Sutton Gridry was living the life, at least the one she envisioned when she was a teenager but one thing was missing, Kate Cormier. As the girls made their plans she thought they were having the same dream.
Sutton was raised mainly by her father, her mother has been out of her life forever, or so it seems. All her dad wanted was for Sutton to go to university and then find a job. Which she did, a well paid position where she could pretty much decide for herself if she did that particular assignment. Working for companies that need their IT departments to function smoothly. Now after ten years she’s going home for the summer to take care of her father who needed surgery. She knew Kate was still living there and the fact was she was still in love with her. It’s been ten years, surely they could meet without Kate taking her to task for the way Sutton had ended their relationship.
Kate and her daughter lived a quiet life. Kate still worked for the family business where you could buy all the things required to build anything. She heard Sutton was back in town but by this time she was over the shoddy way Sutton had left her behind. Her daughter was the product of a very bad decision. But in her defense she was young and lonely thinking Sutton was off meeting new friends, perhaps even meeting a new GF.
Now they are back in town meeting again but both were hoping to be able to at the least, say hello without too much drama.
Ms Rey has been entertaining her fans for a few years now, producing books that you hated to put down. Very, very good read.
ARC via NetGalley. Bold Stroke Books

2.5 stars. Kate Cormier thought she would be with Sutton Guidry, until she was told Sutton would not want to be with her after she went to college. She made one mistake and got pregnant while Sutton was in college, and she had a daughter. Sutton was devastated and has not been back to her hometown in ten years. That is until her father has surgery and she comes back to help take care of him. Sutton must face the ghost of her past, her ex girlfriend and Kate's now 10 year old daughter. She is unsure how the reunion would go and how they would deal with seeing each other again.

This book was fine. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad. They relationship went quick and it evolved quickly. Their interactions started out better and then it ramped up pretty quickly. This book had an okay storyline to begin with, in my opinion, and the book was not that well written to make me really enjoy the storyline. I am not sure I would recommend this book, as there are many other, better books. Everything about this book was very predictable and even the conflict in the book was nothing exciting and I didn't see coming.

4*
I've read a fair few books by Aurora Rey and all have been exceptionally good, this book isn't any different from her other reads, it's a good read. I love the charm that the characters seem to have and how the chemistry flows between the main characters with ease. 'You again' is about second chances and about going back home to your home town, these 2 factors made it a hit for me. I love a good second chance at romance. Although this isn't my favorite by Aurora Rey I still enjoyed it.

Sometimes, a second chance appears when you least expect it. Kate Cormier always thought she would love Sutton Guidry forever. But after making a bad chance, things ended, Kate moved on, building a new life for her and her daughter. Nowadays, kate doesn't have dreams. That is until Sutton comes home, acting like she never left and looking more attractive than ever.
Sutton has spent a decade away from her childhood home, avoiding her first love, and the girl who broke her heart. She's got a career, but her life which goes with it, isn't very impressive. She moves back to her hometown when her dad needs surgery, to help him recover, but she realizes she will need to face her past eventually. But with so many pieces of her life still there, including the love of her life, Kate, she finds it difficult trying not to imagine trying again with kate..

I was given a copy for an honest review.

You Again is a nice chilled out story from Aurora Rey.
Kate and Sutton are great characters that you can't help but like, and Harper is an added bonus

Would I recommend: yes if you're looking for that second change feeling

Thank you to Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for the arc.

You Again is a sappy, fun, sapphic romcom about high school sweethearts coming back together ten years after breaking up. Sutton is returning to her hometown for the first time in a decade to help her father through a double knee surgery, and has to figure out how to deal with seeing Kate after she cheated on Sutton when Sutton left for college. Kate got pregnant at this time, and has spent ten years raising her daughter Harper, while Sutton stayed in school and got a fancy job in Atlanta.

I really liked Sutton, and for the most part I liked Kate (though she sometimes annoyed me); they’re funny, charming, and have genuine chemistry. I’m not a huge fan of kids, but Harper was sweet and funny, and it’s interesting to see how she factors into the relationship. The family dynamics may have been my favorite part of the book, as it’s really refreshing to see queer people who have good, healthy relationships with their family, so that aspect of the book meant a lot to me. On a similar note, it’s nice to read queer books that aren’t focused on homophobia whatsoever, and can just exist as cute romcoms.

