Alison Cochrun manages, once again, to balance a romance with such an intensely human story.

I resonated so much with Hale in this book- even down to her relationship with the teaching profession. Mental health, familial struggle, and queer identity were all handled here with grace, as well as a really intense (really glad the author handled it in a foreword) insight into the ugliness of cancer and terminal illness.

I did have to ask several times “…their former TEACHER asked this of them?!” because that felt really odd to me- but it did make for a really interesting story 🤷🏼‍♀️

I always want to start the new year off on the right foot by reading a 5 star book. After much consideration, I realized there was only one right choice: Alison Cochrun's new book, which I've been so highly anticipating, and which I was so sure would be a 5 star read for me. And it absolutely, 100% was!

This sapphic roadtrip book is somewhat unconventional for a romance, considering how dying is one of its main themes and a large focus of the plot. Our two main characters were childhood best friends who fell out and went years without talking. Then they ended up working as teachers at the same school, along with their English teacher, who's something of a parental figure for both of them. This English teacher, Joe, is dying of cancer, and his last wish is to go on a roadtrip and visit his house in Maine.

In a lot of ways, this was the perfect book to start a new year with, because it really cements how precious life is, and how you should LIVE, go after what you want, and be conscious of the things that matter. This is much easier said than done, and it's a great reminder for the new year.

It's a really emotional read, and I ended up reading this in one sitting, because I absolutely couldn't put it down. It never feels like a particularly heavy book, though. The sadness in this book feels more cathartic than heavy, and that makes it comforting in a way. I think the book, with its love and humour, took away a lot of society's general discomfort about death and dying, and showed it as a natural part of life that shouldn't be hidden away. There are so many emotional moments, like I said, but also so many funny moments that take the edge off, which has also always been my own way of dealing with difficult things.

But this book is not just about Joe. It's very much also about Logan and Rosemary going on their own journeys and finding their way towards each other throughout those. I loved how they're so similar in so many ways - both English teachers, both lesbians, both ADHD - but they experience those things in vastly different ways. They don't start out as the most likeable characters, even if I did always find them loveable, but they slowly worm their way into your heart.

A long time ago, Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale used to be friends. They spent their childhood summers running through the woods, rebelling against their conservative small town, and dreaming of escaping. But then an incident the summer before high school turned them into bitter rivals. After graduation, they went ten years without speaking. Now in their thirties, Logan and Rosemary find they aren’t quite living the lives of adventure they imagined for themselves. Still in their small town and working as teachers at their alma mater, they’re both stuck in old patterns.

But when their beloved former English teacher and lifelong mentor tells them he has only a few months to live, they’re forced together once and for all to fulfill his last a cross-country road trip. Stuffed into the gayest van west of the Mississippi, the three embark on a life-changing summer trip—from Washington state to the Grand Canyon, from the Gulf Coast to coastal Maine—that will chart a new future and perhaps lead them back to one another.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Anything Alison Cochrun writes, I will read. Her stories and her characters are gold. This was every bit a treat as I was expecting. I'm a sucker for sapphic romance. Give me a road trip, and I'll call shotgun! This was brilliant. I've always loved romances that deal with death and grief in their own way - let's face it, all of life is about one form of grief of another. This will tug at your heartstrings, make you feel things, and give you so much to think about and to love. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

I could not have been more excited to be reading the newest Alison Cochrun. I love how her characters feel like real people and how the twists and tangles of the story are reasonable. Rosemary and Logan were super interesting characters and I loved seeing them interact with each other. They had a great push and pull. When I read the synopsis I was worried that this book could be a little too sad, but Cochrun balances the tone very well. A super fun read!

This book had me all in my feels. Joe (and Remy) were my absolute favorites and a prequel about them would be greatly appreciated. That being said, and perhaps an unpopular opinion, I didn’t really care for Logan and Rosemary as a romantic pair. I don’t think this book needed their romance and I actually think I would’ve enjoyed it more if it was about two best friends reconnecting through this journey rather than romance. I don’t feel their backstory was explored enough and in turn, I didn’t really buy how there was so much longing between them. I loved the road trip and everything it stood for so that bumps my rating significantly. I really did hate the need to curse by naming other lesbian women, though - got old after the first few times.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a future English teacher and current queer, I knew this book was going to mean something to me from the synopsis alone. This is a special book that is probably going to remain my favorite read of 2024 even though it’s not quite January yet. I can’t wait to reread this after I’ve been a teacher for a few years and have gotten to be both student and teacher, just like Logan and Rosemary.

