This was mine beach read book, story entangled me that time flew by fast.
The romance was sweet , made me smile rooting for them.
Gabe had some powerful scenes that were really good and emotional after loosing her mom.
And doggy Elvis , how i wish i had a doggy Elvis of my own.

Maybe finding myself wishing for something more towards the end but it really was a nice quick read, 3.5 stars

I'm a big fan of D Jackson Leigh and will pretty much pick up anything she writes. This was a funny, sweet and touching book. Basically two complete strangers (to one another) are given joint custody of a mutual friend's daughter. This is a bit of a slow burn romance where Autumn and Catherine start off polar opposites but slowly come together due to the circumstances. Jackson Leigh is an accomplished writer and I'm never disappointed

This was a lovely story. I really enjoyed it from beginning to end.

Catherine is the next door neighbour and a close friend to Becki and her daughter, Gabe. When Becki dies unexpectedly, Catherine is forced into a co-parenting situation with Becki’s close cousin, Autumn. Catherine and Becki are polar opposites, from different backgrounds and different childhoods. Catherine is ex-Army hiding out in the country while trying to cope with her PTSD and Autumn is a hot shot city slicker who is taking the social media world by storm and doesn’t have plans to slow down. But they both loved Becki dearly so they have to make this work for Gabe.

The story is read from both Autumn and Catherine points of view. The pace was perfect and with very little angst, it made it the perfect light read that I know will sit on many of your re-read book shelves.

In the beginning I couldn’t see Autumn and Catherine being anything but together and madly in love. They were perfect for each other (even though they clearly didn’t agree) but with the tragedy of Becki and the reality of becoming parents to a teenager meant any idea of a relationship was on the back burner no matter how attached to one another they were. It was actually quite endearing how much they both looked after each other (including Gabe) and made me connect with them on a greater level. Gabe had lost her mother but gained two in the most beautiful of ways.

The chemistry between Catherine and Autumn was intense. Even when they were just fantasising or day dreaming about each other, there was a thrum of heat and passion; it was almost tangible. The sex scenes on top of that were explosive and sexy as hell with the undercurrent of tenderness and love. It was really beautiful to watch the love (and lust) between them unfold.

I would have liked more of an epilogue, maybe further in the future and with more displays of how life was going to work in their little family unit. I’d also love a follow up when Gabe is older and looking for love… Maybe with Angel? Gabe is future swoon material.

Also wanted to mention how much I loved the cover... I want that dog so much!

This was a great book to get lost in and I look forward to re-reading it again soon.
4 stars

3.5 stars. Sweet story and an enjoyable read.
But I would have preferred there was more. And the end felt too rushed for me.

1.5 stars.

The book spends a lot of time establishing that they're not each other's type and they don't actually like each other but they fall in bed for some reason anyway.

The child character was there only to push the plot forward, to get the mains together or push them apart, she didn't feel like a fully realized human being.

The main conflict was incredibly forced and the lecture/infomercial on weed was also outstandingly out of place.

Nothing clicked for me in this book. In many ways, this read like a worse version of A Wish Upon a Star.

I feel like this author is getting better with her writing and character development. I also really enjoy when the characters have some real problems that need to be dealt with in a relationship (i.e. Cat's PTSD from her time at war).

Gabe was great, but I would have liked a little bit more from the other side characters. I also wish that the book had been a little bit longer. That's probably a good thing in some regards.

Overall, a pretty good read that I enjoyed.

Wow! I did not want this book to end. D. Jackson Leigh can write a book that jumps off the pages and can make you visually see and feel everything. Fabulous.

Catherine (Cat) is an Army Veteran who is now living a peaceful life on a farm as she deals with her PTSD. When her next door neighbour suddenly passes away, she's left as the co-guardian to 12 year old Gabe. Autumn is a young marketing and social media wiz with a rapidly expansing business. She's called back rural Georgia to become guardian to the niece she's never met. The two women navigate their new life that is suddenly turned upside down, helping each other and Gabe through their grief and finding a new path. Somewhere along the way, attraction surfaces, and love isn't far behind.

I really enjoyed reading this book - I always like Leigh's style of writing. It's a breeze to read and I never fail to connect with the characters. The leading ladies in this story were unique and really realistic characters that you could connect with and their relationship. I loved how they each had their strength, independence and intelligence their own right. I loved the slow burn nature of their relationship and the chemistry was really great.

Gabe was awesome as well - she was so strong! I loved the little community of characters described, this book dealt with some heavy stuff, but the sense of community bolstered the reader and gave it this warm welcoming feeling that set the tone on the romance. This was definitely a character and family driven romance - which is one of my favourite types to read.

Looking forward to the next one by Leigh!

