Here We Go Again is a beautiful novel written by Alison Cochrun. So beautiful, in fact, that I couldn't finish it because it hit too close to home with my own husband's cancer diagnosis. While I felt that Alison weaved in a beautiful tale for all her characters, Here We Go Again was a bit too emotional for me and I needed to protect my mental space.

What I Liked:

I know that when I pick up an Alison Cochrun book that I am going to fall in love with the characters she has created. Logan, Rosemary, Joe, Remy, and Odie easily burrowed their way into my heart. The characters are flawed, layered, lovely and infuriating all at the same time, which makes them so very real.

I knew from the synopsis that this book was going to make me sob, and boy was I right. The discussion on grief, on mourning someone who is still in front of you, of the toll of caretaking on the caretakers, and on regrets was so poignant. A box of tissues was absolutely needed while reading.

While a lot of this book is heavier, there were so many fun moments that had me laughing, light moments that made me smile, and tension filled moments with Rosemary & Logan.

What didn’t work for me:

Absolutely nothing.

At this point, Alison Cochrun can do no wrong for me. This is the 3rd book I’ve read by Alison & all of them have been between 4&5 star ratings. This book was the most emotional of the bunch for me and I could feel the sadness and the humor that bled through the pages right into my soul.

I was extremely heartbroken for Logan, Rosemary, Joe & Odie as they navigated what death was going to look like for Joe, all while honoring his life and taking him on this road trip, which was both idiotic and necessary. Logan & Rosemary were the perfect balance of responsibility and fun that he needed. I loved the element of second chances for both the girls & Joe as they went along their journey and I wanted to squeeze them all so hard whenever times got tough on the road.

This book is both uplifting and extremely sad so please be aware of the content warnings & treat yourself with kindness if you are a caregiver of someone with a life-ending illness.

This is a story about taking a second chance on yourself. Logan and Rosemary were best friends as children, finding security in a friendship that eluded them in so many other aspects of their lives.  But then an incident right before the start of high school tore them apart.  They spent high school openly hating each other.  

When Rosemary returned to their small town and became a teacher at their high school when Logan also worked, their animosity continued or perhaps even grew — driven in part by the fact they seem to be complete opposites.  Rosemary is type A, likes to have a plan for everything, and is not one for relationships.  Logan, on the other hand, is impulsive and prefers to seem like she does not care about anything, including the many people she's found herself in a relationship with.

When their favorite former teacher and mentor shares that he has only months to live and that he wants to spend his last days taking a road trip to Maine with both of them, they feel like they cannot say no.  So Logan and Rosemary pile into a van with their dying mentor, his dog, and a lifetime of resentments.  As they travel across the country, the three find themselves on a trip that will change them, individually and together, forever.  

I really enjoyed this book.  I am a huge fan of the author's two previous novels, so I was excited to read her latest — and it exceeded my high expectations. Like the author's earlier works, this book is a highly engaging romance where the two characters must overcome barriers to being together that are largely of their own creation.  The author does a terrific job of depicting how their path back to one another is not just about overcoming miscommunications, but confronting aspects of their own pasts that they have never really processed.  Within this romance is a powerful story of found family and loss.  As Logan and Rosemary struggle with what they mean to each other, they are also saying goodbye to the surrogate parent who played a significant role in shaping who they are as adults.  And I appreciated how the story of Joe, their teacher, also was fully realized.

Very highly recommended!

I feel like the concept of death and romcom might be a hard sell but it’s Alison Cochrun so obviously it’s gonna be amazing.

Sapphic+childhood besties-enemies-lovers+ forced proximity

Like come one some of my favorite tropes with a huge dash of rip your heart out feelings.

Logan a self proclaimed fuckboi and Careful to the point of maybe a bit uptight Rosemary were childhood besties until high school and then went 10 years not speaking until they both ended up teaching at the same school with a bitter rivalry. They come together when their beloved high school English teacher requests they take him across the country on a road trip to lay him to rest on the east coast.

I loved how well the humor and drama and sass mixed in with the grief and impending death of their mentor. It also had me wanting to do a roadtrip to the Grand Canyon and other places. I really enjoyed this book.

Thanks to netgalley and atria book for an eARC.

