This book was lovely. I loved all of the characters on the tour group, and it was easy to root for the main characters. If you liked The Pairing by Casey McQuiston you will likely enjoy this book too! This made me want to book my own Portuguese Camino trip immediately.

Alison Cochrun's latest book shows a maturity in her storytelling and writing skills that was starting to show itself in her last work. I felt even more in league with this cast of characters than in any of her previous works. I look forward to reading what she does next as she keep developing these intriguing journeys. Thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

To say I loved this book would be an understatement. Cochran does a beautiful job of capturing what it means to be a "late in life" queer. So often, and for good reason, coming out narratives focus on younger characters, but this story rings so true for many of us, and I appreciated her nuanced approach. The cast of characters is great and makes this trip down the Camino all the more enjoyable and revelatory. This is one I'll be adding to the shelf and recommending to my friends!

This book follows two very different women; Mal, a thirty something whose traveled the world cycling through cities and women with abandon since she came out to her father in her late teens and was rejected by him. He recently passed away and she is making this trek on the way to his funeral. Sadie is another thirty something woman who has lived in the same part of the Pacific Northwest her entire life. She spent her childhood learning to love old things from her grandmother who ran an antique shop. She took over the business when her grandmother died despite the fact that she might love reimagining antiques more than selling them. Her sister runs a travel blog but becomes injured and asks Sadie to blog going on this pilgrimage through Spain in her place and write about it. This book follows each of them as they begin a trek that will help each of them find themselves (and each other, of course). If a representation of Sapphic experience with two protagonists in their 30s against a European backdrop sounds appealing to you then I would certainly give this one a try.

Things I liked about this romance:

1. The lists

2. The vibrant descriptions of a pilgrimage through Portugal and Spain. The physical descriptions were nice.

3. The writing that reminded me of what it's like to travel with strangers. I spent a semester abroad in college with no one I knew and reading this book made me miss the people I met there tremendously.
"I know that realistically, I will never see most of these people again. We'll keep in touch in our WhatsApp group chat for a while, but eventually, our relationships will be reduced to living each other's Instagram posts. But it won't matter, because I will carry my love for these people with me wherever I go from here. That's the thing about a Camino family. The very nature of your connection is fleeting, only meant to last until Santiago, but that doesn't diminish the impact they have on your life."

4. The way that the descriptions of places, people and walking daily gave me a sense of wanderlust I haven't had for a long time.

5. The representation. We have someone who has known they were queer for a long time in Mal but her family isn't accepting. Sadie hasn't even felt able to question her sexuality even though she has confidence her family will accept her. AND THEY ARE BOTH IN THEIR LATE 30s. Hooray for people who are still figuring it out even after their age starts with a 3!!

6. The descriptions of all the little signs that, for people who didn't or werent allowed to question their sexuality until later, we can look back at and see so clearly what we were trying to figure out. It was Eliza Dushku for me to (but the Buffy version not Bring It On.). Tiny things like that make an experience I didn't even know I was having at the time feel so universal. The book made the questioning kid who did know I was even questioning feel so seen.

7. The inclusion of the impact of heteronormativity. We just don't talk about it as much. It was something to see Sadie try so hard to be what people expected.
"Grant leans in. He smells like eucalyptus and emotional intelligence, and when his mouth presses against mine, I will myself to feel something, feel anything. Instead I feel as empty as my house of ghosts."

8. The romance. Because it was one where they didn't just fall for each other. They fell for the versions of themselves that they were developing and helping each other grow in the ways they needed to.

I am sure there are more things I could add to this list. I got this as an ARC but I will be looking to see about an audiobook when it's released. I hope it's got a good narrator because I'd love to be back in this world again for a while. It just left me with a lot of positive vibes.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC! While this isn’t my favorite book by the author, I did enjoy reading it. I’ve always wanted to walk the Camino and I loved getting to live vicariously through this book. It fell a little flat when it came to the “practice dating” premise but I loved the idea of a queer adult having a do-over/second chance at adolescence. Would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a sapphic romance!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC 💕

This was a beautiful story of a 35 year old woman finding her true self whilst on a pilgrimage through Portugal and Spain. We follow Sadie who takes her sisters place on a queer walking tour when she gets fed up with going on miserable dates with men she isn’t interested in and when her plane hits some nasty turbulence she comes out as a lesbian to a stranger sat next to her. Only they aren’t a stranger for long. Turns out this handsome stranger is also on the tour and they’re roommates!