This book is one of the most amazing and real books I have ever read. If I had to put it simply this book hurt to read but in a good way. The plot and the characters kept me hooked I needed to know what happened next and I fell in love with all the characters and felt like needed to know more about them from the very beginning. This is definitely one of my top books of the year, I highly recommend you read it!

Alison Cochrun is an artist of the highest caliber. I knew that Here We Go Again was going to tug at my heartstrings. But the way that I was heaving sobs by the end was truly unexpected. A queer person writing about serving as a death doula to a beloved queer high school English teacher is ripe with emotion, as we all know the pivotal role English teachers play as safe spaces for queer teens.

But my gods, Cochrun took it so much further. Here We Go Again was tender and sexy and emotional in every which way. I couldn't put it down, but at the same time I was positively terrified for it to end. Another 5 star read from Alison Cochrun -- one that requires a box of tissues from the start.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I was disappointed in this. I loved Kiss Her Once for Me. I thought this was just ok. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters, except maybe Joe, and I never really bought the love story.

officially my new favorite book ever.
I need a subgenre of romcoms about death and dying with this as the leader.
I truly loved everything about this but here are some elements that really stood out to me;
the way there was a second love story so beautifully woven in to the story, Joe & Remy made my heart break in the best way.
the way we saw multiple types of love stories, rosemary & logan being the main romance, but also the love of a teacher turned mentor turned parental figure and the depths of that love. also a really beautiful father daughter relationship with Logan and Antonio.
the way we saw such incredible and vast grief representation, the grief of Joe getting ready to die, the grief the girls felt for the anticipation of losing him, the grief of their previous parental losses, their grief of losing time with each other, the way Joe’s grief during the AIDS epidemic impacted his relationship and life.
and one of my absolute favorite things, the way we got to see two drastically different versions of how ADHD might present and how both are valid with their own struggles and experiences.
honestly there was so much jam packed into this death road trip romance and I want to keep reading it over and over again.
I’m so grateful that this book exists.

What can I say about this book? It’s emotional, heartfelt, funny, beautiful… it was a very touching story. Former friends go on a roadtrip with their favorite teacher from high school as his dying wish.

Just as a warning, the book covers heavy topics including cancer, death, and abandonment issues. The author handles them so gracefully though.

Thanks as always to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book. WOW. An ABBA title was an incredible choice and it’s honestly only up from there.

I quite famously (to me) don’t like sad books. I read romance because I want the HEA and joyfulness that comes with it. The escapism. But I NEEDED this book. I needed this book because I was a queer kid with an English teacher who loved and believed in me. I needed this book because I laughed out loud. I needed this book, even as I blubbered like a BABY. Because we all need a book that so perfectly captures the beauty and pain of being alive.

Comedy and tragedy are arbitrary genre distinctions is correct and Here We Go Again is a masterpiece example of that. So yeah, I loved it.

One of the best books I’ve read recently. I came for the romance and even weeks after finishing the book I’m left with so many deep themes. I highly recommend this book for fans of Tuesdays with Morrie.

Tl;dr:
Did I enjoy reading this? Absolutely.
Would I recommend reading, if you like f/f romcom? Absolutely.
[Thank you to Atria Books for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review]
Honestly, rude of Alison Cochrun to write a book that makes me cry this many times. Impressive, though, that she wrote it so well that I kept reading, couldn't stop reading, even though I was starting to get dehydrated.

The gayest bucket-list roadtrip story, with a pair of messy MCs, who could solve so many problems if they just had an honest conversation, but let's be real, honest and frank conversations are the enemy of a good romcom story. If I had a criticism, it would be that I eventually got a little tired of one of the MCs running herself into the same psychological wall over and over again, but all's well that ends well, so I'll let it slide.
In addition to just being a really well-written and generally fantastic read, if you like me were the type of kid to hide in your library or english teacher's room during recess/lunch growing up, this will be an extra fun read. And by fun, I mean, you will cry.

Do you know chocolate Santa figurines? You get it and eat it from the top to the bottom? And then, one time, you get the Santa, and it’s broken into pieces. It’s still delicious, and you eat it all, but the experience is different. That’s how I felt about Here We Go Again.

It’s a heartfelt story, and I inevitably dropped a few tears. But the constant pop culture references (that, granted, annoyed me in Alison’s previous work) did not add to the story but mostly dated it. Logan and Rosemary as main characters felt flat, and, frankly, I caught myself caring for Remi and Joe more than I did for them.

