Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for granting me an ARC!

Totally and Completely Fine is the perfect sequel to Funny You Should Ask and I’m so happy that I got the chance to read it and read it early!

Spoiler alert - it is excellent. Thought provoking, funny, this story gracefully toggles between Lauren Parker’s past - her reliving her childhood and romance with her husband - and her present. I loved that we got to dive deeper into her life and some Funny You Should Ask characters as well. This one gets spicy.

Elissa beautifully portrays the grief of losing a family member in the moment and the reverb of that loss decades after. Grieving or not, this book is wonderful and may cause happy tears. I really, really enjoyed this one and it’s a solid 4.5⭐️
The only "disappointment" is that the cover does not match her predecessor novels!

This book started out slow for me and I had to put it down and come back to it but I'm glad I did because I did enjoy it!this was my first time reading a book by this author and I loved her writing. A story about grief and healing will always reel me in, because I love books that will take me on an emotional roller coaster and wreck me.

This was emotional and funny and so good. I love Sussman’s characters — they are effortlessly so real and well developed. I enjoyed the time jumps and didn’t find them too distracting. I know some people have complained about the ending but honestly I found it delightful! Just enough whimsy to counteract the absolute heart-wrenching scenes. I’ll read anything from this author.

I really really liked this book, it may be my favorite amongst TACF, FYSA, and OMTWF, though I do believe you should read Funny You Should Ask first. Elissa Sussman does grieving well, in that it feels accurate and realistic. She also manages to pull off normal gal-famous guy trope in a realistic way. There is so much warmth in this book despite the sometimes sad subject nature. You can recommend this to non-romance readers and romance readers, it also had a few LOL moments. The only thing that keeps me from 5 stars is that I actually wish the ending was a bit longer, the third act drama and resolution could have honestly taken longer for me! I can't wait to read what Sussman writes next, and this book, which I believe has changed pub dates quite a few times was well worth the wait.

Totally and Completely Fine was an engaging read, but it didn’t fully hook me the way I’d hoped. Lauren is a compelling character—grieving, complicated, and refreshingly unapologetic. Her dynamic with Ben has plenty of spark, and I enjoyed the contrast between her past with Spencer and her present struggles with love and identity.

The small-town setting and Hollywood drama added some fun tension, but at times, the story felt a bit uneven. Some emotional beats hit hard, while others didn’t go as deep as I wanted. That said, it’s still a heartfelt look at love, loss, and figuring out who you are beyond your past.

A solid 3.5 stars!

This was solidly good, and consistent with my memory of the prior Elissa Sussman novel, though I absolutely did not remember the Chani/Gabe plot while reading and Chani seemed like a real mystery at times as a result. But the back and forth timeline worked well, and I was very pleased that Lauren got a new future after a sad past.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley; opinions are my own.

3.5/5

First, thank you NetGalley for letting me access this book early!

Now onto the review…

I had high hopes for this book, but as the plot went on, it just felt like something was missing. Maybe the relationship grew too quick? Maybe the constant reminder of sexuality? Maybe the reliance on her “quirkiness of living in a small town”?

I know this is not a love triangle, but why do I still wish Spencer is alive? Elisa uses Then and Now to tell her story. It's hard to get the dual timeline right. It leaves suspense but it could get tiring. The main characters meets as kids, something broke them up and the big conflict is revealed in the Now timeline. I always eat it up. I love a cute, angsty childhood romance but it does get boring.

Elisa uses this trope to tell Lauren's (FMC) two loves. It's heartbreaking to read knowing what will happen. She built a family with Spencer, but he was taken away too soon. She could see her future with Ben, but her biggest struggle is truly her heart. It felt like reading two love stories but her past is needed to know the person she becomes today. I feel like Lauren could not fall in love with Ben if she didn't fell in love with Spencer first. It's a story of grief and loss, but also what comes after. Letting go and learning to love again. And, that's totally and completely fine.

I fell in love with Sussman's writing again and I could not be happier.

Thank you to Netgalley and Elisa Sussman for the ARC. All opinions are of my own

E-Arc provided by Netgally

**3.5 Stars**

I enjoyed this book overall, I enjoyed her friendships and the development between her and her daughter. However, I do think that the flashbacks made Spencer seem kind of perfect (which yes grief can do that) and the relationship between Lauren and Ben was definitely more sexual than romantic to me it felt kind of rushed towards the end.

"Funny You Should Ask" is one of my all time faves, so I was super excited to receive the eARC for "Totally and Completely Fine." Please *DO NOT* read this book (or even this review!) without first reading "Funny You Should Ask."

OK, with that directive out of the way, I really enjoyed Lauren & Lena's story in "Totally and Completely Fine", I loved revisiting Gabe/Channi's story from FYSA from some different angles, but the romantic storyline in TACF was just OK. Perhaps there was simply too much going on and too much ground to cover, but Lauren/Ben was a bit too rushed. That said - I will 100% read anything Elissa Sussman writes. Her characters are so well crafted and told with so much heart. There are some heavy themes of grief, slut shaming, control through religion, and the author does them so well. The mother/daughter parts of this book are so compelling and moving.

As a big lover of Sussmans last two books, I was so excited to receive an ARC of her next release, Totally and Completely Fine.
My goodness, it is a whirlwind of emotions!
Grief is always a tricky subject. How do you nail something that is universal, yet everyone experiences it differently? Elissa Sussman does just that.
This may be my favorite of her books. It’s certainly the most impactful, and the one that will stay with me the longest.
It’s a beautiful love/s story with complex emotions and dynamics. It’s funny and sexy and sweet and sad. I couldn’t recommend it enough.

Thank you to Random House and Net Galley for the ARC. This was a solid 4.5 ⭐️ read! I loved the connections back to Funny You Should Ask and thought the characters really shined in this one.

This book was totally and completely fine. Lauren is a widow who is navigating small town life with her teenaged daughter and movie star brother. His stardom has changed his family's life, including introducing the family to movie stars like Ben. Ben and Lauren fall in love, obviously, and while I liked how this story ended, I didn't love getting there. It felt like Sussman tried to take on too many topics with this one. The story got jumbled and the romance fell flat for me.

Cute but too fast!!! I cried like twice and I really think it could’ve been better if there had been a slower burn. But maybe that’s just me 🤷‍♀️

I was and remain a superfan of Elissa Sussman's Funny You Should Ask, a story that runs parallel to this one (the respective main characters are siblings). Unfortunately this book did not quite hit the high bar that one set. I did enjoy returning to the world of FYSA, and loved the unique characterization of Lauren, a single mom and young widow. This book centers one of my favorite tropes - normal person/famous person, plus an age gap and a pretty substantial amount of spice. Sussman is so good at dual timelines that aren't confusing, but I wasn't quiiiiite as engaged by the past timeline here as I would have liked. The fits and starts of the romance were constantly teetering between intriguing and infuriating, but I was rooting hard enough for Lauren and Ben to make up for it. Overall, this was easy to fly through and I appreciated the sometimes surprising, always tender ways that the cast of characters interacted and the way their stories resolved.

Another great read from Elissa Sussman! I’m usually not a fan of romances with major age gaps but this story actually had depth! Really enjoyed the backstory that led to the romance.

I feel like I’ve been waiting for Lauren’s story for years and it lived up to my expectations. This was a romance (both with her husband in the past and someone new in the present), but also a story about grief, moving on, and single parenthood. I loved both romances, but preferred the past with her husband Spencer. The last “then” chapter so bittersweet. The present romance with Ben was a little insta-lust, but still sweet.

I can totally see how this book would be a perfect fit for the right reader… I just didn’t really connect with the love story. That’s a me problem, though! I don’t like a large age gap between couples in romance (this one has a 10+ year age gap). What I do love about Elissa Sussman’s books is that she is great at writing female empowerment & the secondary characters are always fantastic. So even though the romance didn’t work for me, there was still a lot to love. Catching up with Gabe & Chani (from her first book) was awesome. The mother daughter dynamic between Lena & Lauren felt really authentic. Watching Lauren navigate her grief while parenting her daughter & also becoming vulnerable enough to fall in love again was really beautiful. 3.75 rounded up to 4

Elissa Sussman has become one of my favorite authors and I always look forward to her new books. I was so excited to get to review Totally and Completely Fine and it may be my favorite yet. I loved the second chance romance and it brought out all the feels - laughter, tears, and everything in between.

I adored every second of this steamy, laugh-out-loud, tearjerking book. It was a gorgeous exploration of grief and second chances at love, and I loved the dual timeline structure that showed us two different love stories happening side by side. I also really loved the representation of queerness and bisexuality in Ben's character, and appreciated the social commentary that the book offered as a whole!