Begin Again was a well-written college story. It actually brought me back to leaving for college, living in the dorms and how relationships progressed and changed because of the structure of college. Emma Lord deserves props for being able to send my memory back there. The story itself was pretty well-rounded. Personally I didn't really care about Andie collecting the ribbons and when she finally realizes she's basically just living her life for her mom and repeating what she did, I kind of wanted to smack her and say "DUH!"

MIlo was an interesting character and romantic interest, but I never had an RA like him. It was painfully obvious that he was into Andie pretty much from the beginning and she was just so damn oblivious. On the flip side, Connor was a douchebag. Like all of Andie's friends, I don't see whatever she saw in him and I was furious that she didn't actually break up with him right away and lied (letting her friends think she had).

Overall, Begin Again was a solid book. I can't see myself re-reading it, but I know quite a few people who would enjoy it. It would've been eye-opening in high school and the first few weeks of college.

Title: Begin Again
Author: Emma Lord
Release Date: January 24th, 2023
Page Count: 343
Format: Netgalley
Start Date: January 17th, 2023
Finish Date: January 18th, 2023

Rating: 5 Stars

Review:

This book had a healthy mix of hilarious and serious. Andie has worked hard to transfer to the college that her boyfriend is attending. Not because he's attending, but because it's been her dream school for as long as she can remember. She finally gets to the school only to find out that her boyfriend transferred to her old school just for her. Despite the hiccup, she moves forward and winds up fitting in really well to the school. She meets new friends and grows comfortable in her environment. I honestly loved this book so much that I would have read it all in one sitting if I could have. I am now very interested in reading other books by this author. If I'm not mistaken, I think I already own at least one of her other books. I could be wrong on that. I just love the way she writes. I love her sense of humor.

I absolutely adored BEGIN AGAIN, as I have all of Emma Lord's books. She's such a natural a nailing an authentic and earnest YA voice in a way that few other authors are. I particularly enjoyed the Gilmore Girls-esque vibes of the novel's setting (the small college town and the bagel shop gave me Stars Hollow vibes) and the plot device of the ribbons and the game. I continue to look forward to reading anything that Emma publishes!

I love everything Emma Lord puts out. This is a great freshman college story, right up there with Fresh by Margot Wood.

CW: Death of parents (in the past), troubled family relationships, cheating

Okay, this is my first time reading an Emma Lord book and now I want to read more. Begin Again was adorable and just bursting with heart and care. This is definitely a book about finding yourself, coming into your strength, and finding your forever friends. I couldn't help but connect with MC Andie--I too have had my best laid plans crumble enough times to figure out that sometimes that's the best thing that can happen to you.

This is definitely a slow-burn romance (for VERY good reasons) but good lord was I ready when it finally happened!! Normally a slow-burn wears down my patience...but I absolutely loved that this story wasn't solely about the romance, because the non-romantic parts of it were also SO GREAT. The way Andie roots down and grows and finds her place at her new school made my heart so full.

For those who want to know--this is definitely YA (Andie is a freshman in college) and the romance is clean--nothing spicy happening here.

I would definitely recommend!

Once again I loved an Emma Lord book. Once again this book deals in complicated families, self discovery and growth. Emma Lord books feel like someone giving you a hug and saying, "It's going to be ok." which is what a good YA does. I'm an adult and not in the "typical" YA audience but the familiarity of that time period where every time something goes wrong it truly feels like the end of the world but also filled with possibility is not something that many authors do in a compelling way but I've found Lord's books capture those feelings so well.

Andie is a planner, helpful and dependable to those around her like her long term boyfriend who she surprises by transferring into his college mid year. This college where her parents met is where Andie hopes to start her journey to the rest of her life, it's all set. Until things start going wrong, first her boyfriend winds up transferring out unexpectedly, then classes are even more difficult than she thought and then there's her estranged father who keeps pushing to reestablish a relationship with her after walking away when her mother died.

Andie is a delight and her journey in this book was so achingly earnest and from the heart. Lord captures the college experience so well from the classes to the activities to the friendships. The romance in this one is lovely and there are some scenes that truly were so unbelievably adorable. The highlights for me though are when she is talking about her mother and dealing with that grief and expectation to follow in her mother's footsteps and in dealing with her father.

A truly all around delightful little book. definitely recommend.

Andie lost her mother and she was feeling so bad she couldn't enter the college of her dreams—the same her mother had attended—, although her boyfriend had passed. So she works hard and finally transfers there. Only to learn her boyfriend had secretly transferred to the other college she'd been going in the meantime. Even without him, though, she manages to find a place, friends on campus, and even a spot on the secret radio show her mother had been the founder of, helping other people.

3+

It's a fun read, although Andie's thirst to do everything at once did make me feel overwhelmed. I'm not sure how she lasted those initial weeks. I'm not a fan of things that are obviously going wrong and the character won't notice, but that anxiety is on me.

This book has a very present family theme, as Emma Lord's books tend to have and will result in a heartwarming read though grief is also an ongoing shadow, so I can't call it comforting. If you haven't read anything by this author, she builds plots in a similar way as Julie Buxbaum, so I'd recommend this read to fans of those.

You won't enjoy this from page one, but the book grows on you, so do most of the characters (some people don't even deserve being saved anyway).

You'll find more impactful YA books around. The theme was pretty, but the result can feel bland. However, I like how even though we do have dome romance ongoing (and it's cute), the focus was on Andie's growth.


Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Cute! This is another classic Emma Lord romance, though maybe not my favorite one. Still, worth a read as it's just as heartwarming as her other books.