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love a forced proximity romance, and I’m also a sucker for a romance where the two love interests have to co-parent a child that they’ve been left as guardians for, and Leigh’s Ordinary is Perfect delivers both in spades. There’s something incredibly charming about this small town romance, which features a vet with PTSD and a workaholic marketing guru as a fish out of water in the quiet town.

But it’s the details of this novel that makes it shine. The slowburn romance between our two couldn’t-be-more-different heroines. The orphaned Gabe who Cat adores and whom Autumn comes to love. And of course Elvis the dog.

I was particularly impressed with the sensitivity with which Cat’s PTSD was dealt with, and the complications some of her medication threw up between her and Autumn. And I really enjoyed seeing a workaholic character who wasn’t demonised for putting in all of those hours and clearly stating that their business was important to them.

Sweet and charming, with a very satisfying HEA.

Ordinary is Perfect is a very enjoyable read, as are all of the author's books. Autumn Swan is a driven, busy, and highly successful small business owner, but she manages to stay a nice person regardless. Catherine Daye is very different, and as retiring and unplugged as Autumn is busy and plugged in.
This is a wonderful story about how their lives become intertwined and work out their own happily ever after. I really enjoyed this book, and indeed ordinary can be perfect. Recommended!

This book is exactly as advertised. Its pretty ordinary and not a lot is going on there, There were a few issues with continuity. IN the blurb it describes Gabe as 10, but in the book she is eleven and only a few months from twelve. Also the ages of the main characters seem a little off. Like Autumn is supposed to be 25 and Cat is 35, but Becky was 10 years older than Autumn? I dunno the ages were confusing and that brought me out of the story a little bit.

The story is all about a weird arrangement, missed understandings and a rather lame end of the book. It ended so quickly and there were a lot of unanswered questions. I mean I also didn't understand why the last event happened the way it did, it just seemed awfully contrived. I thought the overall story was well written and it flowed well. I just wasn't in love with this book like I was with Leigh's other booms specifically the Dragon Horse War series which I loved.

Overall this was good, it had the right amount of emotion and romance and for such a short book, it was a slow burn with some great romantic elements. The sex scene were good, and all the characters were written well. I just didn't like the ended. If you are a fan of Leigh this one might be a little disappointing.

This book was given to me as an ARC by BoldStrokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Boy was this a good book
D Jackson Leigh certainly knows how to mix it up, one moment I was laughing out loud, the next I was full of emotion and found myself crying then to top it all off the next moment I found my pulses increasing as it was hot....very hot
An absolutely fantastic book/story and really well written. Recommend 100%+

I"m a dyed-in-the-wool southerner, and I love the way DJL writes about the South. I agree with some of the previously mentioned timeline quirks, but I really enjoyed the slow-burn opposites attract romance between Autumn and Catherine. I generally love the "character inherits the grandmother's property" trope, and this one works really well for me. As Catherine is dealing with PTSD, once she succumbs to Autumn's charms the chemistry and love scenes jump off the page. Highly recommend.

There was so much to like about this book!

Catherine's and Autumn's gradual giving in to the attraction they felt for each other was heartwarming to watch.

I was drawn in by the title and the description. I liked how Catherine's thoughts emphasized, over and over, her ordinariness. So, when Autumn's father's confession suggests she is not at all ordinary, it was disappointing - it was as if Catherine had to be *so* much more just to be worthy of Autumn. No! The two of them, battling their demons, together and apart, were doing just fine without this - quite unrealistic, by the way - confession.

So, if I were editing this book, I'd edit that part right out of it! That, and Autumn's casual homophobia - her reference to Catherine being butch was done in a negative light, and her questioning whether or not her co-worker's new hire (a lesbian) was "obvious." I get that we queers grow up in the same homophobic society that straight folks do - I do. And I don't expect queer characters to be perfect. But I prefer that when one says something homophobic, there's a bit more pushback than there was.

So, why, after expounding on the two negative things in the book, do I give it four stars? Because I just cannot give it three stars. I took more space grousing about the two negative things than they take up in the book. It really is a good book. And I really enjoyed their young charge - and her relationship with her good friend. Oh, and Elvis! What a great dog!