I really didn’t like the cheating plot line. I don’t like cheating in general, but I think it’s especially overdone in sapphic media, and I don’t think it needed to be the reason Kate and Sutton broke up. Kate could’ve easily had her daughter after breaking up with Sutton, and it wouldn’t have changed the story at all. Additionally, I didn’t understand why all the characters blamed Sutton so much for the break up when Kate was the one who cheated on her? It was just weird to me and kind of irritating. I get that neither of them regretted Kate having Harper, but that doesn’t mean it was unreasonable for Sutton to leave after her girlfriend slept with someone else.

This book is quite character heavy, and it’s pretty slow at times, so if you’re not into that or like more plot heavy books I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you like romance it’s pretty good. I may pick up more of this author’s books, who knows.

Do second chances really exist? Sutton and Kate will find out. After years of being apart due to Sutton going away to college and Kate sleeping with someone else and getting pregnant, Sutton comes back home to take care of her father with recovering from surgery. Sutton finds herself bumping into Kate and Kate's daughter, Harper. Harper is infatuated with Sutton and Sutton finds herself becoming attached to her. Kate wonders if Sutton's attachment to her daughter is real. Sutton and Kate realize that the feelings between them never went away and wonder if they should explore the possibilities.
I would recommend.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a second chance romance story and I actually enjoyed it.

Sutton is a successful business woman in Atlanta who returns home to help her dad until he recovers from surgery. Kate is a single mom to her daughter Harper and help runs her parent Hardware store.
Kate broke off their relationship 10 years ago. They eventually reconnect but there is still the issue of Sutton only being home temporarily. I thought both characters were great. Harper was a delight! I loved her, she made me smile constantly. 4 stars


I received an ARC from the publisher vis NetGalley for my honest opinion.

I kind of struggled with the rating on this one-I was leaning towards a 3 (since they don't have 1/2) but after a few days pondering the story after I finished it, I went with 4, but I will say it is a soft 4.

I loved the characters, Kate and especially Sutton, along with the family member Bryce. It seems the author brought in different spectrums of the gay community - Kate is bi, Sutton lesbian and Bryce transmale which just made me love the diversity the author gave. I will say one thing I kind of struggled with was on how the author described the MC. I am a reader that I like to get a feel how the characters look in my mind's eye, gives me more vividness inside the story-what I didn't understand is that the author didn't really describe Sutton, just endogenous and muscular, that's it-where Kate was described as green eyes, blonde hair, pale, detail in her sundresses, etc. I just struggled with how I though Sutton looked and the stuck with me through the book.

Also, the author mentioned twice about POC, Josh the physical therapist and Clara a provost at Loyola and nothing really beyond that-I had wished maybe for just a something in the storyline around POC but nothing, just seemed odd to me than I thought the author was inferring Sutton was a POC since there was no real description of her but I looked at the cover of the book and nope...headscratcher to me

The story line was sweet, and as the author pointed out not too much angst, I don't want to go into too much of the story due to spoilers, but I enjoyed it. The pace moved along, through there was a lot of repetitiveness' around how they broke up in the first place in high school and who blamed who and who should forgive who. This may be where I waffled on my rating, much of the blame seemed to be put on Sutton by Kate and her family, and well without giving it away, I don't know what a person would do giving what Kate did, I mean really.

Overall, even with what I struggled with above, I enjoyed the book, I pretty much read it in about a day and a half-I even kind of would hope maybe there is a tag-along book or novella around Bryce, I kind of would like to see him get a happy ending

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, but would have written the same opinion if I had come across this author on my own.

To see my Amazon review, it is under CC-Enjoyable

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I like Rey’s books, but this wasn’t my favourite of hers. It’s ok, but not her best.

This features the second chance trope, with MCs Kate and Sutton as high school sweethearts who break up after Sutton leaves for college, there more to it but it’s a spoiler I guess, so hidden under the tag <spoiler> Kate sleeps with someone else while she’s away and falls pregnant </spoiler>.

Sutton returns home 10 years later to look after her father while he has surgery and of course runs into Kate. Kate has remained in town and is raising her 9 year old daughter, Harper, alone. She has a lovely supportive family, including her trans brother Bryce. Sutton and Kate were ok characters (Sutton as the better of the two), but Harper and Bryce were my favourites.

So, Sutton comes home, but both MCs have mixed feelings about each other because of ‘reasons’. It’s a small town though, so they run into each other a lot and get friendly again pretty quickly, which then leads to a friends with benefits sort of thing. They do have good chemistry, and for the most part I enjoyed their interactions, but the scenes between Harper and Sutton were the real gold.

So the two of them have reunited, things are going ok, and then we have to hit the requisite drama portion around the 80% mark, which didn’t feel organic, in all honesty I didn’t buy either part, the whole thing felt contrived and overblown. It is fairly quickly resolved, which was the only plus.

The big downside to this book is the issue that broke them up to start with. It gets harped on all the way through the book, and yet isn’t really explained, which is just weird. Both families warn the MCs about rekindling their relationship, although for the life of me I couldn’t work out why Kate’s family were mad at Sutton, she cops a lot of blame for their break up but from where I was sitting, all the blame was on Kate. <spoiler> did they seriously think she’d come home, find out her girlfriend had cheated on her and was pregnant and be all like ‘that’s cool, let’s get married’? Seriously? They all acted like Kate’s cheating on Sutton was no problem and Sutton was the unreasonable one. I mean, how did Kate have the high moral ground because Sutton had the good sense to leave and not come back? They also don’t mention what happened to Harper’s father, which I also found weird </spoiler>

Anyway, that aside, the MCs are both fairly interesting and I bought that they still cared for each other. They both have good family’s and nice interactions with them and I loved Harper and Bryce as side characters. Like I said, not Rey’s best book, but an ok read. 3 stars.

Very cute second chance romance. Not a lot of drama but tons of love and humor. The relationship between Sutton and Kate was so romantic sweet, and Suttons relationship with Harper, Kate's daughter who is nine was so adorable and cute that it just made your heart melt when you pictured them interacting with one another. Loved the animals, Hugh the cat was kind of hilarious and funny, and Duke the Hound dog was so sweet. The parents and brother were definitely kind of over the top but in a loving way. This was really just a very well written feel good story. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends and family and can't wait for what's coming up next from this author.

This is another slam dunk by Ms. Rey. I enjoy  "returning to past love" romances, but never cared much for the high school flashbacks. This book is very light on the "minor love" which is perfect for me. I enjoyed all of the characters, especially Sutton's dad. Adding a child into the mix enriches the storyline even more. I love the small town dynamic and a great HEA. I definitely recommend this book! I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is so very well written with character descriptions that are absolutely flawless and give great insight into the two main characters in the book. Kate and Sutton were teenage lovers and we’re passionate about each other and then Sutton left to go to college and came back at Christmas time define Kate pregnant with a daughter Harper. Sutton leaves the area and does her best to forget about Kate and the major hole in her heart without her. Sutton becomes A rising star in the IT design business and is basically happy with her life. When her father is about to go and get both of his knees replaced Sutton decides to return to her hometown to help him. Of course then she keeps running into Kate everywhere she turns her. There’s a dance of anxiety and nerves whenever they meet, however both of them say nothing about it. They analyze and then over analyze every encounter but never speak to the other about what they’re feeling or experiencing. It’s clear that these two women long to be together but the path to making that happen it’s not gonna be an easy one since they don’t communicate to one another. Can this change?
At times I had a bit of a problem with Kate’s daughter Harper because she spoke and thought as a person far beyond her young years. Then I realized perhaps she was not all that unusual as a young child with a great vocabulary and a curious mind.
This book kept me engaged from first page to the last and I was sorry when the book and because I wanted more of the story but that seems to happen whenever one reads a book by Aurora Ray.. This is a book that I will read again because it’s so enjoyable.

I really enjoyed reading You Again by Aurora Rey. It had everything I was expecting to find. This is a second-chance-romance with just enough angst to make the story interesting. It is also a character driven tale which is my favorite kind of book.

The two main characters, Kate Cormier and Sutton Guidry, were high school sweethearts and deeply in love, but had a bad breakup in their late teens. Ten years later, Sutton is a successful businesswoman in Atlanta, and Kate is a single mom running her folks’ hardware store in their small hometown. Then Sutton returns home to help her father through surgery and the two meet up again.

While I connected with most of the characters quickly, I have to admit Kate’s daughter Harper stole my heart. She was a joy to get to know in these pages and really helped make the story a joy to read. I also liked the small town setting as well as the descriptions of New Orleans that the characters visited in the tale.
You Again is a wonderful, feel good, low angst read with beautiful and intelligent characters that will melt your heart, and an enchanting second-chance love story.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

The common thread of this story is one of those that usually manages to create a perfect romance. Two women who were girlfriends at school, when it is time for college they separate and after several years meet again, all seasoned with a small town atmosphere, a child and some pets.

And then why hasn't it been enough for me this time?

First, because there is too much redundancy in the story but only in the generic and not in the essential, what happened and why did it happen? Everybody tiptoes about it and in the end it seems ridiculous. Sutton's father and herself blame Kate, Kate's seems to blame Sutton, how is that possible? I would have liked to have more information at the beginning to understand it.

