Kate Callaghan’s rom com meets suspense novel, Ms. Perfectly Fine, seemed to be the perfect remedy to our post-holiday blues. MPF follows Autumn Adler, a piano prodigy, who, a decade after a traumatic event, is ready to return to the stage. The stress of her comeback is compounded by the sudden appearance of Elijah Wells, an entrepreneur and game designer, who moves into the ground floor of her rented home and is determined to pull down the walls that Autumn has built around herself. Amidst it all, a series of seemingly innocuous gifts addressed to Autumn are delivered that quickly prove more sinister than they appeared.

MPF’s synopsis piqued our interest, and the author’s heartfelt note about chronic pain and the provided playlist added to our excitement towards reading this book. Callaghan's main characters were brilliantly developed. Autumn was fiercely hyper-independent and refused to let her guard down; yet her vulnerability shone through too. Despite her pain being an integral component, it never became her entire character, and instead, it was smartly and sensitively interweaved into the tale. In contrast to Autumn’s grumpiness, Elijah exuded golden retriever energy. Although he had his own emotional baggage, he was loveable and quirky while being equally sensitive and supportive.

Unfortunately, that’s where the positives ended for us. While the writing was sound and the individual characters were well-rounded, the progression of the story itself was a letdown, and we found ourselves struggling to connect with it. Autumn’s and Elijah’s chemistry felt undulant, forced, and rushed, and although their banter was occasionally cute, the remainder left a lot to be desired. Additionally, the suspense element felt like an afterthought. While one of the twists was highly predictable, the other failed to create the desired impact and left us underwhelmed.

Nevertheless, we think that MPF made for a decent one-time read. Try it and let us know what you think?

We'd like to thank Netgalley and the author for the ARC.

L&L Rating: 2.5 Stars

TL;DR: Rom com meets suspense; not for us.

Story is a bit slow moving, and I don't feel any chemistry between the main characters. The situation is implausible; who in their right mind would be that okay suddenly rooming with a stranger? Far too complacent which makes it a weak plot point. Their conversations are stilted and awkward and don't feel natural. Chemistry is nil, they go from fighting to climbing into showers fully clothed with either??

The "mystery" is completely obvious and doesn't flow well with the rest of the story. I could tell exactly who and what it was the first scene it was mentioned. Red herring was too red.

The cover of this book has a lighter vibe than the book itself. The plot didn't feel real and connecting to the characters was difficult. But if you like forced proximity, reverse grumpy sunshine, and mystery maybe give this book a try.

I loved the first half of this book, but again I found myself putting this book down and picking up other books. I think I expected a fun book because of the cover but it was way heavier.
WHICH IS MY FAULT I SHOULD DO RESEARCH!!!!

Such a fun rom-com! I was initially interested in this book because of the title. Anything Taylor Swift-themed immediately has my attention. I think the title alone will draw a lot of readers!

This book was honestly perfectly fine. I enjoyed the romance between the female main character and the male main character. I thought they had great chemistry between them. While it did feel a little insta-love in that they went very quickly from disliking each other to getting together to being in love as the whole book takes place over a month, it didn't feel too out of place based on the characters. The only thing that felt unnecessary in the book was the suspense sub-plot. The conclusion of that plot felt obvious and almost unnecessary. But overall a fun book to read.

Grumpy sunshine and enemies to lovers… some of my fav tropes! There was also some thriller thrown in there too!

.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡ Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC of this book! ﾟ+..｡*ﾟ+

This book was really cute, I give it 3.5 stars. A romance between a stubborn piano prodigy making her big comeback and the handsome game developer who moves into the bottom floor of her home against her wishes? A stalker mystery subplot? Sign me uppp. The suspense plot was well done overall but some scenes and dialogue felt a bit stilted and unnatural, and the romantic tension could have been spun up and drawn out a bit more between the two characters. Some parts seemed rushed through. Other parts were really well done—all of the banter between Autumn and Elijah made me smile. I enjoyed the intrigue of the stalker whodunnit and picking up the breadcrumbs left behind to follow throughout the story. At first I thought I could spot the book’s villain a mile away but it turned out to be someone else entirely. The red herrings had me second guessing my suspicions throughout the book. I was a bit let down by the big reveal however.

One thing I do think the book could have benefited from might be changing the narration from third person to first person POVs to make it a bit more intimate since we were going back and forth between the characters’ POVs anyway, but I never could quite get into each character’s head about things. I don’t think it was truly a “show vs. tell” situation exactly, but in a similar way it felt like things would happen to Autumn and Elijah and it didn’t really impact me as much as it could have if I’d been able to see things through their eyes a bit better, if that makes any sense.