I found parts of this book a tad cringe but ultimately it was a lovely coming out story and journey of self discovery, reminding readers that it’s never too late to change your outlook.

Sadie was highly relatable in her unpreparedness for the walking tour and how over the 2 week trip she comes to love everything about herself and the experience she’s having.

Mal (the stranger on the plane) is a mess after her estranged father passes away and leaves her a fortune and a vineyard company. She denies any and all feelings whilst on the trip and we get to see her fall in love with Sadie all at once and then again slowly.

I really enjoyed their dynamic as a baby gay and an elder queer (as the author puts it) and seeing their time apart and their individual growth.

Lovely. I deeply appreciate Alison Cochrun writing late-in-life queer journeys, especially for the over-thirty crowd, especially when they include other kinds of growth as well. I really loved both Sadie and Mal’s journeys in this book— their queerness wasn’t separate from the other issues they had; it was integral to their arrested development and a huge part of the ways they’d been holding themselves back.

Unfortunately, my problem with this book is that I don’t know that I ever really bought into their love story. They did unfortunately kind of have the vibe of two people who meet on vacation, help each other through some big awakenings, and then go back to being friends. At the end of the day, I don’t really know why Sadie was so much more special to Mal than all of her other short-term dream girls, and Mal was really just the woman Sadie happened to be sitting next to on the plane. I think Alison Cochrun did her best to make their first meeting feel ~special and different to them both, but you can’t build a love story based on vibes (at least not one I’m terribly interested in) and it just felt by the end that they didn’t have very much in common and had very little to bind them together that wasn’t situational or geographical.

I sound really down on this but I really did love it as a piece on queer friendship and queer coming-of-age! And Alison Cochrun’s writing is stellar, as always. There were certain sections that really moved me. I just didn’t need the HEA.

I came into Every Step She Takes already a big Alison Cochrun fan, and this book does not disappoint! Combining the journey of self-discovery for a late-in-life coming out with a queer tour of the Camino de Santiago, this is a total charmer from beginning to end. The characters, especially the two protagonists Sadie & Mal are fully realized and full of flaws, and the side cast of Beatrix Pilgrims (STEFANO, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY FAVORITE COMIC RELIEF GAY!!!!) are charming and have their own metaphorical journeys to go through on the path while quietly cheering Our Girls on. And the descriptions of the coast of Portugal and Spain have me planning to sign up for my own Camino.

As a late-in-life queer, I found Sadie's journey incredibly relatable and appreciated the validation she found from the other characters even when she was wallowing in self-doubt. There is also a lovely range of bi, ace, aro, and trans representation, though the parents of both main characters do show both the extremes of supporting to heterophobic.

5/5, would buy and can't wait to recommend to friends!

Things I loved about this book:
1. The two main characters (Sadie and Mal)
2. Sadie and Mal’s emotional and physical connection
3. The Camino setting
4. The vulnerability of both characters
5. The side characters
6. The message of timing and heteronormativity pressure

Overall, this book was so cute and uplifting. Sadie’s journey with discovering herself throughout the Camino was so wholesome and relatable. I really enjoyed her connection with Mal and felt like they were so compatible. Both characters had a lot to work through and learn about themselves throughout the book and I really enjoyed seeing their journey. I’m so sad to leave these characters, but I am leaving this book with such hope for the future!

🥾Book Review 🥾

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinions.

Publication: September 2, 2025

Rating: I liked it!

This was my first book by Alison and I really enjoyed it! Her writing was so well done when describing all the different places that Sadie and Mal visited on the Camino.
The biggest thing I struggled with was the chemistry between Sadie and Mal. I loved how fleshed out they were and that they were dealing with their own problems.
Overall, I loved reading about Sadie finding herself and Mal finally finding where she belongs.

