Once again, Alison Cochrun reaches into my brain and puts thoughts and feelings I have had on paper. Logan frustrated the hell out of me sometimes, because I understood exactly why she was doing what she did and I saw myself in her. SO annoying, haha.

This book is a love letter to loves had and lost, to how you thought your life might be and how it actually was, and how all of those things are beautiful and wonderful and able to be changed no matter your age. The grief was real and hard and i absolutely wept my way through all of it.

As a queer kid who attached herself to her English teacher nearly every year and grew up to be a teacher herself, this HURT. In the best way. I loved the relationship between the girls and their Joe, and the relationship Logan and Rosemary had with their students and teaching itself.

The romance was also a perfect childhood friends to enemies to lovers. They were real and messy and mean sometimes, but it was BELIEVABLE and wonderful.

An absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking, wonderful love story in every sense of the word.

DNF at 45%

Y’all I am so disappointed by this. I didn’t want to do this, but I can’t keep reading this.

I adored Charm Offensive with my whole heart. It is one of my favorite books. So when I didn’t like Kiss Her Once For Me I figured maybe it just didn’t click with me and her next book would surely be better. I hate to say it….but this book is worse.

The only character in this book I care about is Joe. The only reason I was still reading was because I needed to know if Joe made it to Maine. But I reached a point where I was mad at him too, so I just had to be done. I can’t keep reading.

I truly, truly hate Rosemary as a character. I understand she is flawed, but I do really think Cochrun forgot to give her positive traits. She is controlling, she keeps stomping her foot when she isn’t getting her way (what are you, 7?) , and she is just so, so rude. You are bringing a dying man on one last adventure and you’re throwing a fit because he wants to see the Grand Canyon?! One of the greatest things in the world?! He’s DYING Rosemary. Let’s get some perspective. Her single positive trait we’re getting so far is “she loves Joe” but she sure doesn’t act like it.

And I just feel NOTHING towards Logan. This is not a character. I am 45% in and all I’ve got is “she’s a fuckboy but isn’t actually and she loves her dad and Joe.” Surely she gets character development at some point but I am 45% in and I’ve got NOTHING. Absolutely nothing.

What a terrible disappointment. I think I unfortunately need to start leaving Cochrun’s books on the shelf and accept Charm Offensive was it for me.

Thank you for the ARC regardless. I am grateful to have the chance to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved The Charm Offensive and was very excited to be able to read an ARC of Here We Go Again.

Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun is about a roundtrip between two friends, turned enemies, turned coworkers and their former high school teacher. They are all loveable but flawed characters who you will root for throughout the book. I don't usually like dual point of view books but I don't think the story would have been the same if we didn't have both Rosemary and Logan's povs. This book managed to be laugh out loud funny and also sad at the same time. I enjoyed they're relationship with their former English teacher and how much they care for him and he cared for them, and his character holds his own even without his pov being in the book. Overall, it was a really enjoyable and well written book, I did think there where some words that was a bit overdone. The use of celebrity names as curse words and the use of the word "apt" took me out of the book when reading but other than that I think it had a nice pace and flow.

I knew going in that this was going to be a phenomenal experience.

And I was right ! Alison Cochrun has an incredible talent and I think this book showcases this in full colour. Her every word serves to drag you into deeper emotional turmoil and happiness all at once.

Childhood best friends to enemies to coworkers to forced travel companions to lovers is a trope I never knew I needed.

& the simultaneous story being told about Joe — BESTILL my heart. I cried. I laughed. I put the mamma Mia soundtrack on and cried some more.

Read this book and , maybe, text that one friend you had a really close relationship with and suddenly had a massive falling out and now looking back - you probably had a crush but were too young to know - who knows? Maybe it’ll be worth a story.

This book was magical. Leave it to Alison Cochrun to make a book about a dying man insanely romantic.

HERE WE GO AGAIN is a perfect story about queer (found) families and finding love when you need it most. Teachers Logan and Rosemary take their beloved beloved gay high school teacher, Joe, on one last cross country trip. Logan and Rosemary are former childhood best friends turned enemies but must unite to help Joe, who is dying from cancer.

