Kiss her Once for me

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Cochrun, Alison, Adult Book / Fiction / Romance / General / Cochrun, Alison
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Cochrun, Alison	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Romance / General / Cochrun, Alison	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"The author of the "swoon-worthy debut" (Harper's Bazaar) The Charm Offensive returns with a festive romantic comedy about a woman who fakes an engagement with her landlord...only to fall for his sister. 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. Perfect for fans of Written in the Stars and One Day in December, Kiss Her Once for Me is the queer holiday rom-com that you'll want to cozy up with next to the fire"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
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Summary / Annotation
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Questionable Demi Rep submitted by Meginator on June 17, 2023, 11:45pm This holiday romance novel is built on tropes that I generally enjoy, yet it never quite came together for me. The fake dating storyline that provide the book with its present-day plot feels unnecessarily contrived even for this particular trope, and the fake boyfriend is a little too unrealistically perfect, although he does do an excellent job of fulfilling the best friend role for protagonist Ellie. However, I was never all that invested in the core romance and I felt that Ellie’s emotional reaction to, and seeming obsession with, their previous meeting was unhealthy and out of proportion given its brevity and the way that it ended; she isn’t just reminded of the affair when she sees Jack again, but uses it as motivation to go for the fake dating scheme in the first place (without, obviously, knowing that her former fling will be involved). Cochrun does handle Ellie’s anxiety disorder quite well and with incredible compassion, but the book’s core emotional notes ultimately fall flat, with the main couple never really getting to the core of each other in a way that I found believable or enticing. I was also incredibly disappointed with the author’s depiction of demisexuality; while Ellie’s experience is valid and may match what some demisexual people experience in the real world, it is still disheartening to be told that a character is demisexual only to have her fall into bed with someone immediately upon meeting them. While I suspect that the author’s intent is to use this as evidence that the characters are destined for each other and share a deep and instant emotional connection, this use of demisexuality feels cheap and dismissive, like the author is trying to score representation points without actually understanding how this orientation might affect her character (or, for that matter, readers whose experiences are rarely reflected in romance novels). The book’s extensive holiday celebrations fit the season nicely and give it an aura of warmth, but without a primary couple I really wanted to root for, the story ultimately didn’t work well for me.

Extremely average submitted by asangtani on July 10, 2023, 7:25am In this winter romance, demisexual Ellie falls in love with a stranger, Jack, over the course of a day and tries to fall out of love with her the rest of the book. The love story isn’t particularly convincing and while I do like alternating timelines, it just doesn’t make sense for this book.

A Fun Christmas (or anytime) Read submitted by pamhockey25 on August 27, 2023, 9:06am This is a second-chance romance, with the beginning of the romance taking place the previous Christmas between Ellie and Jack. Present day Ellie meets Jack (Jacqueline) again, but now Ellie is pretending to be engaged to Andrew, Jack's brother. Ellie realizes she's still in love with Jack, and meanwhile Andrew's friend Dylan is in love with him. It's a fun read, with the twist being that the romance is not between the couple who's in the fake relationship.