This story has a premise that will appeal to many readers. Author Tom Ellen gives his protagonist the chance to go back in his life (literally) where he can decide once more how he wants to live his life and with whom. What will he decide? What would you do if you had such an opportunity? Is it ever too late to live the life one wants? Interestingly, protagonist Ben is given a special watch by a stranger in December; readers will perhaps therefore think of Scrooge and the Christmas Carol. The Christmas setting adds to the book's appeal. Those looking for a light book about life choices and loves may want to give this one a look.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper 360 for this title. All opinions are my own.

Romance, nostalgia and second chances in Christmas. I'm always in the mood for this kind of book, the kind that makes you sigh, even when it's not December.

I hate to quit books that I'm reviewing, but I did not finish this. I listened to 20% of the book. I liked the story concept, but I just wasn't a fan of the main character.

Who hasn’t wondered how their life would have ended up differently had they made other choices? All About Us answers that question for one thirty-something man who is questioning how his life and marriage got so off-track. But will he like the answer?

Ben’s marriage to the once love-of-his-life Daphne has gone sour. He feels like he failed Daphne as a husband, and when he looks in her eyes, all he sees is disappointment. The girl he once loved with all of his heart is gone, replaced by a shell of a person that he created through his own poor choices. With his life at a stalemate, he accepts an offer to meet up with one of his old flames, Alice, after Christmas.

Ben has always wondered what his life would have been like had he chosen Alice over Daphne, and this Christmas he is about to find out. When a strange old man sells Ben a watch, he finds that he can time travel, going back in his past to pivotal moments in his life, and eventually traversing to the future where he once and for all learns what his life could have and would have been had he chosen differently.

Although Tom Ellen’s All About Us is a modern day Christmas Carol-esque novel, you may not realize it until you are almost done reading this reflective, time-traveling novel set against the backdrop of Christmas. It is easy to become immersed in this introspective story, and Tom Ellen has made this time-worn tale enough their own that it feels fresh and contemporary.

Much like A Christmas Carol, this is not a jolly, spirited Christmas novel, but rather one that looks within. I wasn’t quite prepared for the amount of soul-searching All About Us was going to inflict upon me, but it definitely made me consider my own life choices. This is a story that makes you think, and what better time to reflect than during December at the close of the year.

Read this one if you love A Christmas Carol or if you just want to spend some time pondering life.

Ben’s life is at a low - he hates his job and his marriage is on the rocks and can’t quit thinking he went wrong somewhere. He always go back to that night in college when he and Daphne first kissed. What if it had been Alice, the girl he always thought of as the one who got away. Ben meets an old man who gives a watch. When Ben wakes up the next morning he realizes the man gave him more than a watch = he gave him a chance to things all over again. This is a modern day take on Christmas Carol. Not a typical cheesy Christmas read.

This is a super fun read. I really enjoyed this one!

Many thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Who wouldn’t want to try and see if you are where you belong. Get to go back in time to see if the right decision was made. This was that book. Where it made you think.

I really enjoyed this A Christmas Carol inspired holiday book. It was a quick easy read while being thoughtful and thought-provoking about choices we make in our life. By far one of my favorite holiday books I have read.
Would recommend this to anyone looking for a feel-good holiday read.

This was a holiday romance with an interesting premise, what would your life look like if you stayed with “the one who got away”? Ben gets to find out when a mysterious watch takes him to a different year of his life at midnight every night. Will he stay in one of the other times and live life differently, or will he find his way back to the present?

I really enjoyed this book, 4 stars.

Thanks to Harper 360 and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received a reviewer copy of All About Us by Tom Ellen from the publisher Harper 360 from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Loss of Parent, Grief, Unhappy Relationship, Infidelity

What It’s About: Ben and Daphne are struggling. Ben, disappointed with his career and grieving the loss of his mother has shut down and it has had disastrous impacts on his marriage with Daphne. He has also been thinking of a what-if with former friend Alice and thinking of her as the one who got away. Then, one night he receives a watch and is pushed into a Christmas Carol type time traveling.

What I Loved: This book is being compared to One Day in December, Me Before You, and In Five Years and honestly this book doesn’t deserve to be compared to those it is lovely and stands on it’s own. I fell in love with this book and really believe it was the perfect Christmas romance. We have a main character who is so damaged by grief and expectations that he has become unlikeable to everyone. But as he begins his time traveling and reliving these critical moments and we really get to see him grow and correct and become a character to root for. I don’t know that I’ve read such a good redemption story in a romance. Also, Daphne is perfect but also it works because the main character is just such a shithead initially that we really know from the beginning that it’s clear that Daphne doesn‘t need to correct her behavior. And she is just delightful. Also the way this book talks about loss of parent and grief is really beautiful and as someone who lost a parent, I felt this and cried.

What I Didn't Like So Much: Honestly, I really liked the story and don’t have a ton to complain about but here’s what I didn’t love, Alice. I didn’t buy that she was the one who got away in anyway. I wish the character was more likable or worthy. That would have made the story better for me.

Who Should Read This: People who love romances. People who love grief studies. People who love Christmas Carol and/or Groundhog Day Tropes. People who love Christmas romances and have been looking for a beautiful holiday romance.

Quick Summary: A Christmas Story about love and redemption.

All About Us follows Ben, a 33-year-old who is questioning his life choices. Did he choose the right girl back in Uni, what would’ve happened had Alice found him in a game of hide and seek rather than Daphne who he ends up marrying, was Alice the one that got away?

