Sadie Wells is 35, stuck in the family business, and deep in a sexuality spiral. So when a spot opens up on her sister’s queer Camino de Santiago tour, she jets off to Portugal, hoping to escape it all— only to drunkenly come out to her seatmate mid-flight (relatable). Surprise: that seatmate, Mal, is also on the tour. As the two women hike, flirt, and face the messy magic of self-discovery, Sadie finds herself falling for more than just the European scenery.
Alison Cochrun coming through with the late-bloomer-coming-out-wlw-travel-adventure of readers’ dreams!
The Camino acts as a wonderful setting for Sadie’s journey of self-discovery and, of course, the romance. While I’ve never walked the Camino myself (outdoors are not my vibe), I do remember Cochrun’s updates on Instagram when she walked it and even without having explicit knowledge of the track myself, you can tell the author knew what she was writing about. The scenery comes alive around Sadie and Mal and at times it feels like you’re walking right beside them. There are many moments of bonding not just between the two but their entire group about the agony of blisters or just getting to know each other while they trek on. Portugal and Spain feel simultaneously inviting and like something out of a dream that makes you want to pick up your own gear and join Sadie and Mal.
The secondary characters that joined them on the tour and the ones they meet along the way made for some entertaining moments as well. While some fell a bit too much into certain European stereotypes (and this is coming from a European, so take it with a grain of salt) and could have fleshed out a bit more, they added a variety and depth that served as the perfect multicultural background to this romance.
And speaking of the romance: Cochrun knows her tropes and delivers a lovely rendition of the “showing you the queer ropes” one in Every Step She Takes. I think we can all agree that it’s one of the best tropes out there when it comes to journeys of self-discovery and Mal’s helpful guidance definitely did the trick. While I sometimes would have wished for a bit more depth to some of these scenes, they for sure were entertaining and kept the pacing on track.
In order for me to enjoy a romance book though, I need a bit more than the romance—I need characters that grow on their own so they can then grow together – and Every Step She Takes thankfully offers just that. Beyond Sadie’s own slow journey of accepting this new part of herself and feeling more comfortable with identifying as a lesbian, we also have Mal, who is dealing with her own baggage. Feeling unmoored after her estranged father’s recent passing, she doesn’t really know what she wants in the beginning of the story and while this causes some frustration at points, it also felt way too relatable. It made the romance shine all the brighter to see these characters struggle on their own yet help each other in the best of ways.
One thing I think Cochrun always excels at is showcasing gay panic in your adulthood. Sure, we all sometimes feel like we’re stuck in the mindset of a teen while our bodies remind us daily that we are, in fact, not teens, but gay panic? Yeah, that is ageless and it’s as much fun in your thirties as it is in your twenties…or even earlier.
Don’t get me wrong, I love and am all for the many amazing stories we get about kids and teens figuring out their identity, but especially for people that realized they’re queer later in life, these kinds of stories geared toward their age group can mean so much. They act like a beacon reminding you that it’s never too late to figure out what – and who – you want in life and love. And for that, Cochrun provides you the perfect backlist…and a shiny new story to boot.
All in all, if you’re in search for a late bloomer sapphic romance and enjoyed travel novels like Anita Kelly’s Something Wild and Wonderful, then Every Step She Takes is the queer women travel adventure you don’t want to miss out on!
Every Step She Takes is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of September 2nd 2025.
Will you be picking up Every Step She Takes? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis
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.
