Begin Again | Review

As usual, Andie Rose has a plan: Transfer from community college to the hyper competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and maintain her lifelong goal of becoming an iconic self-help figure despite the nerves that have recently thrown her for a loop. All it will take is ruthless organization, hard work, and her trademark unrelenting enthusiasm to pull it all together.

But the moment Andie arrives, the rest of her plans go off the rails. Her rocky relationship with her boyfriend Connor only gets more complicated when she discovers he transferred out of Blue Ridge to her community college. Her roommate Shay needs a major, and despite Andie’s impressive track record of being The Fixer, she’s stumped on how to help. And Milo, her coffee-guzzling grump of an R.A. with seafoam green eyes, is somehow disrupting all her ideas about love and relationships one sleep-deprived wisecrack at a time.

But sometimes, when all your plans are in rubble at your feet, you find out what you’re made of. And when Andie starts to find the power of her voice as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station–the same one her mom founded, years before she passed away–Andie learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.

I enjoyed this book despite the fact that it took me over a month to finish. It was original in many ways, surprising in so many ways (which is unexpected for a contemporary romance novel), and still utterly romantic.

Our main character, Andie, was a great character to tell this story. She loves to “fix” things in people’s lives, but often neglects important things in hers that lead to disaster. Andie goes through a lot of change and development in this book and it was very well written. It’s gradual, but still moving forward. It feels so natural and even though you can see the person she needs to end up as in the end, you’re still a little surprised and impressed to see the new person she becomes.

Milo was so cute. He’s a little grumpy and perpetually tired all the time. Seeing him paired up with Andie was amazing. Opposites attract and all that. Milo has to work on forgiving some people in his life and make decisions about his future. It was nice to see how he went about these things with Andie’s help (even though he was the one who ultimately had to deal with his demons). I also loved his family. The big, huge Flynn family gave Andie some found family moments every so often and it was so nice.

One thing I disliked a bit was that Andie stayed with her boyfriend for about 70% of this book. There was no cheating between her and Milo, but we knew they were going to end up together romantically. I wish her and her boyfriend would have broken up sooner so that Andie and Milo could have had time to let their feelings grow for each other more organically without rushing things towards the end.

Overall, this was so enjoyable and I can’t wait to dive back into another Emma Lord book. I have a couple sitting on my shelf and I’m ready!

Rating

To check out my other reviews, click here. Or to check out more books by Emma Lord, go to her Goodreads profile or visit her website.