Nothing like a book that gives you a good cry! In this queer rom-com, Logan and Rosemary are childhood best friends-turned-mortal enemies as adults, both teaching at their alma mater outside of Portland. One of the big reasons—staying close to their former teacher Joe who is battling cancer. When he announces he’s dying and wants to road trip to Maine for one final adventure, he recruits Logan *and* Rosemary to take him, much to their reluctance. In a road trip of detours, new and old love, and blowouts (more than one kind!) it’s a cross-country trip of a lifetime as they say goodbye to Joe.
I love Alison’s novels and as a former Amarillo & Albuquerque resident now in Portland, I truly enjoyed some of the adventures and research that went into this.
Thank you to Atria Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

My third book by Alison and I swear her writing just keeps getting better and better!
Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun is an emotional queer rom-com following once childhood best friends who drive their former teacher across the country.
A phenomenal enemies to lovers sapphic romance.
I loved this book. It was seamlessly and so very beautifully written. The characters felt so real, that I’m still convinced that they have to be real people.
And the romance? Lord, this was the sweetest, but most realistic, romance I’ve read in years.
This was a journey I wished didn’t end so soon!

Thank You NetGalley and Atria Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Sapphic road trip??

Count me in.

This book was a fun time, it gave very much rom-com vibes and would be a perfect summer read. I highly recommend this if any of those words are green flags for you.

Thank you to netgalley & the publisher for my arc copy.

Add this book to your list if you like
- road trips
- subtle Taylor Swift references
- queer representation
- mental health representation
- teacher role models
- laugh out loud witty banter

Two enemies embark on a road trip against their will, united by their admiration for a former teacher who had a profound impact on both their lives. As Rosemary and Logan journey across the country they are forced to confront their past mistakes, and how they impact who they are today. This book does handle some hefty topics including cancer, death, grief, but as always Cochran does so with such depth and gentleness, mixing all of it together with a hefty dose of humor to get you through. Keep some tissues nearby because this one was a tearjerker for me!

Thanks to @netgalley and @atriabooks for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The world is a scary place right now but this will have you restoring your faith in humanity a little bit; though it may be through fictional characters I guarantee you it won’t feel like they are.

Rosemary and Logan used to be best friends but now are more enemies and haven’t spoken in decades. But when their beloved former English teacher and lifelong mentor tells them he has only a few months to live, they’re forced together once and for all to fulfill his last wish: a cross-country road trip. Stuffed into the gayest van west of the Mississippi, the three embark on a life-changing summer trip—from Washington state to the Grand Canyon, from the Gulf Coast to coastal Maine—that will chart a new future and perhaps lead them back to one another.

Told in dual POVs this one will have you smiling, laughing, crying and basically on the biggest emotional roller coaster of your life. The banter was top notch and I was cracking up at the celebrity/pop culture references Logan would cry out instead of cursing. The plot was just downright hilarious but then we did a 180 and I was bawling by the end. Yes it’s funny but there are so many important but very hard topics covered in this that will have you doing your own self reflection. I loved all of the characters so much and this one will be in my thoughts for a very long time.

Grab your tissues, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Alison has done it again with another stellar read in Here We Go Again.

If Alison Cochrun was a musician, I’d be saying, “the hits just keep coming”. This book is definitely a chart topper. If books were albums, this is the kind of book you’d put on repeat in the car and belt out the lyrics to. It’s that good. While this is only her third book, I can say with confidence that Alison has quickly become one of my most favourite authors.

Once again we have terrific characters. So well developed, complicated, and still somehow likeable and relatable. While both ladies here are teachers, they couldn’t be more different. Rosemary is a buttoned-up perfectionist. She plans everything down to the last detail with colour coded charts and can’t live without her laminator. Logan, on the other hand, is a bit chaotic, more of a fly by the seat of your pants type. And the two ladies don’t like each other much. They were best friends as kids but now can’t stand each other. The one thing they do have in common is their friend and mentor Joe. Joe is another wonderful character. Larger than life, and gayer than Elton John, he is so unapologetically himself. You can’t help but love him and immediately understand why he is so important to both Rosemary and Logan. So when he tells them he is dying, doesn’t have long to live and needs them to drive him across the country, you can understand why the ladies are conflicted. They both want to be there for Joe, but don’t want to be trapped in a vehicle with each other. Ultimately Joe convinces them and the trio heads off on an epic road trip.