For fans of:
🎒 First person POV
🥾Dual POV
🎒Disasterous meet cute
🥾Virgin FMC
🎒Opposites attract
🥾Forced proximity
🎒Self discovery
🥾Amazing side characters
🎒Found family vibes

My final rating: 4.75

to no one’s surprise, i had such a jam reading this. i’m a simple person, if the sapphics are messy, soft and unable to keep their hands off each other, I’M THERE.
alison cochrun is a solid storyteller, after reading the charm offensive, i had close to zero doubts that i’d like this. mal and sadie are relatable and feel beyond real. i got mad, i laughed and cried with them---and i was rooting for their love even when it seemed bleak for them. the rest of the cast carried the story through, too, making the story richer and human.

I really enjoyed this story about self-discovery and how it can be both scary and deeply rewarding when it happens later in life. Watching Sadie figure out not just who she is but what she truly wants made for such a satisfying journey. Her dynamic with Mal was sweet, funny, and full of chemistry, and I loved how their Camino walk became a metaphor for the steps we take toward our authentic selves. The vivid details of the Camino added so much atmosphere, and now it’s definitely on my own travel wish list.

🎧Song Pairing: Every Breath You Take - The Police (I mean ya gotta right)

💭What I thought would happen:

It’s Alison Cochrun, it could be her grocery list and I’m going to say yes please 😂

📖What actually happens:

🏳️‍🌈Lesbian awakening
👟Walking, more walking
🇵🇹Portugal
🩷Forbidden love

🗯Thoughts/sassy musings:

Every step she took was one step closer to eternal boredom. 😴😴😴

In the past I’ve asked which books and authors do you associate with me and Alison Cochrun is always one of them! I looooove her sapphic romances. Sadly this will be my least fav of hers but hey that’s ok!

I looooved reading about Portugal’s Camino de Santiago I would actually do this (I looooove to walk, this is absolutely now on my bucket list).

The MCs were both sooo freaking annoying. One was pathetic and the other was hopeless. I didn’t have the heart to root for them😂⚰️

AC rating
1.Here We Go Again
2.Charm Offensive
3.Kiss Her Once For Me
4.Every Step She Takes

Read If You Like:
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 Sweet sapphic rom-coms
🏳️‍🌈 Late-blooming queer identity
🥾 Travel adventures
🏕️ Quirky Characters & found-family
🥵 Spice
✌🏻 Dual POV

Sadie Wells, 35, is stuck in a monotonous routine—and suddenly plagued by an identity and sexual orientation crisis.

When she takes her injured influencer sister’s place on a Camino de Santiago tour, Sadie jumps at the chance to escape. But one hitch, her sister is queer and so is the tour group she is now going to be hiking with. So, perfect time for a sexual identity crisis right?!

Chaos ensues after a wine-fueled confession to her seatmate Mal on the flight when she thinks they are going to die during terrible turbulence— only to discover that not only is Mal on the tour.

As they trek across Portugal and Spain, Mal offers to help Sadie “practice the queer adolescence” that she never had.

Sadie starts to find confidence and belonging, and feeling like she is figuring out who she is and what she wants and likes (Mal).

At the same time, Mal wrestles with grief and an unexpected inheritance and her own complicated relationship history as she has always refused to stay and only allowed for flings.

As their relationship evolves, boundaries blur, and both must decide: will this journey end at the trail’s end—or become something more?

I really loved the late-in-life self-discovery with Sadie’s journey of embracing her sexuality in her 30s feels deeply respectful of the turmoil caused by trying to figure yourself out in your 30ms and it was so well done and was very emotionally resonant. 


I also really adored the sense of community and the supporting characters and how they added emotional layers, humor, and supportive energy to both Sadie and Mal’s emotional journeys along the trek.

Also, the push-and-pull chemistry was so well done with Sadie’s sweet uncertainty and trying to experiment and find out what she likes and wants romantically along with Mal’s guarded grief and inability to stay in a relationship long-term created a compelling dynamic that evolves with tenderness and honesty between them.

