The author of the “sexy, insightful, and utterly charming” (BuzzFeed) Kiss Her Once for Me returns with a new queer rom-com following once childhood best friends forced together to drive their former teacher across the country.
A long time ago, Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale used to be friends. They spent their childhood summers running through the woods, rebelling against their conservative small town, and dreaming of escaping. But then an incident the summer before high school turned them into bitter rivals. After graduation, they went ten years without speaking.
Now in their thirties, Logan and Rosemary find they aren’t quite living the lives of adventure they imagined for themselves. Still in their small town and working as teachers at their alma mater, they’re both stuck in old patterns. Uptight Rosemary chooses security and stability over all else, working constantly, and her most stable relationship is with her label maker. Chaotic and impulsive Logan has a long list of misguided ex-lovers and an apathetic shrug she uses to protect herself from anything real. And as hard as they try to avoid each other—and their complicated past—they keep crashing into each other. Including with their cars.
But when their beloved former English teacher and lifelong mentor tells them he has only a few months to live, they’re forced together once and for all to fulfill his last wish: a cross-country road trip. Stuffed into the gayest van west of the Mississippi, the three embark on a life-changing summer trip—from Washington state to the Grand Canyon, from the Gulf Coast to coastal Maine—that will chart a new future and perhaps lead them back to one another.
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Contemporary queer romance often blends humor with poignant emotional exploration, a combination prominently featured in The Charm Offensive. Author Alison Cochrun entered the romantic fiction field with this debut novel set behind the scenes of a reality dating show, establishing her focus on inclusive romantic narratives and mental health themes. Her work celebrates queer joy while addressing complex personal challenges across multiple popular titles.
Before pursuing a full-time fiction writing career, Alison Cochrun spent eleven years working as a high school English teacher. Balancing her teaching responsibilities with creative projects, she completed her debut novel, The Charm Offensive, which was published in 2021. The success of her debut allowed her to transition into full-time writing.
Following her debut, Cochrun expanded her body of work with novels including Kiss Her Once for Me (2022), Here We Go Again (2024), Every Step She Takes, and Learning Curves. Her achievements in LGBTQ romance include receiving two Lambda Literary Awards—winning in 2023 for Kiss Her Once for Me—and being named a Stonewall Honor Book recipient. She lives outside Portland, Oregon, with her wife, children, and dogs.
Cochrun's writing is distinguished by its emphasis on queer joy, neurodivergence representation, and realistic mental health experiences. Her stories integrate traditional romantic comedy tropes with deeper emotional themes, allowing characters to navigate internal struggles alongside their developing relationships.
In Here We Go Again, Cochrun structured the narrative as a sapphic road-trip story centered around grief and loss, drawing on her own personal experiences with bereavement during the writing process. Her novels consistently examine how individuals build intimacy, cultivate self-acceptance, and navigate personal recovery while falling in love.
