All Alone with You

All Alone with You

Amelia Diane Coombs

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

Hacks gets a romantic twist in the vein of Jenn Bennett in this “simmering” (Publishers Weekly) novel about a standoffish teen girl whose loner status gets challenged by a dynamic elderly woman and a perpetually cheerful boy.Eloise Deane is the worst and doesn’t care who knows it. She’s grumpy, prefers to be alone, and is just slogging through senior year with one get accepted to USC and move to California. So when her guidance counselor drops the bombshell that to score a scholarship she’ll desperately need, her applications require volunteer hours, Eloise is up for the challenge. Until she’s paired with LifeCare, a volunteer agency that offers social support to lonely seniors through phone calls and visits. Basically, it’s a total nightmare for Eloise’s anxiety. Eloise realizes she’s made a huge mistake—especially when she’s paired with Austin, the fellow volunteer who’s the sunshine to her cloudy day. But as Eloise and Austin work together to keep Marianne Landis—the mysterious former frontwoman of the 1970s band the Laundromats—company, something strange happens. Eloise actually…likes Marianne and Austin? She isn’t sure what to do with that, especially when her feelings toward Austin begin to blur into more-than-friends territory. And when ex-girlfriends, long-buried wounds, and insecurities reappear, Eloise will have a choice to go all in with Marianne and Austin or get out before she gets hurt.


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  • Zaynabyyyyy
    Feb 10, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

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  • readscapism
    Mar 09, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    3.5 ☆

    this book hit a little too close to home for comfort. eloise's character hit a little too close to home for comfort. her fears, anxieties, struggles, her whole internal monologue might have well been my own, we're that much alike. which was nice as well as slightly terrifying. the only thing i didn't appreciate was how she blamed herself for her fallout with her ex-best friend(s). she seemed to work on those conflicting feelings throughout the novel but kind of landed back at square one by the end of it—because i don't think that she should have to forgive and/or work to fix a relationship she didn't ruin.

    the romance was cute, but no more than that. i didn't feel the "crazy chemistry" between austin and eloise that shy mentioned, and some of their early interactions were extremely corny, but their progression from annoyance to friendship to eventually love was sweet. i loved that eloise found her favorite person in austin, because she needed and deserved someone that values her as much as he does.

    i also feel somewhat neutral about marianne. she was funny and her presence was also very necessary to eloise's growth, but i can't say that she made a lasting impression on me.

    to be honest, nothing about this book did, but it was still very enjoyable to read! totally a lovely way to start the year.

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