Begin Again introduces Andie Rose, who hopes to study psychology at Blue Ridge State, where her deceased mother pioneered the college's pirate radio station. When she is rejected, she enrolls at Little Fells Community College, while Connor, her boyfriend, goes to Blue Ridge. In a comedy of errors, she gets the opportunity to transfer, only to learn that Connor transferred to Little Fells so they could be together. As they struggle to maintain a long-distance relationship, Andie finds herself blossoming when she gets the chance to headline the radio's anonymous advice program. As she navigates her problems, including a difficult statistics class and a demoralizing emotional mishap, she finds herself seeking out her surly RA, Milo Flynn, who always seems to appear when she needs help. Although the romantic triangle is a familiar trope, the humor and sympathetic heroine make this a satisfying read.

Emma Lord, you cutesy romance genius! I had so much fun reading this one and just loved Andie and Milo. This is a slow, slooooow burn that was honestly worth it in the end. I usually get a little impatient, but I am so glad that we got to see Andie and Milo trust each other, their little friend group form, and to see both of their backstories and baggage unfold in the midst of it all without distracting from their storyline together. Did Andie's boyfriend from the beginning stick around entirely too long? Yes, but it was nice (and relatable, honestly) to see her second guess and learn and grow from the relationship and breakup. It's cheesy in a Disney Channel Original Movie / early Taylor Swift kind of way, which is to say: cozy, comfortable cheese that you seek out when you need a warm, slightly nostalgic hug.
3.5 rounded up to 4!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC!

BEGIN AGAIN - EMMA LORD
3.75⭐

PLOT - Andie Rose transfers to Blue Ridge State mid sem to major in psychology and ultimately become a self help icon. But as she arrives her plans go off the rails...her relationship with her BF instead of improving becomes even complicated, her roomate Shay needs her help and she being a fixed does just that.
She anonymously with the help of her RA Milo uses her self help abilities to help her listener's at her unis local radio station her mom founded before she passed away.
But Andie is soon gonna find out that her plans may not be the right ones.

MU THOUGHTS-
I enjoyed this book in bits and parts..
The college life the radio show part was fun to read.
Andies roomate Shay is a bookstagrammer and how Andie helps Shay to figure what she really wants yet fulfilling her passion.was fun to read.
The friendship between Andie and Milo was cute.
I didn't enjoy Andie using desserts as swear words initial ones were nice then felt very odd.
The talk about bagel was at times overdone.
Pacing of the book at a lot of places felt off and abrupt.
In all a cute one time read.

- 3.75 Stars -
This book was cute! It was definitely a YA book and I really enjoyed reading something so quick and lighthearted. It was what I needed for this busy season of my life! I had seen a lot of mixed reviews for this specific book and honestly, I don’t think it was as bad as everyone had been saying that it was.

While the book was cute, that doesn’t mean that it was without its faults. Our main character Andie just seemed to be a little bit too immature for my liking, but the way she acts was on trend with Emma Lords' other main characters, so I wasn’t too concerned about it. Andie definitely had some redeeming maturity levels throughout the book, so that was nice to see. Although, the replacement swears Andie uses throughout the book just made me want to shrivel up and die inside. Like, just say “crap” instead of “cinnamon toast crunch” you know?

I think something that irked me throughout the book was the pacing. I found that it made the friendships seem a little weird because while the book was set over three months, the pacing of the storyline didn’t feel that way. It had me a little confused at certain points until I got my bearings.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed reading this book! It was cute, discussed some tougher but still YA appropriate topics, and made me smile throughout! If you go into this book with the mindset that it's a YA novel, I think you’ll enjoy it! If you go into it with the expectations of an adult book, it will not reach that expectation and you’ll be disappointed.

⚠️TW: death of parent, toxic relationship, grief, infidelity, cursing, gaslighting, cancer, abandonment

Thank you @macmillan.audio , @stmartinspress and @netgalley for this advance copy in exchange for my honest review! All of the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

3.5 - This book was very fun, however, the entire time I was reading it, it felt like it was missing something. I love Emma Lord so I really wish I enjoyed this book more. Despite, my low rating of this book I will keep reading her books, one book isn't able to turn me off from this author that I love so much. I hope all the Emma Lord fans love this book because it is very fun however, I don't think it was for me.