Thank you to @wednesdaybooks for the eARC of this through NetGalley! This will be out on January 24th. I’ve read one other book by Emma Lord, You Have a Match, and I think you will like this one if you liked that. Both books have a strong emphasis on friendships and have a sweet and slow-burn romance.

Our narrator in this book is Andie, a college freshman and transfer student who starts at her dream school in the 2nd semester after a semester of community college. This is the school where her parents went and she has a strong connection to the school, especially after she has lost her mom to cancer years before the start of the book. She plans on surprising her boyfriend, Connor, with the transfer since he goes to the school, but she quickly finds out that he has transferred out to her community college, making their relationship more complicated.

At her new college, she quickly makes some good friends, including her roommate, Shay, her tutor, Val, and her RA, Milo. Andie has a tendency to want to fix everyone else’s problems, so in these new friendships, she needs to grapple with when to get involved in their problems and when she should let them help her too. Her emotional arc with this is one of the most poignant parts of the book.

The romance is cute, slow-burn, and delightful! I expected this pairing from the beginning of the book and it was lovely to watch it unfold eventually. There was also a cute side romance involving Andie’s roommate and a friend.

This was a lot of fun and I think many people will love this too! If you’ve read this, let me know your thoughts!

I enjoyed reading this book, it is a light and enjoyable book. I recommend this book to people who wants to read light and sweet books.

As always, Lord has another glorious YA that has me laughing, longing, and tearing up. Loved the voice, the romance, the dialogue. YA perfection!

This was the sweetest story, I mean I would expect nothing less from Emma Lord. This was just so cute. And even though it’s not my favorite of their books I’ll recommend.

This was a sweet novel about starting over. I really loved the concept, I loved the university/college setting, I loved the whole anonymous call in/write in advice column idea - and I really liked Milo's character, probably the most. The secondary characters were wonderful and I really enjoyed this book more than I expected and I would definitely recommend.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!

Funny enough, I had this book playing on a sleep timer and woke up to Andie failing a stats quiz and I’m still waiting for my final mark in stats. My friends have also suffered immense trauma when they took stats. I like how that was a background theme in the book.

My undergrad experience was not like this whatsoever, but my grad school one currently is. (That being said, I personally have had a better grad school life so far). The book itself was alright, meaning I probably won’t remember it. However, I enjoyed listening to it as background noise. The characters are nice to follow and get to know better. Admittedly, the book did get interesting the more it progressed. This is an unpopular opinion but o love reading about school and college life, especially since I’m still in it. It’s eye-opening to read about people like me trying to figure out their lives after/during/outside of school, balance out their studies, and deal with their families.

I'll be honest - I was drawn to this one mostly because of the title (any other Taylor Swift fans do this too?) But I'm so glad I read this. It was freaking adorable and did not disappoint. Cannot recommend enough.

i loved this book! it was such a cute and lighthearted ya novel, and i loved that it was set in college. it was so fun reliving the college experience through andie's eyes!

andie was such a relatable character and i enjoyed seeing her personal growth through the book - making meaningful friends, navigating the relationship with her dad, and figuring out how to honor her mom's memory but balancing that with who she herself is.

and the supporting band of characters were so so fun, too! i LOVEEEED milo, he was such an adorable love interested, and shay, too, was an incredibly sweet friend. also, i loved andie's adorable grandmas and milo's vibrant family.

this a definite must-read for anyone who enjoys wholesome ya romances and coming-of-age stories.

“Anything worth doing starts with a mess.”

This is the fourth Emma Lord book I’ve read and I was very entertained as always. I loved the close friendship dynamics Andie had with the rest of the characters. And I loved the college campus setting as well.

Though I will say, this was my least favourite book of hers so far. Andie wasn’t my favourite character as I felt annoyed by every little decision she made.

Besides that, I don’t have much else to say; I read this a few weeks ago and I forgot a lot of my thoughts. But I definitely wanna read her next book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Begin Again was another fantastic book by Emma Lord. I'm glad to see her character aging with me! It was such a treat to read Andie's story during her second semester across my own second semester at college.

Everything we've come to love Emma Lord for, the amazing food descriptions, the beautiful friendships, the fantastic fun, and the adorable romances, is available in this book. Although it does take place in college, there is nothing more mature than what was found in her high school books, so her old audience is also able to enjoy this story.

I also loved the college that Lord created. The ribbon hunt challenge sounded so exciting, and I wish I had the equivalent at my school. Her world is so fun that I'd like to transfer there, lol!

If you love Emma Lord, this book is yet another show-stopper from her.

I have enjoyed majority of Emma Lord's books, however, this one missed the mark a little bit for me. I had some frustrations with the main characters and I was dying to scream - JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER - but ultimately, still enjoyed this one.

This is the third book by Emma Lord that I've read, and I'm sad to say that I like this one the least and it was just okay for me. For starters, this was somewhat of a slow read. There wasn't enough happening in each chapter to really keep my interest, but I wanted to know what would happen in regards to the overall story.

The main character, Andie, while well-intentioned, was really quite annoying and a bit bratty. (And personally, her curse-word substitutes were more irritating than endearing.) She did exhibit some growth by the end of the book, but most of it was circumstantial. The "supporting cast" was great, though, and really held this book together in my opinion. In fact, I probably would've enjoyed this book a lot more if it had been written from Milo's perspective given both his family's standing in the town and the situation with his brother.

Nonetheless, this was a pretty clean and mostly cute YA novel, and I'd recommend it late high schoolers and early college students. I could see this being a Disney movie or Freeform tv series, and I'd probably watch it if for no other reason than to really see some of the better parts of the story -- the radio show, the ribbon hunting, Milo's family -- covered in more depth.