When marketing star Autumn Swan’s cousin dies she is shocked to find that not only did her cousin leave her the old family farm she also wants Autumn to look after her ten year old daughter Gabe. Autumn hasn’t been back to visit with her cousin for years and her own business is just starting to really take off so she is happy to find that her cousin also asked her neighbor, Army veteran Catherine Daye to be a co-parent to Gabe. Cat has many problems brought on from her time in the army. Neither Cat or Autumn wants to move. Autumn is a city girl while Cat can’t see herself ever being able to live anywhere else but on her farm. But both love Gabe and when they find themselves falling in love with each other, neither one can figure out how to make it all work. It won’t be easy. Very enjoyable read.
ARC via NetGalley

a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43288041-ordinary-is-perfect" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Ordinary is Perfect" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1545264970m/43288041.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43288041-ordinary-is-perfect">Ordinary is Perfect</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3447277.D_Jackson_Leigh">D. Jackson Leigh</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2674312955">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I rec'd an ARC from NetGalley/Bold Stroke Books. No synopsis needed.<br />This is a slow-burn romance which cleverly handles the trauma of PTSD without diluting the effect it has on families. Main characters Catherine (army veteran) and Autumn (marketing whiz) are ably supported by Gabe (10 yr old) - really the 3rd lead. An emotional read with just enough twists and turns, I was thoroughly hooked and read through the night to a satisfying end. Ms. Jackson-Leigh remains firmly on my favourite authors list and ably earns 4 stars.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31134832-gail">View all my reviews</a>

I liked this book a lot while reading it. When I finished and had time to process it though, I noticed a few things I didn't at the time.

I liked the characters. I felt they had great personality. In complete honesty too, the funeral scene had me tearing up a great deal.

The pacing was a bit of an issue for me. A large amount of time passes in the story, but it's not presented well. There are several time hops that left me feeling a bit cheated. I don't feel like the two main characters had a really good start to their relationship. I do get that they both aren't looking for it, but when they do start getting romantic in more than a physical way it just sort of... happens. There didn't seem to be much interaction or conversation in regards to the decision making.

Overall I liked the story. It was a great read, but I would have actually liked it to be longer.

Ordinary is Perfect is my second Leigh book. My first was her Pine Cone Romance which had two great main characters, including a veteran with PTSD.

In this book, Catherine, another veteran struggling with PTSD, loses her best friend and next door neighbor, Beckie, to cancer. When Beckie’s Type A cousin from the city, Autumn, arrives for the services, life changes in every way possible. One of these heady changes involves Beckie’s 12 year old daughter who is now alone.

My takeaway from this story is how first impressions are ridiculously superficial. So much happens after Autumn decides to stand still and pay attention to Catherine and Gabriella that it makes the story worthwhile right there. It’s in these quiet moments of listening and understanding that the book works really well. It’s what drives everybody together finally. The other part to the book is Autumn dealing with the family she left behind. When Autumn’s father confronts her with their shared past, it’s startling in the complexity. In her own words, if you’ve blamed or based your life on certain memories and the remembered pain, then discover the bigger truth, now what? There were some parts that were a little clunky but I get that the author wanted to add depth to Catherine’s character. Overall, a good book.

3.5 Stars. I enjoyed this book, but it had some flaws which prevents my score being higher. This book is about Catherine, an ex-soldier who suffers from PTSD and retreats to a farm to live a simple life and Autumn, a city girl with a new business who comes back to the small town after her cousin dies. Her cousin has a daughter named Gabe who Catherine and Autumn are put in charge of taking care of in her cousin's will. Catherine was Autumn's cousin's neighbor and had helped her and grew close with Gabe before she died. Catherine and Autumn are opposites, Catherine likes the quiet, farm life and Autumn likes the city life. They learn to get along and take care of Gabe together, as well as get to know each other better. They start to have feelings for each other but Catherine especially denies them as she is afraid as she lost a lot of people in the military, she doesn't want to get attached to anyone again. Autumn at first thinks Catherine is just s simple, butch woman from a small town, but Catherine proves her wrong.

I enjoyed this book as it had a tension between the two characters and it is well written. I enjoyed seeing how their relationship evolved and progressed. The only thing I didn't like, which was a flaw in my opinion, was the end. The drama towards the end of book I didn't enjoy. It seemed like Autumn overreacted, and it didn't end that well. I wish it continued a little bit longer after the ending. I would recommend this book, it was still a good book. I had not read a book by this author before and I enjoyed it. I might read more novels by D. Jackson Leigh.

For the first 75% of the book I was thinking this would be a solid four stars. After the dreaded conflict towards the end I had to lower my rating.

I liked both of the leads and I'm glad that they worked together from the start when it came to Gabe. I was worried that this was going to start with them both hating each other. The chemistry between the two was well written.

I think that there could have been other conflicts instead of the crop related one. Maybe Cat or Gabe weren't cool with Gabe moving to Atlanta? Cat seemed to have no issue with Autumn unilaterally deciding to have Gabe switch schools. It seemed like a better conflict could have been found. Autumn totally flying off the handle when she found Cat's medicine seemed extreme. The police situation seemed unnecessary. It was all wrapped up really quickly, also.

Overall the book was ok, it's probably worth a read.

(A copy of the book was provided by BSB through netgalley for an honest review.)