Let me start by saying it’s hard for me to be objective because The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun was my favorite book last year and is one of my all time favorites as well.

That said, I did really enjoy this book just not on the same level as her previous book.

Some of the things that really worked well in my opinion were the anxiety representation, the chemistry between Ellie and Jack, and the cast of side characters.

I personally just didn’t get those heartstring tugging feelings in this one like I did with The Charm Offensive. But I still love Cochrun’s writing and humor that she puts into her books and would absolutely recommend this one to anyone looking for a good holiday themed read.

I liked that this book was very different than other holiday romances. It had a lot of drama, and a lot of characters, and I think it was a good representation of gender identity and sapphic love. I feel like I learned a lot from it, and I also haven’t quite read a book like it. It takes place around Christmas time in the PNW, and something is charming about how Elle loves snow days.

This is the second book I've read with the marriage of convenience trope, and I’m just not a big fan of it. I think I have to suspend reality too much for it, and that sometimes takes away from the story for me. What also didn’t work for me was I felt like there were a lot of characters, and we didn’t get enough of them. I think some of them had important roles, and it wasn’t enough. And while both female MCs were enjoyable, their back and forward started to feel a bit repetitive to me.

This is ultimately a sweet romance with a ton of drama in the middle. Usually I enjoy a fake dating storyline but here there was a lot of active lying and it caused a lot of harm to others, and that wasn't fun to read.

What I liked about the book was the alternating between last Christmas and the current one. We slowly learn how Ellie and Jack met and fell for each other over the coarse of a single day. They never spoke again and now it's a year later and Ellie is engaged to Jack's brother to help him receive his inheritance.

Things get messy and that was a bit much for me. Ellie and Andrew have a sham engagement but they sleep with other people - It wasn't exactly cheating that went on, but it wasn't not cheating, and I didn't like that part.

With all that said, I do recommend this novel for romance readers who like a lot of drama in their stories.

This is a fabulous queer romance for the upcoming holiday season! There is misunderstandings, laughters, failures, romance and more.

I feel like the author also expanded past what many queer books do, to include the gender identity and expression of characters, and even using gender-neutral pronouns in a characters thought process until they were able to get to a point in the conversation that they could share their name and pronouns and inquire about the other person’s.

Also, a side character is in a poly relationship, which is not touched on much in books, so I feel the author was intentional to include diverse types of relationships.

I'm having one of those weeks where my brain is not on board with writing reviews, but basically I loved every single thing about this from start to finish. Absolutely one of my top favorite books this year. It's got lots of tropey goodness, done in a way that delivers on all the feels. All the characters just felt so real and I loved watching them all interact. And all the cozy and hilarious holiday shenanigans! This is a perfect holiday read. You want these characters in your life. Gift yourself with the joy that is this book!

I absolutely d e v o u r e d this book. Anyone who knows even an inkling about me knows that The Charm Offensive is one of my top 2022 reads from earlier this year, so I jumped at the earliest possible chance to read this one.

This book follows Ellie, a struggling animator-turned-barista who has never stopped being in love with the woman she spent the previous Christmas Eve with before they were torn apart. When the landlord for the coffeehouse she works for asks her to enter a marriage of convenience for $200,000, she can't say no. She doesn't love him, she's not sexually attracted to him, and she may still be in love with Snow Girl, but who cares? She only has to be married to him for a year.

Except that her landlord's sister is Snow Girl, and now she has to spend the week leading up to Christmas in their family's mountain lodge. And they have unfinished business.

This book is perfect if you like:
🎄 Hallmark movie vibes
💞 Second chance romances
🔍 Books like People We Meet On Vacation and Love and Other Words where the chapters alternate between the past and present
🎶 TAYLOR SWIFT <3 The book is full of references.
👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Found family trope
👀 Awkward love quadruples where everyone is very queer and very emotionally constipated
🍷 Boozy grandmas

I have to say that out of everything, I absolutely adored the MC, Ellie. I said from chapter one that I related heavily to her, and she only got more aggressively relatable as the book went on. Ellie is bisexual. Ellie is demisexual. Ellie has a fear of failure so she ruins everything for herself so she fails on her own terms. Ellie is me.

Excuse me while I make this book my entire personality through the holiday season.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for this wonderful galley. I loved every second of this book. It was cute, sweet and so fun. Jack and Elle make me swoon. I adore them so much. What a great book with themes of love, missed opportunities, misunderstandings and overcoming failures. Highly recommend this cute Christmas book.

I really enjoyed this book. I was a big fan of her debut and her sophomore novel lived up to my expectations.

The concept was so fun, and while I wish I had seen more of Ellie and Jack’s first day together, I’m glad I got to read about their next days together.

I would definitely read this book if you’re a lover of romcoms. It’s well worth it.

