Name: Wonko the Sane's review of Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
Item: Kiss Her Once for Me
Rating: 5
Author: Wonko the Sane

Alison Cochrun

The author of The Charm Offensive returns with a festive romantic comedy about a woman who fakes an engagement with her landlord…only to fall for his sister.

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.

Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

Perfect for fans of Written in the Stars and One Day in December, Kiss Her Once for Me is the queer holiday rom-com that you’ll want to cozy up with next to the fire. 

Kiss Her Once for Me

The author of the “swoon-worthy debut” (Harper’s Bazaar) The Charm Offensive returns with a festive romantic comedy about a woman who fakes an engagement with her landlord…only to fall for his sister. One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money. Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real. Perfect for fans of Written in the Stars and One Day in December, Kiss Her Once for Me is the queer holiday rom-com that you’ll want to cozy up with next to the fire.

A Novel

Lindsay

Jack kisses me into a knot that only she can untangle.

Everyone knows my sexuality is like a Rorschach test.”

“What you see when you look at me says a lot more about you than it does about me.”

Needing emotional intimacy in relationships while also having an anxiety disorder that makes emotional intimacy nearly impossible is just rude as hell on the part of my brain.

Homesickness sluices through me, but there is no home to be sick for, nothing waiting for me here or anywhere.

sofia

I like my men like I like my life goals: unattainable.

Wonko the Sane

emily

wild ride from the start to finish. this felt like reading the most intense fanfiction and im here for the drama. was a bit sceptical at the beginning but loved the highs and lows this book took me on

Thea Sophie

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money. Finding work at a local coffee shop, she's just getting through the days--until Andrew, the shop's landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie's financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it's Jack--the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

Rebecca Hurd

Very cute LGBTQ romance definitely lots of representation!! I absolutely loved how well Alison described her characters especially the grandmas!!!! I enjoyed all the drama and tension that came from the love trapezoid!! Full of Christmas traditions and family drama. I fully support and recommend this book!!

maia

kait

after reading this, i feel like these characters have filled an ellie-&-jack-shaped hole in my heart--this is my favorite sapphic romance ever and i am in love with all of the characters, this books fills me with such happiness and warmth and i feel like this is going to become a yearly reread throughout the holidays

Tatiana

RTC: 3/5

Solid sapphic romcom with developed characters but sometimes the main character (Ellie) can get repetitive. Overall pretty solid Sapphic Christmas Romance with a unique twist!

I decided to give this book a try because I enjoyed Alison Cochrun’s previous work, The Charm Offensive. And I do find Kiss Her Once for Me to have the same light and swoon-y vibe, but still with complex characters. I can also see how the main characters in this book resemble the two main characters in The Charm Offensive – which I don’t really know if it’s a good thing or not for some people, but I don’t have any problem with it.

I love how Alison Cochrun talks about mental illness in her works. Both Dev in The Charm Offensive and Ellie in this book are dealing with their own mental struggles. I can feel it was written with genuine care. One thing though, I was kinda hoping to see more Asian/Korean sides from Jack or Andrew. I know it’s not the center of the story, but as an Asian myself, I was secretly wishing their ethnic background would be talked about more as the story goes. But maybe that’s just me and my obsession with how authors would incorporate Asian characters and Asian-related issues in their story.

Kiss Her Once for Me is a light read, and a sweet one. It’s goofy at times, maybe cringey at parts, but overall it was an enjoyable experience and a much-needed romcom break for me!

Sashi

I decided to give this book a try because I enjoyed Alison Cochrun’s previous work, The Charm Offensive. And I do find Kiss Her Once for Me to have the same light and swoon-y vibe, but still with complex characters. I can also see how the main characters in this book resemble the two main characters in The Charm Offensive – which I don’t really know if it’s a good thing or not for some people, but I don’t have any problem with it.

I love how Alison Cochrun talks about mental illness in her works. Both Dev in The Charm Offensive and Ellie in this book are dealing with their own mental struggles. I can feel it was written with genuine care. One thing though, I was kinda hoping to see more Asian/Korean sides from Jack or Andrew. I know it’s not the center of the story, but as an Asian myself, I was secretly wishing their ethnic background would be talked about more as the story goes. But maybe that’s just me and my obsession with how authors would incorporate Asian characters and Asian-related issues in their story.

Kiss Her Once for Me is a light read, and a sweet one. It’s goofy at times, maybe cringey at parts, but overall it was an enjoyable experience and a much-needed romcom break for me!

Ellie si è appena trasferita a Portland e fa il lavoro dei suoi sogni in una casa di produzione cinematografica. La vigilia di Natale vive una giornata perfetta: tra gli scaffali della libreria Powell incontra una donna di cui si innamora immediatamente. Ma in poco tempo si ritrova senza un impiego e col cuore spezzato. Il Natale successivo è da sola, depressa e senza un soldo in tasca. Tutto cambia di nuovo quando Andrew, il proprietario della caffetteria dove Ellie ha trovato lavoro, le propone un matrimonio di convenienza per poter entrare in possesso di un'eredità. Sembra tutto troppo facile, e infatti, quando Ellie incontra la famiglia del finto fidanzato, scopre che la verità che si era raccontata nell'ultimo anno era il frutto di un malinteso...

Dalle un bacio da parte mia

i’ve just finished this book and i swear i Loved every single moment of it
it was such a comfort christmas rom-com + jack was one of the reasons why i enjoyed this reading so much

«I want to open Clip Studio and find the right color to capture the feeling of Jack's voice.
Cerulean like my scarf, maybe. Umber like her eyes.»

