Alison does it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will read anything Alison writes until she decides to stop (but I hope that day is NEVER). I love this one from the bottom of my heart. I was gagged that there was no epilogue, but it's okay. I can fantasize where Mal and Sadie end up next. Do I hike the Camino now?!!

What an incredible book! I have always loved Alison Cochrun’s writing, but there was something about this book that had me smiling the entire time reading it.

Every Step She Takes follows Sadie Wells, an antique-store owner from Seattle on the cusp of her 35th birthday and completely unsure about the direction of her life. When her sister Vi, a queer travel influencer, injures herself and can no longer go on her trip to Portugal to walk the Camino de Santiago, Sadie jumps in and volunteers. As Sadie sets off across the globe, she meets Mal, her seat mate on her flight. During a bout of some particularly bad turbulence, Sadie decides to confesses her deepest secrets to Mal (that she may or may not be a lesbian?) thinking she will never see her again. In a twist of fate, Mal also happens to be part of the tour that Sadie is on. With each step they take along the Camino, the two develop a friendship that slowly evolves in to something a little bit more.

I had a feeling, after the very first chapter, that this was going to be one of my favorite Alison Cochrun books. I loved the focus on Sadie’s journey as she learned to be her authentic self. In particular, I appreciated the emphasis on the lesson that there is no timeline to life (despite Sadie feeling behind in more ways than one). I also loved Mal’s character growth and how the Camino helped her work through her grief and trauma from her family.

The queer tour group that both Sadie and Mal were on were filled with the most heartwarming characters. With each chapter, I felt like I got to learn more about them just as Sadie and Mal did. I have no idea if a tour group like Inez’s exists in real life, but my hope is that one does and can be a safe haven for travelers looking to discover who they truly are.

This book will have you laughing, crying, swooning, and feeling every range of emotion. I highly recommend picking this one up when it’s out this fall!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC!

I enjoyed this story of learning how to love yourself. Seeing the characters learn about themselves and learn how to love was fun and a journey I will take again.

Thanks to NetGallery and the Publisher for this Arc in exchange for my honest review.

I’ve never read about a late-blooming coming of age and thought this was done excellently! So many queer coming out stories are of teens and it was so nice to see another side of coming out stories. It felt very real and raw, I thought both characters developments were well executed and insightful. Definitely 5 stars for me!

3.5

setting: Portugal and Spain
Rep: lesbian protagonist and love interest; multiple queer and POC side characters

I was so hyped for this and I still enjoyed it but it's far from my favorite Alison Cochran. I wish the characters and their lives had been more developed - the lack of consistent location makes that more important I think and it was lacking a bit and for a book about the Camino trail, I didn't get much of a sense of place at any point. I also had some issues with the side characters. but overall this was an easy read, even if it did fall into some tropes that are getting a bit tired

Thanks to Netgalley Atria for this ARC!

I enjoyed Sadie’s journey exploring her newly-realized queerness and Mal was a lot of fun! Sadie’s POVs got a little old after a while, but it improved in the latter half of the book. The setting was lots of fun (who amongst us can’t remember the trials of hostel living?).

Rating: 3.5 rounded up

This was my first book by Alison Cochrun, and I absolutely loved it! It was unexpectedly profound, a little messy, but full of heart and grace!

This book follows Sadie, who is struggling to find out who she is as she is stuck in a life that doesn't quite fit. She hates dating men, but she doesn't know why. To have the opportunity to question herself, she just headfirst into the Camino de Santiago when her sister is unable to attend. What was meant to be a simple escape turns into a whirlwind adventure full of wine, grief, desire, identity, and love with Mal, her seatmate from the plane, turned roommate on the Camino.

I felt so seen with Sadie's character! Watching her struggle in her 30s and experience new adventures and beginnings gives me hope for the same in my life. I also so myself in Mal, who is guarded but incredibly generous at the same time. Their relationship was beautiful.

This book was so much more than a romance novel. It's about becoming who you were meant to be. It's about forgiving yourself for not knowing sooner, for not being ready, and for being scared. It's about giving yourself permission to want to experience joy in life! Maybe I need to go on a Camino!

I'm so glad I got the opportunity to read this book. Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for this ARC.

Before I get into my review, I first want to say thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC of “Every Step She Takes”!

This was a funny, swooning, sexy, slow-burn romance with incredible characters and chemistry between them. It took a very dysfunctional group of characters and featured found family.

