First of all, thank you NetGalley and Atria for the e-arc!!!
This book was absolutely beautiful!!! I could not put it down, and I finished it in less than 24 hours. The travel setting was super intriguing to me, and I learned a lot about the Camino, it made me want to do it myself one day!
Sadie has got to be one of my new FMCs, her anxious inner dialogue was incredibly relatable and I appreciated all the discussions surrounding societal pressures to have your life all figured out by a certain age. But the truth is, no one does! An overwhelming message from this book that I LOVED was trusting that you are exactly where you need to be in life. I enjoyed how real her anxieties about queerness were, and what it really means to be queer.
Mal was such a refreshing character as well. I love how the author didn't play too deep into the "playboy" masc lesbian stereo type, and that Mal had some serious depth. The lengths that she went to ensure Sadie's comfort and provide her with all the queer opportunities that she missed as a child was SO heartwarming!!! Their chemistry was undeniable.
The found family in this book was another of my favorite parts. Seeing all the group members open up along the way with each prompt from Inez had me in tears one chapter, and chuckling the next.
I would recommend this book to everyone!! The pacing was perfect, I felt like I was watching a movie play out in my head with the beautiful scenery, and most of all I truly loved the depiction of what it means to be seen in a queer relationship. Alison Cochrun is an aut0-buy author for me!

In this new Sapphic romance, Sadie, a woman struggling with her identity goes on a journey of self discovery with a group of women trying to run to or from something. Early on she meets Mal, running from the loss of her dad and a bad breakup, on the plane and she gets to know Sadie a little too well! During the trip walking to Santiago the two enter into a little fake dating / flirt tutor situation but soon learn they both have real feelings.

Alison Cochrun has quickly become one of my all time favorite authors with her past three releases. All her characters are genuine, damaged and open to new experiences. I feel everyone can relate to something these characters are going through. This one in particular for me there was a slight disconnect from the characters but I still felt that this book was still heartfelt, fun and real. She makes you feel something with her writing and you just get sucked into the world along side the characters.

4.5/5 stars

maybe i'm just a sucker for alison's work, or maybe this book really WAS all that (i'm going to say both are true)

the quicker plot, the queer romance, the vivid imagery of portugal and spain (and even bits of seattle), the miscommunications and misunderstandings and fake-dating troupe that i absolutely love and despise in the best way... all of it was phenomenal.
i sort of went into this book thinking "i've never read a book about travel romance.. let alone a queer travel romance" and kind of just wished for the best. thankfully, the best of the best was delivered! as someone who just finished "kiss her once for me" like 5 days ago, i loved seeing bits of that book sprinkled into this one. that's such a cute easter egg.

i wrote a much better review on goodreads, which you can see linked (hopefully, because i've never done this before)

thank you so so so much to netgalley and atria books for the opportunity to review an alison cochrun book as my first ARC.

Super saccharine queer romance. A good intro romcom for those looking for a more PG13 turn in the genre.

I love Alison Cochrun so I knew this book wouldn't disappoint. It was adorable just like I hoped and the main characters were perfect. I loved this and can't wait for Cochrun's next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for early access to this book.

Cochrun stole my heart years ago with The Charm Offensive and has once again stolen my inner monologue and put it on paper.
These characters always felt real and flawed to me in the best way.
It makes me want to take the walk and I don’t even like walking that much.

Queer people existing and discovering themselves and growing and just UGH I loved it and I cried.

The way harmful parents were addressed? Yes yes yes. Sadie and Mal, you are both so important to me.

This was everything I wanted out of the Pairing by Casey McQuiston, without any of the "everyone's bi in Europe" fetishisation of Europe that that book does.

I really love both characters here, and I really appreciate Alison Cochrun for writing two characters in their mid-to-late thirties who have not figured all their shit out yet. I really enjoyed Sadie's journey to figuring out their sexuality, and what they wanted out of life. I loved Mal (YES, hot butch with blue mullets! Every lesbian's dream woman!), and her own journey she has to take in terms of relationships and letting people in.

I loved the setting. The Camino has always been something I'm curious about, and this book put me closer to wanting to do it myself one day.

I loved the cast of side characters. Stefano had me laughing out loud multiple times, and the conversation Sadie had about asexuality with Vera was desperately needed (because, like, if you've been forcing yourself to date men until you're 35 and only felt frustrated with it, lesbian is not the ONLY option for why that might be! I'm happy the book acknowledges that fact.)

My one complaint is that I'd have loved an epilogue, though the ending as is is lovely. I also wish Sadie on the front cover is fatter, because Sadie is great fat rep, and I wish that was better portrayed on the cover.

Are you looking for your next read? Pick up Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun. I really enjoyed this one. It's available this fall.

In Every Step She Takes, Alison Cochrun crafts a deeply moving and relatable story about stepping out of comfort zones and into authenticity. Sadie Wells, a 35-year-old woman stuck in a rut of family obligations and personal uncertainty, finds herself impulsively joining a Camino de Santiago tour in Portugal—a tour meant specifically for queer women. What begins as a desperate attempt to escape quickly turns into a transformative journey of self-discovery. Sadie’s late-in-life queer awakening is handled with nuance and compassion, making her struggle feel both personal and universal. Her awkward, sometimes hilarious missteps are counterbalanced by moments of quiet courage, making her an endearing character.

