Thank you to Netgalley, Atria Books, and Alison Cochrun for an advance copy of Kiss Her Once for Me in exchange for an honest review. Okay I am so mad at myself for taking so long to get to this one, it was everything I needed and more! I loved The Charm Offensive so it came as no surprise that this was a homerun for me. As always, Cochrun does a great job including some many LGBTQIA+ individuals in her stories which is super refreshing. I fell in love with not only this story, but with so many of the characters. I appreciate that Alison also makes nods to mental health and how we can blame ourselves in situations that may not be entirely our faults. If you havent read this one yet, please do.

I'm notorious for never reading the book jacket until maybe after I'm done reading the book. Needless to say I was not expecting the shock of fake fiance-ing the brother of your technical one-night-stand ex that you may have definitely been in love with. I loved it. It was a great read just for the storyline.

This is a cute fake dating, Christmas read that I enjoyed. Ellie has had some setbacks, personally and professionally. Andrew owns the building that houses the coffee shop where she works. He proposes a fake marriage so he can get his inheritance, and Ellie gets a percentage.
When they go to Andrew’s parents for Christmas, Ellie finds the woman named Jackshe met and fell in love with last year. They had a magical 24 hours until Ellie left. Unfortunately she’s Andrew’s sister.
Can Ellie and Jack explore their feelings without ruining Andrew’s plans?

✨ Review ✨ Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

My first Allison Cochrun, this did not disappoint. I was caught up in every bit of this story -- Jack and Ellie's meet cute Christmas eve moment; the fake dating; the remeet of Jack and Ellie -- there was so much to be delighted about in this book. I loved Ellie finding joy in Jack and Andrew's family -- the quirky grandmas, the "cabin," all of the snow and Christmas fun!

I did find the back end to be a little drawn out and the angstiness a bit prolonged, but overall this was the perfect Christmas read! Even when it was all a bit ridiculous, it felt relatable and I really loved that.

Kudos to Cochrun too for writing a holiday read that was both steamy and sweet.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4.25 stars)
Genre: f/f romance
Location: Portland / rural Pacific NW mountains
Pub Date: out now

Read this if you like:
⭕️ a cute meet cute
⭕️ fake marriage/engagement/dating
⭕️ funny, quirky families
⭕️ a steamy Christmas read.

Thanks to Atria Books and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

I wasn’t sure at first but as I read I soon realized the love triangle isn’t typical so I ended up really enjoying it. Really cute and she is such a talented writer.

Mixed feelings. While I enjoyed a lot of things about this book, Jack actively pursuing Ellie (and sleeping with her) when she thinks Ellie is engaged to her brother and then uses "you made me feel like a terrible person for being with my brother's fiance because it was fake" is just nope. Jack IS a terrible person, she THOUGHT it really was HER BROTHER'S FIANCE!!!

Mm maybe it's just me lol

<i>*ARC provided by the author via netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review

This was such a fun read. I loved the characters and how they were portrayed, flaws and all. I love a good fake relationship trope, but this one was a little different with the love interest not being the person that the main character was fake dating. I ate this one up pretty fast.

A combination of forced proximity, missed connections, and a couple million on the line make this a holiday love story you will never forget. The writing is well done, inclusive, and immersive and makes me think harder about how baked goods smell.

4.5 ⭐️

This was an amazing holiday romcom!! I love a good fake dating trope and when I found out it’s fake dating but she’s actually in love WITH HIS SISTER? SOLD!! I absolutely loved all the characters, including the entire Kim-Prescott family (except Alan), and they brought a really fun dynamic to the book. It was also really nice to read a romance book, especially one focused around fake dating, that didn’t have miscommunication as the whole plot? Sure, it still existed, but there was a lot more keeping of secrets and just general mayhem.

The holiday atmosphere of this book was also totally spot on. The cabin for Christmas with the whole family sounds absolutely delightful and there are so many fun Christmas/winter activities that they participate in over the course of the book. And, of course, you can’t forget the snow storm and the perfect snow day!

I loved both Ellie and Jack and they were really sweet together, especially Jack’s understanding and care for Ellie’s GAD. The entire dynamic between Jack, Ellie, Dylan, and Andrew was so chaotic and wonderful at the same time. The mix of romance, friendship, and family drama worked really well for this story.

I would absolutely 100% recommend reading Kiss Her Once for Me this holiday season!

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a delightful holiday season read packed with tons of miscommunication, fake dating, holiday cheer and found family. There is so much tension and palpable chemistry between the main characters and very-well developed side characters as well. You know what? Sometimes I love when characters can't get out of their own way because it feels very true to real life. I loved this book!

Thank you so much to the publishers and NetGalley for this e-arc!

Through extremely fortunate circumstances, I read through this book in a day, and it was such a lovely experience. I can’t remember if I knew that its roots were based in While You Were Sleeping (my favorite Christmas movie) or not, but it definitely held that magic — Ellie falling in love with Jack’s family was one of my favorite parts of the book. Usually I don’t enjoy one POV romances (let me see why they love each other, dammit), but this one really worked. The portrayal of Ellie’s anxiety and inner voice was well balanced with the shenanigans going on around her, and Cochrun did a great job illustrating Jack’s feelings without us hearing directly from her. Merry Happy everything :)

I loved Alison Cochrun's debut, The Charm Offensive. It was one of my favorite books for 2022. So, I had very high expectations for Kiss Her Once for Me. It was an enjoyable Christmas rom-com. I loved the secondary characters -- the tipsy grandmas, Andrew & Dylan, friends Ari & Meredith, family love, music references, the fact that this book embraces the messiness of life, diverse representations, and the honest portrayals of what it is like dealing with anxiety.