If you love found-family energy, slow-burn romance, and journeys that heal as much as they wander, this one’s a perfect fit.

Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster for my ALC and Atria for my ARC!

Every Step She Takes is Alison Cochrun's best yet! This romance follows Sadie and Mal on very different journeys as they trek Portugal's Camino de Santiago. Mal helps Sadie relive the queer adolescence she never had after Sadie realizes she has never been attracted to the men she has been on dates with. Sadie helps Mal work through a recent loss and her chronic avoidance tendencies. After the tour is over, will they chart a new course together or go their separate ways?

This was a joy to read, in both the romance and the personal growth of the characters. I really want to research the Camino de Santiago more and this has sparked an interest in traveling to Portugal and Spain! This will be a memorable read for 2025 for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy. Every Step She Takes hits shelves on September 2, 2025.

Is this my new favorite sapphic romance? i think it's incredibly likely.
Sadie's life is too busy for her to examine whether it's the life she wants to be living. She's been running her grandmother's antique shop after her passing for almost 15 years, and taking care of the house and the shop and her family means there isn't a lot of time left for HER. She's been going on dates with men that leave her feeling absolutely nothing, and leading her to question her sexuality (but surely if she weren't straight she would have realized it by now, right?) So when her travel influencer sister gets injured, Sadie offers to do her upcoming trip - walking the Camino de Santiago in Portugal and Spain. When she anxiously blurts out to her seat mate during turbulence that she's a lesbian virgin, Sadie feels a little freer for having said it out loud, and grateful that she'll never see this person again. Except, of course, that same woman is also on her Camino tour.
Mal has spent her life flitting from one place and woman to the next, mostly to spite her wine mogul father who kicked her out when she came out to him as a teenager. Now that he's recently passed and she needs to make her way back to Portugal for his funeral and the responsibility of the company he left her, she decides to do a Camino on her way home. Immediately charmed by the woman on her tour who came out to her on the plane, Mal is adamant about not falling into old patterns. But she finds Sadie irresistible, and opens up to her in ways she never has before.
I loved truly everything about this book. The setting along the Camino is absolutely scrumptious and made me want to travel to Portugal immediately. You can really feel Cochrun's personal experience with the trek in the pages because the setting is truly so vivid. You can feel the sun (and the blisters) and almost taste the wine and the pasteis de nata.
The queer found family that makes up the walking group is so charming and lovable too. Led by Inez Oliviera, a trans woman who runs a company specifically for queer women and gender non conforming people, all the pilgrims are encouraged to examine and self reflect on their journeys. This is where Cochrun really shines because it would be so easy for those moments to fall to the saccharine or preachy and they absolutely don't, they're full of growth and good insight into not only our main characters but the whole group.
I also want to take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate Sadie's fatness and the way Cochrun wrote about it. First, the way that Mal thinks about and interacts with Sadie's body were centered on appreciation because of her body, and not in any way in spite of. But more importantly to me were the ways that Sadie talked about her body - as a fact and not as a problem, as a thing to be celebrated for all it was accomplishing and not a thing to fight against. There were full lines that made me, as a person who is on the plus size of average, feel incredibly seen and validated and also beautiful.
Mal and Sadie's relationship is sweet and hot and introspective and asks them both to examine their lives and what they want in exactly the way you want from a romance. Cochrun does a great job of writing the relationship as a palpable changing current in their lives and i was floating along in bliss while reading it.

“But Sadie - seeing the world through Sadie’s eyes - almost feels like it could be exquisite forever.”

Never have I ever wanted to go on a trek like a Camino more.

What I liked:

Sadie - Sadie’s journey of self-discovery and unpacking the heteronormative thoughts she grew up with. This was my absolute favorite part of this book.

The Camino group - I adore this ragtag group of people that make up the group Sadie does her Camino with. I enjoyed reading about all of their growth by the end of the Camino.

Mal - I am happy we got more of Mal unpacking her grief, and reckoning with, not only her difficult relationship with her father, but also how that shaped how she lived for 20 years.

