Begin again was everything that I was expecting from an Emma Lord book. This is Emma’s first book written from a college aged protagonist, but it still reads much like her others (which I loved.) The book follows Andie, a college freshman at Blue Ridge State who is learning to pave her own way at her parents Alma Mater. I always love Emma’s mentions to desserts and Taylor Swift, it wouldn’t be right without them. I thought all the characters were very well developed and I was honestly surprised with how she tied some of them together towards the end. Overall, I gave this book 5 stars and just like her other books, I would highly recommend to anyone.

“Just pick up the pieces. Begin again.”

This was my first Emma Lord book and it will not be my last! I thought this would be a cute story, but it ended up being so much more than that. I cried, I laughed, even as an old lady in her 40s it took me immediately back to my college days. I may have also felt a lot of the book deeper as somebody who also lost a parent in high school, but I think that the book would be enjoyed even without that connection.
This is a book that has romance, but isn't about romance at its core. This is a book that is about leaving your small town, but doesn't hate on the small town. This is a book that is about family, but values not just your biological family but found family as well. There is so much growth in the book, but at a pace that makes it feel genuine and in a way that acknowledges the difficulty of leaving behind things that are comfortable even if they aren't good for you. Andie, the main character, has allowed her life to become driven by living up to her mother's legacy, keeping her boyfriend on track while proving her worth to his family, and fixing everyone around her while avoiding the problems in her life. Watching her grow from those things into being herself while keeping the best parts of why she wanted all of those things is a treat, and watching her do it surrounded by a truly solid group of friends is the icing on the cake.
Would I be the only one who would love to see a novel about one of the other Flynn siblings in the book to tell their story and allow us peaks into Andie's future???

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

Emma Lord has become one of my top authors and I will read anything she puts out. Her books continue to be fun, sweet, touching, and an overall great experience. This book touched on grief, growing up, and finding your place in the world. I adored the characters and found it easy to binge this in one sitting.

Andie is a freshman transfer at her dream school, the one her parents met at. She tries so hard to make friends, succeed in her classes, and uphold her mom's legacy by participating in the Knight radio show and ribbon challenges. She's definitely overwhelmed, but has a pretty great attitude about most things and draws people to her. I'd love to be that friendly and charming and constantly make connections with others.

The romance is slow since Andie is holding on to her relationship with Connor, but I liked the little moments we saw. Friendship is also a big part of this and Shay and Val are the best. They support one another and push each other to go for their dreams. I want to be part of these friends!

Fantastic story! I can't wait for it to be out in the world.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the copy.

A charming novel full of great friendships!! I really adored this book, mostly for the friendship aspects. Andie, our MC, really never seemed to have a strong friendship as we only ever hear about her meh boyfriend Connor. So when she gets to college and suddenly has 3 best friends, the best job ever, and a competition to concur im so happy for her.

I think the one thing that gave me pause with this is the cheating aspect. It’s in here a lot. Between Milo and his ex (and brother), Valeria, Andie, Connor, Walt???? THERES SO MUCH CHEATING. Emotional cheating, physical cheating, it’s everywhere. Didn’t bother me much, but a good thing to note.

I’ve loved Emma Lord since “Tweet Cute” and Emma Lord killed it with the follow up. “Begin Again” is just as sweet and romantic. A must read for YA fans!

This story was sweet and perhaps is now my favorite of Lord’s. I loved the surrounding character, I loved the connection to her mom’s legacy, and I loved that it was set at college. I do think the last 20% was a bit weaker than the rest; the conflict with the boyfriend seemed silly and forced, but I get the role it had to play so it didn’t factor into my rating.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fun and warm YA read!
I love the college adventures, dorm living, fall vibes! I love all the content and growth that we see in this book. The only pet peeve I had was the “cute” or replacement words for cuss words. I just cannot stand that in a book!

Besides that this was such a fun read! Thank you for allowing me to read your arc!!

I really liked this Emma Lord book! She paints the friendships of dorms and college life very well against the hardships that many of these characters are going through/have gone through. I love the grumpy Milo and his banter with Andie. This book was a good read, but I did feel that it had a lot of different plot points and stories that needed to be told. Focusing on less might have improved the story overall.