Summary: Andie is a girl who lives to solve problems. She loves to help her friends find solutions and even writes an advice column for her high school newspaper.

When Andie transfers colleges to be near her long term boyfriend, only to learn he has done the reverse to be closer to her, Andie and all her grand plans come crashing down around her. And then there is Milo, the cute, curly haired RA with the sea foam green eyes, who leaves Andie questioning everything.

Thoughts: This is my first book by Emma Lord and I really liked it. If you know me, you know one of my favorite romance tropes is forbidden love. I liked how this book incorporates it in a very realistic way, and doesn’t allow it to overshadow the other themes presented. I would have liked a bit more of the romance, but I understand that it was a subplot and not the main story.

I enjoyed Andie’s journey of self discovery and growth from the start of the school year to the end. One of my favorite aspects of university settings is to see the found family trope play out. I loved seeing Andie develop such a diverse group of friends (with some amazing representation).

Read if you like:
•friends to lovers
•journeys of self discovery
•found friendships
•closed door romance
•forbidden love (minimal)
•college setting

Thank you to Wednesday Books, Macmillan audio and NetGalley for the ARC and ALC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Ahhh!! I always have such a fun time reading Emma Lord's books. This was so fun, so well written. I can't wait to see what comes next from her, because she always hits the mark. Amazing!

What do I say that hasn't been said about Emma Lord before? In typical fashion, Emma has a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The uniqueness of YA for a freshman in college sat really well with me too.
Andie is thrilled to transfer mid-year to the college of her dreams. It's her parents' alma mater and where her high school boyfriend attends. Things have been a little shaky with him and their reunion is going to be perfect. But secrets have a way of blowing up in one's face and Andie's excitement is quickly dulled by her boyfriend's news and how difficult it appears to be to fit in.
Between the setting and full cast of characters, this is a book I'll remember with fondness. The love-triangle-that-wasn't dragged too long for me, but otherwise, I'm well satisfied and eager to keep reading Emma in the future. My favorite thing throughout was Andie's version of cursing, which - without fail - put a smile on my face.
Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.

Emma Lord is one of the only YA authors whose books releases I still actively track, so I was definitely excited when I saw that she was writing an YA that focused on college kids for the first time instead of high schoolers! Add to that the fact that the book's title is a Taylor Swift song, and this book quickly became a most anticipated book of 2023! I'm happy to report that it exceeded all of my expectations and is officially my favorite book by the author!

I like to say Emma Lord is the Emily Henry of YA contemporary because I feel like not only do they have relatively similar writing styles but they also write books that at their core are more focused on the main character of the story and their personal journeys through something they might be going through, like that family drama, or maybe just learning who they are and want to be. Yes, Lord's books, just like Henry's, have the romantic aspect of it but in neither of these author's stories I have ever felt like that was the main focus. What I love about Emma Lord's stories and what makes me come back to her books year after year is her ability to create a perfect balance between those plot points as well as make me care about these characters she created and what they might be going through. not just the main characters of these stories but also the side characters who she manages to make just as real and vivid and full of personality as the main ones.

I loved everything about Begin Again, from the characters to the adorable romance between Andie and Milo as well as the amazing friendships Andie makes with Valeria and Shay along the way! I loved Andie's journey of self-discovery as well as her growth throughout the story. her rocky relationship with her dad was also interesting to read about!

Emma Lord knocks it out of the park again! She is, hands down, my favorite YA author and BEGIN AGAIN might be my favorite book of her's yet? I love the warm, inviting, and funny universes she creates; she makes you want to crawl into the book and hang out with these lovable characters. Plus, no one writes about treats and snacks like Emma does! Lets just say for this story in particular, you will marvel at the sweet (and I mean SWEET) bagel concoctions that are being whipped up at the local bagel shop that I would kill to visit!

A college campus is the perfect setting for this cute and sweet story about a girl named Andie who is finally able to transfer into her dream college during the January of her freshman year. She meets a fantastic and funny group of friends, has an adorable RA who may or may not have her eyes on her, and falls into a school tradition that she's been obsessed with since her late mother started it a few decades earlier. It's a touching story that starts off with a miscommunication between Andie and her boyfriend that had me legit gasp out loud. If you're a fan of Emma's work, reading this is a no-brainer. If not, this might be a good place to start! The perfect antidote to January blues.

