Thank you so much to Atria for my copy. This book was absolutely stunning! I fell in love with both Sadie and Mal and was rooting them on. I loved the gorgeous and authentic descriptions of the Camino and the way the trail transformed the characters as well as brought them a found family. This was so beautiful, so well-written, so emotional and so fun to read.

I found this book to be an enjoyable read. The story kept me engaged from start to finish and had some moments that really stood out. Overall, it offered an entertaining reading experience.

thank you to netgalley for the e-arc. i will always want to read alison cochrun's books but this i think was my least favorite. i refuse to believe a 35 year old woman, straight or not, had no idea what to do during sex or how to kiss or how to flirt. i was eye rolling through any part of that because it was so clunky and not realistic (to me). i REALLY wished that mal was written more than a one-dimensional-woe as me-poor little rich girl. if she had anything else to say other than she hates her father, falls for any hot woman, never had to work then maybe it would have been better.

I really loved the Portugal setting of this. I've only been to Porto for a day, but I lived in Brazil for a bit so the bits of Portuguese made me really happy, and now I really want to do the Camino one day. I also enjoyed all the quirky characters, now to our two main ladies, Mal and Sadie, and their journeys of self-discovery together. It was just a lot of fun and I recommend it.

Sadie’s life is monotonous and she’s disinterested in the men she forces herself to go out with. When her travel blogger sister gets injured right before a brand deal to walk Portugal’s Camino de Santiago, Sadie has reluctantly steps in last-minute just to escape the monotony. She accidentally gets a little too drunk on the plane and when they hit turbulence, she decides she has to confess everything to her seatmate, Mal, including the fact that she thinks she’s a lesbian. She never expected Mal to be on the Camino tour with her, nor did she expect the entire tour to be for queer women. Now she’s stuck walking 200 miles with the woman she never thought she’d see again, and it just so turns out Mal has some of her own secrets that come out on the Camino…

I truly loved this book! It’s everything you’d want from a #SapphicRomance and more! From the #GayPanic on the flight turbulence to a turbulent relationship, Alison Cochrun has truly captured living authentically queer at any stage of life. The Camino served as a launchpad for self-reflection and self-discovery, and despite being 200 miles long it was such a clever twist on the #ForcedProximity trope. The relationship between Sadie and Mal was so palpable; it felt like I was with them (quite literally) every step of the Camino, and with Sadie’s radical self-acceptance. Not to mention that Sadie and Mal weren’t the only two sapphic characters! There was so much depth and so many layers that I hope to peel back as I return to reading this over and over again.

Reviewed as part of #ARC from #NetGalley. Many thanks to Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review.

Read this book if you like:
🍷 pastéis de nata, red wine, or dare I say, pickles
🏃‍♀️ to pretend you’re walking the Camino but it’s actually just Green Lake in Seattle
🏳️‍🌈 books about self-discovery and discovering identity


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This review will be posted to Instagram @AutobiographiCole on or around the release date!

This was such a fun story and it ended up getting really close to home in alot of ways for me as a late bloomer myself. There were a lot of parts of the story that had me hooked and made it a quick read.
I will definitely recommend this to some friends!

Alison Cochran made something truly magical here. Sadie’s journey of self discovery and Mal’s journey of healing were such a joy to experience. The read itself was so satisfying that this will absolutely become a re-reader for me.

Sadie is 35 years old, and she is questioning her sexuality. She has only dated men, and she hasn't felt anything for them. She takes her sister's place on a trip to Spain and Portugal on Camino de Santiago walking tour. When she is on the plane and she thinks the plane is going to crash, she confesses to the woman sitting next to her that she is a lesbian and she is a virgin. She is so embarrassed, and as luck would have it, the plane doesn't crash and her seatmate, Mal, is actually on the trip with her.

Mal is someone who falls in love easily, but she can never stay through the middle parts of the relationship. She meets a woman, falls in love, and then, things end. Since her rich father disowned her when she came out to him, she has traveled all over the world to spite him. Mal is at a crossroads, and she has an unexpected inheritance.

Along the trip, Sadie asks Mal to help with her practicing kissing and intimacy. I was really bothered that their first kiss happened when they were drunk, and their moments of intimacy happened under the guise of 'practicing'. i wanted them both to communicate their true feelings for each other.

The settings along the trip were beautiful. I was confused by all of the side characters and I had to keep going back to remember who each person was. I would have liked to see more of the blog that Sadie was writing. It was inconsistent through the book.


The ending scene was cute, but I wanted more information about what Mal and Sadie would do next. The relationship felt rushed, and I didn't believe that these two would make it in a relationship.

DNF@ 26%

I don't like the way that this is written or the way that the story is being told. The characters are boring and I don't care about anything going on.

I have read all of Alison's books and I loved this one. She writes characters that are so genuine that you can't help but fall in love with them.

4.5

I’m a sucker for books featuring a gay European backpacking trip. I loved this. It’s a tribute to self-discovery, even in your 30s. That it’s never “too late” to learn new things about yourself. And that it’s okay to not have everything figured out and accept that you’re right where you’re supposed to be at the exact right time.

It has a wonderful mix of diverse characters that I came to love individually as their journey through Portugal and Spain unfolded. They made me laugh and cry equally.

The one thing I was most nervous about was Mal’s story when it seemed like she wasn’t showing any personal growth, and I was glad to see that her story didn’t end just because the Camino finished.

By the end, I was ready to book a Camino trip for myself.

I’ll start off by saying this isn’t my favorite book of Alison’s, however, I still really enjoyed it. She did an excellent job of submersing her own experiences in the story while still keeping the characters just that- characters on a page

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC! All opinions are my own.

Tender, charming, and reflective, “Every Step She Takes” tells the story of Sadie, a 35 year old who feels stuck in both her career and dating life. When her travel influencer sister is injured and can’t go on her trek along the Camino de Santiago, Sadie offers to take her place. On the plane she meets Mal and accidentally comes out to her. When Mal just so happens to be in her tour group, can she help Sadie discover herself while dealing with her own personal trauma?

I loved this book! “Here We Go Again” was one of my favorite books from last year, so I was so excited to be able to read this ARC! Sadie and Mal both feel so real and relatable, and I think the story focused on so much more than just their budding romance.

I related so much to Sadie in so many ways, especially in how she felt like she had wasted away her adolescence romantically and felt like she was too late (don’t want to get too personal LOL but I really saw myself in her!). Both Sadie and Mal missed out on their adolescent years in different ways, and it was really wonderful to see them be able to share new experiences together.

I had never heard of the Camino de Santiago before reading this book, but I really enjoyed learning about it and seeing the found family that was forged in their tour group. There were so many wonderful side characters and so much representation for the LGBTQIA+ community!

I would definitely recommend this book!

I do really think that Cochrun is getting better with each book - I definitely enjoyed this the best so far. There were a number of lines that had me laughing truly out loud, even when reading before bed. I loved the setup with the Camino and all of the various self-realizations that came with it from all of the characters. It's very much a book that cements the idea that you're never too late and it's never wrong to discover something new about yourself or change your idea of who you want to be.

My main problem was that it's much more about Sadie coming to terms with her identity and what she wants and getting to go through her "queer adolescence", surrounded by people who support her and encourage her to discover new facets of herself. Much, much secondary, is the romance between Sadie and Mal. It never quite left the insta-love/forced-proximity/situational feelings sphere for me and while I appreciate that the ending wasn't a proposal like I was half-dreading, I feel like we needed to see more of them in the real world, especially from Mal, who has so many past traumas and issues with commitment and sticking things through. Her thinking that she wants things to be different isn't a recipe for success and their chemistry wasn't explored enough for me to be fully invested. Though the "I want to take you all over the world to experience it for the first time through your eyes" did really get to me, I did almost feel more chemistry and possible change from Mal and Gloria than Mal and Sadie.

That aside, I really did want to see more from the rest of the cast. There's so much talked up about Camino friends and family, but we only ever got to see any of the secondary characters when they were directly helping Sadie or Mal (aside from Stephano, who....I don't have words for Stephano). I loved the theme of discovery, but we only see everyone else's discovery in the handful of sharing circles and don't glimpse anyone else transforming along the Camino, which makes the various characters feel like diversity checkbox spreads rather than supporting characters in their own rights.

I do also keep looking at the cover and thinking it's Kiss Her Once For Me, especially in thumbnail.

I really enjoyed the love story between our main characters Sadie and Mal! I thought that they had great chemistry and really completed each other. I found the setting of the book to be so entertaining, and now I wish I could go on a walking and wellness trip. I loved the way the author showed LGBTQ+ struggles and how anyone can find out who they are at whatever stage in life. Sadie had a complex relationship with herself and her sexuality that I found to help keep the reader interested and rooting for her. On the other hand Mal was a confident character with familial relationship struggles that I was very interested to learn about, and how she grew from it. All in all, this is a great sapphic romance to pick up if you want adventure and a look into growth not only within oneself but also in relationships.

Happily, I was traveling when I picked up this ARC from NetGalley. It was the perfect vacation read.

Our two main characters meet on an airplane while one is having a queer crisis in her thirties. What follows is a later-in-life coming to queerness story where a group of queer femmes (and one gay Italian man) help our MC experience her queer adolescence all while walking a spirtual trail in Portugal and Spain.

There are very relatable moments. At one point, they mention drastically changing their hair when they realized they were queer, and I remembered that I'd dyed my hair clown orange when I was 16 and closeted.

I loved the brief but to the point discussion about fat as an adjective and not a bad word.

There's humor, family trauma, and a lot of personal growth.

Things I loved:
Later-in-life queer awakening
Queer found family
Sapphic romance
Fat main character
Ace-spectrum rep
The whole alphabet mafia

All-in-all it's a fun read with relatable characters that cover the spectrum of queerness without stereotyping or feeling too preachy.

Every time I think Alison Cochrun can't possibly live up to her previous book, she proves me absolutely and delightfully wrong. I love this book so much! Sadie thinking she's too late and being deep in comphet is so relatable, and Mal running from her trauma by turning to the next journey, next relationship also stirs all the feelings. I loved the entire cast of characters too, even Stefano. I am also low-key sort of hoping Vi will get her own book next. This story makes me want to plan my own Camino.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!

To me, this book is a masterpiece that found me at this right time. I felt like I was watching a movie inside my head instead of reading. The writing is just impeccable and the characters have so many layers to them. The queer pop culture references were just the cherry on top and each time I found one, I couldn’t wait to see where I would find the next one.

I looked up every dish ordered along the way and every city described. If you told me that I was reading a real travel blog, I would have believed you.

Sadie grew up having to take care of everyone around her instead of herself and that left her no time to question who she was. Mal grew up with an absent mother and a semi-present father who rejected her as soon as she came out to him. I related to both main characters because I could see parts of myself in them. I thought I knew who my favorite sapphic couple from a book was but they have now been dethroned.

I loved chapters 14, 15 and 22, the way they were written was incredible, everything was so well described I felt like I had been there.

After reading this book, I can say, without a doubt, that I will read anything Alison Cochrun writes from here on out. She has become one of my favorite authors.

I might even make plans for my own Camino.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC for this book in exchange for an honest review.

Every Step She Takes

“I want to tell her that she doesn’t have to fight so hard to keep these uglier feelings hidden away, because she’ll be beautiful no matter what.”
🥾💛
On one hand this is a beautiful book about self discovery, self reflection, asking and answering tough questions you’ve avoided. A story about coming out in your thirties, trusting yourself and those closest to you with your fears, joys, with your heart. I loved all the supporting characters, especially how blunt Inez was, I appreciated that about her. The romance comes second and then just sorta happened (think Promise Me Sunshine ish). Mal and Sadie had a very tender relationship and were very careful with each other. I think we all saw how Mal was going to help Sadie, but in the end Sadie helped Mal in ways she wasn’t expecting. I think Sadie coming out in her thirties is a story many will be able to relate to. The questions, fears, anxiety, being almost numb in your own body because our society told her she needs to be this one way and that’s it. I enjoyed how honest it all was.

“How boring would life be if we didn’t have anything left to discover about ourselves?”

Now on the other hand - we had this amazing group of people on this journey and I felt like we just didn’t hear from them a lot, we didn’t dig deep enough in their stories as much as I wanted. I think Sadie needed to hear from all of them and when we did I felt like it went by too fast. All the self reflection? Amazing, but can we reflect out loud, with the people around us lol there was a lot of conversations happening in our head and that may not bother a lot of people, but I’m a dialogue girl. Some moments felt a bit repetitive to me. Walk with lots of inner monologues, stop, chit chat (those moments were great), sleep, wake up, walk with lots of inner monologues lol
•
Overall I think it’s a great read and definitely recommend, it’s like Wild but make it queer! It just was missing a little something something for me ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Alison Cochrum, NetGalley, and Atria for this e-arc, it’s out September 2nd!

4 stars

Oh, I just love an Alison Cochrun joint, and this newest effort is no exception.

Sadie ends up taking her influencer sister's place on an incredible trip - Portugal's Camino de Santiago - in exchange for updating followers with regular posts about her adventures. Mal is Sadie's seatmate on the way to this experience, and their first interaction is remarkably memorable. Fortunately, it isn't their last.

The romance is sweet, the representation is on point, and the setting is incredible. This is a GREAT queer romance that's giving summer vibes with its amazing descriptions, its convenient group activities and strategic boarding scenario, and the magical elements that only time away from home can provide.

Like most of Cochrun's characters, these two are easy to root for. Yes, readers will want them to find romance with each other, but mostly, they'll just want these two awesome folks to find love at this stage. These aren't kids or unserious individuals. They're trying and struggling in entirely different ways, and it's awesome to see their connection develop.

I really enjoyed this and continue to just love this author. This is a fun read, and I'm looking forward to the next.