The chemistry between Mal and Sadie alone was so good it had me kicking my feet and giggling. Mal is going through a tragic time while Sadie is coming to the realization that she might really be a lesbian. They are both dysfunctional but work so well together.

The final thing I take from this book is that Alison Cochrun needs to continue making travel romances.

‘Every Step She Takes’ is about Sadie and Mal who’s on an adventure in a European country. Sadie was offered by her sister to go on a tour to Portugal’s Camino de Santiago. Mal also went on a tour as well. Both barely knew each other. For two weeks they were roommates. Mal teaches Sadie about queer sexually.

This book shows the meaning of finding your true identity. Also, discovering an adventure in a foreign country. By means that a foreign country shall teach you something.

Every Step She Takes follows alternate perspectives of Sadie and Mal as they hike the Camino with a queer tour group, along with occasional blog posts and text exchanges. The dual perspectives worked for me in this book, both characters’ perspective were different enough that it didn’t feel redundant. It’s primarily a romance, but there are themes of self-exploration, found family, and different iterations of the queer experience that made it feel like a more substantial read. I loved the late bloomer representation and the metaphor of the Camino. I also loved the supporting characters on the tour - lots of diversity re: queer representation but also their antics added levity to some heavier moments. The pacing was a little off for me in the middle and some of the devices to move the plot along felt kind of contrived, but I really enjoyed this book overall. Truthfully, I will read anything Alison Cochrun writes and be happy about it; her books have a genuine sense of queerness like they are written primarily for a gay audience which I deeply appreciate.

Thank you to Atria books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Will also post review on instagram closer to publication date: @cozycats_cozybooks

Every Step She Takes is a wlw romance about coming out later in life and the ability to start new and heal old wounds no matter where you are in your journey. Sadie has been living in her Nana's footsteps in a life she doesn't fully enjoy. While, Mal has done the opposite and run from everything related to her father. Both of their truths lie somewhere in the middle and it takes plane turbulence, the Camino de Santiago, and a wide cast of friends to push them in the right direction.
Alison manages to write a book full of travel-lust, grief, silliness, and love that is set on the backdrop of Portugal and Spain. I highly recommend it.
Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for the e-arc.

Alison Cochrun’s "Every Step She Takes" is yet another home-run in her growing repertoire. I don’t know how she does it, but once again she delivers a richly layered sapphic romance that will make readers cry, laugh, and go buy too many custard pastries. Who knew grief would pair so well with wine and seafood. Humor and grief, discovery and introspection, wine and walking.

This time, Cochrun set the novel against a backdrop that sounds objectively exhausting: Portugal/Spain's Camino de Santiago. Sadie is a 35-year-old from Seattle, a somewhat sheltered adult who’s spent her life being too serious and too careful. When her influencer sister is injured, Sadie reluctantly agrees to complete a two-hundred-mile trek in her place. It’s a disruption to her carefully constructed routine, but one she needs more than she realizes.

Mal is her opposite... a wanderer, grieving the end of a relationship, the death of her father, and the slow fade of her youth. She’s someone who’s spent her life being unserious, and is now being forced to reconsider.

They meet as seatmates on the flight to Portugal, and their meet cute is marked by wine-fueled confessions and unexpected emotional/physical turbulence. Their connection carries over into the Camino itself, where they begin to unpack not only their pasts, but also their values, priorities, strengths, and failures. The story doesn’t shy away from showing how two very different kinds of lost adults might find comfort in each other’s company, especially when surrounded by miles of trail.

Without spoiling the rest of the story: as in Here We Go Again, Cochrun manages to build genuine romantic tension out of something as heavy and unglamorous as grief. It shouldn’t work, but it does. Grief is the least romantic trope, and yet she continues to make something beautiful out of it.

The side characters were fine. but the food descriptions, however, deserve their own spotlight: evocative, sensory, and almost reckless in how much they’ll make you crave things you’ve used to love as a child. I spent an embarrassing amount of money tracking down a decent pastéis de nata because of this book. There’s also just enough Portuguese sprinkled throughout to add authenticity without alienating the reader.

At its core, Every Step She Takes is about self-acceptance and transformation. While it follows the structure of a romance, it quietly becomes something else: the most effective self-help book you’ll read this year. It inspires without preaching, challenges without judging, and leaves you thinking about your own next step, long after the final page.

