top of page
  • Elise

All About Us


Author: Tom Ellen


Genre: Romance, women's fiction, Christmas!


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐


A modern Christmas Carol!


Ben finds that his marriage is starting to sour, and wonders what would have happened had he made different decisions in the past and gone down the road on a relationship with a different woman. His career, his outlook on life - everything seems to be not going well for him at the moment. On the night before Christmas 2020, he gets gifted a watch that allows him to relive moments of his past.


This book went in a different direction than I thought it would - for the better. I also love how the author depicted the story without making it repetitive; details that were mentioned briefly would be elaborated on more later in the book such that there is very minimal repetition. There are many ways in which the story could have progressed, but I really love how the author chose to do it.


SPOILERS AHEAD. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.




I initially thought that Ben would get a chance at living life with Alice by his side, instead of Daphne, and realize that he loved Alice all along. However, the whole time travelling shabam got him to appreciate how much he loves Daphne instead, and I find that message to be really beautiful. He got to fall in love with Daphne all over again, and re-experience the same day, noticing the details he missed the first time around. With time travelling plots, the author could have let Ben be able to change his future as he re-lives the day, yet the fact that the author chose to just let Ben merely re-experience those days of his life and understand how important his decisions are, was so powerful. Instead of trying to change his fate, Ben got to go through the process of self-healing and come to terms with his grief, his self-pity issues, his outlook on life. He managed to resolve his guilt over the fight he had with his Mom before she passed away and accept that his father wasn't the person he made him out to be in his mind, and stop letting his Dad influence all his life decisions. Heck, he even got to become closer to his best friend and deepen their relationship to be more than just jokes and banter.


I also teared up during the part where he finally resolved his grief with his Mom's death :') One of my fears is that I'll argue with a loved one and not get to resolve it before it's too late, so I could relate to his guilt and grief. So good.




bottom of page