This was a really odd book to read. I think the cover and the description of it are very misleading: the cartoon cover and the inclusion of a male figure made this seem like it would be a cutesy romance, whilst the description describes it as a romantic comedy. I found it to be neither of these things: it wasn’t romantic, and it wasn’t particularly funny.

Whilst the description mentions Kat’s anxiety, I did not expect this to be literally the entire focus of this novel. This book is very introspective: it is entirely from Kat’s perspective, and apart from occasional encounters with other people, most of it is in Kat’s head; there are a lot of details about her past and what has led her to where she is, the root causes of her anxiety, and her relationships. She has a few quirky encounters with other people working at or using the health centre, but none of these relationships feels very developed. Anyone looking for romance should look elsewhere; Marcus, the man mentioned in the description, is only mentioned in passing for the first 40% of the book, but even after that, he takes a very minor role.

It was actually quite a bleak novel. The writing is good-that I can’t fault; it was engaging and I couldn’t stop reading-but the tone of it is very jarring. Whilst I would not describe this as a comedy, the way the story is told is clearly designed to be comedic. It just wasn’t actually very funny. Kat’s situation is terribly sad. She is not a particularly likeable character, but I did find I pitied her a lot by the end of it. The result was a book that just made me feel quite sad and miserable, which is not what I expected based on the cover and description.

I think part of the problem is that it’s very clear, to the reader, that Kat is in serious need of intervention for her mental health issues, and whilst it comes close to acknowledging this, I didn’t feel very satisfied at the end of it that this was a character that was going to get the help she needed. The ending felt too neat: it was all tied up with a nice big bow, but there were so many aspects to Kat and her life that I just don’t think could be sorted out with a quick conversation with her family and a flirtation with a personal trainer.

Overall, I just found this a really odd read. I’m not entirely sure what the author was hoping to achieve with this book: the romantic element felt like an afterthought, and the clear attempts at creating humour fell very flat. I can sort of see how the bare bones of the concept could have worked, but as it is here, the book left a sour taste in my mouth. I think if the book had a different cover and the description made less of her relationship with Marcus, I may have felt differently.

How do you cope when your life is falling apart?

Panic attacks and the gym apparently. A look at mental health, anxiety, and self care

Book: Come Here Often
Author: Ellie Center
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Review ~

Come Here Often is about Kay who is trying to change her life for the better but everything falls apart. She goes through a break up and she also lost her job. But at least she has the the finest health club that changes her life.

Make sure to check the trigger warning before reading this book. I love how this book focuses on mental health and how it can be hard to overcome anxiety. I love how Kay found the gym to be her safe place and to help with her anxiety because the real world was too much.

Overall this book was amazing I highly recommend reading this book! I love how she compares all of the staff as celebrity look-a-likes and some of them are actually the real celebrity.

I had to eventually DNF this book as after trying it multiple times, I couldn’t get myself interested in the story. Firstly, I felt that the main character was annoying and bland. Her POV wasn’t interesting and seemed very shallow. The plot just kept repeating, and there was no meaningful interaction between characters. The anxiety loop could have been more expanded on, but was instead just used as another tool for the self pitying MC to justify her weird decision. There was attempted tension but it kind of fell flat, like everything else.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙊𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙣? - 𝙀𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙚 𝘾𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧

REVIEW: ★★☆☆☆ Kat embarks on a day of change to improve her life, she’s joined a new gym and set off for her first workout. She didn’t expect for her life to completely unravel the minute she stepped thorough the door. A slightly frustrating read, which didn’t feel like the story progressed.

SUMMARY: Being fired and her boyfriend ending their relationship moments apart, Kat has a panic attack in the gym. Unable to leave, she throws herself into exploring the facilities, befriending the staff and finding new rooms to hide in and sleep at night.