The story hits first loves and enemies to lovers wonderfully, with a perfect simmering burn between Rosemary and Logan. We have Logan, who is well-known on the lesbian circuit for "liking" and then leaving girls. For Logan, whose mom left in her childhood, she fears forming any strong attachments. Rosemary is a wonderful and renowned teacher who has perfected hiding her anxiety from others. All the characters pop off the page--none more than Joe, an amazing gay teaching icon who has provided guidance and care for so many students, but holds a special place in his heart for his "girls," both of whom needed a little extra care coming out in their small town. Joe helped motherless Logan find herself and mentored Rosemary's writing.

Once he convinced the two to join him on the trip from Washington (state) to Maine, we get a story filled with humor and sadness, hi-jinx and pain. Along with Joe's lovable pup, the trio sets forth across the country, encountering national monuments and flat tires alike. There is a bathtub scene that will make you swoon and a drag show moment that will make you cheer. The build up between Rosemary and Logan is amazing, but it's just as good watching the two of them learning from (and about) Joe.

This story touches so beautifully on anxiety, ADHD, found family, and the importance of teachers and gay adults in younger lives. There are some moments that made me laugh out loud and others that made me cry. I fell head over heels for these characters. AGAIN is crazy emotional for a variety of reasons yet funny and heartfelt without being schmaltzy. I cannot recommend this lovely book enough.

What would you do to fulfill the dying wish of a beloved mentor? For Logan and Rosemary it means sucking up their mutual animosity and driving him across the country to die in the home he left behind 30 years ago. Along the way they find answers to questions they hadn't even thought to ask yet.

Their journey was moving and emotional. I laughed, I cried. I loved this story, with all its twists and turns. Both Logan and Rosemary's struggles with ADHD felt familiar, and I enjoyed seeing a representation that felt right to me (I have ADHD, and i don't often find this).

I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a queer road trip story that embraces every stage of life, and all life's colors and messes.

I received a free copy from Atria Books through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Okay, first of all, Alison Cochrun's Kiss Her Once For Me was one of my favorite books I read in 2022, so I knew I was going to really like this. What I didn't know was that it would be one of my favorite books ever written. There are so many ways for a book to be good: engaging storytelling, fresh writing (crisp turns of phrase, new ways to describe the rain, etc.), resonant characters, narratives that hit just the right way at just the right time culturally, giving voice to underrepresented people. Here We Go Again is all of that and so much more. I don't think I have highlighted this many sentences in a book in 15 years. It just exceeded all my expectations in every way. Logan and Rosemary and Joe's story is laugh out loud funny, and so swoony too. Yes, absolutely, a friends to enemies to lovers road trip. But it's also a mediation on grief, on neurodivergence, on trauma, on loving and allowing yourself to be loved. It's also messy (the characters, not the writing) in a way that's full of empathy and hope, and not messy in a way that's an excuse for refusing to grow up (looking at you forever, The L Word!). I'm going to make everyone I know read this book, so get ready!

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and provide an honest review.

I read this whole thing within under 24 hours to being granted NetGalley access to it! This is easily my favorite Alison Cochrun book. I love Logan, love Rosemary, love that this book was about 2 high school teachers on a road trip with one of their former high school teachers!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.25/5

This was my first English read of the year and was a great book to start the year with. I think this is Alison Cochrun's strongest work yet.

I don't necessarily find most modern romcoms all that funny, but this was an exception. This book had me laughing at moments that truly surprised me. The humour in this book, for the most part, is very deftly handled and interweaved with some really heavy and emotional moments.

Aside from being a romance, this book is also an exploration of how people handle grief. In doing so it was surprisingly poignant at times. I don't think I've quite read a romcom of this kind before. This book also had some great neurodivergence rep(at least in my experience) as both MCs have ADHD and it manifests differently in the two characters.

