Emma Lord never disappoints. I really enjoyed this story and fell in love with the characters within the first few chapters. The themes of loss, belonging and found family were perfect for the setting of a young person's journey leaving home for University. I would put this up there as one of my favorites by Lord!

Great feel-good romance. Andie and her boyfriend Connor have a misunderstanding which puts them at separate colleges. With the help of her roommate Shay and her RA Milo, Andie finds herself at the pirate radio station founded by her now-deceased mother who Andie idolized and discovers who and what truly make her happy. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Family legacies, forever friends, making light when things go wrong. This book had everything from college vibes - including secret societies, scary professors, and making new friends - first loves, and family betrayals. Everything screamed growing up and letting go of childhood ideals, done in a way that feels like an adventure of bagels and coffee, ribbons galore, and an epic dance party in the quad.

I wish I would've read this when I was first starting college. Andie is the perfect role model of the kind of attitude you should have when starting at a new school, meeting new people, and fulfilling your dreams while also helping others make theirs come true too. With Andie's positive and peppy personality, her lifelong goal of following in her mother's footsteps comes with a lot of well-thought-out plans that go completely wrong. It's a tale of figuring your way through paths unseen, and with the right people and honest conversations, you could find yourself somewhere much better than you ever expected.

There's so much to love in this college rom-com. The relationships, both platonic and romantic, display true loyalty and authentic affection. Familial relationships are also difficult and full of grief but with room for healing. The aspect of a secret podcast host pushing activism for a community where the institution is failing them is grounding and inspiring. The journey that Andie and her friends go on is funny, hopeful, and refreshing. Spewing individualism, living up to your own expectations, and starting over even when it's hard, this book will resonate with everyone who has been to college or has felt daunted by big life changes.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of Begin Again by Emma Lord. This is the third book I have read by this author and she is an author I enjoy. In this book, Andie, one of the main characters must face some difficult truths about the people she knows and about her history. These truths set her free from the guilt and anger she didn’t necessarily know she had. The ability Emma has to start over, to meet new people, is one she needed and the author does a fabulous job showing all of the characters’, especially Andie and Milo’s vulnerabilities. There is no question that parts of the book were predictable but it didn’t take away from the story at all.

#EmmaLord #BeginAgain #Romance #YA #Fiction #ContemporaryFiction #Truth #Lies #StartingOver #FollowingYourDreams #CreatingNewDreams

This was another great book by Emma Lord. I was so excited to read this and it did not disappoint. Andie Rose has a plan and the first step which is transferring mid freshman year from her community college to Blue Ridge State is successful but the moment she arrives the rest of her plans go to the wayside. Her boyfriend Conor transfers back to community college to be with her not knowing she wasn’t going to be there and since she kept it a secret that she was transferring in case it didn’t go through, her roommate Shay needs help figuring out her major and her RA Milo is disrupting all her ideas about love and relationships. This was a really great story and a fast read. I loved how much Andie figures out about herself and her mom who is the reason she wants to go to Blue Ridge and that she needs to branch out from her comfort zone and challenge herself and the ideas she has about her life. That change is good and that she needs to forgive her dad for abandoning her with her grandmothers after her mom died and she needs to let herself breathe and just enjoy the experience for herself not for anyone else. Just really great read and I loved Shay and her friendship with Andie, Valeria who is Andies Math tutor but ends up being her friend as well and Milo and his family who were all great. Andie was so afraid she wouldn’t have any friends when she goes to Blue Ridge but she made her whole dorm floor friends where before she got there nobody was really very sociable together.
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Harper Voyager and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

This was my first Emma Lord novel, and it did not disappoint. It was cute, it had depth, and the characters were unique and well-rounded. Solid 4 star YA Contemporary novel.

Told in 1st person, I loved that Andie was a freshman transfer. It's uncommon (especially at this school where apparently she's the only ever freshman transfer?), but since this was my college story too, I was so happy to see it. And it was done really well. I wasn't as outgoing and commanding as Andie was, but being a transfer midyear is hard, and Emma Lord captured the struggles really well. The ribbon cash was so cute, and I loved it as a plot. I loved how real the YA characters felt.

