Kiss Her Once for Me follows Ellie who one year ago met Jack and they fell in love over the course of a day. But after that magical day  Ellie finds herself betrayed and alone. Flashforward to this year Ellie is broke and is looking for a better job. One day Andrew comes into the coffee shop where Ellie works and where he is the landlord. Andrew and Ellie end up going out and drunkenly decide to get married so Andrew can get his inheritance. Because Andrew has to get married in order to get his inheritance. Andrew and Ellie go to Andrew's family's house for Christmas. But when they get there Ellie is surprised to find Jack Andrew's sister. And soon Ellie must choose between her fake relationship or to pursue her lost love.  

I was very nervous to read this one because I hated The Charm Offensive ( it just wasn't for me ). But I wanted to give Alison Cochrun another shot because, I don't like to judge an author based on one book. I am so happy I decided to give this book a read. It was such a cute read. This was such a different take on the fake dating story. I also really liked the cute Christmas vibes of this one as well. It had just enough Christmas vibes to not take away from the overall plot. I also loved how there was just the right amount of drama in this one. If you are ( or are not ) a fan of the Charm Offensive you will like this one. Or if you just want a cute Christmas romance read you will like this one. Thank you Alison Cochrum, NetGalley, and Atria Books for this ARC.

I loved the Charm Offensive because it was a sweet vulnerable story. Then I read this! This is the queer rom-com I’ve always wanted. I cried, I laughed out loud, and my heart is so happy for this. I can’t wait to purchase it. Jack and Ellie are two wonderful love interests who have so much heart. The family, MeeMaw in particular, we’re just incredible. You’ll fall in love with the whole crew. I wish I could give this more than five stars. It made me long for Christmas in July.

Holy cow this was amazing! An imperfectly perfect Christmastime Rom Com. Ellie is so relatable with her Generalized Anxiety and also the constant fear of failing. I was wondering if Alison was directly writing certain things from my brain? I LOVED the While you were sleeping vibes without it being a complete copycat of the movie because this is its own story. I also LOVED the TSwift and some of my other fav romcom references. Overall this will be a HIT on bookstagram this holiday/winter season. And it’s not overly Christmasy. Alison is turning into one of my fav authors after Charm Offensive. Auto Buy. Can’t wait for the next one! 👯‍♀️

This was such an adorable story with very likeable characters that I ended up finishing in one sitting. Ellie and Jack had wonderful chemistry and their relationship made me giddy from the very beginning. I also really enjoyed Andrew's character and his friendship with Ellie as well as his own little romance.

The complaints I have about this book are the plethora of pop culture reference that I found quite forced at times and the writing that felt repetitive in its expressions and descriptions. However, neither of these took away from the story or my enjoyment of it.

Highly recommend this one and very excited to re-read it during Holiday season!

I read The Charm Offensive and loved it, and Cochrun's second novel did not disappoint.

It's cozy, it's trope-y, it's extremely queer. Not just gay. Queer.

It made me crave a peppermint hot chocolate as I read it in two sittings on the 4th of July.

It made me laugh, it made me sigh. It gave me.... Emotions??

We have a super likeable cast (with a few exceptions, and none of those characters get a ton of time on-page). Trans, NB, GNC characters. Neurodivergent MC. Boozy Grandmas. A hot, tattooed lesbian baker. A dog whose name made me laugh out loud.

I also enjoyed that the MCs didn't have, like, super fit bodies. Soft tummies and stretch marks and things, you know, like actual humans have. This doesn't mean they aren't sexy, or stop them from being extremely thirsty for each other. You love to see it.

There is a Third Act Bad Moment (TM), which I can always do without, but it is a staple of the genre and YMMV. It's not terribly drawn out, and does lead to some good character development.

I'd also say this one qualifies as instalove, but I'm very demi and love a slow burn so, again, YMMV.

I may be biased, as a demi bisexual disaster with severe anxiety, reading this book about a demi bisexual disaster with severe anxiety finding love with a butch baker who has a cute dog, but this is a highly enjoyable read.

Elements that I did not enjoy were personal preferences rather than any misstep or poor writing on the part of the author (content notes under spoiler on Goodreads)

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was absolutely charming, and I loved reading this cozy Christmas story in the middle of summer.

The characters were so vivid and likable and flawed and all felt like real people, even side characters like Dylan, Katherine, and the grandmas (the grandmas especially were so much fun!). The discussion of mental health was also very well done, from Ellie's anxiety to Jack's ADHD. As someone who also has ADHD that has in some ways alienated me from my high-achieving family, this portrayal was so great to read.

The pacing was also great, and I really liked having the adorable flashback sections to Ellie and Jack's snow day adventure breaking up the sometimes fraught present-day plot.

