THIS BOOK!!!!! I adored every little piece of this book. It's rare when you're rooting for the side characters just as much as you are the main characters. The only gripe was that Ellie complained SO MUCH about things that were within her control. Had she just spoke to Jack instead of running away, she would have saved herself a year of misery. Otherwise, this book was the coziest, warmest, hug ! Perfect for the holidays.

Cochrun’s latest, KISS HER ONCE FOR ME (Atria, 368 pp., paperback, $17.99), continues her streak for foregrounding characters with mental struggles that are more than window dressing. Ellie, a failed animator, is trapped in a dead-end barista job and an awful apartment she’s about to be evicted from. So when a handsome coffee shop regular offers her a fortune if she poses as his fiancée for a family Christmas trip, Ellie says yes. Money can’t buy happiness, but happiness can’t pay the rent, and it’s not as if Ellie has anyone important in her life. Not since that hot butch baker Jack broke her heart last Christmas.

Of course her fake fiancé’s sister, Jacqueline, turns out to be Jack. Cue snowbound high jinks, four-way romantic entanglements, a hilarious set of relatives and enough musical earworms to last you till January.

That’s right, this is the queer women’s “While You Were Sleeping” you didn’t know you needed this Christmas season. If books were drinks, this one would be a hot toddy: warm and frothy and sweet, with just the right amount of bite to cut through the sugar. Perfect for warming the heart at the top of the fresh, unwritten pages of the new calendar year.

I really loved this novel and the romance between the main characters. I was so excited to pick this up after loving the author's first novel, and I was not disappointed. It had all of the holiday cheer I needed in December.

LGBT Rep

Insta-Love

Anxiety Rep

Holiday Romance



This book just wasnt for me. Sadly, I felt like this was a cheesy hallmark story with some great LGBT rep. I couldnt connect to any of the characters. I personally dont care for insta-love between the characters and felt that the romance was practically rushed.



Check the trigger warnings!


Thank you NetGalley and Atria publishers for this ebook for an honest review!

This book was everything!! I feel like Alison captured the raw emotion of every character. There were so many tropes and I loved them all- except for insta love which is hard for me to get behind!
5 stars from me!!

Since The Charm Offensive was my favorite book of last year, I expected that I would adore Cochrun’s second book. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like this book before. Kiss Her Once for Me was a refreshing take on so many classic tropes. I tend not to like love triangles in general, but the love trapezoid was perfection. I loved the friendship that developed between Andrew and Ellie over the course of their fake engagement, and the absolute chaos of their pining over different people was hilarious—especially when you add in the Boozy Grandmas’ antics.

This was the first book I’ve read with female ADHD rep. I always appreciate seeing ADHD rep, but it can present so differently in women as compared to men (which is why it often goes undiagnosed), so it was nice seeing the nuances of my experience portrayed in that way. The anxiety rep was also well done, but that wasn’t a surprise, seeing as it was also well done in The Charm Offensive.

Kiss Her Once for Me was wonderfully Christmassy and heartwarming. It had all the vibes of a Hallmark Christmas movie, except delightfully gay and with more in-depth character development.

Absolutely adorable! I loved the main characters and their relationship. I’ve read some of the authors other books and she is an auto-purchase for my library.

“We all experience attraction differently, Some of us fall in and out of love easily. Some of us don’t experience
romantic love at all. Some of us have to fight to let ourselves be vulnerable enough to fall in
love. Some of us have to fight to let other people love us. Some of us need emotional intimacy in order to experience sexual attraction. All love and ways of
loving are love, Elle.”

“But beneath the desire to be cherished was the ever-present thrum of my desire to be chosen. I wanted someone who would pick me to be their family.”

I have to say that Kiss Her Once for Me took me by surprise I did next expect to love Elle as much as I did, as well as a vast amount of the other characters. This book was charming, sweet, romantic, and had depth. Romance novels are usually hit or miss with me depending on tropes or character development but this was by far a win. I cherished every moment reading it. By far my favorite holiday book this Christmas season! But even though we’re past Christmas Day I would still pick this up if you haven’t yet and read it.

A lot of times when I love a book, I find it had to describe exactly what I loved about it. Kiss Her Once for Me was one of these book because to me it was the perfect holiday romcom! When I read it, I immediately got into the holiday spirit. There were parts of this book that were laugh out loud funny and I just had such a fun time reading it. Cochrun writes the fake engagement trope with a twist so well! The flashbacks were so well placed throughout the book, I loved reading about Jack and Ellie's back stories. I also just loved seeing Jack and Ellie's relationship develop. The banter was fantastic and good banter is always the mark of a great book! Cochran discusses themes of anxiety throughout the book and I think the lighter moments really balance out these discussions well. The ensemble characters were amazing, and Meemaw and Lovey truly stole the show. The Taylor Swift references alone were enough to get me to read this book. If you're looking for a great holiday read I would highly recommend this book!

I have truly been sleeping on this book but wow did it blow me away! Kiss Her Once for me was a sapphic romance between Ellie and Jack, who both had incredible character arcs in this story.

Their story begins the Christmas before when the two have a ridiculously adorable meet cute in a bookstore, and they spend one perfect day together. The next Christmas, Elle is broke and about to get evicted from her apartment, and Andrew, an investment banker, makes her an offer she can’t refuse. They get married so he can access his inheritance from his late grandfather, which Elle would get part of the money. All she has to do is show up for Christmas with his family to sell the deal. When they get there, Elle realizes Andrew’s sister is none other than Jack, the girl she fell in love with last Christmas.

