Begin Again by Emma Lord is a YA romance set at college. This is a no sex, a some swearing, a little drinking, but an innocent read for the young adult audience. The book follows Andie on her adventure at a new college as she transferred in. I love how this story is more about finding one’s way. I loved the friend group Andie made and how they developed. Can we talk about the fun the friend group found themselves in? Such a fun part of the book! I really enjoyed this read from this author who I already love. Looking forward to many more reads from Emma Lord!

I haven't picked up a YA novel in quite a while, but when I was offered Emma Lord's most recent YA as an ARC, I couldn't say no. I thought I was no longer at a point in my life where I could enjoy YA, but Lord proved me wrong. Her tale quickly sucked me back into the world of YA. At times I felt like I was back at my small town university and it filled my heart with a warm glow.

I love that I just happened to start reading this book on national bagel day. I also love how food is integrated into all of Lord's stories. She definitely speaks more than one of my love languages.

I enjoyed this almost as much as I enjoyed Tweet Cute and y'all know I loved Tweet Cute. If you've read Lord's work before, I highly encourage you to pick this one up too, and if you haven't I highly recommend her work. Now quick, grab yourself a bagel and some coffee and read this book. Once you're done reading, I want to know, are you team Milo or team Connor?

Thank you Emma Lord, Netgalley, and St. Martin's Press for this eGalley!

Thanks to NetGalley and St.Martin's Press for this read of Begin Again by Emma Lord. Emma Lord never fails to give you a book that is going to be a good read, entertaining as well as full of life lessons. This one did not fail to provide and I had a great time reading about Andie and her friends. This book was full of good characters! Entertaining! I do not like to give too much away as it almost prevents you from going out to read it, I suggest having a read on your own with this one.

Begin Again was easily my favorite Emma Lord book yet, and that's a high bar because I've loved them all! It was such a fun read. Andie was relatable in a lot of ways, even for me as a YA reader in her 30s. I loved the idyllic college setting and the just kiss already romance, the friends/secondary characters were great, and they had me craving a really good bagel (cookie dough cream cheese?! 🤯). Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for early access.

There was the obvious plot hiccup at the start of the book when Andie got to Blue Ridge State to surprise her boyfriend and he no longer lived there, but I knew at that moment that this wasn’t going to be a book where Andie and her childhood boyfriend went through college together. Andie’s life was on a different trajectory of self-discovery, and the more I found out about her boyfriend the less I liked him for her. Since her mom died, Andie is determined to fix things. She is generous in her heart and with her time, to the detriment of her own wants and needs. Her roommate needs to determine a major and Andie is there to help! Here RA is addicted to very strong coffee and Andie is going to help him cut back. She is fixing all of the problems around her but pretty much ignores her own. As a reader I was both admiring of her need to help and cringing that she wasn’t looking after herself. Luckily her group of friends is there to help her out!

I really liked Milo- as her budding love interest but also because he was a contradictory character. He was a grump who drank too much coffee and didn’t get much sleep, but he always seemed to be there to give sage advice. Their friendship was slow moving until it finally changed to something more. If you like quick romances, this is not the book for you. This was definitely a slow burn romance. They both had a lot of personal angst to work through before they could be there for each other. I kind of liked that though! You really got to know each character and care about where their story arc was moving, allowing the reader to totally buy in to the change in direction.

Begin Again was a sweet, slow moving, coming of age (yet in college) young adult novel. For those of you who want to know the heat level in the romance, this was definitely on the tepid side. It really was more a self-discovery novel with a side of romance. I enjoyed the pace and all of the diverse characters. If you’re in the mood for a slow moving story that is heavy on the sweet, this might be the book for you!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Begin Again by Emma Lord
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When Andie transfers to the college her mom went to years before she died, she has a plan to make everything perfect. She'll be with her boyfriend again (hopefully to fix their strained relationship since he started there a term before her), she'll figure out how to be part of the secret radio station her mom started, and will be on track to becoming a self-help icon. But then everything goes awry and she has to figure out who she is and what she'd going to do now that her plan has failed. Thankfully, she has her roomie and her grumpy, sarcastic RA Milo to help her a bit by challenging her beliefs.

This is a story all about self-discovery, family issues and found family, finding your place in the world, college pirate radio, and "Just Kiss Already" romance. I was already a fan of @dilemmalord books and this one did not disappoint!

Thank you to @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for the ARC! The book is released a week from tomorrow on Jan 24/23 and you should definitely check it out!

#BeginAgain #EmmaLord #YABooks #AmReading #ARC #NetGalley #College #Romance #BookReview #BookRelease #NewBook

ID: black eReader with book cover on it, leaning against a grey backpack

Emma Lords books always feel like a hug, and Begin Again is no different. Begin Again follows Andie on her journey at a new school, a school she transfers to in order to surprise her boyfriend Connor. Little does she know, Connor transferred back home to be with her. Although inconvenient, Andie takes this time to make a name for herself, follow in the footsteps of her late moms legacy, and form amazing friendships that turned into another family. Andie has felt alone for a long time, always being the helper and never tending to her own wounds. With a little help from her friends (and an adorable RA), Andie realizes she’s much more than her mothers daughter. She is independent, she is brave, she is kind. She is someone her mom would be very proud of. A book filled with finding yourself, finding your tribe, chickens named Samantha, cheesy garlic bagels with strawberry cream cheese, friends to lovers trope, and so much more. It is guaranteed to make you smile! Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Andie has it all planned out. She planned on transferring from a community college to Blue Ridge State for a few reasons. One was that her boyfriend was studying there. Another is that this is the college that her parents went to so it meant a lot to her to go to Blue Ridge. 

I love the way Andie fits right in with her new roommate Shay. Shay is a bookstagrammer who doesn’t have a major yet. I got way too excited to hear how much she loves books. 
She has questions for the RA in the building, Milo. Milo becomes a big part of the story. He has a snarky attitude and I love it. He gave me Luke from Gilmore Girls vibes many times. 

I did enjoy Andie’s journey of trying to fit in with a new school, making new friends, and making her own path with the radio station. 

My only downfall is that I felt it went on for a bit too long. There were times when I struggled a bit because not much was happening. 

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is my first time reading Emma Lord, and I became engrossed in the book, so it definitely won’t be my last. I’m well past the New Adult stage in my own life, but have several kids in this age group and have always enjoyed reading Young Adult/New Adult fiction. The characters are well written and fleshed out so that you see glimpses of yourself in the main characters. Andie’s and Milo’s stories have difficulties as part of them, but they seem relatable, even to one past their stage in life. I haven’t done any research to see if there will be other stories set in this same setting, but it would be easy to see Lord using the same college and maybe even some of the same characters in future books. This was a quick read - in part because I really didn’t want to put it down!

Emma Lord has become one of my go-to YA authors. Her books are sweet but not saccharine, they’re romances but not *just* romances, and they focus on characters whose struggles are authentic and require some real growth.

I should say that I still—somehow—haven’t read Tweet Cute, but I’ve adored each of her other books, including this newest one, Begin Again.

Andie Rose has clawed her way into a mid-year transfer to Blue Ridge State, her dream school, the college where her parents met . . . and her boyfriend Connor’s school. In a moment of misplaced romance, she decides to make her transfer a surprise. And then she discovers, in a sort of Gift of the Magi twist, that her boyfriend has also made a surprise transfer to Andie’s much-less-prestigious college. Cue chaos and angst.

Despite the less-than-fortuitous start, Andie decides that her boyfriend can just transfer back after this current semester, and she resolves to make the best of the situation, as she often does. She and her new roommate, Shay, hit it off, and though she faces some academic challenges, she’s ready to dive into the traditions that her parents and, particularly, her deceased mom told her about.

I’m going to pause here to say that I absolutely loved this book. Lord captures Andie’s college experience so well, the promise and peril of seeking a promised fresh start when you know that you’re still just the same person you’ve always been. Andie is an amazing character who is strong and inspiring and always willing to help her friends, yet she’s simultaneously fragile and all too willing to avoid conflict, even if it means sacrificing something that means a lot to her.

The development of Andie’s formative relationships is clearly a huge part of Andie’s identity. Lord shows us the grandmas who dropped everything to raise her after her mom’s death, the father who became distant in his grief, Connor who has been her friend since childhood and whose family became a second sort of family for her, and of course the mother she lost who has become such an inspiration—and someone to live up to—for her. Yet Lord balances the ways that her new relationships help to shape who she’s becoming. Those include Shay but also Milo, the RA who quickly becomes a source of support, and Valentina, who starts as her much-needed math tutor but quickly becomes another friend.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of this book. There’s so much here that it’s tough to cover it all in a review, but it doesn’t ever feel like there’s too much going on. Instead, Andie’s story feels like the real story of a college freshman who is both building a new life for herself and still working to figure out the life she has.

