Here We Go Again was a mixed bag for me. I was not sure that I was going to like it in the beginning but by the end I really did. There were some things that irked me but are more like, this annoys me personally, not something wrong with the book. So it’s me not the book. I did laugh and cry more than once reading it. Didn’t love it more than her first two books but still a four star read for me. I think people will love it.

Childhood friends turned enemies, Logan and Rosemary share a mentor, Joe, whose dying wish is to take a cross country road trip from Portland, Oregon to Bar Harbor, Maine. Unable to say no, the two embark on a road trip with Joe and his adorable 90 pound mutt in the “Gay Mobile”. The more Logan and Rosemary spend time together on what they call Joe’s “Death Trip,” the more they yearn for the relationship they once had as teenagers.

Mama Mia—I’m a sobbing mess. This is a touching story about how life is both beautiful and painful, and how there are people who are worth the hurt. Cochran is skilled in making a small, intimate moment wrap you like a burrito. The banter among Joe, Logan, and Rosemary is endearing and heartfelt. There are brilliant quips and sharp one liners that had me cracking up. There is also a lovable cancer dog who is the size of a large child that thinks he’s a lapdog.

I loved the rollercoaster of a journey this book took me on. At another time in my life, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get through the heavy topic of reading death of a loved one on the page. I recommend reading the author’s note at the beginning.

I highly recommend this book! Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Alison Cochrun once again delivers in a fun, heartfelt, queer rom com. This book is full of tropes I love; second chance romance, roadtrips, forced proximity, etc and I loved travelling across the country with this trio. While I loved both our main characters and the childhood best friends to enemies storyline, I think the real star of the show is Joe and his impact on the story. His illness and second chance at love really carried me through this novel. I especially loved the references to 1980's NYC, drag, and the aids crisis. I think it's so important to show queer characters getting the soft happy endings they deserve, I will be picturing Logan and Rosemary in their cottage by the sea for a long time.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

What an absolute delight it was to read an ARC of Here We Go Again! Before reading this, I was already a huge fan of Alison Cochrun's work, as The Charm Offensive is one of my favorite romance books, and not only was Here We Go Again a massive success, it might just be my new favorite romance book of all time. Needless to say, if I could give this more than five stars, I would.

It was incredibly refreshing to read a romance book with two lesbian lead characters who are also neurodivergent, and I especially loved that both characters experienced their ADHD differently. Both Logan and Rosemary were well developed, believable, and absolutely lovable characters. I wish I could give them both the biggest hugs. Joe and Remy were also the stars of the show, and this story would not be the same without either of them. I really appreciated how much this book explored sexuality, queer history, grief, death, regret, and the importance of fighting for who you love and never letting go. I laughed, I wept, and I made sure to blast the Mamma Mia soundtrack in the book's honor.

JOE!!!!😭😭😭💔❤️‍🩹PSA : don’t read any of the second half of this book in public😩 because you WILL get misty-eyed (if you’re not a book cryer) or you WILL sob (if you’re a book cryer)🥺😮‍💨

✨middle school besties to enemies to lovers
✨sapphic road trip romance!!
✨found family 🫶 a chosen father figure!
✨neurodivergent rep - anxiety + ADHD for example, but also addiction, abandonment issues
✨a drag kings and queens moment👑 that was to die for!!
✨a therapy dog 🐕‍🦺, long lost nude paintings, pop culture swearing (trust me you’ll notice it), and plenty of hilarious one-liners

It took me a whiiiile to get into BUT I think part of that was a me-problem and not a book-problem. I love Cochrun + will continue to read everything she ever publishes💛

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I should have realized based on the premise, but this was a much more emotional romance novel than your typical. It was such a beautiful examination of love and grief, and what things (and people) are truly important in life. If you're looking for a fluffy queer romance, this may not be for you, but the love story is also a sweet one.

***TRIGGER WARNING: Cancer***

I thought about DNFing this book 50 pages in and I should have. This book was not good. It was super predictable and not original at all. This book was dealing with such a serious topic and did not do a good job with being sensitive. This is one of the worst romance books I have read in a long time.