I will always pioneer a sapphic novel cause we need representation to be loud. But this one didn’t hit the mark, especially after such a strong Charm Offensive and Kiss Her Once For Me. I’m anxiously waiting for Cochran’s next writing adventure.

Thank you to the publisher for my ARC.

So cute!!! I already had a feeling I was going to enjoy this book because of how much I have enjoyed Cochrun's other novels, and I was absolutely correct! Going into Here We Go Again, I was really hoping that it was going to serve ex-besties to enemies to lovers expertly and that IT DID!!! I already cannot wait for whatever else Cochrun has in store. Also, it is worth noting that the mental illness representation in these books are always well done (in my opinion)

Absolutely loved this one. I read the authors note and Cochrun said she wanted to write a romcom about death and she definitely hit the mark. I was both really happy and really sad with this one but in a good way. I love that this book made me feel things.

I don't think the book is going to work for me. I know this is not on the book, and I genuinely believe a lot of young adults will love this. I am not interested in reading about what the book is starting conversations on at my age. I think it is relevant for many people, but not for me. I would like to try and get a hold of the physical copy when the book is released for my library if I can find it for a reasonable price!

I’m a big fan of road trip stories, and, given how much I enjoyed Cochrun’s sophomore novel, Kiss Her Once for Me, my expectations going into this book were fairly high. And they were not at all disappointed–although in many ways, this fact ended up surprising me.

First, the romantic setup was great, with a ton of potential for interesting conflict: the two main characters are childhood best friends who, thanks to a gay panic-related misunderstanding when the two were fourteen, quickly turned into nemeses. Life circumstances have led them both to the last place they ever thought they’d be spending their adulthood: teaching high school at their own alma mater, in the same small, conservative town they dreamed of escaping when they were younger. And while they still can’t stand each other as coworkers, they have one extremely important thing in common: their former English teacher, Joe Delgado, who, in addition to being a father figure to both of them for most of their lives well into adulthood (both characters experienced a form of parental loss while still young children, and Joe stepped in at a vulnerable time), has recently received the news that the cancer he’s been fighting has metastasized. He’s officially dying, and his dying wish is to be taken on a final road trip to Maine so that he can die on his own terms, in his vacation house in Bar Harbor, close to the ocean. And he needs both of them to do this with him.

Former best friends turned enemies who are forced to work together is a plot device I already really enjoy, and the more lighthearted, humorous parts of the novel were just as fun, cute, and funny as I’d anticipated. I really liked that the two main characters were such polar opposites–Rosemary is a type A worrier, planner, and neat freak, while Logan is more laid-back and prefers to fly by the seat of her pants–but that, once they began to really resolve their differences, they actively worked to use their differences to support one another. The road trip part of the story was a lot of fun, too; I appreciated that as much of the trip was about seeing cool places, like the Grand Canyon, as it was about the characters growing and changing as people.

There were a few things that didn’t quite work for me–some of the humor comes across kind of woodenly (a LOT of jokes about the fact that Joe, who is dying, has to wear adult diapers–maybe this would be funny to someone else, but it just made me sad), and Logan’s quirk of expressing surprise by shouting the names of queer icons (i.e. “Hayley fucking Kiyoko!” or “Shay fucking Mitchell!”) was honestly just kind of annoying. (Though I’m not too proud to admit it was fun seeing which queer icons, or queer-adjacent icons like Laura Dern, the author chose to include.) I also thought that the third act conflict was pretty bad in terms of easily resolvable miscommunication, though I have some grace for this, because it doesn’t last very long–to the point where I’m not even sure if calling it the third act conflict is accurate–and it occurs at a time of extremely heightened emotion due to an outside event, so it makes sense to me that perhaps communication wouldn’t be first on anyone’s mind.

What surprised me most about this novel, though–and the thing, honestly, that pushes it from a three star read to a four star–was how it doesn’t shy away for a second from the reality of Joe’s impending death. Without giving too much of the third half of the book away, I will say that there are things that happen that feel surprising for this particular genre of fiction. Things that are not happy or particularly hopeful, things that are some of the hardest emotions we as humans can possibly feel–and the author doesn’t spare us any of them. I’m not someone who cries over books very easily, but there were two occasions where what I was reading was so reminiscent of when my grandmother was in hospice care that I couldn’t help bawling. I’d go so far to say that it’s a pretty bold move for a book like this, and for me personally, it really paid off.

Alison Cochrun is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors of queer romance. I can’t wait to see where she takes us next.

Fun and tender and wise! Love every Alison writes and this is no exception--sexy and wry and I absolutely loved the voice. Maybe my fave of hers yet.