This is a really cozy fun book that’s as much about the MC development as it is about the romance. Always sign me up for a Sapphic Wild journey! The Camino structure was so fun, and I love a found family! The scenery and formula of the trip lends itself well to the self discovery of Sadie, and I just really enjoyed the ride. I did hate the fake blog posts - writing in writing always comes across as terrible to me and I don’t know why.

I was so excited to receive this arc because I loved Kiss Her Once For Me.
Unfortunately this fell flat for me. I flew through the first 50% and I was really enjoying the main character’s journey of self discovery. Yet, I still feel like she lacked some depth. At about 60% I felt like DNFing
Also all of a sudden her blog posts she’s supposed to be writing and were included throughout the first maybe 35% just seemed like they were forgotten entirely for a while.
I didn’t like the reasoning behind their first kiss or the first time they had sex, which is so sad because the yearning leading up to it was sooo good I wish it just happened differently.

OH IT IS SO FREAKING GOOD.

Alison Cochrun knows how to write a sapphic love story and Every Step She Takes further proves that.

I really really enjoyed this book!! It’s a great and cute self discovery. I myself can relate so much to it!

This book was amazing. I requested it because of the author, then I read the blurb and I wasn’t quite as excited anymore, BUT now that I read the novel I am so incredibly thrilled with my choice to grab this one. Amazing novel. This one has it all (unless you want like, horror or something, then go away); you have a solid little plot, a bunch of emotional connection, heartbreaking moments, heartwarming moments, self-discovery and transformation, family issues, horny people, and a guy wearing spandex that will NOT stop stretching (but its ok). I laughed my way through this book, but it hit the other emotional beats too. I recommend it, plainly and simply. You wont regret it.
Then when your done and know I was right, you should go read “Kiss Her Once For Me” as well because I want to plug the first novel I read by this author that won me over.

My Rating: “A+”
Converted Rating: 5-Stars

Highlights:
-Excellent writing. Its funny, its heartwarming, its sad, its everything. The story is well plotted out, the dialogue is great…. Just overall the writing is wonderful. Not that I was surprised with this author.
-The adorable and fun little rag-tag group of queers. Excellent collection of side characters that added a lot to the novel.
-Body Neutrality for the win! This isn’t something that I see very often, let alone in a novel.
-Ace representation is always appreciated, as well as the rest of the diversity on display in this novel.
-EMOTIONAL SUPPORT RUFFLES! I will not explain, read the book. This sentence/section had me laughing more than anything else I have read in… years. It might have just been the right thing at the right time but I had to stop reading until I calmed down. Did I mention the book is funny?
-It was just SO sweet and heartwarming. Truly.
-Yay therapy! Any book that features the use of an actual resource to help with your emotional problems gets bonus points from me!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the free ARC. This honest review was left voluntarily.

- Find me an Alison Cochrun book that I won't rate 5 stars - that's right YOU CAN'T
- This is such a set of wild coincidences that lead to Sadie and Mal being on this trip together that it's almost silly, and I love it
- Honestly, yelling I THINK I'M A LESBIAN to the person next to you on a plane because you think you're about to die and they seem queer, NOT dying, and then having to spend the next 2 weeks not just on a trip with said person but you're also roommates? Yes please very good
- Loved the little bad blog posts between chapters (and watching them get better as Sadie got more comfortable with everything)
- I really felt for Sadie during this book. It was basically a coming-of-age, except she's 35 and has that awful awful feeling that she's "too late" to so much of what she's learning about herself. I'm glad they also get into the idea of compulsive heterosexuality and why it makes PERFECT SENSE that it took time for her to realize that she isn't straight.

This is suuuch a swoony book. Oh my goodness. I adored it. I loved Mal, and Sadie, and their ragtag group of tour-mates. The growth and character arcs were so rich. The connection was hot and tender and sweet all at once. There is so much delicious details of wine, their journey, their stories and thought processes, their escapades through Portugal and Spain, the beauty of the countries and journey. The ending was exquisite.
For fans of blisters, wine, self-discovery, antique repurposing, and plane turbulence. Also, I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially if you enjoyed the book The Pairing.

I was so excited to receive this ARC from Net Galley. I have loved everyone of Cochrun’s book and a couldn’t wait to dive into another story. What I loved most about this book is how I was able to relate to both of the main characters. I greatly enjoyed reading about their journey on the Camino and of course their love story. The rest of characters also have their heartwarming stories. I highly recommend this book!