Every Step She Takes | Alison Cochrun

---

🌟 Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun 🌟

📚 Genre: Sapphic Romance, Contemporary

📅 Release Date: September 2, 2025 — Purchase Link

🖊️ Publisher: Atria Books

🔗 Goodreads: Every Step She Takes on Goodreads

💫 Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis

Sadie Wells is thirty-five and suddenly dealing with a full-blown gay panic. When she takes her sister’s spot on a Camino de Santiago tour, she expects a break from her boring life—what she doesn’t expect is drunkenly coming out to her seatmate mid-flight, only to find out Mal is on the same trip. Surrounded by queer women and nudged into rediscovering herself, Sadie stumbles into new confidence, messy feelings, and maybe even love. The only question is whether this Camino ends at goodbye, or something more. 🧳

My Thoughts 💭

🔍 Why I Picked This Up:

I love sapphic romances so much and have heard so many good things about this author so I was very excited to read this book.

I want to give a huge thank you to Alison Cochrun, Atria Books, and NetGalley for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

✨ What I Loved:

While my feelings about this book were a bit mixed overall, there’s a lot I genuinely enjoyed, especially once the story hit its stride in the second half. The dynamics between all the characters started to blossom, and the tension between the main couple finally became a driving force. 💗 It’s hard to say too much without spoiling anything, but I will say again that I wish the romance had been more central throughout. The romance picked up later on, but the friendships ended up feeling like the biggest focus overall. 👭

One area where this book truly shines is its representation. The author did an amazing job of including diverse groups of people without it ever feeling forced or tokenized, and I really appreciated that. 🎀 Representation matters, and it’s so important for people to feel seen in the books they read. We honestly don’t get enough of that, and this story handled it beautifully.

✍️ Room for Improvement:

This is just a personal preference, but I don’t usually like modern lingo in novels. It made sense here since the story is set in the present day, but it still pulled me out of the story a bit.

I also tend to struggle with the opening of romance books, they often feel a little slow for me, and this one definitely took a while to build momentum. ⏳ While I liked the direction the story was heading, I thought the relationship between the main characters developed too slowly, alongside the overall plot. I usually enjoy a good slow burn, but this didn’t quite feel like one; there wasn’t much yearning or tension in the first half.

🥈 Overall Takeaway:

Despite its flaws, I still really enjoyed this book and would strongly recommend it to anyone who is open to a contemporary sapphic romance with a strong emphasis on friendship. ✨

💡 From The Margins:

• Mood Board: 🌊 Walking along the coast line, long walks with friends 👭, hiking to beautiful views 🌄, late night HGTV binges 📺

• Favorite Quotes:

  “I weep for the girl whonever let herself question or wonder or explore; the girl who kept busy, kept forcing herself to date men because that’s what she thought she had to do.”

  “’Saving room for Lesbian Jesus?’ ‘I know that pop culture reference! Hayley Kiyoko.’”

  “’There’s no such thing as too late. We all get to where we’re going when we’re ready. Not before.’”