Begin Again started off slow for me but I’m glad I stuck with it. I ended up really enjoying the characters and their story.

It was a little predictable but that doesn’t bother me much when I read. I loved watching Andie find herself in college. And I swooned over Milo from the beginning.

Make sure to check Begin Again if Coming to Age YA is your thing.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press —Wednesday for a copy of Begin Again in exchange for an honest review

Begin Again is a cute and endearing YA novel by Emma Lord. I enjoyed this heartfelt story quite a bit!

Andie Rose is a fixer and a people pleaser. She's always wanting to make sure those in her life have the best of everything and things are going right, sometimes at her own expense. She's finally gotten in mid-semester to Blue Ridge, which is the college she originally wanted to go to. She has her own issues with her father, dealing with the loss of her mother and like any college student, navigating classes and relationships.

When she gets to Blue Ridge, she ends up forming relationships with her roommate, Shay, her RA, Milo, and her tutor and they become quite the hodge podge of a group, but a supportive one nonetheless. They navigate all the normal pitfalls of college life, along with interpersonal relationships, both at school and at home. I loved how Milo and Andie got one another when it seemed no one else quite understood. They had such an amazing friendship.

I really enjoyed this cast of characters and how this whole story unfolded. I was so happy to read an Emma Lord book again and look forward to when I can read another in the future!

**I voluntarily read an early copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

Thank you so much @WednesdayBooks for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 24 January 2023)

SYNOPSIS | Andie transfers mid-semester to her first choice college (where both of her parents also attended), but she doesn't tell her boyfriend (Connor) who also goes there as she wants to surprise him. Except he has the exact same idea transferring out to her old college. Now Andie is at the school of her dreams, but it doesn't feel how she thought it would.

WHAT I LIKED:
- the cozy college setting was the perfect backdrop for this coming-of-age story
- the found family vibes of her college friendships
- the MCs roommate is a bookstagrammer

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- that the MC used "cute" foods as a substitute for swearing *eye roll*
- the pacing felt off throughout & I struggled to become invested in the drama
- the ribbon scavenger hunt had so much potential for us to learn the area, deepen relationships & further the story, but each event just fell flat & was quite repetitive
- another book where a radio show is mentioned but was actually very under-utilised in actually driving the story forward (it was mostly there as an obstacle for the MC to overcome)

I sit eating a bagel as I write out my review after reading about so many delicious bagels in the book.

This is a great YA read with a lovable cast of characters. I enjoyed seeing the sunshine that Andie, the main character, brings to campus as she undergoes her own transformation in understanding who she is. While I enjoyed the light youthful romance, I do wish Andie's previous relationship would have ended a sooner so her growing feelings for someone new didn't carry any cheating-adjacent vibes. There were also some predicable plot points, but that seems to be the case for YA and for romance novels.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who loves coming of age stories, slow burn romances, and college-set books.

Thank you to the publisher, I received a complimentary eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Begin Again by Emma Lord was truly fantastic. I absolutely loved and connected with Andie, our female protagonist as she goes through a time in her life where she must grow but no lose herself. I think this is a great book for everyone to read as it showcases the struggles that one must go through to find oneself. Although this was a slow burn romance, it did not disappoint. I enjoyed witnessing Milo and Andie's relationship and their meetings. This grumpy x sunshine relationship filled my heart with warmth and kept me wanting more. Also, did I mention the Taylor Swift references? Loved them!!

Overall, I absolutely love this novel and recommend it to anyone looking for a sweet book that takes you on a journey through the main character's personal development. I cannot wait to see what else Emma has in store for us, she can never disappoint!

Oh my freaking heck! I just finished the last 20% in public and that was such a bad idea because all of the beautiful storylines Emma Lord had been crafting all came together and I was left absolutely sobbing.

I first read Emma's debut Tweet Cute and loved every second of it but didn't realize that You've Got A Match and this one (haven't read When You Get the Chance yet but after having read oh so many top 12s of last year and seeing that one present I am feeling deep, deep FOMO that I need to redicate soon!!) would just make her depth and breadth oh so much wider.

This stunning novel allowed me to watch Andie all at once deal with her grief over her mother's passing, deal with her absent father, grow into herself AND fall in love... Does that sound like a lot? Yes., yes it does but Emma does a beautiful job of winding them all together.

Abnsolutely 1000% in awe and cannot wait for more of this beautifully gifted author, Ms Emma Lord!

I enjoyed this book but felt like it could have been “more.” It had a lot of the building blocks that could have made it wonderful (the university setting, the seasons, the school parties, etc.) but it was missing a bit of magic for me. Nevertheless, it was a fun, quick read with some good depth. Andie’s experience losing her mom, her tense relationship with her dad, and her complicated relationship with Connor all made this book less “fluffy” than it could have otherwise been. FYI it was squeaky clean - no more sexual activity than some very chaste kisses. Sex was barely hinted at and never mentioned (which honestly felt a little unrealistic for a bunch of 18-19 year olds).

Thank you to the publisher - I received a complimentary eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I flipped between the audiobook and ebook versions for this one and I have to say the audiobook narrator did a really wonderful job. The storyline overall was engaging and I thought Andie’s journey of finding her place in the world, putting herself first, and discovering her desired path was inspiring. Her friendships and found family at college was great and brought a lot to the story. The trivia nights and ribbon activities were cute along with the radio show aspects being fun to listen to throughout. I wanted a bit more of the budding romance but the parts we got were really sweet and mature later on in the story.

A few things that I didn’t love about this one… my biggest pet peeve in a YA/NA book is when the author puts in “cussing” but uses cutesy little words in place of it. Ugh, it seriously irks me and it really felt out of place in this one with the main characters being in college. The other thing that I didn’t love was that our main character, Andie, has never been single during her young adult life and, during that time, molded herself into the person she needed to be to fit in with Connor’s family or trying to live up to her mom’s legacy. I wish readers could have seen more independence from her earlier in the book while not tied to anyone else and really finding herself without any love interest overshadowing her journey. I did like Andie’s character and think we did get some of that discovery when she was with her girlfriends, but it would have been nice to see a little more of that. Overall, the audiobook helped make this is a pretty good NA read for me!

the character development in the story was well done. I really appreciated how Andie grew as a person and learned to not let others walk all over her. It was also fun to see Andie step into her calling as a radio advice-giver and gain confidence in her talent. Lastly, I enjoyed seeing the resolution of family issues between Andie and her father & between Milo and his brother. These aspects of the story were both uplifting and inspiring.

Unfortunately, what detracted from my enjoyment of the book was the heavy use of strong language in the last 25% of the book.

“Begin Again” is the first novel I’ve read by Emma Lord. Although I enjoyed it, there were some aspects that I had mixed feelings about…

“Begin Again” is a young adult contemporary romance about a college freshmen named Andie Rose. Andie is a people-pleaser who is known to put the needs of others above her own. She eagerly anticipates attending her parents’ alma mater (Blue Ridge State) and to participate in the famed “ribbon events” where student participate in activities to earn ribbons that eventually enable them to join various clubs on campus. Since her mother passed away, Blue Ridge State holds special sentimental value to Andie since she is walking in her mom’s footsteps.

On her first day Andie meets Milo, a grumpy R.A. whose coffee addiction, steady stream of sarcasm, and dismal view of life made for a hilarious time🤣 I really enjoyed the slow burn aspect of Andie and Milo’s relationship and thought they complemented each other well as a couple❤️

There were many aspects of this story that I enjoyed. First, the character development in the story was well done. I really appreciated how Andie grew as a person and learned to not let others walk all over her. It was also fun to see Andie step into her calling as a radio advice-giver and gain confidence in her talent. Lastly, I enjoyed seeing the resolution of family issues between Andie and her father & between Milo and his brother. These aspects of the story were both uplifting and inspiring.

Unfortunately, what detracted from my enjoyment of the book was the heavy use of strong language in the last 25% of the book. It particularly bothered me since this is a YA book. I was surprised that the language shifted so much at the end of the story since Andie’s character didn’t use profanity and instead substituted the names of her favorite foods in lieu of curse words (“salted caramel oreos!”)

Overall, this was a sweet story about a girl learning to become her own person and navigate the complications of college life. I just wish it hadn’t contained that language at the end😅

🚨TW: mentions of losing a parent & cheating

🚨CW: kissing only, mild & strong language.