It’s 2am and I’m laying in a puddle of my own tears so this will not be my full review but by god this book was absolutely beautiful in every way. Like truly Alison’s words are just so so special and I’m honored to have been able to read this book early and I’ll definitely be crying about this one forever. I’m calling it right now, this is and will be my number 1 read of the year!

This is a sorta second chance, best friends to enemies to lovers, road trip, forced proximity, opposites attract, sapphic romance with neurodivergence rep. Rosemary was annoyingly Type A (and as the Type A-est of Type As, I can say that lol), while Logan was very laid back, a little too much IMO. I'm trying not to judge, but you don't know the name of the person you've been sleeping with regularly for FOUR MONTHS?!?! Although we do get why they both are like they are at about a third of the way through, this made it hard for me to care for either of them. The level of immaturity did not help either. But my favorite character remains Joe, their gay mentor. He brought a true sense of found family to the story, which was heavy on self-discovery and grief, and how different people deal with it (I cried for the better part of the last 20% of the book). Although I felt like it was dragging at times, this book leaves me with a heavy but warmed heart.
I received an advance review copy of this book for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster/Atria Books for sending me an eARC! I very much enjoyed Cochrun's previous two novels, and this one lived up to my expectations and then some.

From the very first line, I was cackling. This book grabs you right away with its earnest humor, but keeps you reading for the beautifully developed relationships. Logan and Rosemary's journey from childhood best friends to enemies to friends again then finally lovers was executed perfectly, especially through both women's struggles with mental health and grief. One criticism I have is that the POV switches quite rapidly between Logan and Rosemary, which made the pacing awkward at times.

Overall, this novel was a lovely adventure, and I greatly appreciate Cochrun for portraying healing as a non-linear and often painful process. Here We Go Again is achingly tender love letter to neurodivergent brains and all the queer kids whose English teachers became their found family.

Here We Go Again has wrecked me in the absolute best way. There are no words for how amazing this was

“This is love. Love is seeing perfection in every flaw. Seeing every flaw as a miracle because it belongs to the person you care about most.“

🗺️ Rosemary and Logan were childhood best friends, but after a falling out they do their best to avoid each other at all costs despite growing up to teach at the same school. All that rivalry has to take a backseat when their former teacher (and lifelong friend) asks for their help to fulfill his dying wish to travel across the county with both of them. Putting grudges aside, Rosemary and Logan venture out with a dying man and his dog for one last adventure - and maybe even find love along the way. 🗺️

Y’all know I am an Alison Cochrun stan, but when I say this book absolutely wrecked me in the best possible way I need you to understand how serious I am. For the last third of this beautiful little book I was literally sobbing so hard I could barely finish half a page at a time. It was painful and beautiful and hopeful and heartbreaking and just perfect.

At its core Here We Go Again is a story about there is beauty in loss and pain in love and just how powerful that is. It’s also really freakin’ funny and ridiculous and romantic as hell.

I genuinely can not remember the last time a book brought forth such visceral emotions from me - to the point where I literally reached out to one of my high school teachers to thank them for helping me through one of the darkest points of my life. It’s just that good.

This book comes out April 2nd, so get it preordered and grab a box of tissues. You’re gonna need them.

This fantastic sapphic road-trip romance has shades of Mrs. Nash’s Ashes; rather than delivering ashes to a former lover, the goal is for two colleagues and former friends to bring their beloved dying drama teacher Joe across country to the love of his life. Although they both try very hard to avoid one another at their alma mater–where they both teach with Joe–Fuckboy Logan’s true meet-cute reunion with ice-queen Rosemary is when she (accidentally!) runs into Rosemary’s car with her own in an Applebee’s parking lot in their hometown. Joe brings them together again to let them know the cancer he has been fighting has metastasized, and he’s actively dying, and he wants them to take him on an epic road trip before he goes.

Logan, whose nickname is Chicken, has always had wanderlust but never been much more than fifteen minutes from her hometown. Rosemary, a planner, has mapped out every detail of the trip and shows up at Logan’s with a white chocolate mocha bribe. The trip should only take a week, with stops in major cities with good hospitals–just in case–but the best laid plans of mice and men, yadda yadda yadda. Logan agrees, they take off a second-hand van emblazed with the logo of The Queer Cuddler, and have their first fight before they’ve even left the driveway.

Rosemary and Logan are truly opposites attract: Rosemary, sort of WASPy, passes as straight, while ethnic Logan is openly gay; Rosemary has matching luggage and Logan’s belongings are stuffed into a duffle bag; Rosemary brings dried fruit and nuts and La Croix for road snacks while Logan loaded up on Funyans. Joe? Joe’s bringing along his record player and vinyl, a box of books, and a Pendleton blanket. And his dog. And his list of detours. He charmingly milks his death trip to take all the side trips he wants to fit in, smoke all the weed he wants, and to press Rosemary into correcting Logan’s assumption that she is straight.

Lyrics from musicals, literary and dramatic allusions, and pop culture references abound. Logan’s (and her father’s) penchant for substituting names of actors and singers for expletives/using the name of the Lord in vain is a cute tic, but could get a little wearing for some readers. Logan’s Greek Orthodox background adds a layer, as does the scenic descriptions of the landscapes they pass through from the Pacific Northwest to Bar Harbor, Maine. There are many sweet moments, like when they assume they are going to be victims of a hate crime in Idaho, the sublime view of the Grand Canyon, and how much Rosemary and Logan want to make Joe happy. The slow journey across the US mirrors the two former friends slowly becoming vulnerable to each other again in a very beautiful, often humorous, deliciously paced, wholly real way.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #HereWeGoAgain from #NetGalley, courtesy of Atria Books.

Cochrun captures the heart and magic of her first novel, "The Charm Offensive", in this story about two former-best-friends-turned-enemies who are forced into a cross-country road trip with their beloved dying English teacher. Logan and Rosemary are wonderful leads, and, as always, Cochrun's characters are sensitively written and well-developed. The side characters are all very enjoyable, and Logan and Rosemary's journey back to each other is lovely. If you're looking for a swoony F/F romance, this is the book for you. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for a digital review copy.

Alison Cochrun does it again!!! Listen, give me a book with a Mamma Mia title & hook in the first few pages? I’m already sold. At first the high strung anxious Rosemary and forgetful “fuck boy energy” Logan felt very much like caricatures in their descriptions, but both characters are so loveable as the story goes on and they find their way back to one another. I also loved each of their relationships with Joe and the love and support of/from a queer elder. It’s not something I’ve experienced in my own life but I loved reading about it on the page.

This was yet another queer romance by Cochrun that had so much depth, heart and soul that it brought me to tears at least once. Really glad I have waterproof mascara!

This one is a sapphic tale of two childhood friends turned enemies/adversaries turned road trip companions on a cross country journey to provide their one common love/link his dying wish.

It was incredible. The realness of the flawed characters. The trauma that scarred them. The fear of allowing others in. Cochrun writes characters that you laugh with, cry alongside, relate to deeply and root for to overcome. This book is no different.

This book wrecked me in the most gut-wrenching, devastating, and beautiful way possible.

Logan and Rosemary used to be childhood best friends, but an incident one summer in their teenage years turned them into enemies. After a decade of not speaking, Rosemary and Logan are teaching at the same high school in their hometown. When one of their former and beloved teachers asks them to drive him across the country as his dying wish, the two women must come together in order to help support someone they both love dearly.

This book had me laughing out loud and ugly sobbing. In addition to this beautiful and heartfelt story constructed around love and grief, Cochrun has woven in powerful elements around sexuality, gender, mental health, neurodiversity, and found family. I found Cochrun's depiction of how ADHD can present in women to be especially powerful and felt so connected to and seen by these characters as a result. I also really appreciated (as a former teacher myself) the essence and harsh realities of teaching that are presented in this book.

