Every Step She Takes

Alison Cochrun is an author I’ve been wanting to read for a few years, but I’m glad I started with her newest book, Every Step She Takes. Sadie is turning 35 and just realizing that she might be a lesbian, and in a panic, she goes on the Camino de Santiago trip her travel influencer sister can no longer do. This is how she meets Mal, who agrees to help Sadie have all the formative queer experiences she missed out on. Over two weeks walking from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, those lessons in love may have a stronger effect on them both than they could have known.

What I Liked:

• The Camino de Santiago. This was the #1 reason I was first interested in this book. Back in 2011, I studied abroad in Leon, Spain, and during a memorable excursion, I got to travel to Santiago de Compostela and see the cathedral where the Camino ends. I’ve wanted to do the Camino ever since. So I loved following Sadie and Mal as they walked a shorter version of it, this time through Portugal rather than across the north of Spain.
• Portugal and Spain. The author does a great job of highlighting parts of the two main countries this book is set in. The pastel de nata (yum!), the albergues where they stay, even just the language and cultural differences—I loved feeling like I was in Europe. Though I’ve never been to Portugal, I’ve spent a lot of time in Spain, and I enjoyed getting a little taste of the Iberian Peninsula again.
• The community of the Camino de Santiago travelers. A group of eight people joins the tour to walk the over 200 kilometers in two weeks, and I love how close-knit they become by the end. It reminded me of my year living in Valencia and forming friendships while so far from home.
• Queer identity, missed adolescent experiences, and lessons in love. Sadie is having a bit of an identity crisis now that she’s questioning her sexuality. Mal, a so-called queer elder, is happy to help Sadie get comfortable with her newfound queerness and gain the kinds of experiences that she’s never had. Sadie may be 35 now, but it’s not too late to discover this new side of herself. I also like the look into asexuality in addition to being a lesbian.
• Mal is such a Gemini. As a fellow Gemini, I liked this aspect of her character! But I also liked getting into mental health, introspection, and self-awareness for both characters. Sadie wears her heart on her sleeve, and that includes her anxiety and self-doubt. For Mal, it takes longer to fully delve into her trauma and toxic patterns in relationships.
• Excerpt of travel blog posts at the end of some chapters. Sadie has to step into her sister’s shoes and write about the Camino, and I loved these insights into her state of mind, the trek, and how it changed her.

Final Thoughts

Every Step She Takes is such a joyous romance for anyone who loves travel, self-discovery, and a happily ever after between two women in their 30s. It also reminded me how much I want to do the Camino de Santiago myself someday! This is one of my favorite books this year and I can’t wait to read more from Alison Cochrun. I’ve had The Charm Offensive on my shelf for a few years, so I plan to dive into that one next.

Special thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Every Step She Takes here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Romance
Setting	Portugal; Spain; Seattle
Number of Pages	384
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	September 2, 2025
Publisher	Atria Books

Official Summary

A swoon-worthy sapphic romance following two women who are thrown together on a European adventure, from the Lambda Literary Award–winning author of the “sexy, insightful, and utterly charming” (BuzzFeed) Kiss Her Once for Me.

Thirty-five-year-old Seattleite Sadie Wells needs an escape. She’s desperate to escape her monotonous routines, the family business that has consumed her entire life, and the unexpected gay panic that has her questioning everything she thought she knew about herself. So when her injured sister offers Sadie her place on a tour along Portugal’s Camino de Santiago, she decides this is the perfect chance to get away from it all.

After three glasses of wine on the plane and some turbulence convince Sadie she won’t even survive the flight, she confesses all her secrets to her seatmate, Mal. The problem: the plane doesn’t crash, and it turns out Mal is on her Camino tour. Worst of all, Sadie learns that she is on a tour specifically for queer women, and that her two-hundred-mile trek will be a journey of self-discovery, whether she wants it to be or not.

Fascinated by the woman who drunkenly came out to her on the plane, Mal offers to help Sadie relive the queer adolescence she missed out on as they walk the Camino. As Sadie develops her newfound confidence, Mal grapples with a complicated loss and unexpected inheritance. But as their relationship blurs the lines between reality and practice, they both must decide if they will forever part at the end of the tour or chart a new course together.

With “funny, poignant” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) prose, Alison Cochrun explores the power of letting go of your past and realizing that it’s never too late to live as your authentic self.