I totally did not expect to enjoy this book as much I did. If you like Beth O’Leary, this is absolutely the book for you! The characters are real and likeable, and it is full of the same millennial charm, and the balance of laugh out loud moments and the more heart warming, sentimental ones. This was a great book to read in these difficult times as it provided some much needed happiness and escapism - this was such a lovely book! (I also felt very sentimental at hearing it was written in The Millennium Library in Norwich, as when I lived there that was 100% one of my favourite places in that city!)

The cover of this book draws you in - the millennial pink, the intriguing title (Fajita like the food?) and the beautiful brown skinned woman smiling at you to come in.

I know it's not the done thing to judge but I did judge the cover and got exactly what I expected. I expected an easygoing, feel good read and that's what I got. I can see this on the screen (part of my job is to imagine how books translate to screen) as a kind of Confessions of a Shopaholic/Legally Blonde/ Bridget Jones type story where the funny and relatable protagonist comes out on top.

Elissa, in her twenties, moves in with Annie through the ElderCare programme and they form an unlikely friendship.

Taking into account the CoronaClimate it will be published in, this is a good book to promote community and taking care of one another.

Cute book. It started a bit slow for me but really picked up in the second chapter. Took me about 3 hours to read it. It was a good book to pass the time with.

Honestly, I requested this book from NetGalley purely based on the title and cover. The Lonely Fajita seems like the perfect description of a lot of 20 somethings and wrapped up in the blanket, like the character is here looks very like how I spend my non-working hours! I'm not single, but a lot of my friends are and so I thought this book would be relatable and a funny, easy read.

This book follows Elissa, a 26 year old who is living in London and interning at a dating app start up company where she barely gets paid enough to get the underground to work and treat herself to a Greggs for lunch twice a week. Thankfully, she shares a room with her boyfriend who covers the cost of the rest in exchange for her making dinner a couple of nights a week. Elissa is bumbling along well until her boyfriend decides that he actually wants to go travelling in Asia and leaves her without a home or partner for the first time since her teens.

While visiting the Doctors for a smear test as some kind of sick birthday treat to herself, she finds an advert for ElderCare. A scheme which looks for volunteers to live in with and help the elderly in exchange for a free room to stay in.

The book was lighthearted and easy to read and I loved that it didn't follow the typical rom-com approach to being newly single which I thought it might. Although part of me does feel like that it tried to cover too many different approaches and I would have preferred to focus on one or two.

I loved the character of Annie, the elderly lady who Elissa gets paired up with and I would love to hear more about her and her past. I also think Suki is a great character and would love to read a spin off focusing on her and her dating struggles!

I enjoyed and disliked this novel, I found it very slow and the beginning and the end. I also found myself confused during the majority of the book. The vocabulary and description, while good was almost too detailed and didn’t seem to fit with the character.

This book is the feel - good book of the year.

Ellissa finds herself all of a sudden without a boyfriend, without a home and as an intern, pretty much without money. Completely by chance, she finds a flyer asking for live in companions for the elderly. Ellissa is matched with Annie, a typically stubborn, independent northern woman living in a retirement village in London.

There were times where I would find myself feeling so embarrassed for the pickles that Ellissa found herself in, that I thought I would't be able to continue reading . . . but I really loved her and Annie that I just couldn't stay away.

A book that is full of women who are lifting each other up and being each others biggest cheerleaders, there is nothing not to love in this uplifting book.

Couldn't really get into this one. It feels like a story that I've read a hundred other times - the quirky, supposedly comic novel of a twenty something girl who can't get her shit together and has an awful time romantically. There's only so much time I could give to a novel like this and honestly, I think there are better written ones out there. Also - it feels as though this book wanted to be set in the US but settled for the UK? There are Americanisms intertwined with the text...maybe that was just my reading of it. Sadly, not for me.

I was really excited about this book. I love old people, I love stories about old people, I love stories about old people that surprise you. Unfortunately this book had a weird pace and a number of plot lines where it felt like I never got a chance to really get invested in any of it. Each plot line seemed to just skim the surface. I wish there was more of Annie and her story, or more of her and Elissa's relationship growing. Or even more about Elissa getting through work stuff. By the time I was 80% done with the book I was concerned that so many of these plot points were going to conveniently get tied in a rushed sort of way. Overall I would say this is a quick and easy read, but it definitely left me wanting more.

Just when you need a funny, light hearted, comforting book to snuggle up with amongst all the uncertainty, along comes The Lonely Fajita! One to snuggle up with and enjoy!

I was laughing from the first page, I really enjoyed the writing, great pace, entertaining and endearing.

We follow Elissa, a 26 year old who moved to London with grand plans of what her life would be. When she finds herself single, she decides to try an alternative way of solving her housing and loneliness problem, with heartwarming results.

It would have been so easy to focus on her being single and going on a series of dates etc and magically finding someone. I love that the author focuses on different types of heartwarming, life affirming relationships and that Elissa is empowered as the story goes on. It makes such a difference and I loved it! It has inspired me to try and find opportunities to do something similar in my community.

Thank you to @netgalley, @abigailmann and @onemorechapterhc for the opportunity to review.

Released on 14th May 2020.

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This was the tonic I needed in these depressing weeks of the coronavirus! Funny and charming. Not my usual read but so glad I gave it a whirl! I can recommend highly, especially if your in need of a little pick me up!

⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Congratulations to the author! And many thanks to netgalley for the ARC

Belly laughs abound! Or so I expected from the hype….and in the beginning it truly was profoundly funny but by the end the humour had definitely petered out for me. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed this novel but I just didn’t find it hilarious.

I felt real affection for elderly widow Annie….but Elissa was difficult to relate to. I mean, What is she like? Working for expenses only, in a shite relationship with someone who couldn’t give her the time of day, flapping around, getting drunk – no self respect, no confidence, no sass. I often felt myself cringing when I know the author meant me to be laughing. She made some questionable choices and her whole journey toward self-discovery was a bit lacklustre.

Annie on the other hand …what a gorgeous old soul! I’d happily be her live-in companion. She was a delight! And the whole reason I ramped this book up to 4 stars from 3.

If you’re looking for a light and super quick read and don’t have too many expectations, this book might be for you. It’s entertaining enough without requiring too much thought or feeling…and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.

Thank you so much NetGalley for an advance copy of The Lonely Fajita in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is something I would have probably never chosen if it wasn't for the fun title and the cover (Loved it, by the way)! I don't usually read romances but I kind of trying different genres lately and I wanted to try this fun read!

The book ended much better than it started. I came to eventually like Ellie, the main character but I have to be honest and say that I wasn't a big fan of hers at the beginning of the book. However, the more I read about her, her life, her adventures and her way of narrating what happened to her, I started to like her more!

I liked how she faced the problems that appeared in her life. I thought she dealt with them in a mature way and could focus on what it was really important at that moment.

I really liked this ElderCare idea and what brought to Ellie and Annita's life. I started enjoying the book a lot more from this point.

It reminded me of me and my Grandma! It's obviously just slightly similar but that relationship they built, all the secrets they shared, how they helped each other without really realising about it... It was priceless and those chapters were my favourite parts to read!

Annita. Annita was magic. She is my favourite character in this story without a doubt. I loved hearing from her every now and then, I loved how caring she was, how she looked after Ellie, how she adviced her in the best of ways and how she opened up a bit about her life too.

There were some of Ellie's behaviour that I found a little bit annoying, especially the ones regarding Annita's privacy. I know she meant well but I didn't like that.

I also thought the end was a bit rushed if fun and jolly and so I'd have liked to enjoye that part a bit more.

I did, overall, enjoy this book. It entertained me and I got to like a few aspects. I didn't love it but it's a good quick and fun summer read.

The Lonely Fajita is a modern story of Elissa Evans, a 26-year-old social media manager on the edge of homelessness who suddenly finds herself single and moving in with an elderly person Evergeen Village, London. This effortless and amusing story was really easy to read. I finished it in 24 hours!

The first thing I noticed is that I didn’t love the protagonist, Elissa. I actually liked her friends more than I liked her. There were a lot of moments where I wanted to grab this character by the shoulders and shake her into reality. And there were countless times where I just wondered what on earth she was thinking, some of the selfish and thoughtless choices she made frustrated me. Generally, she really struggled to get it together, even staying in a job with a psycho boss and an unfair wage. She settled for a lot of things that she definitely didn’t deserve.