I honestly feel like I could talk about my love for this book for the entire duration of a cross country road trip and then some! While I usually enjoy many of the books I read, every once in a while I come across a book that shatters and devastates me in the best ways. There are not enough stars I could give this book to do it justice.

Thank you so much to Alison Cochrun, NetGalley, Goodreads, and Atria for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 STARS - I've been a fan of Alison Cochrun since I read and adored her first book The Charm Offensive and her recent book Kiss Her Once For Me. Her books have love, great banter and fantastic LGBTQIA2S+ representation.

Here We Go Again was a cute queer RomCom that centres around two childhood BFFs who had a falling out in high school. They've both returned to their hometown to work at their former high school, but the grudges remain. When their beloved high school English teacher/father figure Joe, who is terminally ill, asks Logan and Rosemary to drive him across the country so he can die at his ocean-side home, the two women make tentative amends for Joe's sake and head across the US.

This book had all the fixin's for a good queer RomCom ... but I wanted more. More romance. More (varied) conflict. Instead, we're given a very slowly paced story that dragged in several spots and the miscommunication trope raised its ugly head. I found the conflict repetitive particularly with Logan and her repeated regressions and constant reminder that she considers herself a 'fuckboy'. Logan and Rosemary's qualms felt juvenile (the overdone pop culture exclamations didn't help) and I found myself gravitating towards Joe's storyline which felt more authentic.

Joe is the heart of this book. Ahhh, sweet Joe. He's the kind of teacher everyone should have, and I consider this book to be a love letter to the teachers who make a positive mark on their students lives. Through Joe, Cochrun explores the struggles of terminal illness on the patient and on their caregivers. This book will squeeze a tear out of even the hardest of hearts.

This book had all the right elements - a good premise, complicated characters, enemies-to-lovers trope, emotional bits, funny bits and some spice. It has its charm and beautiful messages about love, friendship, making amends while you still can, loss and grief, but the execution of the story fell a bit short for me.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Atria Books for the advanced copy of this book which was provided in exchange for my honest review.

I saved this for my tropical vacation because it just seemed like the perfect book. And I was right: I laughed, I cried, I pondered death. What more could you ask for? And the Mamma Mia-esque title? Sign me up!

Logan and Rosemary are both such loveable characters in entirely different ways. Logan is all over the place and Rosemary is organized. Alison Cochrun writes characters SO well that it was an absolute delight (my delight, not Logan and Rosemary's) to have them both stuck on a road trip together and see what happens. It's the chaos & order dynamic. It's the childhood friends to enemies to lovers arc. It's the emotional growth and development that only comes from facing death head-on.

And it was so, so good. Tender moments between our two FMCs and deeper talks between them and their dear friend/teacher Joe. Funny moments of road trip catastrophes (as any road trip would have). Some spicy scenes later on in the book.

Definitely a GREAT summer/vacation/road trip read! So glad I got to read it.

4.25

Alison Cochrun has quickly become one of my favorite authors so I was extremely excited for this book. This is admittedly my least favorite of her books. Kiss Her Once for Me and The Charm Offensive were both five stars, but it was still a wonderful read.

My two problems with this book were one, the pacing of the romance somewhat bothered me. It’s enemies to lovers and the switch from enemies to lovers was much too fast for my taste. I liked the book a lot more after they reconnect but it’s an awkward transition. My other issue was just that some of the dialogue felt unrealistic and too prose-y to be real speech.

With that said, this is still an Alison Cochrun book. I am amazed by her ability to explore deeper concepts within her romance novels. The portrayal of platonic love and grief in this book I honestly preferred to the romance. Joe’s love for Logan and Rosemary and their love for him was so lovely. His decaying health and eventual death were so sad but also so beautifully done.

I love a book that can make me both laugh and cry and this book is just that. I’m so glad I read it and I will continue to read anything Alison Cochrun writes.