The one thing I think could have made this book even better would be to see some of Ellie's webcomic art. While I'm sure it wasn't included for good reason and adding artwork to a book is more expensive and likely comes with logistical challenges with the layout, etc., I kept hoping to see some! Maybe in a special edition or as a preorder reward for one of Alison Cochrun's future books?

This review is also posted to Goodreads and Storygraph, and I will post a review to TikTok in late October, close to the scheduled release date. This book was provided by Atria Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alison Cochrun has done it again with Kiss Her Once for Me! I adore this novel and its characters. In her author's note, Cochrun shared that this sapphic holiday romp was inspired by 90s era romcoms, specifically Sandra Bullock films. It truly delivered on this promise.

I highly recommend reading this book with a playlist that contains 50% pop music from the 00s and 50% Christmas music to best capture the overall vibe of this book.

The thing I truly adore about Cochrun's writing is how naturally she weaves in complex mental health issues into characters in her romances. Elle Oliver is not only dealing with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, but she is also facing a collapse of her well-crafted life plan, more than a feeling of failure she enters this story feeling like she has lost her identity and purpose. Once again, Cochrun held a mirror up to me and forced me to see a part of my own personality through the lens of a fictional character and I thank her for it.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Kiss Her Once For Me is the first book by Alison Cochrun I'd read and the second I finished, I went searching for another. This book is delightful; I absolutely adored Ellie and was desperate for an epilogue once the story was over. I hope this becomes a series or there is a follow-up as there's so much of Jack and Ellie's relationship to explore, with the foundation laid for us to see what happens with Laika and the Butch Oven.

I think the book could be slightly longer - I want to have a scene with the father as opposed to talking about him. I'm glad Katherine left him, and I wanted slightly more elaboration on how Jack asked Katherine for help.

Dylan and Andrew are very sweet - it was clear immediately that they were going to be a couple.

This one was utter perfection - volleying from this Christmas to last Christmas and unraveling the story of Ellie and Jack. They had one incredible day together and then the ghosting to end all ghostings. Will fate intervene and bring them back together?

Three cheers for the incredible diversity and representation as well as the realistic portrayal of insecure attachment. Found family is the best - blood isn’t always better

Christmas 2021 found Ellie Oliver dissolving in tears in the middle of Powell's bookstore. The perfect stranger found her, and they spent sixteen hours together before going their separate ways. Christmas 2022, Ellie has lost her dream job - and every other job that’s lead her to her current position as a barista - her landlord is raising her rent, and her mother’s idea of a good relationship is asking Ellie for the money back that it cost to raise her. She couldn’t be more down on her luck, until millionaire Andrew Kim-Prescott walks into her life and quite literally upends it by asking her to enter a marriage of convenience. He needs to marry to inherit a $2M trust fund, and in exchange, he’ll give her 10% and a divorce after a year. A drunken agreement is hashed out on a napkin. But Ellie can’t stop thinking about that girl from Christmas a year ago…

Another angst-filled knockout queer romcom from Alison Cochrun. Ellie - like many of us - has a fear of failure, but her generalized anxiety disorder makes that fear crippling. A lot of this book is about Ellie coming to terms with that. It’s also about navigating boundaries with family and also oneself. It’s about the friends we absolutely never deserve in life, but somehow they find us anyway. And most of all, this is about finding a way forward when you don’t know how to take the next step.

I loved all of the characters, from Ellie to Andrew to Jack to Dylan to the wild octogenarian grandmothers. I loved how villainous Andrew’s father and grandfather and Ellie’s mother are. In fact on our StoryGraph buddy read, I left a few all-caps comments to my wonderful buddy read partner @what_jess_read to that effect. Kiss Her Once for Me has quippy one-liners, well-rounded queer characters, and self-awareness of the romance genre that works incredibly well with the story.

I LOVED THIS BOOK.

Ellie wrote a webcomic about a Christmas Eve where she met and fell in love with a woman all in the same day, only to be heartbroken Christmas morning. The next year after that is a pretty difficult one for her, getting fired from her job, living in a rundown apartment, and having her mom constantly calling her to "borrow" money (and ONLY for that purpose). She agrees to a marriage of convenience with Andrew Kim-Prescott, the son of a very rich family, so that he can receive the settlement his grandfather gives him in his will. Of course, when she goes to visit her new fiancé's family, she learns that his sister just so happens to be that woman she fell in love with so long ago.

I'm always a little hesitant about flashbacks, and there are a LOT of them in this one, which made me nervous. However, these are set up as stories that Ellie wrote and published online with webcomics, and I think that makes those flashbacks feel a bit more meaningful. The flashbacks are given to us out of order, aligning with what is going on in the story, and I think it flows well!

I also loved what Cochrun does with addressing the mental health of her main characters. She does this pretty masterfully. Ellie deals with anxiety that displays as a constant fear of failure which tends to lead to total inaction and giving up on things before she has the chance to fail. As someone who has dealt with the same issues in the past, I think this was super well-written and I could easily relate to Ellie's issues, even if they applied in different situations.