Amidst all the positives though, this book features some classic Alison Cochrun(and honestly maybe most modern white queer romance author) quirks. The most notable of them is an overabundance of pop culture references and some general awkwardness when handling diversity, particularly(but not limited to) POC characters. I appreciate Cochrun trying to include diverse characters(while both MCs are white, Joe who is arguably the most important part of the book is brown) and I think she means well, but it doesn't always feel natural. However, I minded these issues less in this book because of how... earnest it appears to be.

Which brings me to the characters. The best way I can describe the character and relationship writing in this book is that they are very earnest. All the characters are flawed and feel quite realistic, as do the relationships. I really enjoyed Logan, Rosemary, and Joe's as characters. You can tell that a lot of care was put into put in the themes and characters this book explores, even when it isn't the most well-executed.

Overall, Here We Go Again is a really earnest and humourous romcom, which can be really poignant at times. It will get you emotional. I mean, it's a sapphic romcom about death, that should be enough for you to pick this up.

🎧Song Pairing: Our Last Summer - Mamma Mia! (it was near impossible choosing a song. There were so many options. Music is a huge component of the story)

💭What I thought would happen:

Obviously a road trip with clever one liners. Maybe a bit of character angst?

📖What actually happens:

Logan just had a pink cocktail thrown at her at the local Chilli’s…not the first time it’s happened as she can’t even recall the first name of her most recent fuck buddy. Upon leaving she rams into Rosemary Hale…her colleague and long time enemy/once best friend. Both on their way to see their dear mentor and friend Joe.

The 3 + hell dog are about to embark on a cross country to get Joe to his final resting place before cancer takes him. Along the way each discover secrets about themselves and one another.

🗯Thoughts/sassy musings:

Elton fucking John that was wowza. Gay-tastic! Gay-mazing!

I was weeping! Big ugly tears. If you want to be emotionally damaged while laughing hysterically this is the book for you. If you get big emotions from me - you win. 5s all around 😂

I was slumping for so long and drowning in holiday books. This book gave me the revival I craved.

I am certain this book will be a Bookstagram fav in 2024! I honestly can’t wait for the praise it’ll receive! Alison’s best book yet 😱🩵

I 10/10 pictured the 2 woman from 2 Broke Girls playing Rosemary and Logan. But seriously this book better become a movie. It will just be ugh wonderful and heartbreaking.

READ THIS! Sadly it doesn’t come out until April 2nd! Sorry readers!

Logan and Rosemarie were inseparable in middle school, but their friendship turned into a bitter rivalry after eighth grade and that disdain has continued now that they are coworkers at the same small-town high school. Tasked with the dying wish of their shared mentor, the stubborn and flamboyant Joe, the two must learn to face the regrets of their past, confront their at-odds neurodivergences, and embrace the sense of adventure they each once had while making an epic road trip across the country in a big gay van. This book is filled with big feelings, intergenerational queer community, and second chances. Fans of character-driven LGBTQIA+ romances by authors such as Casey McQuiston, Anita Kelly, and Ashley Herring Blake will enjoy this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers rom-com that is at turns funny, flirty, and heartbreaking.

When I picked up Alison Cochrun's latest novel, HERE WE GO AGAIN, I was more than a bit excited to dive in. I've adored everything of hers that I've read, so much so that I think I will be rereading Kiss Her Once for Me every holiday season for years to come. I had read the marketing blurbs for Here We Go Again and I knew it was a novel that explored a sadder topic (at least more overtly so) than her previous works. Despite this intensity, Cochrun has woven a tale that is somehow both light and heavy, a breath of fresh air that also somehow showcases the depths and various layers of human grief.

Rosemary and Logan, former best friends, now sworn enemies, set out to drive their former teacher (who only has a little time left to live) on a cross country road trip adventure. This can surely be nothing but disastrous. Logan and Rosemary are as different as two people can be, but they also have a ton in common. They both love to teach, they both loved spending time with one another as kids, they both just want to feel seen and loved, and they both care deeply about their former teacher who just so happens to be dying. Maybe they can survive this road trip after all - or, if they do kill each other in the process, at least they'll go out in a blaze of glory.