Andie was a little annoying with her "I fix things!" schtick. It was harped on in that YA way where you know what's going to happen, but you also really don't care that you know what's going to happen. Shay was a great side character, and I'm only a little jealous that a fictional character got a better roomie than I did. Milo was precious, but I didn't understand the whole "I can't like you because I'm your RA" thing. First, there would've been more than one RA in the building. Secondly, I've never been an RA, but is that a real rule???? Connor is a jerk, and I'm happy he didn't get a redemption arc. I'm also happy Andie didn't take him back/try to befriend him/attempt to rationalize that sometimes people use people, even those close to us, and sometimes people drift apart. I was happy she woke up to how he'd used her and how that wasn't the love she thought.

Irritants: like I said, her "I fix things!" schtick even when she's just stinking met someone. Also, her not-cussing cussing. It was just... yeah.

I LOVED that this is solidly YA even though it takes place in college and that it was clean. YA can take place in college. And YA can be clean. And still be a great story. (And now I'm spending the rest of my day pondering if NA is just smutty YA set in college... It's not. Well, it's not fully that, but now I'm ponding it.)

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! I really thought I was going to get rejected for this ARC, but I was so excited to be able to read it!

Even though this is the lowest I've rated a book by Lord, I still consider her an auto-read author. But this didn't quite reach the usual levels of charming that I've come to expect. And mostly, and I'm bummed to say it, that's because of the main character, Andie.

Strike one : her way of non-swearing by instead using cutesy dessert names. Nope. Strike two : her over-fixating on everyone's problems but her own. Strike three : the romantic drama that any hints at would mean revealing some spoilers.

While I liked the supporting cast, barring the one we aren't supposed to like, I wish they had been fleshed out a bit more. So much time was spent on various elements like the advice plotline, the ribbon plotline, the parental issue plotline, and then all the love interest backstory drama plotline.

Maybe I'm just in a mood and maybe I would've liked this more had I read it another time but the whole thing just tried too hard to feel rosy and charming and sweet without authentically being that way. And I'm used to feeling that authenticity from this author so I'm bummed. But that's okay. There was enough for this to be still somewhat enjoyable but it did take me way too long to push through during those draggy bits.

Despite all this, I will continue to pick up and read Lord. While I'm sad this wasn't a win the odds are definitely in her favour (and mine!) for future releases.

2.5 stars

I mean who doesn't love a start over story. This read was super cute and Emma knocked it out of the park.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC of this book. This book was a perfect story of discovering yourself in the midst of all the crazy that adulthood brings. Andie transfers to the college of her dream only to find he transferred out to her community college. Now navigating this unfamiliar, yet so familiar world, she struggles with this nagging desire to fix everything for others while putting her needs on the back burner. As the book progresses, she finds herself and learns to put herself first. This book had so many things I personally related to, a psychology major, a bookstagramer, and a resident assistant, which made it all the better.

This was such a lovely book about family, loss and finding yourself. The writing was so lovely and I really loved all the relationships in this book.

Thank you Wednesday Books for the eARC!

3.5 Stars

This was a cute college campus story - I loved the dorm setting, the found family, and because this is an Emma Lord novel - the random food descriptions. Lord's books aways have so much heart and this one was no exception. I appreciated Andie's character growth, the relationship that developed with her father, and Milo... oh Milo, was a cutie! Unfortunately I probably connected the least with this novel of all of Emma Lord's novels. For me it was probably a 3.5 (it pains me to give her less than a 4!!). I may have even rounded down to 3, but 1) I just couldn't bring myself to do it and 2) I do think this is one of those instances where as an adult reader, I may have just not been in the mood for a YA story and that's not the book's fault! I think my hangups were around the relationship with the boyfriend back home that felt a little drawn out (and the far-fetched lack of communication that led to them being at different colleges) and the entire concept of the ribbon collecting just never really clicked with me for whatever reason... I think I needed a bit more structure around that.

Charming YA rom-com that will having laughing and crying. It is feel good book and a quick read. Likeable characters, great swear words, and interesting bagel choices make it a delightful read.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC.

