Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Kiss Her Once For Me

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Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

15 reviews

mbrogs2024's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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the_rabble's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a cute one. I'll be recommending it.

If you're looking for tall women protagonists with defined personalities including a big, loud, mid-20s butch love interest, and a minimal amount of hijinx for a fake relationship storyline, this is your book.

Structure: Cochrun does the best flashback structure I've seen in a romance, repeatedly going back to the day Ellie and Jack first meet.

Setting: Portland. I grew up in the PDX metro area, and this is probably the media- aside from Metal Lords- that best lives in the space. Very different vibes, but captures the Portland/west side PNW snow experience in a very real way. YMMV on hipster & transplant culture, but the rent woes are real.

Representation: MC is bi demi with anxiety, LI is biracial butch lesbian with ADHD, the brother is pan, LI's bff is a Spanish-speaking enbie. Notable side characters are trans and alphabet mafia. Nothing feels tokenized or preachy (aside from some hipster cultural touchstones)- it's all pretty natural, casual inclusion.

Narrator: Natalie Naudus is always stellar. This could have been done with someone with less dulcet tones, but I'm never going to turn down Naudus.

Sex Scenes: they happen, it's infrequent, and very well done.

Who I Wouldn't Rec This To: I would recommend this to pretty much anyone with a narrow exception: Our POV, Ellie has a toxic parental relationship and severe anxiety, on page one. If someone is dealing with depression or has similar anxiety issues, I'd be cautious to rec or be sure to let them know it's okay to drop it and come back or DNF.

By the end, Cochrun creates satisfying payoff regarding an overarching

fear of failure

that is empowering and lovely. However, the anxiety is in play the entire book (like actual anxiety disorders) which I could see being a lot for people experiencing severe symptoms.

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kelly_e's review

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funny lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

3.25

Title: Kiss Her Once for Me
Author: Alison Cochrun
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: November 1, 2022

T H R E E • W O R D S

Thoughtful • Nostalgic • Messy

📖 S Y N O P S I S

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.

💭 T H O U G H T S

The Charm Offensive was an absolute hit for me, so of course, I was keeping an eye on new books from Alison Cochrun. It just may have taken me over a year to finally pick up Kiss Her Once For Me. Unfortunately, this one didn't have the same experience as her debut.

Honestly, the premise sounded kind of ridiculous, so I knew going in, I'd have to suspend belief in order to appreciate this big hearted romcom. Marriage-of-convivence is a trope I often struggle to become fully invested in and it was no different with this one, especially when you add in the love triangle and lack of communication elements. Additionally, I wouldn't necessarily classify this as a holiday read, rather it just has strong winter vibes.

This book delivers an incredibly diverse cast of characters with representation spanning ADHD, anxiety disorders, bisexuality, demisexuality, and nonbinary. It was just all very well done. I also found myself appreciating the growth of the main character, the self-discovery theme, and the quirky family more than the actual romance aspect.

Overall, Kiss Her Once for Me didn't live up to my expectations, yet I don't know if it was really the book itself or rather just it containing elements that I don't love. I am curious and looking forward to see where Here We Go Again, Alison Cochrun's upcoming 2024 release will land for me.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• cozy romance
• queer romcoms (demisexual rep)
• love triangles

⚠️ CW: toxic parental relationship, emotional abuse, child abuse, biphobia, transphobia, lesbophobia, homophobia, mental illness, generalized anxiety, panic attacks/disorders, alcoholism, infidelity, sexual content, alcohol, abandonment, cursing, drug use, classism, bullying, gaslighting, ableism, racism, body shaming, fatphobia, death, misogyny, sexism, divorce

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Your trauma is something that happened to you; it’s not who you are."

"We all have seasons of needing and seasons of giving."

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uranaishi's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense fast-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

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dojipengin's review

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emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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taynicole2698's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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haileyhardcover's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-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? Yes

5.0

Very recently, in a review for a book I was massively disappointed by, I wrote that I hate first person point of view and it never reads well. I take it back. It sometimes reads very, very well. Case in point, Kiss Her Once for Me.

I loved this book. It was everything I wanted in a sapphic Christmas romcom. Ellie and Jack were both delightful and seemed to be fully fleshed out characters. Even when Ellie was thinking completely illogically, I still fully understood her thought process and how she could feel and respond the way she did. The characters made SENSE, even when they weren’t making sense. Fully developed characters are my favorite. Also, Meemaw and Lovey? Iconic. I’m obsessed.

Though the premise of this story isn’t unique (why are there SO MANY sapphic holiday books that involve fake-dating the brother of the girl the MC ends up falling for??), this was well executed. The characters were all so easy to love, the pace was perfect, the spice (though brief) was good, and it made me both laugh and cry. The one thing I would’ve loved was for the bits of Ellie’s webcomic “Snow Day” to have actually included the art. It was very cool to read Ellie & Jack’s origin story through her eyes in that way, woven throughout the rest of the story, but it would’ve been so cool for the book to be part graphic novel in that way. I would love to see a special edition come out that included the webcomic as Ellie would’ve published it.

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