I did really love the back and forth between Elijah and Autumn—they were so cute during their battle of wills. But I was surprised to find the Elijah is 32 in this book. He acted much younger than what I would imagine a young game developer CEO would act. He and Autumn both read as young twenty-somethings and sometimes acted a bit immature, but other times they acted more mature and it came across as inconsistent characterization. However I really appreciated the realistic chronic pain representation and diverse supporting cast of characters.

All in all, this book was “perfectly fine”, but I think it could have benefited from a bit more polish to make it perfectly great.

This book focused on Autumn, a concert pianist, who is trying to make her solo comeback after being involved in a serious accident. In comes Elijah who, after a mix up with the landlord, co-rents her home disrupting the rhythm Autumn has created for herself.
All in all, whilst it took me a while to connect with the characters, I did come to like them and appreciate each of their personalities. In terms of the romance I found it quite cute but slightly rushed and would have preferred if it was more slowly paced. I did really enjoy the mystery as I definitely think it added to the plot and I did not expect the twist at all.
Overall I enjoyed the book and would definitely like to read more of the authors works.
Thank you to Kate Callaghan and Netgalley for this digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

It was cute. I really wanted to like it more than I did. The tropes were great. I mean…
- grumpy x sunshine
- forced proximity
- hates everyone but you

But it just fell flat.
The author always explained things instead of showing them happening, which is annoying. I’d rather read about it happening than read about a recap of what happened.

It lacked some substance and I think it was just trying to BE too much. Should have just picked a plot line and stuck with it so there wasn’t so much going on.

It had taken me a while to bring you this opinion about this book that I was able to read thanks to the fact that the author and NetGalley gave me the opportunity to read it in advance (IT IS NOW ON SALE). I just want to tell you that I got carried away by the title and the most beautiful cover it has, plus I saw it and thought "An excellent RomCom", but what a surprise I got with this book.
Imagine that you are quietly in your house and one morning you find moving workers bringing things in, to later describe that the person who rents you the house, rented a space to an arrogant and charming man without notifying you before, so you are in charge of doing everything whatever is in your hands to make him want to leave, the problem is that for every thing you do he returns it to you and starts a war, the problem is that every time, little by little, that man is breaking down the barriers he had put in your heart and that man does not understand how it is that from the first moment she began to get into his heart.
So far so good, but now imagine that you have been receiving a rose for years and you have no idea who sent it to you, imagine that now that your great return to the stage is drawing near it begins to arrive more frequently and with threatening messages, imagine that you have a stalker who wants to make sure you don't forget the past that almost destroyed you.
This is how our protagonists come together to discover who and why is doing what they are doing while they fall in love with each other.
And if that wasn't enough for you to read it, then I don't know what else you want, this book is a RomCom with hints of mystery and intrigue, in addition to having representation of chronic pain, forced proximity, grumpy x sunshine (she's la grumpy), he falls first and hardest, and is narrated from both of their points of view.
The only thing left for me to say, after all of the above, is that it is a book that left me pleasantly surprised, it was fun to read and that touch of suspense completely captivated me.

Autumn Addler is a piano prodigy who plans to make a comeback after an accident that left her scarred for the rest of her life. In the midst of all this, the girl is forced to share a house with Elijah, a recent entrepreneur of a video game company. 😏
And the story begins.
Being part of the group of people with chronic syndromes, I can say that it was nice to read about a character who suffers from the same. From the instability of not knowing if tomorrow is going to be a good day, from not having the security to make plans because we don't know how we're going to be, from having to live our lives with pain or discomfort that would put the rest of the world in a rest bed. This is our life. 🙋‍♀️
The chemistry, arguments and banter between Elijah and Autumn was one of my favorite parts of the story and I liked how the author was creating tension and not falling into the temptation of adding sex to complicate things. (🌶 1/5)
I also found the writing very accessible without big flourishes and without a doubt that the highlight of the book is the building of tension between the two characters but also with the suspense and mystery that appears in the form of roses because this is not just a fluffy romance. There is also a chase/stalker element that needs to be addressed.
Here, the building of tension is better than the conclusion because from the beginning it is easy to see who is the bad guy and how it will end. In this respect it reminds me a bit of Ali Hazelwood's books. Predictable. I admit that it wasn't my favorite part and I didn't like the effect it had on the protagonist. She was to passive and that part I didn't like.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.75)

Thank you Netgalley and Kate for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

This was such a fun read! A little light mystery, a budding forced proximity relationship, and a wonderful story about a woman with chronic illness/pain. There’s not too many books out there where the lead character truly has to live and navigate a chronic pain. It’s very refreshing!

I wanted to like this more than I did, but unfortunately it didn’t work for me. The premise was interesting, but i did not like the hero. I thought he was provoking her way too early, and the whole plot was way too instalove. The fmc was interesting but the stalker plot was a bit too much, and the plot twist wasn’t something I enjoyed.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Callaghanwriter for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the story line. I was surprised to see the FMC had chronic pain and the mystery over the roses was exciting. I liked the interactions between Autumn and Elijah. It is a cute story but something is off with it.... perhaps the pacing?

I really was not expecting this to go where it ended up going. I thought this was a cute forced proximity romance, when in actuality this novel addresses chronic pain, trauma and stalking. Safe to say I was definitely shocked when the roses started turning up. The forced proximity trope was one I was very unsure about however I think the author did a good job at writing it. It never grated on me or I thought it was too much. It did work. The stalking was a fascinating point of the novel. One thing though that I did struggle with was that the roses which were turning up had been happening for years, which you would start to think wait this is not normal. I liked how Elijah, the boy who moved into Autumn’s house, made it known that she needed to go to the police. I also appreciate that it is a slow burn romance but I felt their banter was too much for me at times I couldn’t tell if they liked each other or not. I also found when the novel came to a head with the stalking storyline, it also happened a bit too quick for me. It was the classic confrontation at the end. I would have liked a bit more complexity, but overall I would recommend this as a light summer thriller.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an arc of this book.
I gave this romance 3 stars out of 5. I liked the characters, expecially Elijah, and i love the forced proximity trope.
I had high hopes for this story but it was just nice, nothing that made me loving it. Everything happened too fast: the first interactions between Autumn and Elijah were funny and cute, but it then become too serious without really explaining how they went from "hating" each other to being in love

this book was cute enough, i didn't love how fast they fell in love, but it was a cute read! the pacing felt a little off, but i did love elijah.

What will happen when you put together an unlikely pair: a classical pianist and a game designer, in one house? This is where our story starts -- when Elijah a 30-something charismatic entrepreneur shares a house with a high-strung Autumn who chose to live alone and keep a small circle. She woke up one morning with a stranger comfortably moving in his things and movers packing hers. Their first meeting had a lot of tension, to say the least. Autumn was furious that her landlord failed to inform her of this new arrangement. She couldn't bear to leave her apartment and Elijah wouldn't give up his spot either. So they are stuck together. For real. 

Let's first talk about Autumn. Just to be clear, she isn't Ms. Perfectly Fine. She has been suffering from chronic pain and she doesn't want anyone seeing her struggle or even feeling pity over her situation. This was caused by a tragic accident when she was a teenager. Now that she is in her twenties, she had come a long way to pick up herself and move forward as a concert pianist. Her story and struggle give us a glimpse as to how resilient our body and mind can be. From the outside, Autumn may seem to be fragile, but she can stand on her own and give hell to anyone that would come her way, particularly Elijah. 

On the other hand, Elijah is a driven and charming guy who is determined in winning Autumn to keep the peace and his place in the house. This is so he can focus on the launch of his new game. Until he starts to fall for her. He is an ideal guy who will sweep you off your feet, put you first, and go out of their way to protect you. But he is also the kind of guy who will steal your deliciously meal-prepped food, just because he can! ;)

Autumn and Elijah's tug of war will draw you in the story and so as their individual journeys. The dual POV gave a more detailed view of both of their lives. I loved how the author was able to write this seamlessly. I enjoyed reading this book for many reasons such as the characters' maturity and they both have their strong beliefs and stance in life but when the other comes in, both had to confront their feelings, personal struggles and even the threat of Autumn's safety. This is a romance suspense novel with a twist that will have you guessing. The romance? Don't worry, there is just the right number of steamy scenes that will have your eyes popping out. LOL.

If you like enemies to lovers, closed proximity, opposites attract, and a whirlwind-ish type of romance PLUS a mystery suspense, then this book is for you! Did I mention it also comes with a super cute golden retriever and a playlist? :D 

My rating: 4.5/5 stars!

Special thanks to Kate Callaghan and NetGalley for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The author did a beautiful story about love, pain and the power to push through. Living with Chronic Pain is real but is does not define a person. At least that is what the main character wants people to know. The story so sweet, I loved all the characters, including the loveable dog. It held my attention till the very end, champion for love always prevails.

Grab blanket and some coffee this book will take your whole day.

Autum a famous concert pianist, making a solo comeback after a tragic accident, all she wants is to focus on her music. So, when Elijah comes into her life, he definitely shakes up her no quiet life. He is renting part of who townhouse which she loves. So, as she tries to drive him away, not so easy task, soon she forgets why she is trying to get rid of him. She finds herself trying to figure him out and maybe even impress him, he has this power to help her forget the pain she is in.

Is he good for her, or is this one thing that will break her heart?

Thank you to NetGalley and Callaghanwriter for copy of this book for my honest review.