Most of All You (2017) is a contemporary romance by Mia Sheridan. A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Sheridan is known for her emotional love stories about characters who overcome significant hardship; her other notable works include Archer’s Voice (2014). Most of All You follows two protagonists scarred by their pasts: Ellie, a woman who works as an erotic dancer and is haunted by a childhood of abuse and abandonment, and Gabriel, a man who survived a lengthy abduction and is now unable to tolerate physical intimacy. The novel follows the couple as they form an unconventional relationship, exploring themes of Vulnerability and Courage as Tools for Healing, Maintaining Positive Self-Esteem in the Face of Abuse and Stigma, and The Redemptive Power of Unconditional Love.

This guide refers to the 2017 Forever paperback edition.

Language Note: The source text uses terminology reflective of pejorative attitudes and stigma around sex work. This guide reproduces this language only in quotations.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of pregnancy termination, child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, child sexual abuse, sexual violence, rape, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The story begins with a Prologue set in the past. Seven-year-old Ellie is taken by her visibly ill mother, Cynthia, to meet her father, Brad, for the first time. Cynthia reveals she has terminal cancer and has been evicted, pleading with an angry and unwelcoming Brad to take care of their daughter. Brad, who had thought that Cynthia had terminated her pregnancy, never wanted a child. While he is distracted, Cynthia abandons Ellie by sneaking out the back door. When Ellie cries, Brad slaps her. Heartbroken and alone, Ellie vows never to let her heart be hurt again.

In the present day, Ellie goes by her stage name, Crystal, and works as an erotic dancer at the Platinum Pearl club. She notices a man in the audience, Gabriel Dalton, who seems out of place. Crystal recognizes him as someone famous for surviving a childhood abduction. After Crystal’s performance, Gabriel approaches her backstage, explaining that due to his past trauma, he has severe difficulty with physical closeness. He asks her to help him “practice being touched by a woman” (185). Feeling insulted, Crystal initially refuses.

Dejected, Gabriel returns home. He agrees to be interviewed for a thesis by Chloe Bryant, a graduate student researching abduction survival.

When Crystal’s car breaks down, she accepts a ride from a former club patron, Tommy Hull, who sexually assaults her. After he slaps her and abandons her on a dirt road, Crystal finds herself desperate for money to fix her car and reconsiders Gabriel’s offer. She calls him at his workplace, Dalton Morgan Quarry, and they arrange to meet.

During their first session in a private room at the club, Gabriel agrees to pay Crystal $150. However, when she touches his hand, he has a panic attack and becomes overwhelmed by flashbacks of his abuser. He ends the session but agrees to try again.

Soon afterward, Gabriel learns of a local missing boy, Wyatt Geller, which triggers memories of his own abduction and the small stone figurines he carved in captivity, including one that he named Lady Eloise. During their second session, Gabriel’s request to learn Crystal’s real name causes her to panic, and she ends their arrangement. Believing that she needs help as much as he does, Gabriel returns to the club multiple times to offer friendship, but she rebuffs him. On his final attempt, Crystal sends another dancer, Rita, in her place. When Rita touches Gabriel, he experiences a severe panic attack and flees the club. Crystal feels guilty.

In the Platinum Pearl, Crystal is sexually assaulted by a man while she is working, and he and his two friends are removed from the club. Later, when she leaves work, Crystal is ambushed in the parking lot by the three men. They drag her behind a dumpster and beat her unconscious. Crystal’s friend and fellow dancer, Kayla, finds Gabriel’s phone number clutched in Crystal’s hand and calls him. He rushes to the hospital, where a doctor informs him that Crystal has a fractured leg and broken ribs but will recover. Because Crystal’s third-floor apartment is inaccessible, Gabriel offers his home for her recovery, and she reluctantly agrees.

During her first week there, while in a haze of pain and medication, she tells him that her real name is Eloise, or Ellie. When Gabriel’s fiercely protective younger brother, Dominic, returns home, he is openly hostile toward Ellie, viewing her as a “trashy stripper” who is merely conning his brother. As Ellie heals, she and Gabriel grow closer, watching the sunrise together each morning.

When Chloe Bryant arrives to conduct her interview, Ellie feels insecure and jealous of the woman’s easy rapport with Gabriel. At a dinner party in Gabriel’s home, Dominic gets drunk and taunts Ellie about her profession. Later, he insults and sexually assaults her. Seeing this, Gabriel punches Dominic in the face and throws him out of the house. Humiliated, Ellie runs out of the house. She feels that she is ruining Gabriel’s life and resolves to find a way to heal on her own.

Ellie returns to her apartment. Unable to return to dancing, she asks for work as a bartender in her previous workplace but is turned down. Feeling lost, she gets a job as a receptionist at a local nail salon. She begins to mend Gabriel’s Lady Eloise figurine, which she had accidentally broken in his workshop. This becomes a form of therapy, allowing her to confront her traumatic past, including her mother’s abandonment and the sexual abuse perpetrated by her father’s friend.

Months pass. The daughter of a kind former neighbor, Mrs. Hollyfield, finds Ellie and delivers a surprise inheritance check. Dominic visits, apologizes sincerely for his behavior, and reveals that he and Chloe have been spending a lot of time together. Finally feeling empowered, Ellie delivers a powerful statement at her attackers’ sentencing, declaring her self-worth.

Meanwhile, Gabriel is heartbroken by Ellie’s departure. One day at a hardware store, he recognizes the distinctive laugh of a man who once visited his childhood captor. He follows the man, Neil Hardigan, and discovers that he is holding the missing boy, Wyatt Geller, in his basement. Hardigan attacks Gabriel, knocking him unconscious. When Gabriel awakens, he is tied up in the basement. After convincing Wyatt to help untie him, he attacks Hardigan, allowing Wyatt to escape and find help. Hardigan is arrested, and information from his computer leads police to uncover a pedophile ring connected to both him and Gabriel’s original abductor. While recovering in the hospital, Gabriel receives a package. It is the mended Lady Eloise figurine, with a note from Ellie: “To Gabriel, finder of beauty, rescuer of souls” (325). Overwhelmed, Gabriel weeps.

After recovering, Gabriel is hailed as a hero. One spring day, Ellie returns to his home. She brings him dinner and a lemon meringue pie, telling him, “Sometimes it’s the second try that really sticks” (330). Overjoyed, Gabriel pulls her into his arms, and they have sex passionately. He asks her to be his wife. Ellie reveals she is in nursing school and accepts his proposal, thanking him for being sure about her until she could be sure about herself.

In the Epilogue, years later, Ellie and Gabriel are married with an infant daughter, Mila. Ellie works part-time as a nurse, and Gabriel sculpts from his home studio. As they watch the sunrise together, Ellie reflects on her healing experience and the profound love and peace she has found.