Second, Harper is a lovely girl, but can't she possibly be too perfect?

And what I liked the least, Sutton and Kate agree to reconnect, apparently without too much depth, although their soliloquies, which are too many, are not aimed at that. So there is too much mistrust and insincerity, despite the fact that they consider themselves very frank and direct, especially Kate. The story has not been coherent with that.

So really, although there are some things to be appreciated about it, it hasn't been one of the best of its kind.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I liked both of the main characters and I liked that there wasn’ta big drama in the present that they had to work around. I felt both characters were very believable, both had faults and both had strengths. I didn’t like that a Sutton was based soooo much for the reason they broke up. In my opinion it was perfectly reasonable and I had a hard time with Kate thinking it wasn’t!

I LOVED Harper - a great addition to the book, along with Sutton’s dad and Bryce

All in all, despite the blame aspect, I loved this book.

You Again is a sweet second chance Romance. Kate Cormier and Sutton Guidry were HS sweethearts. They had the love that was different from the other HS romances. They were soulmates until a mistake torn them apart. 10 years later Sutton returns to her hometown to take care of her Dad. Does she still love Kate? Does Kate still love Sutton. You bet! The problem is they are both still heartbroken over what happened 10 years ago.

So I really enjoyed reading You Again. As I was reading it, I found myself really cheering for Kate and Sutton. They are both lovable characters and you absolutely fall for Harper (Kate's daughter). Talk about a recipe for a happy family. I know that many authors like to write heavy angst into their romances, but this one is rather lower on the angsty scale which I was happy with. You Again is a easy and enjoyable read with some nicely done sex scenes. Rey shows us that these two are meant for each other.

4 stars

This arc was provided by netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

This is a smooth, low angst second chance book..

I enjoyed most of the book, and I’ve always liked Rey’s writing and this one is no different in terms of writing style.

Sutton returns to her hometown to take care of her dad and meets her first love after 10 years, Kate. Throughout the whole book I kept wondering why Sutton is putting up with Kate though :) I guess this happens when you have such a likable character like Sutton and not so much like Kate.

For me, the supporting characters make a huge difference in any book, so I really liked the fact that there was a representation of a transgender character, Bryce , who for me was a great addition to the supporting characters. I did get a bit annoyed with Harper, Kate’s daughter, who seemed to be at least 10 years above her age.

As I mentioned earlier, the writing was very good, the characters were likable. But my main issue was from the start, I was VERY annoyed with the conflict that led to their break up. (Unfortunately this will require a spoiler so I won’t be mentioning it much). And because of that conflict, I felt Kate was being very unreasonable and unfair.

I would still recommend this book because I did enjoy it. Even though it was sometimes a bit too slow for my taste. And again, me being annoyed with the conflict is part of why this book touched me because in real life, this conflict exists and people still give excuses for their lousy actions..

“I received and ARC for an honest review”.

My rating is a 3.5 rounded up to 4.

I always enjoy an Aurora Rey book and this one wasn't any different.

Sutton hasn't been back to her hometown in a decade or so, when her father needs surgery she decides to go back home and take care of him. Sutton left town a decade ago to go to college, chase her dreams, but she always envisioned her girlfriend to be by her side. But the girl broke her heart and she hasn't gotten over it.
Kate has been raising her daughter Harper as a single parent for almost a decade, she rarely thinks about Sutton or what could have been. That all changes when grown-up Sutton shows up in her hardware store. It's hard to stay away from each other, but it's hard to be together as well. Time heals all wounds but their broken hearts seem only to heal when they are together, can it just be for fun, or was it always destined to be more?

A couple of things bothered me in this story my biggest bother is how the balance seems to be a bit off between the two mains. Sutton overprocesses and overthinks everything, and seems to be way more into Kate than Kate is into her/ interested in a relationship. You read a lot about Sutton's thoughts and feelings, but not a lot about Kate's. I liked Sutton better as a character as well, but that might be because you get so much more insight into her than Kate. Sutton is butch but on the inside, she is just a big marshmallow, I love it. The way Sutton is with Harper is amazing, how she processes Harper's existence as well. So much of the story revolves around the decade-old breakup, Kate's pregnancy is the main reason for the break. But how Sutton gets over that is super sweet, maybe a little too sweet. And while we are discussing Harper, she is an interesting secondary character. She is 9, fast approaching 10, and her comebacks are sassy and maybe a bit "too adult". But still, I can understand them, I have a 7-year-old nephew who spends a lot of time around adults and the behaviour and language they pick up are different from anyone their age. I also understand how it's a bit weird, Harper's comebacks are sometimes a bit over the top, and they happen too often.
And as a more general thing; I know this book is set in Louisiane, in the south, where the use of y'all is common, in my understanding. But I think you either do it consistently, so all the time, or you don't do it. Y'all is just a bit of an annoying thing for me to read, I don't know why.
Anyway, I enjoyed the story in general, it's a nice read. I always enjoy Rey's writing style, but there were some annoyances for me in this one. It's a second chance romance where you connect with one of the mains better than the other and you actually wish for something better for her. I'll give it 3.5 stars.