But my favorite thing about this book is the relationships between Ellie and all of the other characters in the book, whether those relationships were positive or negative. There were challenging dynamics with parents and other incredible relationships with friends (along with a bit of a "found family" situation)! Those relationships are what really makes this book. With everything else going around them, this book is very much driven by Ellie and the people around her and I loved how things seemed to tie up with everybody. I cannot wait to bug all my friends to read this book!

Alison Cochrun has managed to wrap up the feeling of While You We’re Sleeping without the creepy coma aspect of the story. I’m deeply obsessed with how cute this book is. I loved the chaotic but loving family, the range of queer characters, the incredible romantic tension that counteracted the ethical conundrum of a fake engagement, and the representation of anxiety.

This was so wonderfully crafted and filled me with so much feeling. I wish I could read this again for the first time.

This book was so beautiful and a perfect holiday season read. All of the characters had so many layers to them which made getting attached to them inevitable. I loved that although the “marriage of convenience” trope used, I’ve never seen interactions between the betrothed like this!
The lgbtq+ acceptance in this story will have you truly KNOWING that love it love and it’s wonderful.
Some parts got a bit repetitive in parts which is why I docked it a star but otherwise I loved these characters.

Thank you to Netgalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kiss Her Once for Me is the Holiday Queer Rom-Com of my dreams! In this novel we follow Ellie who recently moved to Portland to go after her dream job of working at an animation studio. Christmas rolls around, and Ellie is all alone after her Mother decides to not come visit. She goes to Powells bookstore where her and Jack (a sexy Asian lesbian) have an adorable meet-cute which turns into a one-night-stand with intense feelings and complications.

A year later, Ellie has lost her dream job, and she’s now working at a coffee shop to get her through the days. Over drinks, the shops landlord, Andrew, ends up proposing a drunkenly shocking plan to Ellie: A marriage proposal so he is able to get access to his 2 Million Dollar inheritance, and he will give Ellie 10% to alleviate her of her financial woes.

Ellie decides to go through with the plan, and part of the deal is spending Christmas with Andrew’s family. Once they arrive to his family’s cabin, Ellie realizes that Jack, the woman she fell for during a one-night-stand last Christmas, is Andrew’s sister. Ellie is torn between keeping up appearances or risking it all to get the girl of her dreams.

This was such a cozy read, the perfect Holiday rom-com that I know everyone is going to be devouring this winter. Alison Cochrun has a stunning way of writing, and each character is lovable and relatable in their own unique ways. I especially loved Jack and Andrew’s grandmother, what a peach! Additionally, the amount of queer representation in both sexuality and gender identity was just so real and beautiful. Alison Cochrun as quickly become on of my favorite authors, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Kiss Her Once for Me has exactly the feel and tone of a ridiculous, loveable 90s rom com that you want to watch annually after seeing it the first time! I am already thinking about re-reading it these holidays. This is the first Alison Cochrun book I’ve read, and I would be interested in going back and reading her first book now, as well as future work!

I enjoyed the plot device of the flashbacks, the romance of the snow day in Portland contrasting with Ellie being in over her head with the present-day timeline helped to ease the tension. The concept of falling in love over the course of a single special day tracks for me, romance in queer time works differently.

The family dynamics in this book could, at times, be quite heavy so if that is a sensitive area, I would recommend finding TWs for this book before reading.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was absolutely phenomenal, in the way that The Charm Offensive was absolutely phenomenal. I'm always so drawn to books with diverse casts of characters and Alison Cochrun is acing that criterion every time. The book was honest, heartfelt, reflective, and sweet, with loads of the fun banter I loved about The Charm Offensive. The characters, although romanticized (duh, it's a romance novel), felt so real, and I loved that none of them were perfect. The whole perfection thing in romance novels is so disappointing, and it's incredible to see real, flawed characters who love each other and find beauty in all the messiness that is human nature. The story was wild, and I loved that the book characters in the book acknowledged how implausible so much of it was. I also loved how the format of writing, where chapters of Ellie's graphic novel telling their story from their last encounter punctuated the present in a way that allowed for a slow unspooling of a story that the reader had to piece together. I loved how all the characters developed and grew in some way, and how they found family with each other. I loved this book so so much. I'm so grateful to the publisher and author for allowing me the chance to read the ARC, and I'm excited to promote it endlessly closer to publication.

The Charm Offensive was one of my favorite books I read last year, so I had high hopes for Kiss Her Once for Me, and it did not disappoint!

I'm absolutely obsessed with the plot - last Christmas, Ellie had a 14+ hour date (a very sapphic thing to do) with a cute girl named Jack. She thought she'd finally found love, only to have her heart broken the next morning. This Christmas, she's agreed to fake marry Andrew so that he can get his $2 million inheritance. She'll get 10%, which will fix a lot of current life problems. He takes her to spend a week at his family's cabin for Christmas... only to discover his sister is Jack. Cue the sexual tension!

