Thank you so much to Alison Cochrun, Atria Books & NetGalley for this advance copy of your book! 

"On a snow day in Portland, you could fall in love."

Kiss Her Once for Me was such a delight to read and gave me all the holiday magic feels! 

Quick recap: Ellie met Jack last Christmas and after a magical 24 hours ago, she has never heard or seen from her again. Their paths never crossed until a year later when Ellie is asked to be fake engaged to Andrew the owner of property where she works only to discover that he is the brother of Jack. 

I LOVE the concept of this book!! I have never seen While You Were Sleeping (which I definitely need to make sure I find to watch this holiday season) but I do remember seeing it listed on the TV Guide channel. This was also my first book that had the topic of marriage of convenience which I didn't think I would enjoy but I did. I am wondering if its because in this case it was link to fake dating which is one of my favorite tropes. 

Cochrun has such a way with dialogue and banter that you can't help but smile while reading. The same charm is here as there was with her debut novel The Charm Offensive. You cannot help but root for the MC and her love interest, Jack.  

"You have to stop letting your fear of failure keep you from letting people in." 

My heart went out to Ellie because she was trying SO hard to just make it through life daily but always was getting knocked down. The growth from the beginning to the last 25% of the book made me so happy. I was happy she set a boundary up between herself and her mom. I am fairly certain my blood pressure rose every time she called Ellie. I was so happy she was able to take these small connections and develop this new found family that is supportive. 

One thing that I love about Alison's writing and this was captured in her debut as well as in this is her way of having a lot of diverse characters. It is SO refreshing to see sexual identities that are not normally found in romance books. I look forward to seeing what she has up her sleeve next! 

My only two small critiques were: The repetition of failure and then those around her constantly telling her how she didn't fail. I think it was done a little more than I needed.  The other was the webcomic add ins as it told Ellie and Jack's story but I could have done without them. I found myself wanting to get back to the present day text.  I understood the importance of both of these as it told the backstory and aided in the anxiety of why Ellie was the way she is. 

The way Alison writes about the Pacific Northwest makes me want to travel out there even more than I already wanted to. It seems like such a beautiful place to visit and just to experience in person. 

One of my favorite things that authors do is have some sort of media attached to their book that takes it outside of the book In this case, Alison has made playlist for not only the book for Jack's character. This playlist is referenced in the book so it's awesome to have it there to listen to. Just scanning through it, my little 90s-00s pop heart is bursting over the song choices that takes me back to simpler times. 

PS: The line that I felt attacked by was: "Honesty game: what is your favorite Taylor Swift album, and why is it Evermore?"  I mean come on, it clearly is her BEST album.  It's also no surprise that I do this book as the author was inspired by Taylor's song "Tis The Damn Season" which is a top song of hers for me. Major kudos all around!