THOUGHTS: I was lucky enough to receive this as an advanced readers copy via NetGalley ahead of release. At first glance I thought this would be a light hearted, rom-com style read, however the focus of the book is Kat’s anxiety. At times I found myself frustrated at decisions she made, which helped me relate to the internal battle she was facing. However I found this more distracting to my reading flow. I did feel sad for her character, always thinking about Xanax or drinking and frustrated that I wanted this book to show her steadily improving herself but it seemed only a sudden change at the end, which left me frustrated.

The romance inferred was minimal I would say, she spends her time avoiding her ex and having short conversations with a PT. Again not quite how I thought the plot would go. I did enjoy some of Kat’s humorous comments about her situation and you did feel the trapped frustration she experienced. However overall I struggled to feel like the story progresses after the first few chapters.

I honestly think I would have enjoyed this book more if it didn't advertise itself so boldly and fervently as hilarious. It never quite landed there for me.

And so, though I came back to the book many times in hopes it would reach the happy cute moments, I couldn't keep reading it and did not finish the book. The author does a brilliant job of capturing Kat's kind of frantic, overwhelmed anxiety, though, and so if you don't mind being in that headspace when you're expecting a romantic comedy, maybe go for it.

I might come back to it when I have more patience for the sad chaos of her life; hopefully it does eventually get to a more joyful easy-to-read place.

This was a super sweet read about anxiety and moving your life in a new directions. I really felt for Ms Noah (as in Toad) and my heart broke for her severe anxiety. Sure, the situation was a bit fantastical but it’s all a part of the fun!

I had picked it up thinking it was more of a romance so do keep that in mind so you’re not disappointed!

Description 🔖

Kat isn’t a gym goer. She’s not into health and fitness but very much into partying and drinking. Until she decides that the day has arrived to turn her life around. She has all the best intentions; arrives at her swanky health club ready to go. But it all starts to fall apart for her when in the space of minutes, she is dumped via phone and sacked from her job.

Kat’s anxiety gets the better of her and she works herself into a state, telling herself that she cannot leave the health club. So she finds a massage table to sneakily sleep on for the night. But one night turns into two, two turns into three and suddenly, she’s living in her gym.

How long can Kat keep this charade up for? When will her friends and family realise that something is seriously wrong? And will her personal trainer end up being more than just her trainer?

General Thoughts 🤔

Ok. I had high hopes for this book. I was truly in the right frame of mind for a rom com, something that I wouldn’t have to think too much about but could have a laugh with and maybe the odd gooey lovey dovey moment. Unfortunately I really don’t think this should be badged as a rom com. There’s very little romance in it (unless you count the last chapter and the epilogue…kind of) and I don’t really recall laughing all that much.

After the first five chapters I thought to myself, surely, this can’t be it. This entire book can’t be about this woman stuck in her gym. Turns out that it was. I think I could have enjoyed it more if Kat learnt some huge life lessons or really turned a corner, or fell madly in love. But I don’t think any of those things happened really and so for me personally if felt like every chapter was a lady working out and then finding somewhere to hide and sleep.

Characters 👫👭👬

There were moments when I did sympathise with Kat. Anxiety can be crippling and she was obviously seriously struggling with her anxiety but my goodness she did not help herself. She chose the “easy” way out every single time, which ended up leading her to the harder way out eventually. I think I would have liked to have known more about Kat’s history and her childhood, but it was thrown in as more of an after thought as opposed to an explanation of her struggle.

There was potential for some of the characters in the book to be really funny. Lura for instance and Lee from the front desk. I think the author could have really played on these stereotypes and made these characters hilarious, but instead I felt like it just scraped the surface with them and therefore they were just a little bit annoying.

Writing Style ✍️

I’m so sorry to say that I don’t think that this author’s writing style and I are meant to be. We’re just not a good match. I found the whole book quite samey with not very much happening. Then at the very end a bunch of stuff happened which made it feel like it had gotten to a point where someone had said “ok, better wrap this up now”. Sometimes an author and a reader are just not a good match for one another and that is completely ok!

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

If you’ve gotten this far in this review, it is of no surprise that I just didn’t gel well with this book. I thought it was going to be one thing and it unfortunately wasn’t and I feel like it under delivered on it’s potential. Hopefully there are readers out there that have a completely opposing view to mine and I wish the author every success for the future, but unfortunately its an author I will be unlikely to return to.

DNF'd at 59%

I really, really don't like DNFing books....but I just, quite simply, did not want to pick this up again- it really really stressed me out and brought me NO enjoyment.

So, TW for severe anxiety! I've given it two stars purely because I did quite like the authors writing style, I just think this book has been completely mis-marketed.
Its sold as a funny, laugh-out-loud feel good rom com. What we get, is a woman with such severe and crippling anxiety she can't leave a building, and as the stakes get higher we are stuck in her head as she procrastinates and gives, I'm sure, even the most chill person anxiety. The main character (as well as needing different therapy for handling her 'Big A", as clearly what she's currently getting is helping In no way at all) is a very selfish and self-centered character. Her break up? Only has herself to blame- her ex seems to be an absolute sweetheart and has put up with so much from her, tried to help her and clearly loves her. He doesn't deserve to be saddled with her.
Her job she lost? Again, no one to blame but herself, for her rude behaviour and inability to see beyond herself. She is childish and I really could not stand her. I'm sure (hopefully, maybe?) she got better, managed to face her big A and fix her life, face her problems and become a nicer person.... but after forcing myself though as much of this story as I physically could, I'm just going to have to be content with not knowing how this story ended.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for gifting me a free ARC or this book in exchange for and honest review.

3 stars

I would not call this book a rom-com. it's a book about a woman who's life falls apart in the first chapter whilst on a gym induction. It details anxiety,panic attacks and what it can feel like to be truly out of control.
Kat is stuck! She can't seem to break out of the cycle... Exercise is helping but not enough.

It was an interesting novel and well written. However you wonder what kind of debt she will be in by the end of the book.

This book was gifted by netgalley however all views are my own.

#netgalley #comehereoften? I loved this rom com book, an as a sufferer of anxiety I could easily relate. Love the characters and was well written. I look forward to reading more from Ellie Centre. 5/5 stars

This was a very different story than I was expecting. Kat goes to a fitness place to start exercising since her boyfriend thinks she should. Once there she gets a phone call where she is fired from her job. After that phone call she receives another from her boyfriend who breaks up with her after a five year relationship. All of this causes her anxiety to get bad and she isn’t able to leave. She starts spending 24 hours of the day there and never leaves. She eventually gets caught and gets help to deal with her anxiety.

Come Here Often? is about a young women's journey with her mental health and anxiety. I think I was a bit caught off guard while reading this story because the cover and synopsis made it feel like it'd be a romantic comedy but I found it to be more of a women's fiction book. Once I got over that hump, I was able to appreciate the story for what is was and dive deeper into Kay's journey.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I'm afraid this one didn't do it for me. I felt it dragged and wasn't as good as the synopsis made it sound.

I like the characters but I think Ellie could dig deeper and get more character and personality out of them. More spice, more entertainment. This book could be amazing, I just don't feel it is 100% finished.

I did enjoy the storyline and feel it has great potential. Thank you for allowing me to read it, Ellie and Netgalley.

I enjoyed this book, for the most part. Some bits were a bit redundant or slow but when you get through those I was eager to see where the story lead to. The cover art threw me off, as I truly thought I was about to read a romantic comedy. It is more of a book about a girl's journey through severe anxiety and mishaps in life that triggered it. The ending was brilliant and I truly loved how it was wrapped up, so I'm giving it 4 stars. I enjoyed the main character even though some parts of her made me cringe, overall I appreciated her rawness, impulsiveness, instability as it just makes it more relatable to normal people's messy sides.

I received this book to read by NetGalley and the publishers. All statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book.