3.5 stars rounded up. Super cute story about a girl with her whole life planned out and what happens when it doesn't look like it's going to go the way she planned.

I loved Andie. She was such a good friend, to her own detriment at times. I loved her drive to go to the school, how she started with TastyKakes and a fun game, and how hard she worked for those ribbons. I thought the Knight program and the ribbons were a fun part to the story and I love how it tied the group together. Val and Shay were such a fun part of the story and I appreciated how realistic and flawed they were. Milo was adorable and I loved and appreciated his love for strong coffee. Connor was exactlly who we needed him to be and I appreciate his addition.

I think it's good to read stories to remind us that plans can go awry and everything still work out. This had so many cute moments between the reminder to not neglect yourself in the midst of helping others. Also the push that family (or the family you choose) is important, even when they mess up (or you do) and apologies all around are good when they happen. It was just the read I needed today, adorable and well rounded.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I am an unabashed Emma Lord fan, but I'm not sure most of her novels make a lot of sense if you think about them too much, so I am sort of regretting writing this review. This one was great, very entertaining, but felt like it could have taken place any time between about 2011 and now. Which I think is why a lot of people like her books! It's kind of ephemeral. I also think there were a couple places where there was almost too much plot, and we had to be debriefed on scenes that hadn't been shown, because they weren't crucial to the main plot, but then had me wondering if I had missed something.

Five stars! I absolutely love every one of Emma Lord’s books. This one was so good. Explored the growing pains of a college student being in a new place. I loved it!

Emma Lord has a way with words. I liked this one a lot. I feel that any teen on their way to college will like this one too.
I got hints from once she moves into the dorm and we meet Milo that something might happen between them. Don't want to spoil anything.
I liked the ribbon search, and how it helps Andie become more herself.
The relationship she builds with her father and her new family is really great too.
Like these descriptions are so engrossing and keep me wanting more.
"It's sweet and chaste, the kind of kiss that leaves me feeling more exposed than the first one, the kind that defines what we are to each other more than words ever could."

Takes me back to my college years and the first kisses shared with someone.
Such great writing!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

What a cute read! I really loved this trip down memory lane of college where Andie faced many of the same situations and pressures that I did. It felt overwhelming at times and I think that was very accurately portrayed in Lord's writing. I would really love to see this book as a movie or tv show as I would love to watch Andie and Milo fall in love. Lord's description of it was so perfect I could almost picture it!

Definitely recommending to all my students!

Emma Lord has clearly found her niche as an author, and Begin Again proves to be another entry in her line-up of cute if somewhat predictable fluffy young adult romances. There are certain story beats that one can count on her to hit (something she seems to indirectly comment on in one particularly self-aware moment in this book), and this book does not fail to deliver. Endearing characters, cozy setting, and just the right amount of bitter angst to really bring out the richness of the sweet romance.

While I greatly enjoyed the characters' youthful explorations and adventures, the setting felt a little lackluster at times, taking this large college setting and reducing to only a small cast of friend/family and a single professor teaching a single class. As one looking back nostalgically on my own college days, the lack of classes and other collegiate events in our characters' lives broke my suspension of disbelief and made the events that much more predictable. I mean, even on a quarter system, a freshman will be taking at least a couple of classes, right? There were other small inconsistencies that pulled my attention away from the core of the book, making the book feel less polished and 'real' than some of Lord's other works. Nevertheless, I found this a very fun read, consuming most of it in an evening.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this scrumptious ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Begin Again so much. I am officially an Emma Lord stan! Everything about this books was enjoyable.

Andie was super relatable with her need to “fix” everything, Milo is someone I wish I met in college, and Shay and Valeria were best friend goals.

I laughed. I cried. I cringed. Following Andie on her journey of self realization and watching her blossom with the help of her friends and family was a great time.