I read this one in as close to one sitting as I could because I just had to know what would happen next. I can’t recommend Emma Lord’s Begin Again enough.

This was a really sweet and cute YA read about. College and finding one’s way. I loved how the friendships and found family were developed and portrayed. Also, the hijinks from the friend group and secret societies were a lovely added bonus (and the cute non-swears used by the MC had me giggling often)

Cue the music, fellow Swifties. Begin Again is everything I thought it would be from the synopsis: the fun antics, anxiety-inducing identity crisis, and epic love affairs that can start and end within a school term.

Andie Rose was immediately a protagonist I recognized in myself. Having been abandoned by her father after the death of her mother (okay, that part I don’t relate to), Andie struggled with boundaries and pleasing those around her. While love should’ve been unconditional, it was hard to feel anything but the need to fix everything for those around her to earn the love and belonging she longed for. Boundary issues? Yep, got those in spades and I felt a little called out by Andie’s extreme antics.

Balancing Andie’s fix-it attitude are the plethora of fun secondary characters. I immediately fell in love with her two grandmas that came to live with her after her dad left. Grandma Maeve, the sassy and foul mouthed one, and Gammy Nell, the old fashioned and sweet one. They were polar opposites but loved Andie unconditionally. Every time they were on the page I couldn’t help but smile. Petition to have their own spinoff novella, anyone?

Andie’s roommate Shay and her tutor Valeria also weren’t your two-dimensional sidekick characters. I loved that Shay’s a bookstagrammer. #Relatable. And Valeria was a budding novelist who struggled to show her personal work to others. While these attributes could’ve defined them, I liked that Emma only used these elements as aspects of who they are and not relegating them to this sole interest as their whole personality.

But of course, this book isn’t without its romantic escapades. Enter Milo, a constantly sleep deprived, coffee-addicted RA. Their interactions were platonic (for far too long in this book, in my opinion) as Andie had a long distance boyfriend, but you can FEEL the romantic tension between them through the pages. That’s the mark of excellent writing, if you ask me. I loved how they built a solid friendship foundation but allowed room for it to become romantic if given the chance.

There were several messages and themes of the book, but it largely focused on Andie’s almost impulsive need to hunt as many ribbons possible to feel closer to her mom who created the pirate radio show and associated ribbon events when she went to school here. Trying to figure out how to live up to her mom’s huge legacy left no room for anything else, especially studies. Also, what is self-esteem if everything you do is not as great in relation to said legacy?

Identity is a big thing, not only for Andie but also her friends. I mean, college is the time to really figure yourself out and see who you are outside of your family and hometown. Not to say they aren’t factors in making us who we are, but it helps to be away from it a little to make such personal decisions. I feel this setting and the way Emma told Andie’s story was done superbly for this theme. It was a little slow, however, in places, but once I powered through those slow bits in the middle, the last 25% were well worth reaching.

Overall Recommendation:

As college stories go with a coming-of-age trope, Begin Again made itself unique with its fun, personable characters that feel like your friends and an intriguing ribbon hunt organized for freshmans in their second term only. It made me reminiscent of my own college days (though with not quite so much drama). I thought the themes and message were great, but the pacing sometimes was a little slow to the point it became a struggle to push to the end. Otherwise, a solid book by Emma Lord although not what I consider her finest.

When Andie Rose transfers to her parents’ alma mater midyear during her first year of college, she expects everything to go according to plan. She’ll be there with her boyfriend. They’ll work together to get into the same club that her mother belonged to in college. Life will follow her step-by-step outline.

But it turns out her boyfriend has transferred to the community college back home. And now Andie goes into fix-it mode—not just for him but for those around her, too. Like for Milo, her always exhausted R.A.: Andie’s sure she can fix his caffeine addiction (among other things). And her roommate, Shay, who is undeclared? No problem—Andie can help nail down that major. And maybe she’ll go ahead and give anonymous advice to some other members of the student body? Why not? She did it in high school, too.

What happens when you spend so much time focusing on others' wants and needs instead of taking care of yourself? What happens when your plans get derailed?

This is a sweet college level coming-of-age story. We see relationships repaired, a reframing of the past, what happens when someone finds their confidence again, and the process of redefining oneself and one’s goals.

