i was so excited for this and the premise is super fun and interesting! however, the writing was really hard for me to get into. the main characters feel very severe and unrealistic, and the millennial references made the book feel very 2021. i'm bummed! i really wanted to like this!

HERE WE GO AGAIN by alison cochrun was a delightful sapphic romance ft. second-chance romance, enemies/friends to lovers, and many, many one bed moments 😇

Even though childhood best friends Logan and Rosemary work at their Alma mater as high school English teachers, they don’t speak and haven’t been friends since high school. Logan could not be more chill and Rosemary is type A and buttoned up (literally). But they have to get past their differences and tumultuous past to drive their beloved high school teacher across the country because it’s his dying wish.

How was this book so sad but still so fun?! Gosh I just so enjoyed the characters, their shenanigans, and how *real* this all felt. I also loved how much this book is a love letter to teachers who make profound impacts on their students’ lives!

This is a "sapphic road trip rom-com about death," according to the author's acknowledgements, and this story does not fail in this regard.

Logan and Rosemary were childhood friends until a kiss brought the end of their friendship. For 20 years, they have not spoken (or spoke rudely) to each other. Then comes a phone call from their mentor, their previous teacher, Joe, who tells them he is dying and convinces them both to take a road trip from Washington state to Maine. Throughout this journey, Logan and Rosemary come to terms with their own mental issues and opinions about each other, while Joe embarks on some much-needed closure with his one regret in life.

This is a heartbreaking tale of losing someone so young to a horrible disease. Through the tears, there are snarky comebacks, ridiculous pet names, and horrible exclamations using famous people's names, but the sentiment still rings true. According to the author as well, it seems she wrote this book "with a naive detachment from the subject matter" which, unfortunately, is how I found Logan's reaction to this whole trip. She has ADHD (mirroring the author's own mental issues), is not someone who can deal with heavy subject matter, and apparently has a selfish streak that runs deep (courtesy of her absentee mother). By the end of this road trip, thankfully, Logan's character seemed to have done a 180 in regard to her disposition. Rosemary's character also climbed an uphill battle, trying to come to terms with how her anxiety has controlled much of her life. It was refreshing to see these ladies find the silver linings in such a painful time.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, via NetGalley, for an honest review.

A beautiful, heartbreaking rom-com about death. A celebration of life from page 1 to the end. I rarely cry while reading…this one got me. This one had me blubbering! I loved each character even when they were being insufferable. They were real people with real struggles joined together through the magic of teaching. This one is going to linger.

Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books, and author Alison Cochrun for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. “Here We Go Again” was published April 2, 2024!

This one made me cry but they warned me in the beginning so I have no one to blame but myself. I loved that this had such a strong theme of found family and exploring how that supports you. I loved that both characters saw their own flaws and were able to work through them. It was a bit heavier of a read than I was expecting but still had a lot of bright funny moments, much like life.

I’ll admit to enjoying Cochrun‘s previous books a fair bit more especially through plot pacing and characterizations.

However I have to applaud Cochrun’s ability to write such heavy subject matter in a rather beautiful way.

Definitely pulled at my heartstrings. Shed more than a few tears reading this.

This romance was very grief centered which can admittedly be a bit triggering. I loved it though. This was so emotion and beautiful and I love alison's writing.

I always recommend Alison Cochran books because she never disappoints. She has done it once again!

This is a heartfelt & gripping story. This story features heartbreak & loss. The author deals with those topics generously. The 2 mc’s relationship is almost a subplot to the bigger overarching story here.

There’s great representation featured in this book
LGBTQ, ADHD, anxiety!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author & the publisher for a copy of the ARC!

Here We Go Again was an amazing enemies to lovers story that was filled with so much heart! I enjoyed the tension and budding romance between Logan and Rosemary, who appear to be comically opposite from one another. While the romance aspect is what initially drew me to Cochrun’s latest novel, I especially loved the plot surrounding their beloved English teacher and how both characters come together to take him on a road trip across the country. This pulled on my heartstrings and was a beautiful story! I highly recommend for anyone that enjoys Emily Henry novels or Cochrun’s prior novel, Kiss Her Once for Me.

alison cochrun you're getting my next therapy bill because I am not okay after reading this. this was the book you were meant to write.

FF
Friends to enemies to lovers
Self discovery and growth
Neurodivergent representation
Dual POV

Rating: 5/5 - this book was incredible but I will never read it again
🌶️: 2/5 - there were a couple explicit intimate scenes

TLDR: This is an incredible book. Read it with tissues nearby.

Boy oh boy will this book make you feel all your feelings. This book is just beautiful. It has so many incredible elements and poignant moments. It was funny and I laughed. It was beautifully romantic and I cried. It was so sad and I sobbed. There are so many elements to this book that I don't even know where to start so I'll just say read it. Ultimately I would recommend this book to everyone and warn them to have tissues handy.