Cochrun excels at giving every character their own emotional arc, from Sadie’s slow blooming into confidence to Mal’s grief-tinged reckoning with her past and future. Their growing relationship is tender, full of hesitations and heartfelt connections that never feel forced. The Camino becomes more than a backdrop; it’s a metaphor for the internal paths each woman walks, confronting fear, shame, and hope with every mile. With lyrical prose and sharp humor, Cochrun reminds us that it’s never too late to discover who we truly are in this world.

This was my first ever arc from NetGalley and what a fantastic book to start with! I really enjoyed following Sadie as she stumbled through her unexpected European adventure while also having an all too relatable gay crisis. This book had everything I could ever want in a romance. I really appreciated all the diversity in this book. The characters were all so unique and I could relate to all of them in different ways. The Camino was such a wonderful setting that allowed for self exploration and growth within the group. Some other things I appreciated were the conventions around complex grief, fatness, and figuring out life at your own pace. I also absolutely love her easy to read writing style. I had such a fun time with this book and I’m looking forward to reading more of her works in the future!

I was delighted to get an offer from the publisher to download this book early from Netgalley. I absolutely love all of Alison Cochrun's books and this one didn't disappoint. Highly recommend for fans of Alison Cochrun, fans of queer romance, and of contemporary romance in general!
Also, cute lil crossover from Kiss Her Once For Me, which I appreciated!

5 enthusiastic stars!

I loved this book! The characters are fantastic, the pace was very engaging and it was great following along on their journey of walking the Camino trail. The references towards the queer language and the different cultural experiences on their journey was accurate to the real thing and I am grateful I got the opportunity to read this book. I didn’t want this book to end. Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for this arc.

I loved Kiss Her Once For Me, and I go into every other Alison Cochrun looking to reignite that same magic. Unfortunately, this one fell really flat for me.

For me, the biggest issue was that both FMCs read very immature given that they're both in the mid-30s. I have a lot more patience and grace for 20 somethings making juvenile decisions and being naively selfish; I find it very aggravating and draining when our lead characters should know better. I also felt like the romance was very quick but also very shallow. I didn't feel like these two were falling for each other in any significant way, so it made the whole arc of the romance very difficult for me to buy into.

Overall its not a bad book; many readers will quite enjoy it, and I think there are some messages that are really profound. But I was put off by the immaturity of the leads, the lack of any sort of healthy boundaries from one MCs family, and the way the people on the trip could be incredibly judgmental in what was meant to be an inclusive and open space.

3 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Sadie could use a shakeup in her life—and that comes in the form of a surprise trip to complete a pilgrimage across Portugal and Spain and in the process help out her sister. Meanwhile, Mal has been shaking up her own life over and over again since coming out to her father backfired...and now, with his funeral looming, she's taking a break to walk one of the Portuguese routes of the Camino de Santiago. What they don't anticipate when airplane turbulence inspires Sadie to shriek out all her secrets and insecurities: they're on the same tour. What they also don't anticipate: chemistry. But whether either of them is ready for a relationship, well...

What worked well for me:
- There isn't enough Camino fiction out there, and a lesbian romance? Yes please.

- This takes place on the Portuguese route, too; the Camino Francés (which runs across northern Spain) is the most popular route by far, with the Camino Portugues (which runs north through Portugal and Spain) a distant second, and the Francés is much much more common in both fiction and memoir. (I walked both, back to back, but—if it's not confusing enough already—a different variant of the Portugues route.)

- Sadie is unapologetically fat, and although she has some related insecurities, for the purposes of the Camino her weight is treated as a nonevent.

- I liked the tour group more than I expected to (Stefano is a little over the top, but Rebecca is an unexpected gem).

- I liked Sadie's doom-spiral on the plane (as someone without flight anxiety but *with* travel anxiety...relatable).

- There's room left at the end for a possible sequel (perhaps on a different route?), which I'd be all in favor of.

- This shouldn't be relevant by the time the book is published, but I read an ARC that hadn't been through proofreading yet, and some of the small errors (which are, again, normal for this point in the process) were *choice*. We have an aircraft maker named "Boing" and a tibia located in a character's forearm—I'm here for it. (Yes, this point is in the correct list. One of the oddities of my nerdery is that I have favorite typos.)

What didn't work so well for me:
- Too many brand names (often 10+ per chapter) and cultural references. I get why authors include them (especially for more recognizable brands, they convey info quickly and add some detail), but too many brand names always reads to me as...well, kind of lazy, and something that will quickly date the book.