This story brought us the usual road trip shenanigans, but it also brought so much more. It brought a deep love and respect for the variety of folks in the LGBTQ+ community, including the absolutely stunning drag community. It brought representation of what it means to love someone who is aging and dying and how relationships can change over time, distance, and through conflict. It brought insightful, varied representation of what it means to be a neurodivergent woman, including one diagnosed later in life - representation that is sorely needed in literature.

It’s no secret that Alison Cochrun has become a fast favorite of mine and this newest novel is no exception. Cochrun has a way of writing straight to my heart. She crafts characters who are real, who move through relationships with abandon. She finds ways to write about anxiety and other issues in ways that are beautiful and simply true. She represents queer joy, love, grief, struggle, and much more in her work. Read her writing - it’s more than delightful. Alison Cochrun has done it again, folks.

A type A, straight passing lesbian and a very chaotic and colorful lesbian used to be best friends, until that one pool party in their teens when they kissed. Now at 32, they're both teachers at the same school and mortal enemies. Their former English teacher, a gay man named Joe, finds out he has less than 3 months to live and asked them to take him on a cross country road trip to a cabin he owns in Maine. So two lesbians that hate each other, a dying gay man, and a 90 lb dog set out to spend summer break on a roadtrip in an old van with "queer cuddle mobile" painted on the side.
This is a sweet book with surprising depth, as each of these characters end a phase of their lives, and help Joe to his ending. Laugh out loud funny at some points, poignant and heart wrenching at others, I read this book in one sitting and loved every minute of it. Plus, not only is the enemies to lovers trope strong, but you know there are points where there is only one bed.

No one is more surprised about my rating for this than me. I absolutely adored both of Cochrun's previous novels, and when I saw the synopsis--a childhood enemies to lovers, queer, road-trip romance? With a subplot about being caregivers for their dying beloved high school teacher? I was sold. Unfortunately, I don't think this is Cochrun's strongest book.

WHAT I LIKED

To start on a positive note, I have a deep appreciation for how Cochrun writes flawed characters. She isn't afraid to make them unlikeable, and I find that really refreshing. All of the characters, but Logan in particular, are complicated characters with complicated pasts and aren't always likable, but for me, that makes me root for them more to grow and change.

Quite possibly my favorite scene in the book was Logan and Rosemary's argument in the rain that turned into their first kiss since high school. The entire scene--the dialogue, the descriptions, the emotion--all worked so well; I could really picture that moment in my head, and I absolutely adored it.

This entire story is a beautiful testament to the impact good teachers can have on us. I saw some of my own teachers in Joe, and it goes to show how even small acts of kindness from teachers can leave such a lasting impact on us.

With Joe's diagnosis, I appreciated that Cochrun didn't shy away from the difficulties of watching someone you love die. I was able to connect my own experiences of caretaking for someone I loved who passed from cancer, and I think that's something a lot of people will be able to connect with.

WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

Speaking of Joe's diagnosis, while I appreciate that Cochrun didn't shy away from those difficult moments, I was surprised that this book didn't make me cry, especially since it's something I connect with so much. I think what I was missing was more emotion--more description to help the reader feel really rooted in those scenes and feel those difficult emotions alongside the characters.

If I had one word to describe what I needed from this book, it would be "more." More emotion, more conflict, stronger writing to match what I know Cochrun is capable of. In this case, I think Cochrun's track record worked against her. I've seen what she's capable of and loved it, and this book didn't meet those expectations.

On smaller notes, there were a lot of exclamation points. And we all know how I feel about those--they should be used sparingly. It took me out of the story a few times when every line of dialogue in a scene ended with an exclamation point.

There are also a lot of pop culture references, which can be a risky move to take. Speaking for myself, those can often take me out of the story as well. The biggest occurrence of this was when Logan swore, she had a tendency to name queer icons as expletives: "Shay fucking Mitchell," "Hayley fucking Kiyoko," etc.