I DNFed this book at around the 33% mark. I just wasn't vibing with the characters and their relationship. Lots of people love Alison Cochrun, so your mileage may vary.

CW: death of a loved one, grief, dying, death of a parent (past)

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Atria for the gifted e-book ❤️ #gifted. My review is comprised of my honest thoughts.

Read this if you like: Dual POV, second chances, childhood friends to lovers, neurodivergent representation, steamy, road trip

I wanted to love this book, but there were parts/tropes I didn't like at all. They messed up the story for me. This book made me laugh out loud multiple times. It's also very heartbreaking. 😪 In the end, I realized they just didn't have much chemistry, in my opinion. I do recommend it!

This author knows how to write romance! I feel like her books keep getting better and better! The romance starts to feel more realistic as she writes them!
I am such a sucker for childhood friends to lover, especially in queer stories because it comes back to them figuring out who they truly are! Such a good trope and she does it well!
I thought there was so much chemistry between the love interests, it allowed me as the reader to feel connected to them, and I loved it! I look forward to seeing what she writes next!

I loved this! It's a poignant story about growing up, finding yourself, admitting to mistakes, facing regrets, and going out and experiencing life in all its beauty, unpredictability, and heartbreak. There's humor, road trip adventures, a failed service dog, found family, and, of course, romance. But it's also bittersweet and deals with grief, dying, abandonment, addiction, and mental health. Getting to know these characters wasn't always comfortable but by the end I was going through it with them, celebrating and grieving. While I love both Logan and Rosemary, Joe is my favorite character, and the chapters in Louisiana were my favorite in the book. Overall, a lovely and joyous read!

I rated this 3.75 stars.

This is a big heartstrings-pulling story, and I applaud the author for also making it so funny and charmingly romantic. It took me longer than usual to get through because I read it in ebook, and audio is my preferred medium for this genre.

It's definitely a cheesy, trope-y read at times, which is both a pro and a con in my books. My biggest critique would be that the author leans a bit too heavily into queer, sapphic, and neurodivergent stereotypes. At times, this felt alienating... and, at other times, it felt clunky and awkward.

I don't know that I would describe this reading experience as "feel-good", because it deals very heavily and very intimately with dying and grieving a loved one. It is, however, an emotional read that includes a romantic resolution.

Alison Cochrun really said: Let‘s make my readers feel love, despair and happiness all at the same time!

And let me tell you. I was here for it. Here we go again is a lesbian enemies to lovers romance - yes - but it‘s so so so much more. It‘s love that transcends romantic love. It‘s unconditional and soul deep. It‘s cross-country roadtrips and venturing outside your comfort zone. It‘s seeing neurodiversity as an asset instead of a hindrance. It‘s healing and hurting and being hopeful.

In short, this is an absolutely beautiful book.
Please note that you should be in the right mindset to read it! The topic of grief felt too overwhelming and too much for me when this lovely book was first released. I only picked it back up when I felt more secure about it! 🫶🏻 Please take care of yourselves.

Otherwise, go read it! I promise you that there will be tears and goosebumps and hiccup-giggles en masse ❤️

I loved this book and connected it from page one. As a huge fan of Alison Cochrun's previous release, "The Charm Offensive," this book was filled with all the little neurodivergent idiosyncrasies that made me fall in love with Dev and Charlie and relate to them both so much. In "Here We Go Again," Logan and Rosemary just bounce off the page and both feel like totally believable, real people with imperfections and arcs that carry them through the book. I loved Joe as the teacher/father figure character and fodder for their relationship. Can't recommend this book highly enough. A personal copy of it is going on my shelf.

Alison Cochrun is one of my ride-or-die authors for sure. 3 out of 3 books are FIVE PHENOMENAL STARS!!!! I simply cannot get over the way she weaves an incredible story line with the most stunning of queer discussions all the while bringing out ALL THE TEARS. Alison Cochrun made me fall in love with romance. I loved this book just as much as I loved her other works as well. Absolutely brilliant.

Full disclosure up front with this book. The last 50 pages or so made me sob so hard that I went through about twenty tissues and left puddles of tears soaked into my couch where I was reading. I was a full mess. I loved it.

An ailing high school teacher asks two of his former students to help him with his dying wish: drive him across the country so he can finish out his days in a house by the water. The only problem with these two students is that they used to be best friends who now hate each other. But of course, once they begin spending more time together, all those old high school feelings come back in full force.

The romance of this book is lovely and there’s romance woven through every page, whether it be between the main characters Logan and Rosemary or the others in the book. In fact, the plot line that affected me the most was completely separate from Logan and Rosemary. That’s how good Alison Cochrun is. You come for the main characters’ love story and end up being invested in two others to the point where your eyes become swollen from how many tears are spilled.

But I digress.

This book is so special and is more than just a romance book. It’s an exploration of queer joy, queer regret, and queer living. It sang to me and someday I’ll be emotionally ready to read it again.