Here We Go Again

I've been a fan of Alison Cochrun since I read and adored her first book The Charm Offensive and her recent book Kiss Her Once For Me. Her books have love, great banter and fantastic LGBTQIA2S+ representation. 

Here We Go Again was a cute queer RomCom that centres around two childhood BFFs who had a falling out in high school. They've both returned to their hometown to work at their former high school, but the grudges remain. When their beloved high school English teacher/father figure Joe, who is terminally ill, asks Logan and Rosemary to drive him across the country so he can die at his ocean-side home, the two women make tentative amends for Joe's sake and head across the US.

This book had all the fixin's for a good queer RomCom ... but I wanted more.  More romance. More (varied) conflict. Instead, we're given a very slowly paced story that dragged in several spots and the miscommunication trope raised its ugly head. I found the conflict repetitive particularly with Logan and her repeated regressions and constant reminder that she considers herself a 'fuckboy'. Logan and Rosemary's qualms felt juvenile (the overdone pop culture exclamations didn't help) and I found myself gravitating towards Joe's storyline which felt more authentic. 

Joe is the heart of this book. Ahhh, sweet Joe. He's the kind of teacher everyone should have, and I consider this book to be a love letter to the teachers who make a positive mark on their students lives. Through Joe, Cochrun explores the struggles of terminal illness on the patient and on their caregivers. This book will squeeze a tear out of even the hardest of hearts.

This book had all the right elements - a good premise, complicated characters, enemies-to-lovers trope, emotional bits, funny bits and some spice. It has its charm and beautiful messages about love, friendship, making amends while you still can, loss and grief, but the execution of the story fell a bit short for me. 

Disclaimer: Thanks to Atria Books for the advanced copy of this book which was provided in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Author: Alison Cochrun

Genre: RomCom, LGBTQ+

Type and Source: ebook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Atria

First Published: April 2, 2024

Book Description from GoodReads: 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.