In Every Possible Way by Alicia Thompson
When I think of the romcom genre, I think of Ali Hazelwood. Emily Henry. Abby Jimenez. Carley Fortune. Katherine Center. Tessa Bailey.
I also think of Alicia Thompson, author of In Every Possible Way. Her novels are highly relatable and touch on various different subjects, from baseball to music to serial killer podcasts, making them enticing to just about everyone. Her newest novel went into a new direction, magical realism, while still hitting classic romance tropes, such as strangers to lovers, slow-burn romance and age-gap romance.
A Magical Journey Through Ireland
In Every Possible Way begins with Jess on a terrible date on her 37th birthday. After the date concludes, she gets attacked in the parking lot and wakes up in Ireland, of all places! After wandering, she finds herself meeting a younger man named Eamonn, who seems very familiar. Jess is not sure how she has ended up in Ireland without her passport, her bag, a wallet… Eamonn takes it upon himself to take her to the embassy. Unfortunately, it is a failed mission.
What ensues is 48 hours of a tour of Ireland, as the embassy will not be open because of a holiday. Jess is still confused about why she is in Ireland but is putting the pieces together. Eamonn is sharing more and more about himself. But can it be love, in 48 hours? And how will Jess return home?
I fell in love with Thompson’s books with her sophomore novel, With Love, from Cold World, a brilliant follow-up to her debut, Love in the Time of Serial Killers. I was browsing my local bookshop (shoutout to Snowbound Books in Marquette, MI!), and the cartoon-y cover and witty title grabbed me. The next thing I knew, I was following Thompson’s Instagram account (@aliciabooks, for those who will undoubtedly want to follow after reading In Every Possible Way), and my husband was purchasing me her backlog of books for Christmas.
In Every Possible Way, the magical realism swept me away. This was a departure from her other novels, which are solidly in the romcom category. As someone who is about half Irish and has not been lucky enough to travel to Ireland, I am also a sucker for novels set in the Emerald Isle, so this scratched that itch for me. Thompson’s descriptions of the cities visited and the Irish countryside were absolutely artfully written.
A Hero Worth Falling For
And can we talk about Eamonn? Ohhhh, my heart! Eamonn is the classic morally gray male main character. Without giving anything away, we’ll learn that everything isn’t as it is portrayed.
Thompson is from Florida, where she lives with her husband, two kids, and her cat. Though In Every Possible Way is set in Ireland, a lot of her books are set in Florida. She states, “I really love Florida, despite the state’s politicians’ best efforts to make me feel otherwise. I think it’s a really weird, interesting, vibrant place, and so many people I love are here. I love writing about Florida for that reason—and because I think it’s a state that often gets misunderstood by people who have maybe only experienced it as a tourist.”
Thompson is a 2011 graduate of the University of South Florida, with a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. Since that time, she has written five romcoms, In Every Possible Way being the fifth.
“I love you,” he said. “All the way, in every possible way.”
If you want to read a prolifically written romance novel with extremely quotable male main characters set all over Ireland, wondering, “Will they?” Or won’t they? And quite possibly sleep through your alarm clock because you’ve stayed up too late reading (again!), you should absolutely visit your nearest bookstore and pick up Alicia Thompson’s newest novel, In Every Possible Way. She is a master of the genre.
About Alicia Thompson:
Alicia Thompson writes romance novels, reads whatever she can get her hands on and plays a mean “Bad Moon Rising” and not much else. She lives in Central Florida with her family.
