Every Step She Takes

Every Step She Takes is set in beautiful Portugal and follows Sadie, a late bloomer who suddenly finds herself exploring the famous Camino de Santiago trail as part of a quirky queer women's travel group and falling in love along the way.

The couple: Mal is a confident world traveler with a complicated family life and more baggage than Samsonite. Sadie is a 30-something who is questioning who she is. At the last minute, Sadie takes her sister's place on the trip and must document her travels on her sister's social media. There's a delightfully awkward meet cute between the couple on the plane to Portugal where Sadie (drunkenly) reveals much about herself and asks Mal to be her sapphic mentor on the trip. 

This sapphic RomCom started off strong and the initial fish out of water aspect and the meet cute had me giggling. I loved the Porto setting and easily pictured the cobbled streets and the beginning trail marker at the cathedral from my trip there in Sept 2024. From the delicious descriptions of pasteis de natas (yom!!!) and beautiful settings, Cochrun brings readers into the heart and culture of Portugal.

But ... the romance and chemistry were weak, and I didn't know what I wanted Mal and Sadie to be to each other - lovers and soul mates or just friends. I felt like I was being told about Mal and Sadie's connection rather than seeing it - which came off as more physical than romantic. Honestly, I felt more chemistry between Mal and her latest stepmom. 

Overall, I enjoyed the found family elements and Sadie's self-discovery, but this RomCom wasn't as strong as I expected and left me wanting a little bit more in the romance department (and a strong yearning for pasteis de Nata!!)

Disclaimer: Thank you to the publisher for the advanced digital copy of this book which was given in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Alison Cochrun

Genre: LGBTQIA2S+ Romance

Type and Source: ebook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Atria Books

First Published: September 2, 2025

Read: Aug 25-30, 2025

Book Description from GoodReads: Thirty-five-year-old Seattleite Sadie Wells needs an escape. She’s desperate to escape her monotonous routines, the family business that has consumed her entire life, and the unexpected gay panic that has her questioning everything she thought she knew about herself. So when her injured sister offers Sadie her place on a tour along Portugal’s Camino de Santiago, she decides this is the perfect chance to get away from it all.

After three glasses of wine on the plane and some turbulence convince Sadie she won’t even survive the flight, she confesses all her secrets to her seatmate, Mal. The the plane doesn’t crash, and it turns out Mal is on her Camino tour. Worst of all, Sadie learns that she is on a tour specifically for queer women, and that her two-hundred-mile trek will be a journey of self-discovery, whether she wants it to be or not.

Fascinated by the woman who drunkenly came out to her on the plane, Mal offers to help Sadie relive the queer adolescence she missed out on as they walk the Camino. As Sadie develops her newfound confidence, Mal grapples with a complicated loss and unexpected inheritance. But as their relationship blurs the lines between reality and practice, they both must decide if they will forever part at the end of the tour or chart a new course together.

With “funny, poignant” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) prose, Alison Cochrun explores the power of letting go of your past and realizing that it’s never too late to live as your authentic self.