Amelia Diane Coombs's fourth contemporary YA romance portrays with precision the exhilaration of a close friendship budding into first love.
High school senior Eloise Deane needs extracurricular hours to perfect her application for the University of Southern California. She begrudgingly volunteers at LifeCare, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing loneliness in the elderly, but worries her anxiety disorder will interfere. Her assigned partner, Austin Yang, is her opposite: a "walking, talking sunshine emoji" with "golden retriever energy." But their charge, 73-year-old Marianne Landis, former lead singer of the Laundromats, a popular band active in the '70s and '80s, instantly disarms Eloise. Together with Austin, Eloise bats back Marianne's snark and helps organize her memorabilia... which spills into the teens getting tacos and playing Eloise's favorite MMORPG together. Eloise wonders if Austin pities her, even though being with him becomes effortless. "I have feelings for Austin," she realizes. "And I'm freaking out."
Coombs (Exactly Where You Need to Be) beautifully encapsulates the transformation of a friendship into something more in All Alone with You, highlighting especially the behind-the-scenes effort that teens put into elevating such relationships. The author, by keeping the book in Eloise's point of view, simultaneously demonstrates how social anxiety can prevent fully embracing or believing the affections of another person ("Social anxiety is assuming everyone hates you"). Marianne's unfiltered character adds remarkable charm, her burns, sarcasm, and advice a hugely satisfying boon to the story. Additionally, each chapter begins with a fictional song lyric, always fitting and at times soul-crushing. An unendingly fun love story. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer