A great modern re-make of The Christmas Carol. Likeable characters and thought-provoking storyline that is all too easily relatable to our own lives. It’s somewhat surreal reading this through a pandemic but made even more appreciative of what we have and what we easily take for granted.

The main character is a self-absorbed 30-something who pretty much believes the world owes him a living. He’s not quite turned out how he expected to and sets about blaming everyone but himself. In this journey of self-discovery he realises that re-visiting the past that he might want to make the changes that will make his life worthwhile. However, it’s not all fun and games and realising that the most difficult thing about your past is, infact, you and how you respond to things is a bitter pill to take.

I started off disliking Daff but as the story played out she was my favourite characters - well written and a great feel-good story.

My thoughts :
• All About Us was a thought-provoking story about the "what ifs" and uncertainities in life. Ben has been struggling with his relationship and marriage with Daphne, and he keeps wondering what his life would have been like if he had been with Alice, his first love interest from college. A chance encounter with a mysterious man on Christmas Eve leads him to physically re-live different stages of his life and make changes in the present time.
•The themes of love, friendship and grief was so perfectly described by Tom Ellen in this book. This is the first book that I've read by him and I'm so impressed! His writing style is magical, it drew me in from the very beginning of the book. The storyline had an easy-flowing rhythm as well, so I finished reading it in a couple of hours.
• I rarely stumble upon books with male POVs in romance novels, so I really liked that Ben was the only narrator in All About Us. Seeing Ben realize his mistakes and short-comings with the relationships he shared with his loved ones made me really emotional at times. Kudos toTom Ellen for keeping Ben's character so humanly flawed and relatable without sugar-coating any of the incidents he faced. I would have appreciated if there were one or two chapters that focused on Daphne's side of the story, but it's fine. She was a really loveable character though.
• The book basically focuses on an unconventional method of time travel, and I really liked that aspect of All About Us. I looked forward to reading about Ben going back to different times in his life and knowing the reason behind him being sent there. This added an unexpected mysterious element to the story and I LOVED THAT!
• As humans, we sometimes wish for the past to turn out differently without being thankful for the blessings we have in life at present. We also have the responsibility to make sure we treat a relationship with love and respect no matter what circumstances we face. I really appreciated these two aspects about All About Us.
• The book showed some brutal and harsh truths about life and death which impacted my thought process while reading the book greatly. This has made All About Us a must read book according to me! The plot also reminded me a lot about The Gift by Cecilia Ahern, so if you loved that book, don't forget to pick it up in October!

I really enjoyed this book! When time travel is able to give perspective on the life we lead. It really made me think we need to appreciate what we have rather than always striving for more and taking things for granted. It kept me enthralled and I really enjoyed. Thank you.

This is romance and time travelling all rolled into one... and Christmas too! Beautifully written and charming without any schmaltz or irritating detail. I'm looking forward to Tom Ellen's next offering...

What if? If only. I should have. I shouldn’t have. If I could turn back time. These are questions we all ask ourselves at one time or another. This week I found myself wishing I could go back in time and change an action. I had attended a funeral in another part of the country and had decided to wear a ring that was very precious to me, I don’t wear it very often but that morning I felt the need to have it with me. Sometime during the wake, I lost it. I don’t know where. So, now I am left wishing I hadn’t worn it or had paid more attention to it during the night. But as we all know we are unable to go back in time, so I’m left feeling the loss of my ring. If I could go back in time would I have done anything differently? If I knew the consequence of my actions, then most probably. We all attach ourselves to objects. Some have more meaning than others. Some are a replacement for a lost one, which my ring was. We find ourselves wondering what would have happened if we had taken a different path.
This is what Ben, the main character of Tom Ellen’s book All About Us found himself doing. With his marriage in difficulty, Ben found his life had stopped exciting him. Along with grieving the loss of a loved one and for the life he might have had, Ben evaluates his life and wonders what would have happened if he had made different choices. Yet the choices we wish we hadn’t made help us to make better choices in the future. Hindsight is how we learn from our choices.
Ben decided to confide in his best friend on Christmas Eve and seek advice. However, a fortuitous meeting with a mysterious watch seller takes Ben on a trip in time, giving Ben something better than hindsight. He has the chance to time travel and play out the consequences of different events and actions. He even gets to see what life would have been like had he made different choices. Tom Ellen’s writing in All About Us flows effortlessly over the pages as it takes us on an emotional journey through realisation, heartbreak, and joy.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A new author for me but wont be the last I read from them! An enchanting love story about how the decisions we make can have different consequences that shape our lives - reminds me of the film Sliding Doors (one of my favourites) so I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Many thanks to netgalley for an arc in return for an honest opinion.

