her voice in her books, just establish her MCs as separate individuals.

I liked the flow of this book a lot. I enjoy fast paced reads and this nailed it. The plot twist in Begin Again had me gasping out loud (at a bar because I was reading during the world series) and I liked how it ended. All in all, this was a solid read I'll easily recommend along with her other books.