What didn’t work for me:

I do wish there was a little more chemistry between Mal & Sadie.

I loved this book! I could tell from the first few pages that I was going to enjoy it. The two main characters are so lovable, and I can picture them so vividly in my head. Their looks, sure, but also their mannerisms and personalities! I was rooting for them from the beginning. I also loved the journey they were on, it made me want to book a trip myself and eat some pasteis de nata! I love their two very different journeys, and yet both were a bit of a redo for them and I loved that. I was counting on a HEA but I really was invested in finding out how they were going to make it work. Seattle? Portugal? But I love that this book gave me the warm fuzzies for their relationship, as well as their travel journey and inspired me to get back on a plane and taught me about all these places in Portugal and Spain that I didn’t know about.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

I really enjoyed getting to know Mal and Sadie. Learning about them individually and watching their personal growth throughout the story was a highlight for me. Where the romance didn’t quite land, however, was in their dynamic together. The chemistry never fully leapt off the page and at times felt a bit forced. I actually loved their friendship far more than their romantic relationship. From my perspective, it also felt like Sadie wasn’t as invested in Mal as Mal was in her. Considering the growth Mal still needed, I didn’t think they should end up together by the end and I would have preferred they go their separate ways.

The standout for me was the found family element on the trail. Inez’s queer-led Camino trek was delightful, and their antics consistently brightened each chapter. Overall, this wasn’t a bad read by any means, but it didn’t pull me in as much as I’d hoped—especially after Here We Go Again.

Cochrun just keeps getting better and better. I've known this since I reviewed Here We Go Again, but with this newest book, she has officially cemented herself as one of my ride or die romance authors. And as someone who's extremely picky and hard to please when it comes to romance (it's definitely not my genre of choice), that's saying something!

First and foremost, I LOVED this book's setting: a two-week hike along the Camino de Santiago, an ancient route along which travelers used to make pilgrimages to a Christian cathedral. In the present day (in real life as in the book), travelers who tackle this hike are referred to as pilgrims, and the journey is still weighty with a kind of spiritualism, as pilgrims seek to find themselves along the way. Cochrun writes with such intense love about this journey, which takes travelers through a number of towns and on a number of excursions through Portugal and Spain—probably because she herself undertook the Camino before writing this book. It really felt like I was on the journey with these characters, and the journey was so unconventional for romance literature (taking risks in this genre is something I praised Cochrun's previous book for, as well) it stuck with me that much more.

I also deeply loves and resonated with our two main characters, and the interior journeys they undertake while tackling the physical journey of the Camino. In particular, Sadie—who at thirty-five is discovering her queerness and wrestling with feelings of being "behind" in life—felt incredibly relatable: I, too came out as queer a little later than most, and wondered if I could even really be queer if I never had an inkling I was before twenty-one. It's a journey that feels underrepresented in queer literature (especially for older characters—I loved that both Sadie and Mal were in their late thirties!), and it felt so affirming not only to see on page, but for Sadie's relationship with Mal to be built on a foundation of Mal affirming her, encouraging her, and reminding her it's not a big deal to be on a different timeline than other people.

The conflict in this book felt natural and non-contrived, too, which is a big thing for me with romance novels. Sadie is discovering herself after a lifetime of having adult responsibilities thrust on her too early, between a father who walked out on the family, a mother who fell apart after, and a beloved grandmother whose death left her solely in charge of the family business at a young age. Mal is running from herself, and everything else in her life: her adulthood has been spent on the road, seeking new places, new experiences, and new flings to distract from her father's rejection of her and her queerness when she was eighteen. In many ways they're on opposite journeys—Sadie running toward herself while Mal learns to stop running from herself—and it creates an interesting push and pull as their paths are pulled into align thanks to their friendship-and-then-more. I genuinely enjoyed every minute of it, and wasn't sure if it was because it was such a relief to read something entertaining after a few lackluster romances or just because Cochrun is that good. (Spoiler: it was probably both.)

In my last review of one of her books, I said I was excited to see what Cochrun would write next. That excitement paid off and then some.