Book Review: The A to Z of Us

Author: Hannah Doyle

Can love ever be as easy as abc?

If you want to know the A-Z of love then it starts with Alice and ends with Zach.

Alice is a self-confessed cynic when it comes to love. She’s never had a serious relationship herself and after supporting her best friend through a devastating break-up, she’s not about to let down her barriers anytime soon. Relationships always end badly.

Zach is a romantic. Even after his parents got divorced, he still believed in love and is eager to settle down and have a family of his own. He just hasn’t met The One yet.

After a chance meet-cute at an art gallery, Zach is immediately intrigued by Alice and realising their names bookend the alphabet suggests that their next date needs to begin with a B. Alice agrees to one date while Zach is determined to make her believe in love. But can love ever be as easy as abc?

The A to Z of Us is a cute romantic story. When self-confessed cynic Alice a florist, meets romantic Zach, an artist, at an art show, the two of them decide to go on 26 dates, one for every letter of the alphabet. I love this idea of coming up with a new date that begins with each letter, and this inspired me to give it a try to see what I could come up with. The story not only goes through the various dates following each letter of the alphabet, but it alternates POV between Alice and Zach. I love alternating POV romances as it is nice to get inside each character’s head.

The two of them share some great banter along with obstacles as they approach love differently and each come with their own emotional baggage. Alice is under the impression that three dates is the limit for guys and as the story moves forward, it becomes clear that she is set in her ways and immature. I wish that it was explained more why Alice readily agreed to date Zach in the first place considering she’s not into dating. As for Zach he falls hard and fast in love, where he can’t stop thinking about Alice since their first meeting. He not only is set in his ways, too, but can be very petulant at times.

While the two at a lot of potential as a couple, it was very difficult to connect to them together. They seem to have tons of ups and downs without fully exploring their inner issues. Zach has an ex that plays a larger role in the story, and I think I missed something while reading how she tied together with Alice. I did not understand how she lacked trust at times and how she handled it. Since I am trying to not spoil anything, it is difficult to fully explain, however, I did feel that there needed to be more depth to motivations/thoughts. There also needed to be more for the transitions as it seemed the story went from one thing to the next and it was difficult to connect to it. Overall, this was a fun concept, but needed a little more polish, for me, to love it.