I definitely recommend Kiss Her Once for Me if you want some depth in your holiday romance.

What an interesting concept for a book, definitely a unique take on the faking dating trope as well as the instant love. I loved all the representation included in this book and the different family dynamics. I liked they way she had the two different timelines intermixing with each other and how it helped tell the love story between Elle and Jack. It was just such a delight to read.

I adored Cochran’s previous book, so I was sufficiently hyped for this one - and it did not disappoint! Cochran has a knack for writing romance with perfect steam, incredible mental health representation, and characters you just want to root for - and Kiss Her Once For Me had them all. I will absolutely be buying whatever she writes next. Such a fun holiday book with heft!

3.75. This book was fun and chaotic and queer and holiday but I felt like the author but off a bit more than they could chew with the sub plots. The demisexual bit felt underdeveloped.

Full review TK, but really loved this book. I'd read anything this author writes—I love the way characters are developed and crafted and how they evolve over the course of the book.

Fake proposal with a delightful twist! I loved The Charm Offensive so I jumped at the chance to read another novel by Alison Cochrun, a definite must read!

last Christmas, Ellie Oliver is working her dream job in Portland & finds herself in the midst of a romantic holiday meet-cute. this year, she’s barely making ends meet as a barista, and she’s still not over her one-night romance from last Christmas.

desperate to catch a break, she finds herself accepting a bizarre proposal from Andrew, the coffee shop’s landlord: since his grandfather’s will states that he must be married in order to receive his inheritance, Ellie will act as his fiancé & receive part of his inheritance in return.

in order to look the part, Andrew requests that Ellie spend Christmas with his family. upon arriving, she realizes that she’s put herself in an incredibly unfortunate situation, as she begins to fall for his family (specifically his sister). now Ellie must decide what’s worth more to her: love or money?

i always enjoy a fake-proposal trope, & this one had a fun twist that I honestly did not see coming (fyi, I didn’t read the synopsis beforehand, so this part won’t be a surprise to anyone who chooses to). I thought the story itself was entertaining, but the book itself was long, & it felt as such. i think a lot of the reason it took some time for me was due to the holiday chaos, but I also think there was an abundance of character miscommunication throughout that dragged things out a bit.

I liked this book, though I wouldn’t say much of it was believable. there was a lot of great representation throughout, though I’ve seen mixed reviews regarding the accuracy of how certain populations were portrayed in this book. there were also a lot of pop culture & generational references that I thought were a bit excessive & generalized. I enjoyed the overall Christmasey feel, though!

thanks to @netgalley & @atriabooks for my copy of this book!

Kiss Her Once for Me was one of my most anticipated books of 2022 as Alison Cochrun’s debut novel The Charm Offensive was one of my favorite books of 2021. I was so excited to dive into this queer, holiday rom-com.

Kiss Her Once for Me is about Ellie who met someone last Christmas and had the most magical day with them, only to be disappointed the next morning. Since then, nothing seems to have gone right for Ellie. Facing financial troubles, she agrees to fake a relationship for her job’s landlord in exchange for a chunk of change, only to learn that her new fiancé’s sister is her missed connection from last Christmas.

Kiss Her Once for Me has a plot that is a bit more complicated than your average romance novel. While I really liked that the romance was not the only component of the story, I felt that the overall plot was a bit over contrived for my liking. This is totally a personal preference as I like romance novels to be a bit more straightforward with little conflict. The complicated nature of the relationships in this book along with the reliance on the miscommunication trope made for a read that was slightly stressful.

What I loved about Kiss Her Once for Me was the fully-developed characters as well as the mental health and LGBTQIA+ representation. This is where Alison’s writing thrived. I really felt like I was able to get to know so many characters in a short span. I loved seeing so much queer representation, including demisexuality. Ellie, the main character of this book, also has generalized anxiety disorder. I think her experience was very reflective of what living with anxiety is like for many people.

I found the writing to be easy to fall into. So often books are billed as rom-coms but never actually funny. I am happy to say this book has its humorous moments that lighten up the storyline. The only issues I found with the writing was that there were places where it was repetitive.

Taylor Swift fans will surely delight in the love for Taylor this book shows. I, on the other hand, more despise Taylor than like her. Other than one sentence, I did not mind the references and likely missed some of them. But whew! That one sentence will go down as one of the most offensive non-bigoted sentences I have ever read.

Overall, I really enjoyed Kiss Her Once for Me and will continue to read anything Alison Cochrun writes. While this is not my favorite holiday rom-com, I do recommend it, especially to Swifties.

I was not expecting this to have the emotional impact that it did. This is a romance, but it's also so much about family, about confronting failure, about allowing yourself to be seen and loved. The marriage-of-convenience set-up allowed for a lot of drama and tension which I was eating up and I loved the atmosphere of a snowy cabin--I definitely felt festive reading it! I love the queer cast, the drunken grandmas and Jack and Andrew's loving mother, but most of all, I love the relationship dynamic between Ellie and Jack, with scenes that left me internally screaming and/or squealing. This was such a perfect holiday book--I can definitely see myself rereading it for years to come.