Begin Again
By Emma Lord

If you love a good YA romance, put this one on your TBR’s! Out January 24th 2023

Small Summary:
Andie’s plan is coming together; she’ll be with her boyfriend, at her first choice of school, getting her psych degree, and get into the secret society her mom was in.
Or is it? Her boyfriend, Connor, transferred to her old school. She is struggling dealing with her mom’s loss in a place that was such a big part of her life. To top it all off, she failed her first stats test.
How will she Begin Again?

My thoughts: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I think this is Lord’s best book. And yes, I’ve read them all. 😂

This is a rom-com, but it is way more. Andie and all of the side characters are finding themselves and where they fit in. The book deals with loss of a loved one, and betrayal from people you are close to. All while setting up a cute romance.

Found family is big in this one. Shay, Andie’s roommate, immediately accepts her and goes to events with her on campus. Val tutors her in stats and gets pulled into the group via trivia night.

And then there is Milo❤️. Just read it, you’ll love him.

Thanks to Netgalley, Emma Lord, and Wednesday books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a book set on a college campus, and I love one with a good little story even more. This one focuses on Andie. Andie transfers from community college to where her boyfriend is which is also her mom's alma mater. Only thing is, her boyfriend transferred to the community college. On her own, Andie finds her way to the pirate radio station her mom founded long ago. It's a way she can connect with her mom who died, but it's also a way she starts finding a place to fit in. This was just a delight. I also like a college-based read that focuses on a niche area of the campus experience, and this was very much that. I also dig that it focused on Andie finding herself. Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this 2023 release!

Emma Lord consistently delivers excellent stories with a lot of heart and continues to write well developed characters that you root for the entire time.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my eARC in exchange for my honest feedback!

Emma Lord is back at it again with a cutesy, feel good YA romance that will make the adult readers that pick it up wish that they were back at a younger time in their life (me, I'm the adult reader I'm referring to). Set in the winter/spring semester of the main character, Andie's, freshman year of college, this story was full of heart, challenges, and for me, all of the university nostalgia.

Andie is a "fixer" for everyone in her life - always trying to take her friends problems and help them solve it in a methodical, logical way. She loves big and wears her heart on her sleeve, so much so that while in high school, she wrote a very popular advice column for the school newspaper. When she struggles with her grades her sophomore year of high school due to her using all her free time to help her boyfriend succeed, she doesn't get into Blue Ridge State, both of her parents alma mater and the school she's pictured herself going to her entire life.

After a semester of pulling her grades up at the local junior college, she transfers to Blue Ridge State, where her boyfriend Connor has been since the previous fall. She keeps the transfer a secret so she can surprise him - only to find out that he transferred to the junior college to be with her. Amidst the chaos of her joining a new school, dealing with the challenging academics, and trying her best to connect with the place her parents met, Andie is pulled into helping solve the problems of all of her new friends that she makes - again, letting herself slip through the cracks, starting a domino effect of so many things in Andie's life seemingly falling apart.

I really enjoyed the college setting of this book. It felt cozy and full of life and the feeling of figuring out just who you are in those early university years. Milo, Shay, and Val are the lifelong friends that everyone hopes to make when they're 18. The entire book really captures the ups and downs of what early college is truly like - challenging, fun, and full of life lessons.

While I enjoyed the setting and the supporting characters greatly, I found myself a bit bothered by Andie. She felt extremely naive and at times, aloof. For someone who loves to give others advice (and seemingly GOOD advice), she really could've used some "get your life together" instructions for herself. The book being written in first person made it a bit challenging for me to really get away from her traits that irritated me, but all in all, the storyline was strong enough that I kept on going and eventually finished. And I'm not mad that I did!

I think this book will land really well along the YA audience that it is targeted at, and is a sweet, inspiring story of a girl really figuring out who she is in the big world outside of her small town she grew up in.

i just really love andie and milo and how he is heartbroken and angry but still kinda floats to be with andie even from the beginning he goes out of his way to just be kind and give her what she wants and you could tell he didnt really want to like her at first but then you could tell that he did and andie you could tell how much she was crushing on milo for a while cause the way she gravitated to him and i loved that their chemistry was so good and how the story ended with him not leaving and it was good the entire thing was so fun to read and i couldnt put it down