Ms. Perfectly Fine exceeded all of my expectations.

There was a plot!! An actual plot!! As well as having a great romance between Autumn and Elijah, Autumn had a menacing stalker sending her roses and trying to get her off the stage. And, in a turn of events, I was wrong about the stalkers identity. Hats off to Kate Callaghan for that plot twist.

The first thing that caught my attention about this book was the title and that’s because I’m the biggest swiftie you’ll ever meet, so I was incredibly pleased and excited to read this story. I found myself enjoying the book even more than the title; the characters are so easy to fall in love with and their story is a fun, intriguing and entertaining read.

I want to thank NetGalley and the author for providing me with an ARC of this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and net galley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

I went in to this book thinking it would be like any other romance but wow was i pleasantly surprised. The suspense in this book?!?! The romance?! THE PLOT TWIST??!!? I couldn't put the book down because I just needed to know what was going to happen next! It was the perfect amount of mystery and romance. I loved seeing autumn grow throughout the book. Learning her back story.. I immediately loved her character, she is so strong. I'm glad she has elijah looking out for her. They're perfect together.

I really enjoyed this book, it took me by surprise and I loved every second of it. I highly recommend to anyone looking for a mystery romance novel

I quite enjoyed this book, neither of the main characters annoyed me, and annoying protagonists can sometimes go hand in hand with romance novels. One thing I will say though is the end of the book felt a little rushed and could've been elongated a bit, but that could just be me. Also, the description of this book says enemies to lovers, but there wasn't really enough of that.

Ms Perfectly Fine is a fine read. On the nose pun aside, I found this book okay. I struggled to get into at first because it just felt very forced that Elijah was moving into Autumn's house without her landlord informing her beforehand. I think I could have digested that premise easier if we had met Autumn's landlord beforehand and we got a sense of his character.

After that that initial bump though, it was a an easy read. The writing is very easy to understand and maintains a good flow.

Autumn is definitely the grumpy heroine that we are promised in the summary. I'm not sure about Elijah being a sunshine hero, if I am being honest, but I admit, my definition of what makes someone a sunshine character can be different from others.

If your a romance fan, I think you'll enjoy this book. It's a nice, easy read.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, this was a roller coaster. There were all the elements promised in the synopsis, but I struggled to get invested in the characters and plot. I do love the chronic pain and anxiety/PTSD representation, it's a super tough way to live life. The mystery plot line was well done and did keep me guessing. Overall it's a good read, just not quite for me.

This book was so freakin good! I loved the writing and the fact that it was a romantic suspense made the story top tier.

Autumn Adler is a famous pianist. After a tragic accident a few years back, she’s finally ready to make her comeback and she can’t afford any distractions. Enter Elijah Wells, a game designer in the middle of building his own company. Autumn’s landlord decides to rent out the bottom half of her townhouse to Elijah without giving her a heads up. Autumn tries her best to get him to leave but it only makes Elijah want her even more.

This was the perfect reverse grumpy x sunshine read. It had forced proximity and dual POV’s from both the characters which I loved. I really enjoyed getting the background of Autumn’s accident and seeing how it effected her life. I think Kate Callaghan did a fantastic job with the chronic illness rep and the grief aspect of the story.

I would’ve given this book five stars if it wasn’t for the ending. I didn’t want the “stalker” to end up being the person that it was. But it made for entertaining conclusion!

If you’re looking for a good he falls first read for the summer then I highly recommend picking this one up on June 8th!

Thank you so much to the author and NetGalley for the e-arc!

I enjoyed this book and found the plot intriguing. The storyline grabbed and held my attention well and I found the main characters quite likable. Definitely a book worth reading.

This was such an engaging read. We follow Autumn, a professional pianist dealing with chronic pain, and Elijah, a game developer, who are forced to share a living space. In the beginning, I wasn’t totally sold on this. I found the reason for the forced proximity to be a bit ridiculous and the speed at which Elijah fell for Autumn to be way too fast. However, it completely won me over (not even that far in).

The biggest stand-out to me was the chronic pain rep. It felt realistic - not taken lightly but also not overdone. I thought this book really handled the emotional, mental and physical aspects associated with trauma and living with chronic pain exceptionally well. It was also heartwarming to read about a character (Elijah) who was so accepting and supportive.

I’ve seen this described as a romantic suspense, and whilst there is a strong suspense element here, it doesn’t really get going until quite far into the book. I would almost say it’s a suspenseful romance, if such a thing exists (in other words, the romance is the dominant element). The suspense element was quite well done in my opinion - it wasn’t immediately obvious who the culprit was. If I have any criticism of it, I would say that maybe the psychological impact of it could have been explored slightly more at a certain point in the book.

All in all, this was a really fun read, compulsively readable and I would highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.4/5 stars

Ms Perfectly Fine follows the story of Autumn Adler and Elijah Wells. Autumn is a
famous concert pianist who had a tragic accident when she was 16 that lead to her having chronic back pains. Elijah is a co-owner of a gaming company who is working on building his company. Autumn and Elijah started off as enemies when Elijah unexpectedly moved in to Autumn's home without notice. They had a rocky start but slowly became friends and then lovers. I did feel like Elijah fell in love way too quickly. The story is supposed to be an enemies-to-lovers trope but it felt like they were barely enemies and went straight to lovers.

The main thing that I didn't like about the story is the stalker plot. I feel like it wasn't introduced until later in the book which made it unexpected and then automatically blew into a big thing within a few chapters.

I still enjoyed the book and I would recommend it for anyone that wants to read a book about two people falling in love, living in close proximity.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of this book is exchange for an honest review.

The perfect sun, spicy little romance to perk up a day you just need a light beach read! While dealing with heavy topics such as grief and chronic pain, this book had me smiling and reading at such a pace i finished it in less than 24 hours during finals week. I also don’t know how. Highly recommend for any rom com fan

I didn’t LOVE it, but I didn’t hate it either.

There were some really good moments throughout. Falling in love, dealing with loss, surviving with what you’re given. There were also bad moments. Repetitive, missing little details, crowded/overstuffed with detail.

Autumn worked HARD to get where she is, and she knows what she wants out of life and is trying her best to get there.
Elijah is finally feeling free, until he gets stuck with Autumn. But there’s something about her he can’t shake.

I think the plots individually were good, but mashing them together made it difficult to stay in the right mindset. It did feel VERY busy at times, mixing a romance with a whodunit is complicated. There was just a lot going on and I honestly got overwhelmed at times trying to understand my own emotions. Can you even get overstimulated from reading? Because I think I did.
I felt like there were many places with over-detailed scenes that could be simplified without taking away any of the story.

Ms Perfectly Fine

3.5 ⭐️

When I first saw this book cover I figured it was a light romcom-but then read it was a romance suspense. It definitely lived up to that!

Really enjoyed both Elijah’s and Autumn’s perspectives in this. The first half of the book worked a lot through them getting to know each other in the forced proximity, and I really enjoyed that.

The second half of the book focused a lot more on the suspense portion of the genre combo. Autumn has a stalker that ends up escalating as she gets closer to her big solo performance.

Overall a solid, different read! Thanks to @netgalley for this eARC!

Sometimes you just get lucky and find an absolute gem on NetGalley read now. Ms Perfectly Fine tells Autumn’s story as she works to rebuild her life after a life changing incident but it’s not a simple process. The best way I would describe this book would be a romantic suspense and let me tell you, I couldn’t put it down!

What I loved:
▪️enemies to lovers, dual pov, character growth, found family
▪️Elijah! I mean, how could you not love Elijah! He’s kind, caring and major book boyfriend material.
▪️Autumn’s growth as she works to regain her strength in more ways than one!
▪️You could literally feel the connection between autumn and Elijah and I loved their relationship!
▪️the suspense and twists. In the effort of no spoilers, I’ll leave it at this.

If you’re a fan of suspenseful romance, give this one a try! Seriously, I couldn’t put it down.

I don't usually go for romantic suspense, and this was my first romantic suspense novel, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But I really enjoyed this book! There were lots of really well done elements, and I really didn't want it to end.

There are SO MANY delicious tropes in this book. The dialogue and banter is super witty and sharp--which is my favorite. I also love when the male character is the sunshine character in grumpy x sunshine. There are some triggers to be aware of, but they were not so overwhelming.

I would 100% reread this book.

Last year, I read the brilliant "The Naughty Or Nice Clause" written by Kate Callaghan, so when I saw she had another book available on Netgalley I grabbed it as soon as I could.

I was not disappointed!

In "Ms Perfectly Fine", Callaghan mixes romance and a bit of suspense to create a hard to put down enemies to lovers story.

Autumn, a professional pianist is finally ready for the spotlight again after her tragic accident and she's practicing all hours to be fully prepared for her first public concert in ten years. However, she's not prepared for or welcoming the distraction of her landlord suddenly having let half of the house where she's living to someone else. Having IT geek Elijah suddenly appear inside her house in the early hours, is a shock to say the least!

At the beginning of the book it's very easy to side with Autumn against the Elijah, but as the story evolves, the good and the bad of the two characters evens out. Eating your housemates food? Bid NO! Using their credit card? Big NO!

The dialogue (or in many cases pure bickering!) between Autumn and Elijah is believable and brings the story forward. Based on this story, I'd be intrigued to find out more about Heather, but also Tim and Sasaki. Also, I am guessing that Elijah's friends could have a few things to contribute to their own stories if Callaghan was so inclined.

I truly enjoyed this book and it was a quick read perfect to take my mind off things and relax. I liked both the main characters and thought both Autumn’s backstory and current situation to be unique and interesting.

*Warning - may contain spoilers*
Elijah grew on me (though I will be honest and admit he really irritated me at the beginning of their cohabitation - him eating her food is just not ok and honestly he sounded like a roommate from hell, him picking her up and carrying her off to stop her practicing early in the morning after having reassured her beforehand that he wouldn’t interfere with her piano playing was not cute or romantic but kind of awful, him bringing his dog into their living situation without asking again didn’t sit right with me.)

Then again Autumn did a few questionable things that I also considered crossing the line (using his credit card without his knowledge and especially the bidding at the auction) and honestly, my first thought concerning the roses was: why didn’t Autumn get a security camera installed once they began worrying her? I also found it very strange she wouldn’t have recognized Heather. Still the story kept me interested and though I suspected the true villain right away, I was still happy to read along and see where the story would go.

Oh and honey isn’t vegan. So her overnight oats labeled vegan wouldn’t make sense to have honey - I’d recommend changing it to maple syrup? Another instance when these little details didn’t add up: why was Elijah making eggs if he follows a vegan diet?

There were a few little editing issues (like two or three typos) but otherwise nothing major.

There was a lot going on in this book, in possibly the best and worst ways. I thought this book started off a bit slow, and it was a little hard to get into at first. But then, it really started to pick up, and it got interesting. Personally, I felt there was a lot more chemistry between them at the start of the book, and it kind of just fizzled out as the book went on. However, at the end of the book, they were complete couple goals. The only other issue I had was Tim. What he did, even though this was fictional, was not cool. Like, I know its' a book, but, come on man-I was rooting for you. Overall, there were very few grammar errors, and the story-especially the twist at the end-was very enjoyable and I would read this again.

Ratings:
Overall: 4.5/5
Spice: 2/5
Plot: 4/5

Quotes:

"Want me to show you just how much of an animal I can be?" He drawled, tilting his head towards hers'. "Cute. Save your charms for someone who cares."

"Even if she won't let me help her, I can still make sure she's okay, he though, hating to see her look so defeated."

"...in rehab she was known as Ms Perfectly Fine,"

"I'm here, I'm not going anywhere."

"Scarred or not, it's a part of you and deserves to be cherished."

"If she isn't going to look after herself, I'll take great joy in doing it for her."

"But he didn't look her with pity, only admiration. If she hadn't loved him before, she did now."

This is the first work I’ve read from this author and I enjoyed it! Elijah and Autumn were very cute and the forced proximity was done well. It’s doesn’t take long for the characters to fall for each other but it didn’t bother me too much.
I felt like the suspense was on the back burner a lot of the book and then rushed for the last 20%. The plot twist at the end was predictable and I saw it coming. It’s an easy read that’s not your typical rom-com (if you’re looking for something different)!

A cute enemies-to-lovers read with a little bit of spice and a whole lot of (justified) bickering. I definitely don’t think I would have been as chill as Autumn if someone started eating all the food I’d bought and meal prepped, no matter what compliments he offered! You definitely can’t blame Autumn for being angry and unrelenting when her space is invaded and her home bubble turned upside down and I was definitely siding with her when Elijah was giving as good as he got. It definitely made for a tense situation where the sparks were flying, though! The mystery element was perhaps not essential to the narrative but I enjoyed it all the same and kept trying to unravel the clues.
It was great to see a character with chronic pain living her best life. She was strong, determined and incredibly talented and didn’t let her health stop her but there were times when her character was open about her struggles and it was so important to see. As someone with a chronic illness who experiences good days and bad days, I could really relate to Autumn’s character and her emotions. The conversations about how the orchestra’s conductor prioritised Autumn’s health and supported her different needs were also a good element to this narrative. I’m glad I read this book and got to see a little bit of myself in Autumn.

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.