⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Really liked it! Highly recommend.
Read Once, Again, Always if you like second chance romance, memory loss angst, and a man who never. gives. up.
✨Heads up! Some links in this post are Amazon affiliate links. That means if you click and buy, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for helping me keep this blog running and my TBR endless! 📚
Heads up: I read this as an eARC (aka an early digital copy), and as always—you’re getting my honest, unfiltered thoughts. This one hits shelves 10.6.2026.
📖 What’s Inside:
- Memory loss 🧠
- Single POV
- 🎓 Academic rivalry
- On-page intimacy 🟡
- Second chance romance
- 🌈 Inclusive
- SO. MUCH. WANTING.
- Explicit language
- Dual timeline (brief glimpses)
Book Boyfriend Meter: ❤️🔥
Endgame. No notes.
I mean listen, if he’s Draco Malfoy-coded, he will always be end game for me. Check out all my top book boyfriends in the Official Book Boyfriend Leaderboard
👉 Or start your own leaderboard with this free starter pack. You’ll get character cards, a scorecard, and book recs for the ones who like to fall for morally grey MMCs.
✨ Vibes:
🎓 Gilmore Girls (Rory at Chilton era only)
💔 The Vow (movie) memory loss + emotional rebuild
Basically: academic tension + heartbreak + soft, persistent love.
💭 My Thoughts:
First things first—huge thank you to NetGalley for the eARC. I’m genuinely shocked I was approved for this ARC when it’s not my usual genre, but listen, it doesn’t hurt to branch out every once in awhile.
Contemporary romance with Dramione vibes? Yeah okay, I’m listening.
But here’s the thing:
Once, Again, Always stands on its own as a contemporary romance.
Yes, many readers (myself included) may recognize the story’s origins as Wait and Hope, a beloved Dramione fanfic. But this version is reimagined—new setting, new characters, no magic, and a very different emotional delivery.
So I’m reviewing this book for what it is:
A second chance, memory loss romance that leans heavily into longing, devotion, and emotional rebuilding.
And on that front?
It works.
Let’s talk about what this book does well:
The longing.
Oh my word—the wanting in this book???
Top tier.
Aster Bishop is the kind of man who:
✔️ doesn’t give up
✔️ doesn’t walk away
✔️ doesn’t stop loving her—even when she can’t remember him
And that energy?
Irresistible.
If he’s giving even a hint of Draco-coded devotion, I’m already sold.
Now add in the memory loss trope, and you get that emotional push-pull of:
You love me.
But I don’t remember loving you.
Pain. Delicious pain.
And the romance thrives in that space.
It’s soft, persistent, and full of those quiet, swoony moments that will have you kicking your feet one second and staring into the void the next.
Where it didn’t fully hit for me:
I wanted more depth in the past timeline.
We’re told about the academic rivalry.
We’re given glimpses of who they were.
But I didn’t feel like I truly lived that history with them.
And with a story like this—where memory loss is the core conflict—that past relationship is everything because that’s all the FMC remembers.
I think a stronger dual timeline (really letting us experience their rivalry) would have made the emotional payoff hit even harder, especially when we contrast that with how the MMC is now.
Because while the romance in the present is compelling…
I wanted to feel more in the FMC’s shoes. She only remembers her husband as her rival from school. Let me see him as her rival in the past while convincing me to fall for him in the present. THAT would have been incredible!
But here’s the thing:
This is still a really good book.
The writing is beautiful and poetic.
The romance is tender and swoony.
And the ending?
Heartaching in the best way.
Also—random but important:
This man does an absurd amount of leaning.
Walls. Doorways. Counters.
Sir is out here leaning like it’s a personality trait. And I fell for it every time.
That is all.
📚Read Alikes:
Okay listen—
This isn’t my usual genre, BUT I do know what this book feels like.
If you’re coming from my Dramione corner of the internet and chasing that same memory loss + yearning + “he never stopped loving her” energy?
👉 Go browse my Marriage Law Dramione rec list — because if this trope got you, those fics will wreck you in the best way.
Now for the actual read alike comp:
• The It Girl — elite circles, boarding school, and that addictive relationship drama
• The Vow — memory loss + rebuilding a love that refuses to stay gone
So yeah—
If you’re here for longing, tension, and a man who simply will not quit?
You’re in the right place.
Should you add Once, Again, Always to your TBR?
Contemporary romance readers? Yes.
Fantasy romance readers? Probably not your lane.
Dramione-adjacent readers? Maybe.
If you’re here for:
✔️ Devoted, Draco-coded MMC energy
✔️ Emotional longing
✔️ Soft, swoony romance
You’ll enjoy this.
If you’re chasing:
❌ Magic
❌ Deep enemies-to-lovers history
❌ That gut-punch intensity from fantasy stakes
You might feel like something’s missing.
If You Liked This, Read Next…
- Are you a patient reader? Try my list of slow burn fantasy romance books
- Are you a Dramione fan? Here’s some books with those same Dramione vibes
- New to fantasy romance? Here’s my romantasy starter guide on the best book genre 😉
If your TBR isn’t already out of control… it will be. Get my free Morally Grey Book Boyfriend Starter Pack and meet men you absolutely shouldn’t fall for (but will).
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