Things I loved about this book:
-the tropes were common but flipped on their heads: fake dating (with a former flame’s sibling), engagement of convenience, second (or third) chance romance, found family
-the representations was amazing to see. You have queer, straight, trans, and demisexual characters all in this book
-the side characters were great!
-loved the family dynamics and Christmas traditions represented here
-the open communication by the characters was refreshing
-the third act conflict - incredibly written!
-the introspectiveness that Ellie developed later on in the book was admirable.
-so much Evermore energy and Taylor references (finally an author who agrees Tis the Damn Season is the best Christmas song!)

All in all, I would recommend this cozy holiday read to everyone! I can’t wait to see what Alison Cochrun blesses us with next!

I truly believe Alison Cochrun is one of the best new queer romance authors of the last couple years. I loved this even more than her debut book. A new favorite holiday romance for sure! I’m particularly picky about the sapphic romances that I read and this book was incredible. Will be recommending it to everyone I know!

Ellie Oliver has had some setbacks in her life and through a series of unfortunate events finds herself agreeing to marry the building owner, Andrew of the coffee shop she works at. Andrew needs a fake wife to collect on his inheritance and Ellie needs money. Of course, as is always the way in the fake marriage trope, we find that Andrew's sister is a woman Ellie had a one-night stand with a year ago and is still madly in love with. Despite its predictability, I loved this story and all the various LGBTQIA+ representations the book had to offer.

This was a super cute, super sweet sapphic holiday romance that I really enjoyed. The grandmas, the dog, the log cabin setting — it truly all set the vibes for this story! I absolutely love fake dating and how messy things get when real feelings get involved and this story delivered on that front. The miscommunication can be a bit frustrating at times but I also feel like that comes with the trope. Really appreciated the mental health rep!!

I loved this book so much! The perfect Christmasy vibes with some amazing tropes. This was funny and heartwarming. I will definitely continue to read any book this author writes!

Charming, sexy, and the perfect Christmas romp. I will recomend this to patrons around the holidays and ensure that it is available in our branches.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for my review copy!

I got this in my Book of the Month box last year, AND was given the ARC on Netgalley, but didn’t get to it until the holiday season was over and it just didn’t feel the same to read it after. But of course it went straight to the top of my holiday reading list this year!

If you’re looking for a completely candy-sweet Christmas read, that’s not exactly what you’ll get from this. If you’ve read The Charm Offensive and are expecting that level of lightheartedness, I think you’ll be in for a bit of a surprise, especially at the beginning. Kiss Her Once for Me follows Ellie, who is having a pretty rough time by Chapter 2. She’s been fired from her dream job, and is barely scraping by in Portland. We quickly learn that she has come from a very neglectful childhood, which affects her a lot. On top of that, she’s getting no treatment for her Generalized Anxiety Disorder. So she’s definitely going through it

What you will find in Kiss Her Once for Me is a plot with the level of hijinks I always love in a rom com. By the time I got around to reading it, I’d forgotten the premise, and was having a hard time motivating myself to read the book until it came into play.

Ellie ends up in an engagement of convenience with the handsome landlord of the coffee shop she’s working in, and heads to his family’s cabin for Christmas. There, she meets his sister Jack - but not for the first time. In fact, the book starts out with the one night stand she had with Jack the previous Christmas. The woman she is very much still interested in.

The tension was so good. Keeping the marriage of convenience a secret may put the book into miscommunication territory, along with some hidden information about the one night stand, which might bother some readers. I have endless patience for miscommunication, as it’s something I’ve had to work on a lot in my life!

Overall, I absolutely devoured this one once they got to the Christmas cabin. Jack and Andrews family was delightful, especially their grandmas!

🎧 Natalie Naudus did a fantastic job bringing Kiss Her Once for Me to life for my ears! I loved the voices she created for all of the characters. I recognize Natlie from her work on The Future, Starling House and One Last Stop, all of which I also loved!

Diverse representation: (MC): anxiety, bisexual, demisexual, (other characters): Asian heritage, mixed race, transgender, lesbian, polyamorous, nonbinary

A year ago, Ellie had the hottest one night stand ever, where she felt connected and cared for, and it still pops into her head all the time. In fact, she wrote a webcomic about it. But, she was ghosted and her life kinda fell apart and now she's a barista who wants to break into the art world. She is broke. And then, she gets an offer to help a customer with a fake marriage pact, so he can get his inheritance, and guess who his sister is? Yep, the one night stand! This book had a LOT of tropes all under one roof, and seemed to lag a bit in the middle, but brought some awesome sapphic spice to the party. I also loved the representation of clear and honest communication to work out problems, along with emotional support for those we care about. It's a holiday read that will satisfy you!

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING RE-TELLING BUT ITS SAPPHIC?!?!???? ❄️💯

this was seriously the easiest 5 stars EVER. like I seriously need this book to be a movie now. I felt so deeply connected to the main characters and their chemistry was written to perfection. there was seriously not a dull moment in this book—the setting and Christmastime vibes throughout were amazing. I loved Jack and Ellie’s humor and I admit I laughed out loud a few times. the ending was wild but I was rooting for them anyway!!

thank you SO much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!!! 🎄

The perfect, adorable holiday romance. I loved both characters and following their story was so fun!

This was actually perfect and made my heart feel everything. This is a perfect holiday book that everyone should read this season. It’s vulernable, sweet, and heartwarming.