I could picture this entire book in my head like it was a Christmas movie, and I found myself giggling and shrieking through a lot of it like a kid on Christmas morning. This book was an absolute joy to read, and I've already told so many friends they need to read it. If you like Christmas movies or romcoms in general, you'll love Kiss Her Once for Me.

The Charm Offensive was one of my favourite books of last year, and without a doubt an all-time favourite. So I started this book with a healthy dose of apprehension, afraid it would not live up to my expectations.

I wasn't expecting to adore this as much as Charm, because that book is just really special to me, and I didn't, but I did still thoroughly enjoy this. It's a very solid Christmas read, with a good dose of fun but also a good amount of depth, even the kind you will hide from yourself.

Ellie's story of being such an anxiety-ridden perfectionist that you're inclined to give up before you've even actually tried hit a little too close to home for me, and I feel very called out after finishing this book. I feel like this is such a relatable experience if you're in your twenties and dealing with mental health issues.

But this definitely didn't read like a heavy story, it was more like if Happiest Season had been a comforting movie where everyone was out. It does have a similar amount of MESS though! Where Charm dealt with Charlie questioning his sexuality, Ellie is confident in her demi-bisexuality from the start, which was great to see. I loved her, and I loved Jack, and I loved the other characters (except for the assholes), and I especially adored seeing flashbacks to Ellie and Jack's perfect day a year earlier through Ellie's webcomic (of which we get a text version).

Ellie meets the woman of her dreams, Jack, one snowy Christmas, and they seem to hit it off after spending the entire day stuck in a snow storm together. Fast forward a year and Ellie’s life seems to have fallen apart around her and the amazing woman she met is nowhere to be seen. When Andrew, the rich, handsome landlord of the cafe where she works asks her to marry him in order for him to get his inheritance Ellie says yes. She needs the money he’s offering, and her own family issues make spending the holidays with Andrew and his family seem like not the worst idea in the world. Little does she know she’s about to be confronted with the amazing woman from last Christmas and have to deal with the fall out of what went wrong that day.

This book was so festive and cute, and even though I was reading it in June I felt like I wanted to put on Christmas music and read it in front of a fire with a hot cup of tea. It gave me all the warm feelings, and I really liked the contrast between reading about Ellie’s perfect day with Jack and the present day Christmas where her life is a mess. The atmosphere and snowy setting of this book was spot on, and I felt like I was in Portland in the middle of a snowstorm the whole time.

The characters in this were all so messy and real. Ellie, of course, is a mess. But Jack and Andrew and their friend Dylan all had issues and conflicts that made reading about this group so fun. Throw in some meddling grandmothers and a toxic father and you’ve got emotional roller coasters happening all over the place. I went through phases of either hating or loving each of these characters in turn, but in the end they all pulled it together and I found myself adoring them, and rooting for everyone to be happy.

I love books with demisexual rep, and Ellie’s story was no different. I liked the way Ellie explained her attraction to people and how she can find people attractive, but it will always be a little fuzzy until a strong emotional connection is there. It’s a slightly different take on demisexuality than what I’ve seen before and I appreciated the way it was written.

If you’re looking for a queer holdiay rom-com with great characters and lots of fun side plots than I strongly recommend this book!

This book is a little holiday snow magic wrapped up with a bow ❄️ Oh how I was so excited to read Alison Cohrun’s next book and thrilled to receive it! This sapphic holiday romance is a cozy, heartfelt read. 💜

Last Christmas, Ellie fell in love in the span of one magical snowy day. 💜 Fast forward to this Christmas, she has less than $20 in her checking account, hates her job, single, and really down on herself. After a run in with the owner of the building, Andrew, she agrees to be his fake fiancé in turn for a pretty big paycheck for both of them. But what she doesn’t anticipate is that Ellie’s past Christmas love is Andrew’s sister…family drama, anyone? Ellie’s faced with having to choose her safety net and paycheck or a forever kind of love. 💜

First off, the music mentioned in this book is ON POINT 👏🏼

Second, I think the queer rep was so well done. A sapphic holiday romance with multiple representations.

Third, Alison Cochrun is a gem.

The writing drew me in from page one and I laughed, empathized, and teared up with Ellie. It’s so descriptive and easy to see it in your mind as you read.
The dialogue was so authentic between all the characters, especially Ellie and Jack.
I loved the side characters too, and liked how they all worked through some rough patches and experienced some growth.

The only thing I would’ve wanted more of was an Epilogue or fast forward chapter to tie everything up a little bit more!

Overall, a fantastic holiday read! I definitely want to re-read closer to Christmastime cozied up by the tree. This book gives you all the warm and fuzzies!