Overall a cute, chick-lit, romance, college-era read. Fans of Emma Lord will enjoy this.
(+) cute and sweet and a little corny, but not in a way that makes you want to give up reading this book
(+) found family! Milo, Val and Shay are the friends everyone hopes to make in college
(-) the broadcasting piece/radio rebel plot fell a little meh? it was teetering on the edge of a little pointless in the general plot. felt like it should have landed a stronger punch.
(-) didn't love andie as a main character, but overall she wasn't terrible.
(-) felt a little Disney-ish in the way topics were handled.

Super cute story about a girl with her whole life planned out and what happens when it doesn't look like it's going to go the way she planned.

I loved Andie. She was such a good friend, to her own detriment at times. I loved her drive to go to the school, how she started with TastyKakes and a fun game, and how hard she worked for those ribbons. I thought the Knight program and the ribbons were a fun part to the story and I love how it tied the group together. Val and Shay were such a fun part of the story and I appreciated how realistic and flawed they were. Milo was adorable and I loved and appreciated his love for strong coffee. Connor was exactlly who we needed him to be and I appreciate his addition.

I think it's good to read stories to remind us that plans can go awry and everything still work out. This had so many cute moments between the reminder to not neglect yourself in the midst of helping others. Also the push that family (or the family you choose) is important, even when they mess up (or you do) and apologies all around are good when they happen. It was just the read I needed today, adorable and well rounded.

This was the perfectly comforting, emotionally-grounded but still light romance I've come to expect from Emma Lord. Left me with a huge smile on my face, but still hit some super strong emotional beats throughout. One thing I would've liked was to be introduced a little more explicitly to some of the secondary characters earlier on in the story, particularly Milo's siblings. It felt like we were supposed to already be familiar with them by the time they appeared on the page, when they hadn't really been established yet. Overall this was a really small thing though, I still really loved the book and will definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a super cute romance with some emotional heft!

Emma Lord has become one of my favorite authors and I will always pick up a book by her without even reading the synopsis. Begin again was a really cute book with interesting characters and I thought the story was really sweet. It was a little slow for me though and kind of drawn out. I think it could have been a bit shorter and I would’ve enjoyed it more. All in all it was cute, but it took me a while to get through it.

Emma Lord’s Begin Again is the perfect school-year read. It perfectly captures the experience of being a college freshman, feeling lost, and trying to find yourself and who you want to be. Andie experiences many things that I could relate to in a fun and easy to read way. The humor of her grandmothers (with their baked goods swear words), and the lovable Milo and his coffee addiction kept me hooked from the very beginning. I couldn’t wait to get more time to read and I was exceptionally sad when it was over. Lord’s writing is witty, sincere, and distinctive. I believed in the characters and wanted to see them succeed. They were so well-written and felt like actual people. Although the book gives a solid ending that ties up lose ends, I was left wondering what happened to the characters after the final scene—as if they were real people out in the world living. Those are the best kinds of books. This is the perfect read for anyone who is about to or has experienced college. Fans of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl will also enjoy it, as I found a lot of similarities between Cath and Andie. I highly recommend this book. If I taught high school, I would absolutely teach these novel.

loved the premise of this story. Andie goes to the same college where her parents met and fell in love. Blue Ridge State had an underground radio station where The Knight does their broadcasts.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Andie’s late mom was a part of this, and now she’s doing everything she can to be a part of it as well!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The friendships are what stood out to me the most in this book. They were so prevalent and in the forefront of everything that was happening. It’s not something you see all the time, and it was fantastic.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Andie, Milo, Shay, and Val were the perfect group. I would honestly love to see more of them!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Begin Again.

Emma Lord has done it again! She is quickly moving into a tie with Morgan Matson for my favorite contemporary romance with substance writer. Despite my anticipation of nearly every plot point (probably because of my age and familiarity with this type of book), I still couldn't put this one down. I would love to live in this town!

Though I did feel like the relationship felt a little rebound-esque, I still loved it. My Emma Lord fans (of which there are many) will be in line for a copy when the library gets it in!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a super cute YA book about young college students as they transition away from home and high school relationships. It's an easy book to get lost in, my only complaint is that it was a little wordy/over written at times. Regardless, I totally recommend it and can't wait to read what Emma Lord writes next!