Here We Go Again A Novel

If I’m being honest, I didn’t love this one. There is nothing exactly wrong with it, and it’s well written but I just simply didn’t like it. I’m starting to think maybe I’m just not a fan of road-trip novels? I had high hopes after enjoying Alison Cochrun’s writing in The Charm Offensive, but I struggled to root for the characters in this one.

It’s a bit on the slower side, and while the ending is very sweet it felt like the Logan didn’t really earn her happily ever after. I felt like she was aware she was a crappy person but didn’t do anything to change it beyond surface level. I also felt like her backstory/justification for her behaviour was pretty weak. Rosemary, on the other hand, was always trying to do her best for both Joe and Logan (neither of whom appreciated it or really respected her needs). I just feel like Rosemary deserved better.

On a positive note, I think that the themes of death and dying were handled exceptionally well. The final few chapters really illustrate what it is like to experience the slow loss of a loved one and the relief when they’re finally able to let go.

It’s always the books you never expect to make you cry that make you cry. I did not start this book anticipating a five star read, but I’m pleasantly surprised. Is it perfect? Well… no. (See quote: “Her mouth puckers into a cat’s butthole”) HOWEVER!! I felt a lot of feelings okay! The premise of this book is so touching, two ex-best friends take their queer old english teacher on a roadtrip because he’s dying and wants to explore the world one last time?? I mean come on, you’d have to be soulless not to cry at least once. I really loved the characters in this book. Their inner dialogue and their obstacles and their feelings really mattered to me. Even though this was a romance book, and not a thriller or mystery or something, I couldn’t put it down. Most of all I loved their relationships with one another, you could really feel that they loved and cared about each other, and it made the ridiculous parts hilarious and the sad parts devastating. I’m a closeted lesbian living in one of the most homophobic countries in the world and this books still made me feel glad to be queer. I wish I could really express what I’m feeling more articulately and give more details but it really is harder to write reviews for the books you love. Anyway, read this book yesterday!!

very cute, gay, rom com book! logan would piss me sometimes bc the amount of times she would call herself a fuckboy but still cute

I was not expecting this book to make me cry, but I did in fact cry multiple times. It depicts what it’s like to be with a loved one during the end of their life in a very raw and beautiful way, and if you’ve ever experienced something like that first hand, it’s likely that this book will resonate with you. 
 
The romance itself was honestly less interesting to me than Joe’s story, but I still enjoyed it. I loved that the main characters weren’t conventionally attractive (hooray for descriptors other than eye and hair color!), and Alison Cochrun is really good at character development. There were a few parts where I thought the writing got a little redundant; I don’t understand this thing that romcoms do where they write whole paragraphs explaining basic human emotions? Like, I get it, you have abandonment issues… can we talk about something else please?

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book! This is the second book by this author I’ve read, and I hope to read more from her in the future!

Huge CW for end of life care and hospice care for a terminal illness (character is in their 60s). This was a huge part of the plot and it's not a surprise it spans the whole book and yet in the end I was still hit so hard by the grief. But also an amazing testament to the writing the romance still takes up a huge part of this as well and it is SO good. Childhood friends to enemies to lovers forced together on a roadtrip of a lifetime, just incredible.

-0.5 for hurting my feelings? Maybe!!!!

i don't have much experience with death but i can imagine revisiting this book in the future because it encapsulates the pain and joy of life and the sentiment that grief can be a beautiful form of love. it speaks to the bravery of living life even though everything will eventually come to an end because the alternative is not really living. rosemary and logan are perfect foils, one who tries to control everything by holding on too tightly and the other who tries to control everything by never holding on at all. i think they're perfect for each other and i'm a sucker for a grand romantic gesture and i love the one in this book so much <3

alison cochrun is an auto-buy author for me, so needless to say, i was VERY excited when i saw "here we go again" on my netgalley shelf. i went into the book knowing that it was a sapphic summer road trip book, not realizing the context of said road trip. but since i trust alison cochrun with my life, i started the book and proceeded to devour it in less than a day. without giving too much away, "death road trip" is an apt way of describing this book and why it absolutely destroyed me emotionally. logan and rosemary were both such compelling main characters and i saw so much of myself in both of them—logan's adhd, rosemary's anxiety, logan's pop culture references, rosemary's organization skills. i loved following along their journey of ex-friends to quasi rivals to road trip companions to friends to lovers. not to mention the fact that the rest of the characters in this book were also fantastic, particularly joe, and i loved reading about his life. the dynamic that logan, rosemary and joe have had me in stitches one moment and crying the next. i mean, is it not the universal queer kid experience to be emotionally attached to at least one english teacher throughout your life? if you couldn't already tell, i absolutely loved this book and will be forcing everyone i know to read it as soon as it comes out. thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book. "here we go again" is out on april 2nd from atria books!