This Dickensian tale takes us through Ben’s past, present, and future with a touch of magic. This novel reaffirms the fact that while we may think our memories of certain pinnacle points in our lives are remembered in perfect detail, many small aspects are often forgotten to put things in perspective. As someone who questions my own life choices, this novel was a refreshing reminder that “your life is the decisions you make” although you may think otherwise.

This was overall a wonderful, refreshing, heartwarming novel set around the holiday season that I devoured in a day, This is easily one of my new favorite holiday season novels, and I would recommend it to everyone I know regardless if romantic comedies are their genre of choice. Tom Ellen did a wonderful job with this one and I hope to read more from him soon!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and HQ for the gifted e-book!

Fun and sweet story about choices we make and how they shape us. It’ll make you look at your past and how it has shaped you and how the here & now will affect your future Great book to get you in the holiday spirit.

What a delight to read. I had no idea what I was in for when I started All About Us, I merely wanted a Christmas read, but Tom Ellen delivers a gorgeous tale about life and the what-ifs that niggle at us. Much like in A Christmas Carol, Ben is delivered to seemingly random times in his life, a lesson to be found in the past, present, and future. He's lost control of his life, bathes in self-pity, and is on the brink of damaging a relationship to the point of no repair. Given an opportunity to change everything, Ben revisits several holidays to discover his true meaning again. While it's set around the holidays, All About Us is truly a story about love, life, and the choices we make.

I haven't read a novel written by a male author with a male protagonist in...ages. I honestly can't even think of the last one. Ben was just so relatable though, his story so easily applied to my own life, and I really enjoyed the male perspective. It's emotional, with just the right patronizing comedy, and full of meaning. The holidays, and similar theming with A Christmas Carol and the oft-mentioned Groundhog Day, really take it to another level though. It's accurate to the times, a truly fresh retelling, and so applicable as many question, or are forced to question, their life choices and the future ahead of them.

I was emotional wreck reading, not because it's mushy, though we all know I love a good romance novel, but rather due to how accurately Ellen captures life's difficult moments. Holidays are hard, being surrounded by family and friends can be hard, but it's even harder when you're not living up to yourself. Full of depth and relatable anecdotes, All About Us is a perfect novel for anytime, but really quite fantastic for the end of 2020.

This was a cute, festive adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Ben has a lot of baggage he’s never dealt with and makes a lot of bad decisions even though he’s not a bad guy. While I enjoy flawed characters, Ben was just such a whiner and while I know that was the point, it bugged me. I also wish other characters had been better developed, especially Daphne. Overall though, was a cute Christmas read.

Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I won't lie and say that I always liked Ben-- there were times that he truly irritated me to the point of giving up on the story altogether, but, having him come around and acknowledge his own responsibilities in the choices he made over the years was gratifying. And I am a sucker for retellings of A Christmas Carol, so this overall was a winner for me.

I was desperately in need of a light read to make 2020 more bearable - this book hit the spot! It's a relatively short and easy read with wonderful characters. I enjoyed the story and it left me thinking a lot about the decisions I make and how they may be impacting my life and future, for better or worse. I look forward to reading more from Mr. Ellen.

Thank you, Harper 360 and NetGalley, for a digital ARC!

All About Us is the story of Ben, a man who has reached a point in his life where he is wondering if he has made the right decisions. He's not happy in the direction his life has taken and is examining his failures and how they got him to his present day. He's questioning his marriage, his friendships, and his career choices. He's carrying the weight of regret for dragging his wife down, things he said to his mother before she died, and he's wishing he had someone to really talk to. He's standing on a precipice of making an important decision when a stranger at the local pub gifts him a watch. What follows is a modern-day Christmas Carol where Ben re-visits important moments in his life.

The book starts out with Ben being an absolute schmuck to his wife and his behavior following made him a completely unlikeable hero. At first, it seems like Ben is getting an opportunity to go back in time to a night of a fateful decision and pick the 'girl that go away'. It doesn't take long to figure out that isn't the direction the book is going, but that you are basically along for the ride of the story of Ben and Daphne and their highs and lows. The story redeems Ben as he works his way through times and sees the things around him he did not observe the first time he lived it. He has a greater appreciation for the people and his regret for his actions is obvious. However, when we see what the future could be he's an absolute jackass again. It's obvious that in the future he's made some horrible choices, but I don't understand why he chose the way he did. How weak do you have to be to stay that miserable when you have other choices? It annoyed me and kind of pulled me from the story even though I understood the story had to go that way.

In Ben's time travels he revisited the early days of his relationship with his wife, Daphne, and again how their love began. He gets to evaluate his own behaviors and how he has affected his current circumstances. He realizes how he can be a better person and build stronger relationships with those he loves. As with any Christmas Carol retelling, we also get glimpses at his present-day and his future. Very early Ben is very decisive about what he wants so it's nice to see him work towards it unselfishly.

All in all, I did enjoy All About Us. The ending was satisfying even though I had some issues with Ben as a person getting there. This was my first Tom Ellen book and I would definitely read another by this author.

I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters were very relatable and I spent the entire time I was reading it looking forward to finding out what was going to happen next!

I had a clear vision of how this book would go, but I was wrong! I enjoyed the title very much and for all of us who wonder "what if?" this is clearly an option. My patrons will love it!

Such a cute and fun read! Perfect distraction in life right now. Really enjoyable characters and story and hard to put down!