Thank you so much to Netgalley & Atria books for allowing me to read this amazing book early. Let me just say, that reading this book right after my mom passed away was not a good choice mentally, but I absolutely adored this book. It made me wish that I was allowed to take my mom for one last adventure before she passed unexpectedly back in March.

I rated this book 4.5 stars rounded up since we can't do half ratings on here. This book was everything I wanted and more. Logan and Rosemary are essentially the main characters in this book, but their teacher, who is dying from terminal cancer, Joe, stole the whole show for me. A quick trip across the country turns into a three week life-changing trip. Logan and Rosemary enemies to lovers story, for me at least, takes a back seat to the amazing connection that they have with Joe, living their best life on the road, and finding out so many new things about one another.

I can't really say much without spoiling this book. It made me laugh and ugly cry at the same time. You felt all the emotions that these three were going through, love, regrets, anger, sadness, ( I can sit here and go through all the emotions that the characters go through, but it would be Inside Out all over again, haha). I just love that, even though Joe had all these amazing people at his side, he chose his two former favorite students who he loved as family. The reason why this book didn't get a full five stars from me was because of how Rosemary and Logan were just so nasty with each other before they fully realized what they meant towards each other. Once you realize that what happened a long time ago made them the way they are towards each other, it made my eyes roll and I told myself "that's it?!". It was a little too much and a bit ridiculous for me.

This is going to sound really stupid, but I'm also glad this story didn't end up with a proposal or anything else along those lines like most romance books that I've read do. It gets very repetitive and cliche at times, but I'm glad this book didn't cover it.

Overall, this book was amazing and a queer book you don't want to miss out on.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

dnf @ 9% and this has nothing to do with the book itself but with me being in a reading slump.

Of what I did read, I enjoyed the premise of the book and the characters themselves so I am excited to follow up on this one in the future.

Title: Here We Go Again
Author: Alison Cochrun
Genre: Romance
Rating: 5.00
Pub Date: April 2, 2024

I received a complimentary eARC from Atria Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted

T H R E E • W O R D S

Delightful • Heartfelt • Wanderlusting

📖 S Y N O P S I S

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. Uptight Rosemary chooses security and stability over all else, working constantly, and her most stable relationship is with her label maker. Chaotic and impulsive Logan has a long list of misguided ex-lovers and an apathetic shrug she uses to protect herself from anything real. And as hard as they try to avoid each other—and their complicated past—they keep crashing into each other. Including with their cars.

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 wish: 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.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I'd previously loved The Charm Offensive, but Kiss Her Once For Me didn't hit the same level for me. Regardless, Here We Go Again was one of my anticipated 2024 releases (hello road trip!), and it quickly rose to the top of my stack when it was recommend by a trusted book friend.

What an absolute delight!

Filled with a combination of laugh-out-loud and heartfelt moments, this story and it's characters wiggled their way into my heart as they embarked on a road trip to fulfil Joe's death wish. It's full of adventure, memories, beautiful relationships, belonging, love, and heartache. Some of my favourite moments were the van, the binder, the detours along the way, the nude painting discovery, the drag show, all of the musical moments, and of course, when they finally make it to Maine.

Logan and Rosemary's character growth felt wholly natural and the author does a fantastic job subtly incorporating their neurodiversity (ADHD and anxiety rep) into the story. I really enjoyed getting to unravel what tore them apart and slowly seeing them come together again. Their banter had me laughing often.

And then there is Joe - he was the glue holding the entire story together and I absolutely adored his character. Learning about his past - how he came to play a parental role for each of the girls and his own queerness was such a joy. The teacher/student relationship was beautiful. Of course, I cannot forget Odysseus, the cancer dog. And Remy... sweet sweet Remy.

The romance never overtakes the story, yet it's easy to see where their relationship will end up. It's really the secondary love story which had my whole heart. Stunningly beautiful! Additionally, the open dialogue on grief and talk about death was a breath of fresh air. As an avoidant society, these types of discussions are so important, yet we don't have them. Lastly, I thought it was an accurate depiction of the caregiving process and all that it entails. End-of-life care is physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausting and portraying it as such is so important.

Here We Go Again is one of those stories that made me smile through tears. There were so many beautiful moments in this childhood best friends to enemies to lovers story filled with queer joy. Found family stories have quickly become a trope I adore, and the ending was bittersweet. There is no doubt it'll be making its way onto my Top Reads of 2024 come December. Definitely bring the Kleenex for this one.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• road trips
• forced proximity
• life lessons from the dying
• sapphic rom-coms

⚠️ CW: cancer, terminal illness, medical content, excrement, vomit, death, death of parent, grief, abandonment, toxic relationship, lesbophobia, homophobia, outing, sexual content, cursing, mental illness, alcoholism, panic attacks/disorders, alcohol, drug use, overdose

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"He saw the way her brain worked, and instead of trying to fix it, he celebrated it."

"Hale looks even more perfect to Logan in this moment, because she looks like a flawed human being."

"Life is the prickly pear. It's always going to be a combination of beauty and hurt, no matter how hard you try to protect yourself from the hard parts. There is no way to avoid pain."

"Your brain in the most beautiful thing about you. And I'm including your soft ass in this list."

"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. Love is saying, yes, still. Even after all these years."

"We're never truly safe. That's life."

This was a wonderful road-trip story! I loved the found family aspect with their teach and mentor. The romance was wonderful and loved reading about where they were traveling to. Another must-read by Alison Cochrun!

Swoon. Okay. To the educators out there, imagine a book opening on the last day of school, just as the teachers are about to celebrate at the local Applebee’s. I happened to read this on the first evening of spring break, and I think that made this one even more special and relatable. The personalities, the antics, the excitement; it’s all captured, and I laughed out loud many times. The humor is for everyone, not just educators. I just think the fact that the two main characters are also high school teachers is a huge bonus to everyone working in education.

This one wrecked me -- Cochrun pitched it as a Rom com about death and even though the death part was clearly coming from the first few chapters, I still sobbed myself to sleep. The friends to frenemies, to coworkers, to friends to lovers arc was well done and I fell for Logan and Rosemary. Their shared relationship with Joe is what really carried me through the book.

I read this book on a plane and at about the 80% mark I was crying so noticeably that the woman next to me leaned over and said “I’m sorry but I just have to ask, what book are you reading???” And then I was too embarrassed to finish it so I waited until I was alone at my gate for my connecting flight so I could cry in peace. This book was so good and so tender and heartfelt and I adored it!!!

I highlighted so many portions about Rosemary bc I’ve never really felt so seen in a book until reading about her trip binder and anxiety brain.

Giving this a 4.5 rounded up because the repetition of the “blank fuckin blank” outbursts really got on my nerves lol

I absolutely loved Alison Cochrun’s first two books, but “Here We Go Again” didn’t do it for me like they did. The best part of this book was Joe and his love story with Remi. Their chemistry, even after thirty years apart, was beautiful and it was impossible not to love them. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the actual main couple in this romance. Rosemary and Logan were childhood friends, then teenage enemies, ….to annoying coworkers to lovers? Both of their personalities individually worked really well for the story and they both had their strong moments of character development that changed them for the better by the end, but I personally didn’t feel the chemistry between them. Becoming friends again would have been more than enough, and honestly maybe better? The romance between Logan and Rosemary felt unimportant compared to their journey with Joe and everything they experienced on his Death Trip.
On a more stylistic level: Alison Cochrun’s writing is always full of life and very enjoyable to read, but the celebrity name-infused swearing got really old, really fast.
Overall it was a poignant, heartbreaking, enjoyable read— but I wish it wasn’t a “romance”.

This is a beautiful book! First one to make me sob in a long time. Cochrun writes about death/grief in a really tender & devastating way––there's a depth to this narrative that surprises the reader, and that allows this book to surpass her previous work (though I am a Charm Offensive stan forever). I do (still) have qualms with the way Cochrun writes racialized characters. It feels effortful in a way that reads less like, "I'm a white author whose writing reflects the world around me," and more like, "I'm a white author who wants to include ~diversity~ in my books." The issue here lies with the fallacy that our identities are easily legible. (Alexis Hall has written more eloquently about this topic as it relates to the author Ashley Herring-Blake, who seems to have the same issue!) Cochrun's characters seem to immediately/almost magically know (or notice) a person's gender/sexuality/race/disability/etc––they spot the pronoun pin, they recognize the accent or the features, and they always get it right. They can easily name and explain the way a person's identities intersect. But the way we interact IRL is far more complex. Often, we don't know someone's identities until they share them with us. And the way we think of our own identity isn't static, either; it evolves and changes over time. A book that wants to accurately reflect our world should contain a sense, or a tacit acknowledgement of that nuance. [SIDE NOTE: This is a common issue I've noticed in contemporary romance. Feel free to hire me as your sensitivity reader !!! ]

Here We Go Again
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Alison Cochrun

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Atria Books and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: 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. Uptight Rosemary chooses security and stability over all else, working constantly, and her most stable relationship is with her label maker. Chaotic and impulsive Logan has a long list of misguided ex-lovers and an apathetic shrug she uses to protect herself from anything real. And as hard as they try to avoid each other—and their complicated past—they keep crashing into each other. Including with their cars.

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 wish: 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.

My Thoughts: This was a beautifully written story about love and loss. Logan Matetis and Rosemary Hale used to be friends, very close best friends. They spent their time exploring them woods, rebelling against the conservative community, dreaming of escaping to live fulfilled lives. A little high school game before their senior year of high school divided them, and they never spoke again, not in high school or the decade Rosemary has been away. Neither of them are quite living up to where they thought they would be. Both are in the same small town working at the high school they graduated from as teachers. When they life long mentor, and former teacher, Joe lets them know that his cancer is back and he only has a short time to live, and has just one dying wish. A cross county adventure to Maine. They both reluctantly agree, driving in the most inconspicuous gay vehicle, from one state to another in an adventure of a lifetime, what lessons will they learn? What will they experience ? This follows the tropes of queer romance, second chance romance, opposite attract, and enemies to lovers.

This was more than a romance. It was about friendship, lifelong relationships, loss, healing, love, how to let go, and to be able to stand in your truth. The story was primarily narrated by Rosemary and Logan, with a few other surprise narrators, that really enriched the story. I have read other books by Cochrun and really enjoyed them and this one was no different. I enjoy Cochrun’s ability to weave romance with a message. These woman were both neurodivergent and Cochrun really did an amazing job at expressing how two different neurodivergent women can express theirselves down different paths. The author does an amazing job at balancing tender sweet moments with hard to discuss heavy topics, and does it with so much grace. Some of my favorite things from the book are the gay mobile, Joe, the Grand Canyon, and Remi.

Rosemary is rigid, control driven, Demi-sexual, and chooses stability over carefree, who has drowned herself into her career and has not had very many relationships. Logan is the total opposite, she is a carefree spirit, chaotic, shies away from relationships, and will leave someone before they hurt her. These two women have immediate tension from the initial car accident until the last page with appropriate angst. The characters were well developed, fleshed out, had depth, witty banter, chemistry, emotional, and were intriguing. The supporting characters of Joe, Remy, and Odysseus were just brilliant and elevated the story to another level. The author’s writing style was complex, multifaceted, spicy, endearing, poignant, beautiful, and brilliant. The tension was spot on throughout the story. The ending was so poignant, very beautiful, and extremely well written.

TW: toxic parents, mental health, and the loss of a close friend. This story was just so beautiful to me and I loved every single word. Cochrun has made a mark in my life and I will always read her books. Always. This story encompasses romance with relationships, and embraces loss is such an empathic way, you can’t help but fall in love. I experienced the whole gambit of the emotional rollercoaster with this one, from laughter to tears. I love the overall message of the book, teachers enrich people’s lives, become mentors to young minds, and also become safe havens for kids that are struggling. If you like Casey McQuiston, TJ Alexander, or Anita Kelly, you will LOVE this story. I highly recommend picking this up today!!

This is simply the sweetest, most beautiful, rip your heart to shreds and stitch it back up three sizes bigger book that I’ve ever read. I laughed constantly. I held back tears a few times and then cried so hard I couldn’t see the words anymore. The way this book approaches and opens up grief, death, mental health, love, joy, life, and so much more spoke to me in such a special way. I wanted to wrap every character in the biggest hug and never let go. I don’t even know how best to say how perfect it was, but I can tell you already this is a top book of 2024. And probably of ever.

Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun is a friends to rivals to lovers sapphic road trip romance. When their former high school English teacher and longtime queer mentor is told he has 3 months to live he asks them to drive him to his beach house in Maine. Heartbreaking shenanigans happen along the way as the two fight each other and the American interstate in order to get him there. Also, one of the FMCs is on the ace-spectrum and her arch is handled so well. I can fully admit this book will leave you crying for the last 5o pages and you will be happy it happened.

Alison Cochran does it again! Here We Go Again had me absolutely sobbing the entire last 25% of the book. If I sob, it’s a five star rating. I don’t make the rules.

Cochrun is a master in writing emotional journey. In this book, we follow Logan and Rosemary as they take their beloved former teacher turned best friend, Joe, in a cross-country roadtrip.
They were once best friends, but one moment was enough to turn them into strangers, and now they kind of hate each other. Being forced into the gayest van in the country was not how they expected to spend their summer, but they can't say no to Joe.
Logan has a long list of ex-lovers. Rosemary's most stable relationship is with her job. They both have their issues to overcome, but they might be exactly what the other needs.
The emotional journey is one for the ages. Not only Logan and Rosemary's love story is incredible, but so is their journey to accepting Joe's imminent death.
If you want a book that will make you feel all the emotions, this is it!

Absolutely loved. Favorite Alison Cochrun so far! So much love and humor combined. It is pretty emotional and you may want to look at the trigger warnings but I just loved this so much. It was like a big emotional warm hug.

I love Alison Cochrun!

I enjoy reading her books so much, and I feel really lucky as a reader that we have her talent and stories in the romance book space. She's so considerate of both queer and neurodivergent representation in her books, and I'm so glad that she helps so many readers feel seen in her stories. She's so good at crafting character voice (especially in dual POV stories) and her writing is smart and funny.

This story had me both laughing out loud and ugly crying -- such a beautiful marriage of comedy and pull-your-heartstrings depth. You can really feel that this is a book of Alison's heart, that it's personal and contains so much of her feelings. It made it that much more resonant. It really is a captivating and powerful from beginning to end.

I loved the details that makes this story feel lived in and unique (like the auto mechanic shrimp and underground amateur drag shows) and I loved taking this literal and figurative journey with this cast of characters.

The one tiny thing that did annoy me was Logan's use of celebrity names in her proclamations of surprise or anger. I think Shay Mitchell was used three times? It got annoying pretty fast.

Overall, a really touching and and funny story.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity

Fun and lighthearted. Loved it.

I was seriously looking forward to this book, and it absolutely delivered!

Here We Go Again follows Logan and Rosemary, who were best friends as kids but had a falling out in high school. Now, they're both back at the same school as teachers and arch-nemeses.

Of course, Logan and Rosemary both bonded with the same English teacher, Joe, as kids, and they both now find themselves invested in taking care of him as he battles cancer. So when Joe announces that he's dying and his last dying wish is to go on a death road trip with the two of them, they have no choice but to pile into a van together with him and his giant dog and hit the road.

I think one thing Alison Cochrun does really well is crafting a cast of characters that is complex and also utterly charming, and she really succeded with that in this book. Of course, I was obsessed with Joe and all of his elderly gay ridiculousness from the start, but I also loved Logan and Rosemary and each of their unique messes.

Logan is your stereotypical, somewhat chaotic, soft butch with ADHD, while Rosemary is the later-in-life ADHD diagnosis who compensates with needing to be in absolute control of everything, right down to hyper-fixating on color-coded binders for everything.

The chemistry between the two of them is palpable from the beginning, and I loved getting to watch them heal their wounds and fall in love. I also really loved getting to watch Joe get his own rekindled love story as a part of their journey.

This is truly the perfect summer road trip book, and you have to pick it up ASAP. It had me laughing, swooning, and crying in equal measure and I'm sure it will have you feeling the exact same way.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

This friends-to-enemies-to-lovers forced proximity road trip romcom (got all that?) follows a snarky dying teacher who forces two of his former students to drive him across the country in the gayest van west of the Mississippi. Hysterical and heartwarming, f you're looking for a Pride month read, you can't go wrong with this one!

Thanks to Atria for the copy to review.

Here We Go Again is an LGBTQ romance, but also devastated me. But that's what I love in the romances I read!

here is what I wrote on Goodreads:

everyone say thank you, alison.

i, too, am going to start using wlw icons' names to swear. "for fletcher's sake" was my favorite one!

this book was fantastic. however, looking up the content/trigger warnings is a must.