Loved this book - would 100% recommend and am looking forward to reading what this author writes next!

What would you do if you had the chance to go back and change your life? Would you do things differently?
Ben is given this opportunity when he’s feeling low and questioning whether his life would be different if events had panned out differently when he was at Uni.

What follows is a magical journey through different points in Ben’s life, some made me laugh, some made me cry.
It captivated me from the very beginning, and I couldn’t put it down. It’s definitely a story that made me stop and think - hindsight is a wonderful thing but sometimes all we need is a different perspective.

I've read a couple of Tom Ellen's YA books so was excited to be sent All About Us for review!

For anyone who has thought 'what might have been?' - I read this in March 2020, and it provded to be a great piece of escapism at a unprecedented time!

A neat twist on Christmas Carol-style, I will say that this book really grew on me - at first I wasn't a super fan of the characters but learning more about them as the story progressed, I began to feel warmly towards Ben and was rooting for him to make the right decision.

Would recommed this heartwarming tale :)

I loved this story - the what ifs we all sometimes wonder cleverly explored as the main character is taken back through significant points in his life. A lovely, romantic story with characters that you root for.. recommended.

All about us- by Tom Ellen ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Loved this romantic read, in fact devoured it in one sitting I did not want to put the book down. I thought it was great that it was written from a males viewpoint. It was both funny yet sad in parts. I loved the characters and the “what if” premise of the book.
Many thanks to net galley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.

what a sweet book! I suppose many people have wondered 'what if?' and this book takes you through that journey. Full of relatable stories of regrets and lost love, unusually written from a man's perspective as well. I loved it, I cried happy tears, sad tears, laughed a lot and felt that the book stayed with me for quite a while after whilst I thought through one of my own lost teenage loves. I could easily see this as an adaptation for TV or film.

thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

An enchanting magical love story about the decisions we make that shape our lives and if it was possible to go back in time, would we change the choices we originally made, if we did would we continually make the same mistakes or learn from them.

It’s Christmas Eve 2020 and Ben is out drinking with his best friend, he is stuck in a rut with his wife Daphne. He fears that they have fallen out of love and wonders what life would have been like if he had chosen old flame Alice when they were at University.

Ben is approached by a man selling watches, he gives him a watch that is stuck at one minute to midnight. The man had overheard Ben try and tell his friend how he feels. He tells him,

“ You start to wonder about the bad decisions you’ve made in life, don’t you? Or the wrong turnings you might have taken and whether you could go back and change things - Would you?”

Ben gets a chance with the help of the watch to see Christmas past, present and future. Will he change anything?

I absolutely fell in love with this beautifully written book. I felt quite emotional reading this, especially about Ben and his mother. The Christmas present shows are careful what you wish for as you might just get it. I cried, I laughed and felt every emotion possible!!

It really made me think about what I would change if I went back in time and had the chance to see my lost love ones!!

Easy reading!
I love books like this, they’re perfect for a rainy day stuck inside on the sofa. I think my favourite think about this book is that the narrator is male, as normally with romance it’s almost always the female character who narrates the book!
I really enjoyed it, there was nothing exceptional about it, but sometimes books don’t need to be exceptionally different to be good!