- Neither Sadie nor Mal really did it for me as a heroine, and together I wasn't convinced of their chemistry. Their introduction (though not the reader's introduction to Sadie) involves Sadie drunk and crying and yelling on a plane, and even if Mal finds that cute, the cringe feeling followed me for the rest of the book. This might just be me—"messy" heroines have never really been my thing. Mal could be a balancing point, but the deeper we get into the book the more Mal's veneer of having-it-togetherness cracks and the messier she gets too. That has its positives, of course (keeps her more complicated), but it also made me wonder about the stability of a relationship between two people who are individually on such unsteady ground. (And—not to be shallow—but it killed the cool-girl appeal! Fine in real life, but sometimes in romance you just want your unapproachable cool girl to be approachable after all...but still mysteriously cool.)

- I would have preferred a setup other than faking dating. Other than being a bit trope-y, the way Sadie and Mal eventually end up in bed together sat badly with me. That should have been a point for one of them to say "whoa, we're getting in too deep" or "hey, this is getting too complicated for me", not to demur for three seconds and then go ahead.

So where does that leave me? I came out of this with some significant reservations but am still pretty thrilled that it exists. I probably won't return to this one, but if there is a follow-up book set on the Camino or another path in the future, I'll happily read it.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

I was so excited when I received this ARC, I loved Cochrun’s Kiss Her Once for Me and couldn’t wait to read the next release. I thought the split POV here between Mal and Sadie worked perfectly and I loved watching them explore their own identities while also getting to know each other. I’ve never once considered walking the Camino, but by the end of the book Cochrun had done such a great job with storytelling that I was just about ready to consider it! This was a sweet, heartwarming read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I actually had to delete the Kindle app from my phone halfway from reading it because I couldn’t get anything done I was so into the book.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0

I found this late-coming of age (and coming out!) story very endearing. The theme of letting go and finding yourself along the Camino was great and I enjoyed reading about how all the characters were doing just that.

I thought the influencer/blogging mentions felt super dated and not like how we use the internet today, which made them less enjoyable to read about. I also found some of the character themes/development to be a bit repetitive. That said, overall this was a very cute book.

OKAY. 3.75.

So here's the deal. Alison Cochrun could hit me over the head with bat and I would still swoon. I think this book is suffering from some poor marketing, because I went in expecting a romance and I have to say that this one is the least romantic of Cochrun's collection. Not that there isn't any, it's just - very clearly - not the main point and I fear that skewed a lot of my perceptions, as a romance it missed the mark. As a coming of age ( yes, even 30 somethings get a coming of age story!!) and a contemporary novel, it's great.

I have a hard time with coming out stories because I find it all very tiring but I think this one slots incredibly nicely into a series of books I'd happily throw at anyone doing some thinking on themselves.

I loved her writing as always and the characters sent me into the void accordingly - but if it was intended to be a romance story, it was distinctly lacking some romance or at least, the build up to it. A change in the way it's being promoted would probably do this book some good in the long run.

4.25 stars! This was a lovely read. I will say I enjoyed the beginning a bit more than the end but overall this was very fun and sweet to me! Sadie's queer awakening and struggle with her identity was very compelling and I loved the way Mal was simultaneously the spark for those feelings in Sadie and also the person that encouraged and helped her discover more about that side of herself. Mal was real and iconic. I am just like Sadie because I too have a giant crush on that woman! I also loved the journey the characters go on on The Camino throughout the book, plus all the side characters that made this such a fun and heartwarming story.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC of Every Step She Takes.

Every Step She Takes was a delight to read. The chemistry between Sadie and Mal was evident from the beginning when they were fatefully seated next to each other on a plane and Sadie’s anxiety about flying takes over leading her to reveal some deep truths about herself.

I’ve read other travel romance novels and haven’t always enjoyed them, but Cochrun has a way of making this setting fit these characters, and I found myself traveling along with them as an engaged member of their travel group. The supporting characters offered unique perspectives and were clearly on team Sadie and Mal. I was invested in this group of queer characters.

Sadie’s newfound confidence in herself grows throughout the book and I rooted for her throughout. Mal, who was seemingly unbothered by most things, wasn’t as unbothered as she let on, and I found myself getting wrapped up in her backstory as well. Overall, I was hooked into this story from the start and was rooting for everyone in this travel group. A really wonderful book.

This story hit me completely in the feels! Every Step She Takes was a beautiful depiction of falling in love with yourself and your truest identity. The love story between Sadie and Mal is amazing as well, but I loved how much of their journeys were about personal self discovery on a path (literally and metaphorically!) to finding happiness.

There’s something so genuine about Sadie. Her growth and self discovery truly feels so real and relatable. I laughed out loud at moments and felt deep in my heart the ones where she admits her truest feelings. I feel a deep sense of pride for Sadie embracing her attraction to women and owning her life by the final page. I love how Mal helps Sadie through this journey, but Sadie really and truly puts that work in.

I really enjoyed this love story! Every Step She Takes also really made me want to go to Portugal and hike the Camino de Santiago myself. Both Mal and Sadie go through so much transformation throughout their time on the Camino. This book was gorgeous and inspiring and tender. I loved every moment!

Thank you to Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review this book! I received a free advance copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. All opinions expressed are my own.