3.5 stars. I’ve only read one Rey book previously, but I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to the opportunity to read You Again. There were some aspects of this I really loved, especially Rey’s style of writing, but the conflict didn’t sit well with me, so I’m not giving it as high a rating as I thought I was going to be until for most of the book.

Sutton is returning to her home town after spending the last decade away, leaving for college and only returning the once. Her Dad is having knee replacement surgery and she’s convinced him to let her help, despite the fact she knows she’s going to have to see her ex.

Kate, the aforementioned ex, still lives in their hometown, with her daughter Harper and works in the family business.

I actually really liked both Sutton and Kate, and could even understand why Kate’s family were so against Sutton, if you take familial protectiveness into account.

Harper is a great kid character. She’s well written and has a really sparky personality. Many of the conversations she is involved in had me smiling. Kate’s brother Bryce is also worth a mention, as not only is Bryce a great character, but it was nice to have a trans man be included and have a genuine real place in the storyline, rather than it be tokenism.

It’s hard to review this one without giving away any spoilers as so much of this second chance romance is dependent on the how and why of why they broke up in the first place.

In general terms my issue with the conflict centres around the ownership of the issue, more than the issue itself. Much of the blame seems to be placed on one character, and I felt it should have been shared more equally, both the first time and the time depicted in the last quarter of the book.

I really like Rey’s style of writing, and this certainly hasn’t changed my mind on that front. I’ll definitely be looking forward to her next book.

I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.25 stars. There is a lot to love about this book and for the most of the time I had a good time reading it. This was the first book I read by Rey. It’s a charming, low angst book with characters that have a lot going for them. Unfortunately, the ending left me with a bitter taste and dampened my overall enjoyment.

In this second chance romance Sutton returns home to take care of her father when he has to undergo a double knee replacement. Ten years earlier Sutton broke up with Kate, the love of her life, left town and never returned. Now, back in town for three months, it’s inevitable to meet Kate and her daughter Harper and they find that they both haven’t forgotten each other.

The book is written in the third person with POVs of Sutton and Kate, but you get to know Sutton a bit better than Kate. I loved Sutton, she’s a dreamer, a slightly nerdy and a bit shy butch. I always enjoy a butch character that doesn’t fall in the rather stereotypical, super confident, player type. Kate is confident, sweet and adores her daughter Harper. From the secondary characters, I adored Bryce, Kate’s trans brother. He was a highlight of the book for me and I could easily read more about him. Harper was somewhat wise beyond her years if you ask me, the comebacks and questions/insights at exactly the right time started annoying me every now and then, also the fact that she immediately adores Sutton felt a bit too convenient, but the interactions between Sutton and Harper were very cute.

The breakup of Sutton and Kate is quite prominently presented in the book. I was fine with it, I mean, it’s in the past and they were both very young. However, the conflict at the end in part revolves around what happened during their breakup (and how they apparently still feel about it) and I just could not find it in myself to feel any sympathy for Kate. She keeps blaming everything on Sutton (who accepts all the blame, she truly is too sweet), while from my point of view Sutton did not do anything wrong, not now and not in the past. Kate is not self-reflective at all, only after talking to Bryce does she decide to take a look at herself, and even then doesn’t she really acknowledge her self-centered behavior. When they finally get together after their dark moment I just didn’t feel the love from Kate’s side, which is strange because I felt it before the conflict. Honestly, I thought Sutton deserved better. There is a final chapter/epilogue, but it couldn’t make up for the feeling that had taken root in me that they do not belong together.

So, the writing and pacing was all good, and if the conflict hadn’t bothered me that much, I definitely would have rated it higher. It’s a charming and easy-going book, with a high happy family feeling, but personally I can’t really recommend it due to the conflict and how I felt afterwards. However, I have seen several reviews of people who enjoyed this book a lot, so I suggest to read some of those as well in order to decide whether this book is for you. While this was not the best fit for me, I would like to read another book by this author.