This book felt like a mix of genres. It felt like romance, then it felt like mystery and at times literary fiction. The majority of the novel spans 3 days that occur after a therapist sees a young man contemplating suicide on the side of a bridge. She stops to intervene and talk him down.

Some of the interactions and decisions made by the characters don’t seem likely which gives the book a romance feel with two star crossed lovers. Over the 3 days, the two main characters’ pasts are revealed which gives it a mystery feel and leaves the reader pondering what happened and what will happen next. The author can craft sentences and dialogue so that the reader can have a literary experience.

I was given the opportunity to review an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

This book made me feel all kinds of way. I liked it, it was unexpected. It started very intriguing and interesting. I didn’t think it was going to end the way it did. Slightly disappointed by it. I was hoping for a different development.
The book covered different topics that are very serious and real. I liked that part.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book! An ingenious plot, richly drawn characters, and so much to love about all of them. There's a little Tallie and Emmett in all of us.

This book dealt in heavy themes, but it felt like cozying under a blanket next to a fireplace, listening to stories from an intriguing new friend. I looked forward to getting back to it each day.

One weekend. Two strangers. Life-changing conversation and thoughts. Recently divorced therapist, Tallie, is on her way home from work one rainy night in Kentucky. She spots a man standing on the edge of a bridge and immediately pulls over. She convinces the man, Emmett, to step down and join her for a cup of coffee. From that moment on, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett. Told in alternating points of view, both slowly reveal secrets and inch closer to the truth of what eventually brought them together.

This Close to Okay has such an appropriate title for this fictional story as well as real life. How many of us are really this---><---close to okay? I'll raise my hand first. Being able to relate to the title was my reason for wanting to read this new novel. Secondly, the cover caught my attention with its orange and grayish blue background featuring people of color. My third reason was the charm: I had read the author's other novel, Whiskey & Ribbons, and loved it. So what happened here?

It's the strangers helping one another heal for me. But despite the quick timeframe of one weekend, the story itself had a slow start, slow middle and even slower coming to an end. Maybe because I kept wondering when Tallie would stop throwing caution to the wind. Or why everyone but Tallie recognized Emmett's face. I spent more than half of the book rolling my eyes and debating whether to continue. It is only when I put the annoyances aside, that I was able to finish and can say it was an okay read.

Happy Early Pub Day, Leesa Cross-Smith! This Close to Okay will be available Tuesday, February 2.

LiteraryMarie

I'm not usually a big fan of literary fiction, but the cover drew me in and once I read the synopsis I knew I had to request. A book of love and loss, I was laughing and crying as we followed both Tallie and Emmett on their journey together. With a fascinating portrayal of the role of mental health in everyone's lives along with the sheer emotion shared between our two main characters, I will be recommending this book to anyone who needs a new read.

This close to okay is the story of Tallie, a therapist that stops when she sees a man thinking about ending his life. She takes him home with her and we follow their bond and uncover a lot of secrets.

I hate that I didn’t love this one, but I didn’t. I appreciated reading about mental health and there were some strong themes, it read, at times, too much like a romance for how it was marketed. I also wish the big secret revealed at the end had been revealed at the beginning to further explore (no spoilers though).

This is a nicely written, affecting and enjoyable read, but the story teeters on its unsound foundations. Would a therapist and single woman really take a suicidal stranger home? Would a therapist work without a supervisor and take as many risks as Tallie does here? These unanswered questions undermine a carefully plotted and unusual tale, not quite a romance but something nearly as sweet. The author is focused and devoted to her couple. Surrounding characters can be sketchy. But this is promising work.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for review.

Tillie and Emmett meet when she stops him from jumping over a bridge. Emmett lies to Tillie. Tillie lies to Emmett. Emmett breaches boundaries when he creates an email claiming to be her. They like each other. Other people are in the mix. I won't give away the ending.

I wanted to like this story. At the very start, the lies got to me and I almost put the book down. At about 60% of the way into the book, I began to get invested in the characters. But then I lost all interest at 85% of the way in and to the finish.

I am glad others liked this book. There are trigger warnings. Lots of talk of suicide. Also, lying is a trigger for anyone who has been in a dishonest relationship. If I were in a true focus group, I'd ask for a different ending at least.

Might be a good beach read for some. Not for me.

Oh man, This Close to Okay is one of those books that I was thinking about days after I had finished. The story and the writing were so beautiful The characters...I can't even think about without crying. I loved everything about this book.

I was surprised by how much I liked this! The narrative structure and pacing of it felt quite different from my normal reads, but I loved watching it all play out and it's stuck with me!

Interesting, and a pretty good read. But, this one didn’t knock my socks off. Good exploration of mental health issues.

I was definitely in the right state of mind to read this. It's windy and dreary outside, I was curled up by the fire in my own little hygge world, and I just got lost in Tallie and Emmett's weekend. They spent a lot of time in their own heads and each other's, but the dialogue is always natural and the prose is always vivid. I was able to read an ebook through Netgalley, but I seriously wish I had gotten this in my BOTM box so I could shelve it next to Backman's "Anxious People." While the books strike very different moods, they hit similar enough notes that I can't help but compare them.

The pace was slow and peaceful throughout most the of the book, but all of the sudden I turned a page and the drama RAMPED up. Brace yourself! The ending will leave you wanting more. In a good way.

Give me a moment to gather myself *deep breathe* ohmygoodness! This book has my heart crying, smiling, laughing, yelling all at the same time. The story of Tallie and Emmett colliding, soaring, and falling had me all sorts of in the feels. The last half was riveting and achingly heartbreaking yet it ended, not tied up nicely with a bow, but full of hope for the future.

I seriously did not expect to love this as much as I did (and do) when I started but I am so so happy I was given the opportunity to read it.

Heartfelt thanks to Netgalley for giving me the pleasure to read and review this ebook.

[TW: depression, suicide]
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced e-copy of this book for review.

DNFed at 21%. This book wasn’t for me. I couldn’t handle Tallie viewing all of her interactions w Emmett as therapy sessions that he didn’t consent to: “This was a therapy session whether he knew it or not.” After they were out of immediate crisis mode, I thought she would stop. But she continued to privately refer to him as “Client” and taking clinic notes in her head when they were just hanging out and shopping together, rather than just viewing him as a human being.

Additionally, Tallie’s thoughts about suicide prevention in the first 21% were really superficial and unhelpful. It felt particularly misguided since I had just read Care Work, in which Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha so eloquently says, “Insisting that ‘everyone needs to promise to live!’ without actually changing the conditions that make people want to die is an ableist setup that hangs suicidal folks out to dry.” (Care Work - page 202)

This book was overall enjoyable to read. It had a captivating story line and the characters were interesting. I liked the way things unfolded and was surprised at the twists and turns that occurred throughout it. I also really enjoyed the character of Emmett. I thought the Cross-Smith's use of describing situations the way he saw them helped me picked up on his thought process, on how he felt, and it told me a lot about the character. I also liked that no character appeared too perfect, and it was a complex story that made you wrestle with certain feelings.

That being said, I did have a small issue with the role of Tallie as a therapist. I just don't think a therapist would take someone who is suicidal home and take them under their wing. I live with a psychologist and she said that ethically speaking, that's just not appropriate. I also know her biggest pet peeve is psychologists in books who overstep boundaries in this kind of way. Every time Tallie started thinking of Emmett like a patient, it made me uncomfortable and I wish there had been more research done on it. Because it's just not realistic and it was difficult for me to suspend my disbelief on how therapists would act with a patient. There was also one phrase Tallie used to describe her friend as "lesbian half the time" which I found bizarre in 2020.

Overall, if you like novels that are light while delving into hard topics, this would be a recommend for me.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read

Advance Copy Received from publisher/NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Have you ever read a book that's so beautifully written that you can feel the descriptions, smell the smells and not imagine a life without knowing the characters from a novel? Yes--well here's another....No--check this one out! This Close to Okay is not a light book, but it's so worth the heartaches it will put you through. There's numerous trigger warnings (suicide, depression, mental illness, cheating, infertility), but if you're in a space appropriate for those, this book is well worth the stabs in the heart it'll give you. The characters are flawed and relatable. The story line will break you and piece you back together, and the build of the story is done so incredibly well--almost like the build done in the best thriller. So many of us are "This Close to Okay" and this book is a testament of the power one act of kindness can have, the power of others to affect us, the power of lies of omission, and the power of love and friendship.

I loved this one--read the synopsis--it does better at describing this book in a spoiler free way then I ever can--and if you're able-give this a shot. Leesa Cross-Smith has a new fan that'll begin reading Whiskey and Ribbons soon!

Sorry, let me quickly wipe away the actual tears this book made me cry from my keyboard before I move forward with my review! Honestly, Leesa Cross-Smith has done. it. again. THIS CLOSE TO OKAY is a heartbreaker, a heartwarmer, and a heart-make-happyer. I just get lost in her writing and could tell you to pick up this book for days! You won't regret it if you are looking for a cozy read with grit, humor, and warmth.

We begin the book with Tallie, who pulls her car over while crossing a bridge in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky when she sees a man about to jump. She does not disclose to him that she is a therapist, instead she talks to him as a friend and eventually convinces him to get a cup of coffee and talk. From there, the story spins out over a Halloween weekend as we see a relationship grow and move in completely unexpected ways.

Cross-Smith has such a wonderful way of developing characters and making them four dimensional, living beings that jump off the page. Her pop culture references (I swear, we have the exact same taste in music) as so delightful and always bring a smile to my face as well. Yes, this book will make you cry, but that's only because it's such a wonderful book with wonderful writing and I can't say enough good things about it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leesa Cross-Smith has written a moving story about the destroying power of secrets in This Close To Okay. Mental illness, homelessness, and the unfairness that encroach on our ”perfect” lives can be debilitating. I think we all look for ”signs” sometimes to reassure ourselves that life will get better. One near suicude, one caring person, and a lot of signs point us to believe in the essential goodness of our fellow citizens. The author states, ”After love, forgiveness is the strongest glue holding every family together.” There are so many beautiful moments in this book and I know you will enjoy this one. Bravo to Ms. Cross-Smith. My thanks to net galley for this arc but all thoughts and observations are my own and without bias. @leesacrosssmith #leesacrosssmith @netgalley #netgalley #thisclosetookat @bookofthemonth #botm #suicide #therapy #divorce #race #loss #love #forgiveness #redemption #faith #family #book #books #fiction #bookstagram #reader #reading #mmd #winterreading @lindaleereads2020

I was so sucked into this book! Then a plot twist was revealed that I felt betrayed the reader's trust so I'm not finishing it. The plot twist was such that I immediately just didn't care about any of the remaining mysteries or what would happen with the story/characters. Not rating it on Goodreads because perhaps other readers would roll with it and remain engaged in the story, and i wouldn't want to drag down the average.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.