First time running cypress and the tests are not retaining the location as expected. Instead, I have to run the previous commands to have them pass. Note the sample code has the lines needed to pass commented out. Am I misunderstanding something?

describe("Cypress", () => {
  it("opens the app", () => {
    cy.visit("http://localhost:3000")
  })

  it("opens the app and clicks on a hotel", () => {
    //cy.visit("http://localhost:3000")
    cy.get("a").first().click()
    cy.location("pathname").should("include", "hotel")
  })

  it("navigates to the form to add a review", () => {
    //cy.visit("http://localhost:3000")
    //cy.get("a").first().click()
    cy.get("button").contains("+ Add Review").click()
    cy.location("pathname").should("include", "new")
  })
})

You can move your cy.visit() and .click()into a BeforeEach() hook.

right, but that's not going to scale because each test is going to build on the previous. 😕

No, Cypress tests are, by design, isolated. Best practice is for each test to have its own state.

interesting, the book I'm reading says exactly the opposite. was this ever the case? (not arguing, just a major discrepancy)

Based on that one paragraph it's a bit open to interpretation. I read that is "we don't have to navigate to the application anymore *during this test*"

I suppose what threw me off is

this test builds upon the previous test and is therefore already at the correct page

OK yeah that is pretty wrong, haha 😄

wow... even in the sample code: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/React-Projects-Second-Edition/blob/main/Chapter06/cypress/integration/hotels.spec.js

If you are on the latest version of Cypress and you want the behavior of persistent test state behavior you can set

Test Isolation

to false but it's also not recommended due to previously mentioned best practices. I would say the book you are reading is likely out-of-date and not the ideal source material..... https://docs.cypress.io/guides/core-concepts/test-isolation

the second edition was released in April of '22. First Edition in Dec '21. Likely this is when the chapter on Cypress was made.