Hershelle Villanueva

very cute read and i loved the characters a lot !!

This was such a sweet book, I love the story and the character and Ah the ending was perfect. The way the author describes the characters drew me into this book the most Jack and El and even lesser characters were so compelling to me YES

Hannah

Uggh a gay Christmas romance, I can’t help but love it

Amelia Hruby

This is pretty decent, but in the end I fully stopped caring about either character

I literally finished this book in five hours, unable to stop even for a moment. And my ability to ignore my body's needs for an amazing holiday/queer/contemporary romance is utterly remarkable. Anyways, I will now be reading this every year around the holidays so that I can giggle and hang out with an amazing found family 

Kate B-L

COULD NOT PUT DOWN

I literally finished this book in five hours, unable to stop even for a moment. And my ability to ignore my body's needs for an amazing holiday/queer/contemporary romance is utterly remarkable. Anyways, I will now be reading this every year around the holidays so that I can giggle and hang out with an amazing found family 

Michaella 

OliviaPadilla

Includes so much of the Portland and greater Oregon I love.

The representation of LGBTQIA+ is ✨chefs kiss✨ 

Brittany Peterson

Loved this book!! 

The representation of LGBTQIA+ is ✨chefs kiss✨ 

Cloudface

I don’t usually like holiday romances because but I thoroughly enjoyed this one! I’m starting to realize that in order for me to really like a romance book, the character needs to also have some growth as a person independent of the main relationship in the story. This book had that, plus plenty of the cute romcom tropes, and a cast of characters that all felt distinct and memorable. 
My only complaint is that I could really do without all the Taylor Swift references, and I kind of hate constant song references in general in books. It feels like the author is trying to shove the theme down my throat, and it’s distracting to have to try to remember the lyrics to a song when I’m trying to read the text in front of me. But that me just one pet peeve in an otherwise really fun and cute romcom. It was nice to have a holiday one that I could really see myself in.

Anja Hansen

Such a cute christmas book!! It reminded me a lot of while you were sleeping, which is one of my favorites, so this was just perfect

Chelsy Olvera 

Absolute perfection 💜

There are so many little treasures in this book and so many lines I wish I could memorize.

Louise 

"Miscommunication is for the straights" 💀

This was such a fun queer romcom!!

Shawna Delellis

** spoiler alert **
           “Kiss her once for me” is a fantastic holiday romance that had me hooked immediately!! The magic of meeting a stranger on a snow day and falling in love with them, time spent apart and meeting again. This story was truly so magical and brought in the elements of “fate” that I love. 

I admired that Ellie is still trying to figure life out throughout the whole book. Her fear of failure was hit very close to home but I loved her character growth and her commitment to honesty and moving forward! 

I loved the friendship that formed between Andrew and Ellie although I wish there was more overall dialogue and scenes with them growing closer. 

I am a sucker for the found family trope and the Kim-Prescott family was a diverse bunch of hilarious characters. I found myself wanting to jump right into the family snowball fight. 

Jack completely stole my heart! This pop music loving, stubborn, too loud, amazingly honest and caring woman. 

Ellie and Jack are two broken people trying to put their lives together, they truly bring out the best in each other and I couldn’t be happier with their ending. 

I did find a few spelling mistakes/ repeated words but other than that this book was 5 stars for me!

grace richards

author looked into my brain and pulled out three core things and put them in ellie: atla, pisces, taylor swift and then wrote a character so me coded it hurt

I wanted to really love this book, but for some reason I can’t put my finger on, it just wasn’t my favorite. I’m happy to see some more LGBTQ romance though! 

On page romance, but in my opinion it needs more. 

I wanted to really love this book, but for some reason I can’t put my finger on, it just wasn’t my favorite. I’m happy to see some more LGBTQ romance though! 

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

On page romance, but in my opinion it needs more. 

Kristen Claiborn

Ah yes, the holiday romance. I usually read an obnoxious number of these every year. They’re like Thanksgiving dinner, you only get them once a year and you savor every morsel. This year I even had the joy of a Halloween romance, it doesn’t get much better than this folks. I love the cheesiness of the holiday romance, and this book happens to combine that lovely gooey cheese with the hugely problematic but glorious fake relationship storyline. This one is going to be good. 
	I loved it. It’s exactly what you would expect from a holiday romance. There’s a broken heart, a rich guy who convinces a down-on-her-luck barrista to enter a financially motivated fake romance, sparks (but not between the players you’d think), and of course, the emotionally stunted older family members. This one has the added bonus of the non-binary bestie (who’s bestie? That’s not completely clear, but they seemed to merge into the family seamlessly). There are some quirky grandmas that make the story pretty damn funny, and I feel like every family should have quirky grandmas (I now strive to be one…someday). Everything about this book oozes with the holiday goofiness we love. 
	I love how the relationships in the story are far more complex than what I’ve been reading for the past 30 (ish) decades. We start with one couple, we end up with another…then everything blows up and it’s hard to tell who is snogging who. It’s fine, they’re all consenting adults. Over the course of the story, we are able to see who SHOULD be with who, and eventually all of it comes out in the wash. I wanted to cheer at the end, it was a great finish.

Wonko the Sane &
Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

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Wonko the Sane &Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

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Wonko the Sane &
Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun