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hmatt's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This is a big heartstrings-pulling story, and I applaud the author for also making it so funny and charmingly romantic. It took me longer than usual to get through because I read it in ebook, and audio is my preferred medium for this genre.
It's definitely a cheesy, trope-y read at times, which is both a pro and a con in my books. My biggest critique would be that the author leans a bit too heavily into queer, sapphic, and neurodivergent stereotypes. At times, this felt alienating... and, at other times, it felt clunky and awkward.
I don't know that I would describe this reading experience as "feel-good", because it deals very heavily and very intimately with dying and grieving a loved one. It is, however, an emotional read that includes a romantic resolution.
It's definitely a cheesy, trope-y read at times, which is both a pro and a con in my books. My biggest critique would be that the author leans a bit too heavily into queer, sapphic, and neurodivergent stereotypes. At times, this felt alienating... and, at other times, it felt clunky and awkward.
I don't know that I would describe this reading experience as "feel-good", because it deals very heavily and very intimately with dying and grieving a loved one. It is, however, an emotional read that includes a romantic resolution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content and Excrement
Minor: Addiction and Car accident
"Death of parent" warning used for a parental figure.thebruce's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Excrement, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic
scottishgremlin's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I really enjoy Cochrun’s romance novels. As with her other works, this book is tender and funny with realistic, likeable characters, and enough plot beyond the romance to carry the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Excrement
Minor: Homophobia and Vomit
fromjuliereads's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I cried and teared up through the last like 70 pages 😭😭 such a good book.
I'm leaning towards 4.5 stars but also thinking f*ck it, it's 5 stars cause it's hard to make me cry with books...
I'm leaning towards 4.5 stars but also thinking f*ck it, it's 5 stars cause it's hard to make me cry with books...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, Abandonment, and Alcohol
kelly_e's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
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."
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."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Outing, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Drug use
overdosetakarakei's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I should've DNF'd this...
I literally couldn't have cared less about these two MCs - I was literally only invested in their teacher/mentor Joe and from the beginning you know how that's going to end. So why did I make myself suffer?
I literally couldn't have cared less about these two MCs - I was literally only invested in their teacher/mentor Joe and from the beginning you know how that's going to end. So why did I make myself suffer?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, and Medical content
Moderate: Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, and Grief
Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia
jess_polishedcomma's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Death of parent
Moderate: Vomit, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism and Death of parent
melaschnie's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Excrement, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail
livruther's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
this is a hard book to review. on a prose level, it is incredible. prose that you would get tattooed on you. but the dialogue and the characterization really brought it down for me. all the celebrity name drops drove me insaneeeee. they were so millennial cringe. I also thought it was so weird how Logan kept saying that rosemary's mouth looked like a cat's asshole and then saying she wanted to kiss it?? also, that Logan was still obsessed with rosemary didn't really make sense to me. Like still having some feelings about her makes sense, but the level of obsession just didn't feel realistic. both of them kind of acted like the middle schoolers they were when they first met. also, it was weird to me that Logan didn't tell her dad when they started taking detours on the trip. even tho she was grown, I would think her dad would care about her location.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Excrement, and Vomit
maddiereadswords's review
4.0
Listen, this book was brilliant and wonderful and heartrendingly beautiful, but also I absolutely never want to read it again ever in my life, thanks so much for understanding <3
Ok, but for real though, I loved the Odyssey of it all, and I fell in love with all three of the main characters, especially Logan and Rosemary. Their POVs and voices were always different enough that it was easy to tell who was narrating any given part. I will say, though, POV switches in the middle of chapters remain one of my most hated things, and I also have to take points off for the whole bit where the characters use famous queer people's names as expletives; it was fun at first, but the joke got old really fast. Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed most of this book. The romance was so well-done, and it felt very earned by the end, and this is very much one of those books where even though you know how it ends, the journey was absolutely worth it. (And I LOVED how they found little pockets of queer community and belonging in places they didn't expect!!)
But that ending though...I won't spoil it, but if you read the summary then yeah you can guess what's gonna happen, and oh boy I was not expecting it to hit me as hard as it did. I was not in as good of a headspace for this as I thought I was going in, so I'll fully admit I skimmed most of the last few chapters, but it was still such a good story that I can't even knock off points for that. This truly is a rom-com about death, and even though I can't imagine I'll ever pick this book up again of my own free will, I did love the journey it took me on.
Ok, but for real though, I loved the Odyssey of it all, and I fell in love with all three of the main characters, especially Logan and Rosemary. Their POVs and voices were always different enough that it was easy to tell who was narrating any given part. I will say, though, POV switches in the middle of chapters remain one of my most hated things, and I also have to take points off for the whole bit where the characters use famous queer people's names as expletives; it was fun at first, but the joke got old really fast. Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed most of this book. The romance was so well-done, and it felt very earned by the end, and this is very much one of those books where even though you know how it ends, the journey was absolutely worth it. (And I LOVED how they found little pockets of queer community and belonging in places they didn't expect!!)
But that ending though...I won't spoil it, but if you read the summary then yeah you can guess what's gonna happen, and oh boy I was not expecting it to hit me as hard as it did. I was not in as good of a headspace for this as I thought I was going in, so I'll fully admit I skimmed most of the last few chapters, but it was still such a good story that I can't even knock off points for that. This truly is a rom-com about death, and even though I can't imagine I'll ever pick this book up again of my own free will, I did love the journey it took me on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol