I loved this book. It was so good—cute, funny, and the kind of quick read that completely pulls you in before you realize you’ve blown through it in one sitting. Elissa Sussman nailed the balance of charm and emotional depth. I went from laughing out loud to crying actual happy tears. The characters felt real, the banter was perfect, and the whole thing just left me smiling. This was such a feel-good read, but still had heart and substance. Definitely one I’ll be recommending over and over.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I was fortunate to receive the ARC yesterday. I started it after work… and today, I consumed the remaining 65% in one sitting.

I don’t love reading book blurbs beforehand, so I went in with no expectations. I vaguely remembered that Gabe and Chani were making a comeback—but I had forgotten until I started. And wow… I missed them. Just like I missed them way back in 2022.

BUT. THE. GRIEF.
I didn’t expect that part. I didn’t think I was going to like it (as someone who wishes they didn’t have a soul/cry), but I loved it.

The grief was written so beautifully—realistically, and through such different lenses and perspectives. It hit my heart hard, in the best way.

Totally and Completely Fine releases on July 8. If you loved Elissa's other work, particularly Gabe and Chani's story, pick this one up!

A special thanks to @dellromance and @netgalley for the advanced copy! #gifted

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy of the book!

'I wasn't going to say anything, but I couldn't help myself. "But why does it hurt so much?"
Ben gave me a sad smile. "I don't mind the pain," he said. "It reminds me that I still have a heart to break."'

Oh, man. Where do I begin? This book was beautiful. In my opinion, you should read Funny You Should Ask, first, before reading this. It gives you background on Lauren's younger brother, Gabe, and his girlfriend, Chani.
This book was something I had never really seen before- telling two different love stories. Going from the past, with her love story with her husband, Spencer, who was Gabe's best friend; moving to the now, where she is falling in love with Irish actor, Ben Walsh.
You really understand Lauren and Gabe as people within this book, starting with when their dad died to the now, and everything that made them who they are as people. If you enjoyed Funny You Should Ask, you also get more into Gabe and Chani's love life now that they're back in Cooper, Wyoming.
While I was glad to read about Lauren and Gabe, the character that shines the most in the book, is Lena- Lauren and Spencer's heartbroken 13 year-old daughter. Lena was only ten when Spencer died, and the grief pouring off of her is immense. You can tell Lauren is struggling with the grief- as someone who lost their dad young, and as well as losing Spencer- and they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Lena is a force to be reckoned with and I loved all of her moments.
I loved Ben as a character, and also Elissa including that he's bisexual. It felt like a good move to introduce more queerness to the book, and it also helps other characters in the book.
I really enjoyed that the whole family learns from each other and how to actually work through their feelings. From losing Spencer either as a friend, husband, or dad; to the effect Gabe's drinking had on his family; and how do you really move on from losing someone you loved so much?
I can't wait to get my hands on this book when it comes out in July.

Thanks to Netgalley & Random House- Ballantine for the E-ARC! Actually enjoyed this! Liked the characters & the banter. Glad I gave this author another chance.

I would like to thank Ballantine Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this as an ARC. This is the story of Lauren. She is a young widow with a teenage daughter, a mother in law who has never accepted her, and a brother who is an actor.There is a lot going on in this story. However, it doesn't seem over crowded or cluttered. Lauren meets Ben, another actor and a friend of her brothers. He is handsome, and sexy and young. She knows it would not make sense to get involved with him. But yet:) It is a good story, about grief and dealing with it, as well as dealing with family, work and life. I really liked this book.

was i TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY FINE while reading this book? No! I just wanted give Lauren the biggest hug!!

as expected, I absolute loved every single thing about this book. Elissa Sussman has such a unique tone and voice and there is something about it that makes it near impossible to put her books down.

TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY FINE is a real and raw story filled with overcoming grief and moving forward in addition to being a romcom.

It’s also told in NOW and THEN parts and I’m such a sucker for those 🥹

This was a spin-off of Funny you should ask and features Gabe's older sister, Lauren who is a 40 year old widow with a 13 year old angry queer teen daughter. Told through flashbacks between the past and present, we get to see how Lauren fell in love with her husband (her brother's best friend) and how she's struggling to move on in the present while being a single mother and newly single woman.

When her movie star brother invites Lauren to visit him on the set of his latest film she ends up falling for Ben, a bisexual Irish-Hawaiian actor ten years her junior. Full of great mental health rep (depression, alcohol addiction, grief) and amazing chemistry between the two leads, this story is both moving, life-affirming and spicy.

I loved it the most in the series and really enjoyed the small-town Montana vibes and the cameos from Gabe and Chani! Highly recommended for fans of books like The bodyguard by Katherine Center. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!

I really appreciated the complex depiction of grief, especially through vignettes to Lauren's life growing up and with Spencer. Also, great payoff for fans of Funny You Should Ask, though maybe too focused on characters who are secondary to this narrative. A bit gratuitous with the "edginess" of Ben, making bisexuality and non-dominant ethnicities seem like "rebellious" traits for Lauren to re-experience her youth. Loved the mother-daughter relationship, and that really stayed with me after the read!

⭐️ 2/5

And these two like each other why…. ?

40 something year old widow mom who enjoys books and baking ends up hooking up with an up and coming movie star in his early 30s and a relationship blooms. (?)

I didn’t mind the chapters on her childhood and meeting her first husband and their journey, but I genuinely did not understand the connection/romance between these two. There was NOTHING there and (spoilers) he declines his first huge movie for their relationship. This reads like bad fanfiction to me.

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and I think it will be the last.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved Funny You Should Ask so I was very excited to dive into this book. Unfortunately this one ended up being a miss for me. Alternating timelines is usually a hard sell for me and insta lust can be tough too.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for the opportunity to be an early reader. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you to the publisher for this ARC. I really appreciated that this book is a complete stand-alone yet has characters from her previous novel. I love a good celebrity/normal person romance and this didn't disappoint-I felt like the main characters handled grief in very relatable ways. I also enjoyed the fact that the main character is a mom who has a real body and talks about it and a teenager who acts like it-it was refreshing!

Totally and Completely fine is not complex, its not hard to understand. It brings you into an emotion we have all had, grief, love and excitement. This book looks into the truth many of us have felt, but try not to think about it as often because well its sad. Losing someone and trying to go on with life after they are gone, the thought that in some way you are sullying their name, you feel guilt because how can you move on when they can’t.

Lauren is a newly single mom who has to live life without the man she grew up with. Not only that but the worst is she has to parent a preteen, if I know anything from my preteen years, its hard out there for her. But soon she not only is being a single mother trying to navigate through grief and loss she remembers she is also a woman who loves and she deserves it. Through it she questions her life without her husband who was kind and caring. The question is “ am I allowed to move on so quickly?” Then it became "what will people think when I move on?” Lauren has been there for those she loves and the answer is everyone deserves to be loved and to love. No one should feel shame or guilt for wanting to give their hearts another chance, because one of the worst pains can be losing someone you once thought you’d get the chance to grow old with. We sometimes think death is the end of life, but what if it's just the beginning of a new one.

Elissa Sussman really put me in my feelings with this one, I didn’t lose a spouse but a mother of sorts. I questioned a lot of things when I lost her, I gave up trying, and sometimes I know she wouldn’t have been happy with me about it. This book put it into perspective that life continues and those we no longer can see may still be there cheering us on. We can still stop every now and then and drop of flowers and talk to them. Some way there will be a sign, or a person who can give us a new meaning. Also the fact that they man she fell for is of the LGBTQIA+ community and it wasn't a deal breaker or she became harmful to him. She knew who he was and he still taught her to love again, that part was magical.

3.5!

oh boy, where to start. i am feeling very conflicted. i loved funny you should ask, but wanted more from once more with feeling. this one falls somewhere in the middle.

i thought the premise and exploration of love, grief, family, and addiction were well done and added a lot of depth to the story. i also really liked the then and now timeline. however, it felt very insta-lusty between the two mcs, and i didn't feel anything more than that from either of them until the very last chapter, so by then it wasn't believable to me. also, their "banter" was lowkey just bedroom talk and that is not banter to me. i think this book could have benefited majorly from multiple povs because i was often left wondering what other characters were feeling or why they were behaving a specific way.

however, i did fly through this. the short chapters and quick, fun writing is always well done by elissa sussman.

thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this e-arc!

Absolutely loved this story of love and life after loss. Sussman always write such funny, quick witted characters that you can’t help but fall in love and empathize with.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️My review: Overall I really enjoyed this book. Strong characters, drama, family dynamics, and enough flirting and a little spice to keep it interesting. The dual time lines also keep me going. I like a book that tells you a little at a time so you can guess, theorize and wonder.

Some things did get lost in the time shuffles though, I was literally unclear about Gabe and Ollie's relationship for the first third of the book. And this was yet another book where someone is related to "the biggest star in Hollywood". That trope gets used a lot and it's pretty unrealistic.

Lauren and Lena's grief was palpable and very realistic. The fact that losing someone affects every bit of your life for the rest of it (even though you keep going) is dramatically but understatedly shown in the novel.

It's a romance so you know where things are headed, as off the charts unreal as it is, but I enjoyed the journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advance digital copy in exchange for my review.

This book was clever, witty, and humorous all wrapped up in a heartbreakingly emotional romance. I loved the back and forth timelines and the main characters journey into trusting love once again. Bravo!

A romance set within the context of grief that is told through dual timelines.

What I Liked:
-Lauren’s relationship with her daughter, Lena
-Gabe and Chani reappearance from Funny You Should Ask
-Ben: his motorcycle, his accent, his empathy
-LGBTQIA+ representation

What I Didn’t Like:
-The pacing felt a little off… it took me a while to get invested in the story. The first half felt like a bit of a slog, but I really enjoyed the second half.

mmm mixed thoughts overall - i shipped her way more with her dead husband than this current guy. their relationship was almost all physical and our heroine was the worst communicator despite being older by 10 years!!! also the boy is hawaiian with an irish accent and that threw me off

Let’s just say the phrase Totally and Completely Fine is everywhere in this book and in the early reviews. But here’s the truth. This book was totally and completely… okay.

You don’t need to read Funny You Should Ask first, but it definitely helps. This is a companion novel, and while Lauren is our new main character, her brother Gabe and his love story with Chani do make an appearance. Their backstory gets a quick mention, but if you haven’t read the first book, it’s confusing and underexplained. A little more context would have gone a long way.

Totally and Completely Fine tries to juggle a lot and never quite pulls it off. It felt like Sussman had several ideas for what this book could be but couldn’t fully commit to one.

There’s a romance with a charming actor named Ben, but there’s no real connection until the final stretch. There’s a cozy small-town setting in Cooper, Montana, but Lauren doesn’t seem to enjoy it or her job running a book and craft store. There’s grief and healing as Lauren navigates life as a widow through dual timelines with her late husband Spencer, but the emotional depth is missing. There’s also a storyline about Ben and Gabe helping build a community theater (or is it a play?), but it barely gets any development.

The book floats somewhere between a lighthearted rom-com and a story about grief and identity. While those elements can absolutely work together, here they feel mismatched. The characters don’t really grow. Lauren’s mom, who lives in Cooper, is barely present. Her daughter Lena is constantly unhappy and hard to connect with. And in the end, I wasn’t sure what the book was really trying to say.

It’s not a bad read. It’s just not a great one. Totally and completely fine pretty much sums it up.

Thanks Netgalley & Random House for the ARC!

When I saw this sequel was being written I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and it didn’t let me down!!! I love these characters so much and this entire world Elissa brings us into.