Kiss Her Once For Me is a sweet meet-cute, fake relationship rom-com with a bit of a spin. Lonely on Christmas Eve, Ellie meets and spends a day with Jack, a woman she meets at a local bookstore. By morning though the two never see each other again. One year later, Ellie has hit a rough patch and the landlord at her place of employment offers an opportunity to change her path. She just needs to meet his family as his fiancé and future wife. It is a no fail plan right? Until Andrew introduces Ellie to his sister, Jacqueline.

I loved The Charm Offensive and was thrilled to read Kiss Her Once For Me. While I enjoyed the story, it wasn't quite as good as it's predecessor, in my opinion. Part of this is just personal taste, the miscommunication/hiding the truth trope in rom-coms is not a favorite story arc of mine. But if that is your jam this book is for you.

Ellie as a main character is well developed, lovable and you can't help to root for her. There is a significant amount of exploration on her mental health disorders, specifically anxiety and the fear of failure, and it hit pretty close to home for me. Like really close. Like knocking on the front door, peeking in the windows close. While I appreciated the time and care the author took to emphasize the importance of mental health awareness, I found at times it slowed the movement in the story. We spend a good portion of the book stuck in Ellie's brain. I do think Alison Cochrun is a fantastic author and will not hesitate to pick up her next book.
A perfect endearing book for the holiday season.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this Christmas themed sapphic romance. It was trope heavy but not too cheesy, and the characters were likable.

What worked for me: I enjoyed the web chapters as well as the in real time chapters. I liked the flow of now and then presented that way. I liked Ellie’s character arc and also the talk about a dream job not being what it seemed.

What didn’t work for me: instalove isn’t my favorite and neither is marriage of convenience… and there was a lot of weirdness for me with Ellie and Jack.

I also wish they included some art!

This book was so enjoyable! I love Christmas books and this one was so well done! I really enjoyed all the characters and the mental health rep! The MC, Ellie, was so well developed and I loved seeing how much she grew and learnt to deal with some of her anxieties/fears by the end of the book!

I absolutely adored Ellie's friends and Andrew & his family were so cute! The grandmas especially!

The only read disappointment was that there were no drawings included with Ellie's webcomic chapters.

Thanks to Netgalley & Atria Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is an adorable Christmas romance. It’s got snow magic, holiday baking, and just one bed.

It’d be easy to say the conflict here comes from miscommunication and toss it aside. But I think critics of romance are often too quick to label the hated miscommunication trope. The truth is, in real life, we get in our heads. We don’t say what we’re thinking. We are afraid to say we are falling. It’s scary! And it’s real! And I don’t get why everyone hates reading that in books.

I think the ‘miscommunication’ here comes from a fear of failure and an anxiety that is all too real, and very true to life. There’s also some extenuating circumstances that keep Ellie from fully revealing the truth.

Read this if you like…
- Christmas romances
- Bisexual representation
- Non-binary representation
- Mental health representation
- ski chalets
- Mistletoe

HELLO I LOVE THIS BOOK! This book just made me FEEL good. Ellie is such a painfully relatable character that I was totally invested from the beginning. A twenty-something with a full degree getting yelled at in the face by rude customers while she's working minimum wage? BEEN THERE. Her fears, her general apprehension to the world thanks to the GAD, all so relatable and treated very well.

Andrew's family was so fun to read about as well. Boozy grandmas singing "Grandma got run over by a Reindeer?" Sign me up. I loved reading about their family traditions & seeing how much they all care for each other! I think the exploration of family bonds was such a nice addition to the plot.

Of course being the anxious person that I am I have my doubts about the whole meet-cute "falling for you immediately" thing, but you know what, I just rolled with it because it's a ROM COM set at CHRISTMAS time. The vibes alone were so cute. And how could I not love a meet-cute set in Powell's, the world's largest independent bookstore?

Honesty game. Was it slightly unrealistic? Sure. Was it cheesy and did I get second-hand embarrassment? Yes. But I LOVE it, ok? This book is just a warm hug and makes me want to believe that there's truly good in the world.

I really wanted to like this one but, unfortunately it just wasn’t for me.

I felt like there was a whole lot of tropes going on here that weren’t executed nicely. Insta-love is always a hard one and unfortunately I just couldn’t get invested and feel that connection between Elle and Jack. Their relationship felt very lacklustre. I also felt the whole trapezoid was a little weird and gave off a lot of cheating vibes. (I know, I know, Andrew and Elle were just fake, but still. The others didn’t know that!). Overall the story was unique and the ideas were interesting, it just felt poorly executed and repetitive.

All that said, I do think the representation for both LGBTQ and mental health was very well done. The alternating pages using the past with the webcomics was a lot of fun however, it would have been awesome to have actual comic drawings for an added element. (Especially since Elle is supposed to be an artist!). Lastly, I loved the Christmas vibe and really enjoyed the grandmothers! They were a hoot haha

I’m really sad this one didn’t work for me but, not every book can work for every person and that’s ok!

