lololovesthings 's review for:

Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun

3.5

adventurous emotional funny reflective 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

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"Every Step She Takes" by Alison Cochrun is a sapphic self-discovery romance that sees the main character, Sadie, discovering she is a lesbian while on Portugal’s Camino walk at the age of 35. Mal, another Camino participant, decides to take Sadie under her wing and help her with her "queer adolescence" to find out what she likes. Ahhhh, experiments so they don't catch feelings! THAT will work! As with all of Alison Cochrun's books, this story is deep, lovely, and heartwarming, with a decent side of spice and life lessons. I liked both Sadie and Mal as characters. I enjoyed watching Sadie discover who she truly is, opening herself up to life and the queerness that she has denied for far too long. Sadie has severe anxiety, which resonated with me as well. I wish I had the guts to step outside of my comfort zone and do something hard like a Camino walk. Mal has a fraught relationship with her father, who left her a large sum of money. I love how she used that on all of her queer friends because she knew he would have hated it. YES! Mal falls in love easily, but never sticks around in one place long enough to see if those feelings are real. The longer Sadie, Mal, and their ragtag group of queers walk the Camino, the more intense their feelings get for one another. There are a lot of interesting, intriguing side characters in this group as well, each brings their own brand of humor, honesty, discovery, and appreciation for life. I *love* that this story involves mid-30-somethings. More of that in romance, please! I will say, this is a bit too slow-burning for me. I felt like I was left waiting for the other shoe to drop for the majority of the book. I wanted things to move a little bit faster. I would have liked a little bit more Camino adventures. I didn't love the third act, but it all tied up nicely in the end. All in all, this is not my favorite Alison Cochrun book (which isn't really fair because I gave all of her other books 5 stars), but it's still worth reading for the journey of queer self-discovery.

Thank you to Alison Cochrun, NetGalley, and Atria Books for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.