All about us by Tom Ellen is a beautifully written stor.y about love, laughter, friendship and loss.
This is modern day story of the Christmas carol. If you had the chance to go back in time and change the wrongs you made in your life, would you?
Ben is at a crossroads in his relationship with his wife Daphne. He wonders that if he had made different choices in his life would he be still be married to her or would he be now in a relationship with Alice who he met at Uni.
It’s Christmas Eve 2020 after an argument with Daphne he heads to the pub. Where he meets a man, who wears a tatty blue suit and a reindeer tie. The resemblance to his grandfather is uncanny. He leaves a broken wristwatch. When he tries it on, he transfers back and forwards in time. Showing the life, he had with Daphne, his friends especially Alice and his late mother. While he looks on wishing that he could change things and what can he do to improve the life he was dealt with.
Thank you NetGalley and HQ for a copy of All about Us I will make sure I will look out for more books from this author. I really enjoyed this thought-provoking book. It was little bit hard to get into at first, but then it had some good humour and surprising twists. I highly recommend

I love a time travel book and if you add in a smidge of "A Christmas Carol" I'll be hooked. ..and I was.

This is told from the point of view of Ben. He's not happy with his life which hasn't turned out the way that it was supposed to. He thought that he was going to be writer who would changed lives and make people sit up and take notice.. Instead he seems to be falling in and out of jobs that he has no interest or passion for. His marriage to Daphne seems to be on the rocks too. They're constantly sniping at each other and Ben wonders how his life might have been if he had just made a few different choices when he was younger. To the point where he has planned on meeting up in a couple of days with Alice. who he met at university and who he had planned / hoped to get together with at the end of his first term .
Ben meets his best friend in a pub on Christmas Eve and is thinking of all the times that he should have made a different decision in life. If he could go back, things would be SO different and his life would be perfect instead of the floundering mess that he feels he is in now.

It is while he is in the pub that Ben is given a watch from a stranger. Unknown to Ben, this watch will allow him to go back to pivotal moments in his life where he can revisit the choices that he made the first time around and he has the option of making a different choice.

It is during these moments that we understand the rationale behind the decisions that Ben has made in the past. Showing us how much our emotions are involved in making the right - or in some cases, the wrong decisions and the words that we use.

I really loved this book and it was lovely to see things from a male perspective with regards to relationships and feelings.
It took me a while to warm to Ben. He really was just a whiny bloke who just wasn't happy with the way that his life had turned out but seemed intent on blaming everyone but himself for this.

There is a fantastic cast of secondary characters, all of whom are well developed and have something to bring to the story.

This is a Romantic Novel which is written by a Male Author, and has a Male protagonist. This is not as common in Romantic reads, as female protagonists, so it makes a nice change.
The storyline is loosely based on Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, with Ben getting an insight into his past, present and future, if he had stayed with his ex girlfriend.
This is a good and enjoyable read.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for my copy of this book.

This book explores the story of Ben and the 'what if?" scenario his love life might have taken. An enjoyable romantic read. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

I was a bit sceptical about this when reading the blurb but I absolutely loved it. Really invested in the characters and was rooting for Ben and Daphne. Great read..

'All About Us' by Tom Ellen is a beautiful read. It follows the story of Ben who is rather lost and struggling with the 'what if's' of his life. His marriage to Daphne is floundering and he aimlessly falls in and out of a serious of jobs that he has no passion for. We first meet Ben on Christmas Eve 2020 where his frustration with life has reached it's peak and he is considering his future following reconnecting with his first love Alice. During a Christmas drink with his best friend from University Ben bemoaning his lot in life and questioning his choices when he is approached by a mysterious stranger selling watches. Ben purchases what appears to be a broken watch and by the end of that night has been given the chance to go back in time to make a different choice in life. But is the grass always greener?
I absolutely loved this book and I loved the character of Ben. Initially I did not warm to him but as I visited pivotal moments in Ben's past I could feel my heart warm to him and was rooting for him to make the right decisions.
A lovely, engaging story which is really a modern and romantic take on A Christmas Carol and well worth a read at any time.
5 stars and big thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and author for the ARC.