Reviews

Begin Again by Emma Lord

stacyroth's review

3.0

Andie Rose always has a plan. After a semester at her local community college, Andie has been admitted to her dream school, Blue Ridge State, where her parents met and fell in love. She and her high school sweetheart, Connor, will go through college together before getting married, and Andie will major in Psychology and become a famous self-help icon. Unfortunately, when she goes to surprise Connor on the first day of the new semester, she discovers that he secretly transferred to her old community college. As Andie struggles to balance classes, work, and gathering ribbons for secret societies you can only get your freshman year, she finds a strong friend group with her roommate, Shay; her RA, Milo; and her tutor, Valeria.

Georgina Sadler did a great job with the narration of this audiobook. I know a lot of people were impatient for Andie to get together with Milo already, but I didn’t really feel the chemistry between them. Also, I know that Andie had to break up with Connor so that she could be with Milo, but I feel like the author didn’t need to

Spoiler

turn him into a cheating dirtbag

to make the breakup happen; for me, that just made the story a little worse. Overall, it was a cute coming of age story that I think teenagers will enjoy!

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

n_g_reader's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-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

2.5

Emma Lord typically writes teenagers in high school or about to graduate and it shows in this book. This book is about a college freshman in the second semester of her freshman year and it reads like a cliche of what college is - drinking multiple cups of coffee, bad jokes about coffee, etc. etc.
It just felt bad and I didn't like it. It had potential, but it wasn't good and I was disappointed because I've enjoyed the Emma Lord's books, which made the disappointment even more poignant. This book didn't land - the relationships were bad, the writing was bad, everything just fell super flat and the redeeming qualities weren't redeeming enough.

contains drinking, slight swearing, romance

mrsmather's review

hopeful relaxing fast-paced

4.0

dhuha_m's review

1.0

literally the one star is for the taylor swift references and that's it

tesskrovetz's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

indyfoodgal2023's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.0

fleurhuijsmans's review

2.0

This one took me forever to get through it felt like. Maybe cause I was listening to the audiobook and suddenly it got deleted. Or maybe cause I'm not really familiar with the whole club/ribbons/color thing and that was drawn out a lotttt. In general I felt like the book was longer than it had to be. Very detailed, not much left for the imagination. I think if I could have continued it as an audiobook I would have liked it more, but having to read it, I was less interested. I liked tweet cute way more for example.

jess_craft's review

4.0

The audio was not great, but the story was cute.

lexwinford's review

3.0

i'd probably give it a 2.5 if half stars were an option

this one just kinda fell flat for me i don't really know why but it just didn't pull me in and make me invested in the characters and storyline - easy lil romcom read, not bad, but i will probably just never think about it again

kaarak's review

5.0

Emma Lord has killed it again with another book. This adorable YA book was filed with friends, adventures and lots of snack cakes. When the main character transfers to her parents alma mater and also the school where her boyfriend currently attends. Andie has a plan in mind and it quickly goes awry. I adored Andie and all the other characters in Andies orbit.