at this point in my life I only accept m/f grumpy x sunshine when SHE’s the grumpy one and HE’s the sunshine, which is exactly what Amelia Diane Coombs gave me in “All Alone With You”, and for that I am thankful 🙏🏻🌧️☀️
read my full review of all alone with you by amelia diane coombs here.
HBO Max’s Hacks gets a romantic twist in the vein of Jenn Bennett in this swoon-worthy 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. She actually…likes Marianne and Austin? Eloise 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.
my review:
While I hadn’t read any books by this author before, the summary of this book really pulled me in. A grumpy / sunshine romance is also always really cute! All Alone with You follows a girl with anxiety who signs up for a volunteer agency outside of her comfort zone, ultimately befriending the boy partnered with her who’s the complete opposite.
After her father is laid off, Eloise knows she needs a big scholarship in order to go to her dream school. The only issue is that her resume is severely lacking in volunteer hours, so her counselor suggests that she volunteer with LifeCare, a program that socializes with lonely seniors. This is so far from what Eloise is comfortable with, even more so when a fellow volunteer Austin invites her to make a house call with Marianne Landis, the reclusive former lead singer of a popular rock band. As Eloise starts spending more time with Austin—at LifeCare and at school—as well as with Marianne, she starts realizing it isn’t so bad to go outside the bounds of what she wants to do.
I particularly enjoyed Eloise’s character arc throughout this book. She has anxiety, and she’s virtually been friendless since her two best friends abandoned her during a period of severe depression. Hanging out with Austin is the last thing she wants to do, especially since he has such a sunny personality compared to her grumpy one, but she grows to learn that isolating yourself for so long has more adverse effects and spending time with other people can, actually, lift your spirits.
“Avoid these fashions that look dated” “10 things not to wear over the age of 30” how about I’m a goddamn adult now and my personal style that makes me happy is none of your business
being aromantic is like. hey btw you're going to live a life that is the culmination of most of society's worst nightmares. sorry lol ✌️ but then you turn around and take a really good hard look at it and it turns out that living in that nightmare is fucking awesome and you get to wake up every day and take that fear that other people have and laugh and hold it close until it's a great joy for you instead. and being happy is a radical act that you define instead of someone else. and you're sexy as fuck that's just a fact of life i don't make the rules on that one