Lord does a fantastic job capturing those fierce bonds that form when college students spend—what seems like—all their time together. She captures how overwhelming the entire college experience can be, how easy it is to lose your feet in all of that change and all of that pressure, and how important it is to find, forge, and lean on connections along the way.

She also carefully handles how people are impacted by and deal with grief longterm.

And on top of all the character growth, emotional journeys, and coming into one’s own, Lord gifts us with a charming insider’s view into two new friends falling in love. Sometimes what you really need is not what you had planned.

I received an advance copy from Wednesday Books, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

I felt this one was a bit all over the place and a bit unbelievable. One of those books where the main problem (and plot line) could have been fixed with a phone call

This is my second book from Emma Lord and I was so excited to be approved for this eARC. I was not disappointed! I loved this book.

Emma Lord writes genuine and realistic life situations with all the feelings! I loved the cast of characters, the flow and writing and appreciated this beautiful book after long days at work! The author has a way of bringing gentle light to real issues. Loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

Solid 4-⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Wow, I should have read this the moment I was given the ARC, because it is exactly what my heart needed!

Andie transferred to Blue Ridge for winter semester during her freshman year to surprise her boyfriend and live out the legacy her parents left behind there years ago (especially her mom, who died years before). Andie does not expect that boyfriend Connor actually transferred to her community college to be with her, so now they're apart again, but Andie isn't giving this up. She is determined to make friends and submerge herself in the school culture that her mom helped to build years, boyfriend or not.

I don't want to give more away, but I will say that all of the characters are extremely lovable. There are some conflicting ones thrown in, but the lovable ones outweigh them many times over. Andie is the FMC you want to cheer for and be friends with, because she's fun but also open to growth. Absolutely loved.

CW: mentions death of parent/cancer/car accident

This was only my second book by Emma Lord — I still have TWEET CUTE and YOU HAVE A MATCH on my TBR! Out of the two I’ve read, I definitely liked WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE more; however, this one was a cute, quick read!

👱‍♀️ Andie is a perfectionist who likes to fix people’s problems & always wants to be in control
📚 I loved Andie’s roomie (she’s a bookstagrammer)!
🧑🏻 Milo the RA 🫶
🧡 lots of family dynamics (CW: loss of a parent)
📝 I love a good college campus setting!

This one has all the makings of a swoony YA, I just never found myself super invested in the story. Andie and her boyfriend both surprise each other by transferring to each other’s school so they can be together, which results in them still being on opposite campuses. This just seemed too unrealistic 😂 I loved some of the characters and really enjoyed the mysterious college radio station element.

I liked this one, it just left me wanting a little more!

This was my first Emma Lord book, and my first YA book in a long time. I loved reading about Andie’s transfer experience at her dream school, as well as the behind the scenes life of the secret Knight society. The element of found family and reconciling her strained relationship with her dad were extremely heartwarming to read. The audiobook was also well performed by a new-to-me narrator, Georgina Sadler.

Unfortunately, several elements of this story really bugged me. First, the miscommunication between Andie and Connor that started the whole situation was really unbelievable – why wouldn’t you tell your boyfriend/lifelong best friend you were transferring schools? That’s a really big deal. Second, I know it’s part of her “charm” but being the perpetual “fixer” of the group while not taking stock of her own grief and relationship challenges made me want to scream at her to go to therapy. I really liked Milo, but I didn’t really feel any of their chemistry until they were somehow miraculously kissing at the end of the book.

While this one wasn’t for me, I think it reads like a teen rom-com movie I might watch on Netflix with my teenager. Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books (St. Martin’s Press) for the ARC, and Macmillan Audio/Macmillan Young Listeners for the ALC. All opinions are my own.

This book was so cute! I love everything Emma Lord writes, but I think this is my favourite of hers so far. The characters were relatable, the romance was adorable, the friendships were great, and the side characters were amazing! I love how the side characters loved books (relatable), and I also really enjoyed the plot. It was fast-paced, and a super enjoyable read over all! Another win from Emma Lord by far.

Emma Lord is the queen of sweet YA books that appeal to adults as well. Her books are always sickly cute, heartfelt, and well written. The storylines are always innocent and cutesy, but I always think they are a breath of fresh air. After Tweet Cute, Emma Lord can really do no wrong in my opinion and if you want a comfort book hers will always be a go-to.

I would rate a 3.5 only because SOMETIMES the cuteness can be a bit corny for me (a cynic) 😛