I also didn’t like a lot of the secondary characters, such as Elissa’s flatmates or the other residents at Everygreen Village. However, I think the author’s intention was for the reader to despise Craig, and that was perfectly achieved.

My favourite character was Annie, the elderly lady who takes a liking to Elissa and allows her into her home. Annie is a Yorkshire lass (like myself), and a very smart, self-aware, and layered character. She has her flaws, but was a bright and notable part of the story. I loved her backstory, her authentic personality and of course, her Yorkshire accent.

My biggest issue with The Lonely Fajita was the pacing. It was just so slow! While it was humorous, and entertaining in some parts, I felt a lot like I was reading large chunks of text without actually getting anywhere. The temptation to skim through grew stronger and harder to resist as Elissa’s life continued to sit in the same place. I was looking forward to seeing some real growth in Elissa’s character, I wanted her to develop a love for herself, her career and her life. I was waiting for the lightbulb moment full of inspiration and excitement that usually comes with contemporary books focused on 20-somethings. Unfortunately, I found her story anticlimactic.

The book has been described as a feel-good romantic comedy. And while there are comedic, feel-good moments, there’s next to no romance in the book. The hopeless romantic in me wasn’t excited by any dreamy prospects in the story. It’s certainly a fun book, and the author has a skill for well-timed, relatable comedy. It doesn’t feel loaded down with jokes, or like the author is trying too hard.

While The Lonely Fajita struggled to evoke any emotion or memorable moments for me, it did make me laugh and was definitely a light and easy read, perfect for fans of contemporary fiction.

I absolutely adored this book. Elissa is such a wonderfully fleshed out, complicated character and I was rooting for her all the way through! I loved that this wasn't just a book about heartbreak and finding someone else, it was about Elissa finding herself. Brilliantly written- I read it in a day!

Elissa is stuck in a job she hates, a relationship that’s very one sided and in a house share that’s even worse. When her relationship breaks down she finds herself moving in with Annie, a pensioner, in exchange for board she gives companionship. What could possible go wrong.
This was such a lovely read and I really enjoyed it. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Heartwarming and hilarious, The Lonely Fajita is 2020s feel good must read!

'Suddenly single, and not quite ready to mingle', Abigail Mann gives the seemingly clichéd romcom plot a refreshing makeover when homeless and skint Elissa finds herself applying for an elderly live-in companionship scheme. When paired with feisty and stubborn Annie, Elissa is quick to learn that hitting rock bottom was probably the best thing to ever happen to her.

Witty and wonderful, The Lonely Fajita is a light and uplifting story of new beginnings and unexpected friendships. I hope we get to see much more of the loveable Elissa and Annie in the future!

This is a magical hug of a book. Elissa and Annie are a wonderful double act! If you’re feeling blue and need a pick me up then pick this up - you won’t be disappointed!

A fun and light read, perfect if you're not looking for anything too serious. There's a lot of funny lines/moments (a personal favorite of mine is when Elissa buys herself a meatball marinara sub as a birthday treat and a meatball falls into her lap on the train, so she just picks it up and eats it right away because the sub was too expensive not to. Very relatable!

Readers, I have news. I read a non-romance.

The Lonely Fajita stars our heroine Elissa, a twenty something living in London. She’s working as an underpaid intern for a dating app and sharing a ho-hum room with her ho-hum boyfriend. When she finds herself soon to be homeless (mostly because of the ho-hum boyfriend) she applies to essentially be a companion for an elderly person. The person she gets paired with is Annie, an octogenarian widow.

The Lonely Fajita was a delightful read. Elissa summarizes well what I imagine a London millennial to be. She undergoes these blind dates in an attempt to salvage her company’s app with hilarious results.

Her relationship with Annie was the standout of this story. They develop a friendship and true bond. The side characters were interesting and added to the story without being overwhelming.

Overall The Lonely Fajita was a light and enjoyable read.

A fun sweet read Elissa young woman whose life is falling apart moves in with Annie an older woman to help her.In this at times hilarious times warm novel Annie is the one who helps Elisa navigate her life .Really enjoyed this book and all the wonderfully written characters,#netgalley#harpercollinsuk