#ComeHereOften appears to be a sweet & humorous rom-com. However, it s much deeper than that. As an #anxiety sufferers myself, I felt for Kat. #EllieCenter tackles this serous topic in her #debutnovel. How appropriate and timely that this book releases today!

Thank you, Ellie Center, Bookouture & NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

Oof. This book didn’t work for me on so many levels. First, unless you think a severely damaged woman suffering from crippling anxiety drinking herself into full blown self destruction is funny, this shouldn’t be marketed as a comedy. For an extra “comedic” boost, the author threw in a side character with a physically abusive father who tries to kidnap her and a tragic memory of a small child’s death. So funny right?

Ok if I can ignore the fact that this was marketed as “feel good” and “funny” and just dive into the story, I’m still disappointed. Look, there are lots of novels about sad damaged people (“A Man Called Ove,” “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine,” etc.) that are wildly successful but in order to do that the writing needs to be rich, the characters and relationships deep, and a main character’s evolution. “Come Here Often” didn’t have any of those elements so it fell flat.

It was almost like the author couldn’t decide if she wanted to write something light and fluffy or something serious so she did a little bit of both and neither one worked. I think this could have worked as a rom com if the character wouldn’t have been so damaged with real life issues or it could have worked as a serious book without the fluffy celebrity references and nonchalant nature the main character has toward her self destruction. However, a little of each genre shoved in together just didn’t work.

Finally, the book was exhaustingly repetitive, the relationships lacked depth/connection, and the priorities were so off balance it was concerning: the main character is so deeply damaged by the death of her dog but her involvement in an accident that led to a child’s death is just glossed over like an afterthought? What?!

I’m sorry; I know it takes major guts and gumption to write a book and have it published so congrats to the author for that but this just wasn’t for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the advance electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'Make Me Disappear' by Jessica Payne.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Jessica Payne, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous

Publication date 23rd May 2022.

This is Emily Center's debut novel.

I was originally drawn to this book by its eye catching unique cover and intriguing sounding synopsis and title. The synopsis stated that this book is 'Perfect for fans of Beth O’Leary and Emily Henry.' I am a huge fan of Emily Henry so am looking forward to seeing if this lives up to this statement. I must admit I was also biased due to the publisher being Bookouture. I have yet to read a book published by Bookouture that I haven't enjoyed. Hopefully this won't be the first... Watch this space! (Written before I started reading the book).

This novel consists of 25 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are medium in length so possible to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

This book is based in Nashville, Tennessee , USA 🇺🇸

This book is written in first person perspective and the main protagonist is Katherine Noad. The benefits of books written in first person perspective are as long as they are well written it makes you feel that you are being spoken to by the protagonist and it can create more of a bond between yourselves and them.

'Come Here Often?' ' discusses some topics that may trigger or upset some readers or may not be suitable for others. I like to point this out ahead of time in my reviews so you can judge if this book is for you or not. In this book Ellie discusses/includes mental illness, anxiety, panic attacks, death of a pet, death of a child, domestic violence and attempted kidnapping.

This book is very well written with vivid descriptions will that have your heart pounding on the treadmill and sweating in the sauna. The cover and synopsis suit the book perfectly.

This storyline is very easy to read and I flew through it in one sitting. It is a unique storyline, one of only a handful that I have read that is set in one location throughout. I always worry when it comes to books set in one location that I will get bored of "seeing" the same places but as 'Great Fitness' is such a large building with so many different amenities there are plenty of places to explore with Katherine. Although it is based in a gym this book is filled with so much more than fitness, from romance to rivalry, family and friends and even some crime. It is filled with love, sadness, tension, hope, loss and everything you could ask for in a romantic comedy. There were parts that made me laugh, brought me close to tears and others that made me sit up and hold my breathe. I loved all the song, music, movie and celebrity references. I read this on my kindle but I also had the audio book which I listened to in the car and on school runs. The narrator was fantastic and the voice was perfect for Katherine, she had me hooked on the audio book along with me already being hooked on the book itself. The narrator portrayed Katherine's anxiety perfectly. Although this book is mainly sold as a romantic comedy there are some serious topics discussed such as depression and anxiety so if you are looking for a laugh a minute romcom this may not be the book for you. However, personally, I enjoyed the mix in emotions and I thought Ellie intertwined funny situations with darker ones perfectly and also helps to bring anxiety awareness to readers.

The characters are all well described and strong. There is also a wide range of personalities which I enjoyed getting to know. I became completely invested in Kath and her story and hope she does get the help she needs. I was very happy in how the book ended for her. My heart went out to her on several occasions as she had gone through so much as a child and continued to struggle into adulthood with her mental health along with everything happening in her personal life. I really liked Jack who seemed like a really sweet guy and in a way I would have liked to see more of him and see how things worked out if Marcus wasn't in the picture. I won't say any more than that as I don't want to spoil it for future readers. However, I did like Marcus and thought he was really sweet. I did not get on with Sam and thought that he didn't seem affected at all considering how long he had been with Katherine. I absolutely adored sweet little Rosie and hope that things improve for herself and Raline. I wasn't a fan of Katherine's parents and thought that they should have been a lot more supportive and considerative of her feelings and mental health. Lura was definitely a strange one who I didn't like at all when I first met her but I believe she was misunderstood and was redeemed by the end. Regardless whether you loved them or hated them these characters work perfectly well to make this a very enjoyable read.

Well done Ellie on a great debut novel, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with next 🥂.

Overall a unique and intriguing storyline that will keep you turning the pages.


Genres covered in this book include Women's Fiction, Romance, Humour, Romantic Comedy, General Humourous Fiction and Comedy amongst others.


I would recommend this book to the fans of the above as well as fans of Beth O’Leary, 'Bridget Jones Diary' and Emily Henry.


323 pages.

This book is just 99p to purchase on kindle or free on kindle unlimited (at time of review) via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 4 /5 (I enjoyed it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

Feel free to add me on Goodreads or follow me on my website or Facebook for more reviews

#ComeHereOften? #Bookouture #EllieCenter #NetGalley #BookReview #BlogTour #BooksOnTour
@EllieCenter @Bookouture @Bookworm1986 @bookworm86 @EllieCenter

https://kcmw86.wixsite.com/bookworm86

https://m.facebook.com/Bookworm1986/?ref=bookmarks

https://m.facebook.com/Bookwork86/?__tn__=%2As-R

https://www.instagram.com/bookwormwhitlock86/

I've seen so many negative reviews for this book, which leads me to the conclusion that not many seem to understand mental health and the detrimental effects that panic attacks and anxiety can cause. I found this highly relatable as I struggle with both myself, and totally got Kat's fears.

Anyhow, back to the review...

I found it an enjoyable, entertaining read and thought Kat's stay at Nashvilles finest h̶o̶t̶e̶l̶...gym was genius, and her overnight antics were hilarious.

Kat was a down on her luck character, having lost both her partner and her job since entering the gym. I found her credible and highly relatable.

Gym's always scare me, but with all the men resembling certain Hollywood heartthrobs in this one, who wouldn't want to visit it?

As debut novels go, this was a highly enjoyable, fun read that I would recommend.

Many thanks to Bookouture for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Will she be able to overcome her uneasiness and learn to bravely face the reality of her messy life?

“Finding your “better self”. At least, that’s what it means to me. Obviously, freedom is something I lack as I spend my days and nights anxiety-locked inside Great Fitness.”

This book sounded like a Women’s Fiction because it focused on a woman’s life experience dealing with her anxiety. The book was enjoyable still, following Kat’s journey of growth as she learned to cope up with her anxiety relating to her different traumas. I found it interesting and at the same time heartbreaking. This book actually explored how people deal with their mental health in different ways – either healthily or the opposite. So, knowing that the female protagonist had ended up with a life full of misfortunes, I was rooting for her to find herself with a happy ending.