Finally, when it came to the conflicts, especially Logan's internal conflict, it felt a bit repetitive. Just as Logan would start to improve her character flaws, when the story needed conflict, she would regress to her old ways of being a self-proclaimed "fuckboy." It was frustrating to see that regression then lead to very repetitive arguments between Rosemary and Logan; I would've loved to see some more variety in the book's conflict.

I do think this story is worth reading--it has an important message, and it is a beautiful testament to honoring the life of someone you love. But I would say go into it with measured expectations, as I don't think this is Cochrun's strongest novel.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure about this about this one in the beginning because the two main characters seemed so extreme, but I ended relating to both of them. I don’t know if enemies to lovers really fits here but definitely at least rivals to lovers and I really enjoyed that dynamic. I think the best part of this book was Joe and I could really see why these women loved this man so much. The author really made such a beautiful tribute to teachers and showed what a lasting impact they can have on our lives. I was having a grand old time with this book and then I sobbed pretty much for the entire last 15%. You know what you’re getting from the description of this book, but I still thought the execution was devastating and beautiful.

Just to get this right out the gate: this book nearly made me cry. There were tears forming, followed by a great deal of rapid blinking. I never expected a romance novel to make me cry, but oh boy does this book hit you where it hurts.

Overall, this was such a good read--my first Alison Cochrun, and one I knew I had to read as soon as I saw that the title was an ABBA reference. It's not without pacing issues, as some sections did drag for me. And, as has been mentioned in other reviews, the use of celebrity names as part of swears gets old really fast.

But this was a great second chance romance, and Joe is hands down the best part of the book. He and Remy could use a book of their own. It was sweet, and sad, and ends on a hopeful note despite the sadness. Highly recommend.

What I most enjoy about Cochrun's writing is the nuanced portrayal of relationships and the authenticity of her character's experiences. "Here We Go Again" finds former best friends Logan and Rosemary on the trip of a lifetime while both celebrating and coming to terms with the life and death of their mentor and teacher, Joe. The duo are in charge of making Joe's dying wish come true: to road trip across the United States and return to his vacation home in Maine.

Rosemary and Logan are complex characters each dealing with their own traumas and neurodiversity, which Cochrun handles with grace and nuance. Their unconventional romance - from friends to enemies to lovers - helps to cement the theme of the preciousness of life and of found family. I appreciate a sapphic romance that is not stemmed in queer trauma; while it's mentioned, that kind of trauma is less the center of the story and more about the characterization of Logan and Rosemary. I found myself really falling for these characters by the end and openly weeping at several points.

Alison Cochrun is now an automatic read for me. Here We Go Again was such a fun and wonderful story!

It's a lesbian romance with a different spin. Two teachers who "hate" each other taking a cross-country trip with their dying former teacher may seem like a downer, but it's not. There are crazy hijinks, a large dog and, of course, falling in love.
Also apparent are liberal doses of trope-ness, but enough feels fresh, such as the reality of end-of-life care, and that adds to the usual pattern of fight, fall in love, fight, HEA. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the different U.S. regions (and their food!).
This is a nice read--more than just a cotton candy romance, but lighter than a literary work. You'll appreciate the humor and quirky, but loveable characters, as well as, possibly making plans for your own cross-country trip. The message is obvious--take chances and try not to have any regrets!
#NetGalley

Literally almost hit the screaming-crying-throwing up trifecta while reading this bc i was so emotionally invested (screamed, cried, gagged a little from crying)! I LOVED the characters in this. I really appreciate AC's constant inclusion of ace- and aro-spec characters (MC is somewhere in the ace-side-of-demisexual and demiromantic range, though doesn't id with any specific labels)--ESPECIALLY aro-spec MCs. I think a lot about what an aro-spec-friendly romance novel would look like, and, for me, it wouldn't be this, but i think for someone on the demi- side it might be exactly this!

Also, no heterosexual main characters, one heterosexual but gender-expectations-bendy side character. That's a good ratio for me!

4.5 stars rounded down.