“Was it possible to have a hole inside you, cookie-cluttered into the shape of a person you hadn’t met yet? Because that’s how it felt when I talked to Jack. We were nothing alike and everything alike.” 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I knew from page one I would love the bell out of this book. It was one of those reads where I so desperately wanted to read the book, but felt SO MUCH on each page that I had to put it down for at lease couple minutes after each chapter. Until, eventually, putting it down wasn’t an option at all. I loved THE CHARM OFFENSIVE, but Alison Cochrun makes magic in KISS HER ONCE FOR ME. It’s got all the things you want in a slow burn—longing, pining, yearning—with the addition of holiday shenanigans, MESSY characters, and tropes galore. It also made me really, really miss Portland. I visit the city and Powells bookstore ONE TIME and then feel it haunting me like the song Last Christmas haunts Jack and Ellie throughout the novel. 

Last Christmas, Ellie Oliver was alone on Christmas until she meet cutes Jack in a bookstore. The two women have a magical snow day together, but after a betrayal and the loss of her job—Ellie is alone and struggling financially as a barista this Christmas. When the coffee shop’s landlord, Andrew, proposes that Ellie fake marry him for ten percent of his grandfather’s inheritance, Ellie is desperate enough to agree. Andrew and Ellie decide to spend the holidays with Andrew’s family at their cabin, where Ellie discovers that her fake fiancé’s sister is Jack-the woman Ellie fell for last Christmas. 

❄️ Messy characters in messy situations 

❄️ One night stand to lovers 

❄️ Fake Dating / Marriage of Convenience 

❄️ Insta Love 

❄️ Soulmates 

❄️ Demisexual rep

❄️ Queer Christmas Romance 

❄️ One Bed Trope 

❄️ Snowed In 

I’ll read this book over and over—Christmas or not.