One of the things I love about Alison’s books is that she explores health issues through the eyes of her characters. In this book, we’re looking at neurodiversity, specifically ADHD. Both Logan and Rosemary have it, but experience it very differently. I loved this detail as it highlighted for me the diversity that exists within that one diagnosis. I actually learned a lot about ADHD, especially through Rosemary’s character. I had no idea ADHD could even look like that.

Just in case the book jacket description isn’t clear enough, this book has some sad parts. Everyone has to deal with the fact that Joe is dying and death is discussed at length. I felt Alison dealt with this masterfully.

The love story between Rosemary and Logan is done in a really unique way. This isn’t a typical enemies to lovers, although fans of the trope will find elements of it. We get some of the banter and the teasing you might expect but mostly these two tiptoe around each other. Their relationship develops in a way that feels like a gentle unfolding rather than a slamming realisation. It feels realistic and I loved every moment.

Here We Go Again proves Alison is a master of her craft; definitely not a one-hit wonder. It is a very worthwhile read.

I was kicking my feet giggling through most of Here We Go Again. It read like a movie and I could picture the death road trip the whole time. Alison is so descriptive with her story and I felt like I was there. It is my top book I've read this year!!!

✨ Review ✨ Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun

Thanks to Atria and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

Alison Cochrun can do no wrong!!! She nails it again with this home run of a road trip book that celebrates queer love and found family in the messiest and most beautiful of ways.

Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale were bffs from age 11 to 14 when suddenly they became mortal enemies after Maletis kissed Hale at a pool party. They're reunited as adults when they both become English teachers at their high school. When their favorite HS teacher and mentor shares that he's dying and wants these two to help him go on one last adventure, back to his cabin in Maine (from their West Coast homes), the two begrudgingly agree.

What results is this incredible mix of romance and familial love and adventure and death trip wisdom as the three cross the country. We witness beauty and chaos and messiness and love and regret and sadness and grief and joy and so much more as the journey takes us around the country in the gayest of vans. my gosh there's just so much to love here.

I don't want to spoil any of the moments of this book, but I wanted to shout out to the drag moment later in the book as being one of my favorites.

This book has all the joy of a queer rom com with all of the bittersweet feels of watching their beloved mentor and friend's life come to a close. This was a really beautifully written story, and I wish I could go back and read it again for the first time!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: f/f romance + road trip and found family elements
Setting: from West to East coast and everything in between
Pub Date: April 2, 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ queer rom com + found family
⭕️ road trips
⭕️ English teachers
⭕️ crying
⭕️ food across the country

Here we go again? More like Alison Cochrun does it again with a phenomenal book about love, found family, and grief that tore my heart out. I found myself laughing as much as I found myself crying and sniffling, enjoying every page as I read. This was a great read and I look forward to purchasing it and reading more books by Alison Cochrun in the future--she is now an instant buy author for me!

OMG this booook. First, it broke my heart and built it back up again over and over and over - it is so uniquely, beautifully bittersweet. It was about grief and loss, but so much more it was about love and living and being exactly who you want to be. The romance between Rosemary and Logan as they find their way back to their friendship and then even more is a lovely journey of figuring out how to be honest, how to show up, how to meet someone exactly where they are. And then there's Joe - a true king. Read with tissues and give yourself the space to laugh, to cry, to cheer!

Once the closest of friends, Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale have hated each other since the summer before their first year of high school. Each would have been happy to never see the other one again. But after ten years of not speaking, they both find themselves teachers in their former high school, despising each other as strongly as ever. When Joe, their mutual favorite teacher, lets Logan and Rosemary know he has a few months to live and he wants to use that time to take a cross-country road trip with both of them, they each want to say no. But they can't bring themselves to deny Joe his dying wish. The three embark on a summer road trip where they discover that despite their commitments to leave the past in the past, they each may have unfinished business that will put them on a new, unexpected path.

This was a moving, well-written story about first love, loss, and learning to accept yourself.

Highly recommended.

*thank you to the Atria and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Alison Cochrun’s writing will always be a hit for me! While this wasn’t my favorite of her books, it was still such a fun read and an easy 4 ⭐️

I absolutely adored the romance in this book, but I loved how the plot of Rosemary and Logan’s roadtrip with their former teacher was the star. It’s a much heavier book than the cover implies, so know going in that this book does cover some harder topics of a parental figure dying and grief.

Joe was by far my favorite character. He helps bring the story to life through the wisdom he imparts on Rosemary and Logan & his jokes/banter with them. This is me asking Alison to write a book just for Joe, bc I need to know him more and find out what he was like when he was younger.

There were lots of pop culture references, so if that’s not your thing, just know that going in.

Overall, I will read anything and everything Alison writes. I can’t wait to see what fun stories she writes for us in the future!

Read if you like:
👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼 friends to lovers
🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ representation
🧠 mental health representation
🚗 road trips
🗣️ witty banger
👥 dual POV

A sapphic road trip romance about childhood friends who shared a spin the bottle kiss in grade school but not realizing they were both leaning towards liking girls, harming their friendship before one moved to another city… just to move back years later and start teaching at their old school, but the ruined friendship was still there.

A mentor who was there for each of them as they came out, since neither had a great family life, is sick and his dying wish is for the girls to drive him across the country to a home he has so he can live out his time there. He’s hoping they’ll repair their relationship on the road, when confined to a car for days, and have to speak to each other.

It’s touted as a RomCom, but it’s quite emotional, especially as Logan and Rosemary work to return to a friendship so they don’t fight too much on the road in front of Joe. They have a schedule to keep, which Rosemary has planned out so she doesn’t have to spend any extra time with Logan, but they’re suddenly taking detours for Joe (like to the Grand Canyon, and to say goodbye to the love of his life, who he walked away from so many years ago). Rosemary also tries to deal with some side personal issues. A beautiful story but I failed to see the comedy anywhere.

It’s a very nice storyline, but I definitely preferred Cochrun’s two previous novels - but do still recommend it! It’s a good, but an emotional read with the plot and all of the character development.

I received an advance copy from NetGalley and Atria Books, and this is my honest feedback.

Here We Go Again is a book I want to read over and over and over -- and I don't remember ever re-reading a book outside of teaching it. I know this will be one of my top reads of the year! I fell head over heels in love with all of these characters -- Rosemary, Logan, and especially Joe. Joe was larger than life and yet felt so real, hilarious, and though the story was about him I kept wishing it was somehow more about him. In many ways even though Joe was the catalyst for everything, the story was mostly about Logan and Rosemary, especially since it was told from their perspectives. I guess I would have liked at least a few chapters from Joe's perspective too -- but I understand why we didn't get it. One of the things I love most about the romance genre, especially LGBTQ+ romance is the self-discovery involved and every character had this in spades. I loved getting to know these characters and seeing them get to know themselves. The adventurous road trip felt far-fetched at times and yet that's part of what made it so loveable. I adore a road trip particularly in story form and this one absolutely didn't disappoint. This book made me laugh and cry in equal measure and I savored every page, never wanting it to end -- and I'm not even being hyperbolic. Alison Cochrun secured her spot in my limited "auto-buy author list" since I've absolutely loved every book she's written -- but this is my favorite. You'll love it if you love romance, adventure, road trips, alternating perspectives, humor, books that make you feel, self-discovery, any of her other books, or really if you're someone who reads at all.

Thank you to Atria for the ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. This book will stay with me for a long time, and it will be available for everyone to enjoy on Tuesday!
Here We Go Again follows two English teachers taking their former teacher and mentor on his last-wish road trip across the country so that he can die in Maine instead of the beige of a hospital in rural Washington. While Rosemary has planned everything about the trip in a binder, it is clear from the first detour that they will not be following the direct route she expected. Joe’s first request is to stop at Vista House, a gorgeous rest stop which I visited last summer while visiting some waterfalls in the PNW. I haven’t been on a road trip in a long time, but reading this brought back memories from many trips I’ve taken including staying at an old-time motel in Idaho, seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time, and driving along the white sands of the Gulf coast.
From that first reference, I felt a special connection with this book. Perhaps due to being a high school teacher or due to my love of travel, I couldn’t read it fast enough. This is a sapphic romance, with plenty of tropes like enemies to lovers and only one bed, but there is a larger message, about learning to both accept and love yourself, while also being open to accepting and returning the love of others. 💕
While most of the book is lighthearted and includes some steamy scenes, I had to put down my kindle because I was sobbing so hard while reading - I tend to get emotionally invested in my reading, but this book made me cry much more than usual. I loved the relationships between the characters and how they helped each other handle the hard parts of life. I hope others will enjoy this too, but keep the tissues handy!