Fake dating gets even more complicated than usual. Ellie Oliver agrees to marry Andrew, so he can receive his inheritance and she can get 10%, but first she has to pretend to be his fiance at Christmas with his family. It turns out that not only does Andrew still have feelings for his sister's best friend, but Andrew's sister Jack is the same woman Ellie fell in love with at Christmas the year before before things went wrong. It's an incredibly messy situation that is handled so beautifully for a wonderful holiday romcom.

Darling LGBTQIA+ Holiday/ winter romance. I love that it is set in Portland. I love the coffee shop job despite the hipsters. I’m always here for fake dating and forced proximity. Thanks for the ARC!!

Do I even need to say how much I loved this book!? I don't think I've talk to anyone who has read and not enjoyed this book. It was so sweet and fun and just perfect for the holiday season! I absolutely adored every second of this book and I can't wait to come back to it again and again!

I enjoyed The Charm Offensive, but I LOVED Kiss Her Once for Me. In fact, this will almost certainly be in my top ten books for year.

Kiss Her Once for Me is the story of Ellie and Jack, who fall victim to a Christmas meet-cute and insta-lovey day-long date that ended poorly the following morning. After a whirlwind day (and night) together, Ellie learns something that changes everything and she flees the situation without telling Jack why. From that point forward, Ellie's life does not go to plan. She loses her job and struggles in life, but she finds success and joy in creating webcomics, including a comic about her day with Jack -- which reader love, but, ultimately it lacks a solid conclusion.

Because of her situation, Ellie ends up making the questionable decision to participate in a fake engagement AND marriage with an acquaintance, Andrew. Part of the ruse is spending Christmas with Andrew's quirkly (and wealthy) family in their mountain cabin. However, things get complicated when Ellie arrrives at the cabin to realize that Andrew's sister is...SUPRISE...Jack.

This trope-filled comedy was exactly the delightful and whimsical Christmas romance that I needed. I was laughing out loud in the early pages and even convinced my husband to read it (he read it...TWICE). I loved everything about the story, but the writing and character development were particularly strong here. Ellie and Jack were lovely and fully developed characters, but the secondard character (the grandmas! The best friends!) were also super fun to read about on the page. I loved that this family, though flawed, was filled with lots of fun, traditions, and inside jokes.

At the basic plot level, this shares a lot of similarities with Hallmark movies. The settings, the tropes, the laminated list of mandatory Christmas fun activities -- you'll find all of that here. But it moves beyond that by fully exploring the secondary theme of overcoming failure in a way that truly surprised me. Both Jack and Ellie have to fully deal with the main issues holding them back from a successful relationship before they can committ to each other. They don't do this in the most linear way, but they get there (I don't consider this a spoiler -- it is, after all, a romance, and the HEA is implied). Their journey was frustrating at times but provided substance to what could have been an overly fluffy novel.

Was it perfect? Well, no. It was perfect for me, but there are certainly some folks out there who might want to pass on this book -- particularly those who don't like Hallmark movie-style romances and holiday activity montages. I also think some folks might get frustrated with some of the third act miscommunication and subsequent tension. Things do get messy in the final third and a bit frustrating! I was along for the ride, even though I would typically complain about such things. Did I love that aspect of the book? Not really, but my overall rating was still high based on the overall ROMANTIC tension that was resolved to my satisfaction and tickled that part of my grinchy brain that just want to see queer people kiss each other and fall in love.

I would compare Kiss Her Once for Me to some of the other top-tier queer books I have read in recent years: Delilah Green Doesn't Care/Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, Casey McQuiston's books, and Alexandria Bellefleur's Written in the Stars Trilogy. I dare say this is even comparable to Emily Henry's novels. Alison Cochrun is a new auto-buy author for me and I can't wait for people to read this book!

I liked this book. It added a twist to the marriage of convenience trope and the dual timeline made the pacing of the book much better. I thought Ellie and Andrew’s friendship was well-written, ensuring their relationship could be appreciated without withdrawing attention from Jack and Ellie. However, there were some parts that felt odd to me. The mistletoe scene felt unrealistic, where everyone was rooting for Jack and Ellie to kiss despite her « fiancé » being in the room, and then the kiss was WAYYY too long to not be suspicious. The ending was also sooo corny and i cringed when they were in the bakery. Despite that, i think this sapphic rom-com is very good for Christmas and i would recommend!

*Thank you Netgalley for offering this ARC in exchange for an honest book review*

4/5
thanks to atria books and netgalley for the arc!

i loved reading kiss her once for me. i really like animation and read some webcomics, so the main characters career being based in that was interesting for me to read about, but it's definitely not a requirement to enjoy!