I love a book that involves famous people — especially if it's a romance between a celebrity and a normie. This is way more than a romance, though.

While Ben and Lauren have instant chemistry, the story isn't mostly about them — it's about Lauren and her grief. Elissa Sussman delicately but perfectly balances the time jumps between chapters, giving us sneak peeks into Spencer and Lauren's romance, while also showing Lauren come to terms with having feelings for someone new, and how that still-lingering grief is affecting both her and her daughter. There's some beautiful character development here.

There's lots of great queer representation too which was wonderful. And If you've read Funny You Should Ask, we get more Gabe, Chani, and Ollie, so that's a plus.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine / Dell for the e-arc!

I requested this book not knowing it was part of a set and honestly, it didn't matter one bit!

It's written in a dual timeline and delivered exactly what I thought it would and I loved it. Elissa really nailed the process of grief and how messy and complex it can be. Starting new sucks. Starting new is hard. This book is a love letter to the mess.

I will say for me personally, I was so much more invested in her relationship with Spencer. That could be because Ben just did not feel fleshed out as a character and maybe that's on me for not reading the previous books, I'm not sure. All in all though, I still really enjoyed their story.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to read this early, and I think it is going to be an incredible read this summer.

I really appreciated the author's perspective on grief. I kept thinking she must have first hand experience with loss because she explained the grieving process and all its craziness so well. The romance was a bit too insta-love for me but Ben and Lauren worked well and I loved watching their story unfold. I enjoyed the chapters being divided into Then and Now so we could get a good history on Lauren and Spencers relationship and what they were like before he passed.
A great cast of characters and an endearing storyline!

Totally and Completely Fine hit me right in the feels. Elissa Sussman captures grief, healing, and messy new beginnings so well it almost hurts. I loved the dual timeline showing Lauren’s beautiful past with Spencer and her struggle to move forward, though honestly, I was way more invested in her old love story than her thing with Ben—it just never felt super deep to me. Still, the writing is sharp, emotional, and full of heart, and Lauren is one of those flawed, real characters you can’t help but root for. This book is about more than romance; it’s about surviving loss, rebuilding yourself, and figuring out who you are when life doesn’t go as planned—and for that, it totally delivers.

thank you to netgalley for this ARC! i have read elissa sussman's first book, which i really enjoyed, and this one had some similar vibes with the celebrity love interest- i do feel like for the first half of the book, i had a hard time connecting to the characters, and i think the aspect of dealing with grief gets stronger as the book goes on- the second half of the book i definitely felt more connected to our characters. i liked the choice of the back and forth timeline and i think the mmc seemed like a great match for our fmc! overall i wish this book had some stronger characterization but it was a fun and quick read and if you like her other books you will like this one! 3.5⭐️

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

I went into this book extremely optimistic since I have loved Elissa Sussman’s last two adult releases. Not only did I love this book, but I was extremely moved by the exploration of grief as another layer. I loved the structure of the novel, the new characters we met and catching up with characters we met previously.

Thrilled to have been able to devour this book early and can’t wait to see what the author shares with us next!

I am so sad to say I didn't finish this one. I LOVED the two previous books by Elissa Sussman but this one felt more sad than I wanted it to be (a personal preference) but also the insta-connection didn't work for me, it felt too cutesy at times, and the dual timeline did not add much depth in my opinion, just thinned out each of the love stories.

4.5⭐️

When it comes to celebrity romances, no one writes them like Elissa Sussman. I have been not so patiently waiting for this book since it was announced and I devoured it in less than 24 hours. I love that Sussman returns us to the world of the Parker family - I absolutely loved getting more peeks into Gabe and Chani’s story.

Typically I’m not an insta love/lust fan because I find there isn’t much in the way of emotional connection, friendship or intimacy, but my gosh, it worked phenomenally here because Sussman brought those important pieces into play after the initial fireworks and I couldn’t get enough. Lauren and Ben’s chemistry is undeniable - I LOVE that she’s older - and things are hot and heavy in the beginning, but then they pull things back and focus on their emotional connection and fostering intimacy.

This is the perfect read for the summer, but while you’re packing it in your beach or pool bag, you might want to add some tissues too. While this is a romance, it is very much a story about loving and grief being an extension of our hearts’ ability and capacity to love and care for others. It was beautiful and at times heart wrenching reading the ‘then’ chapters where Lauren and Spencer’s love story was unfolding and then jumping back to the present where Lauren and the family were trying to process their grief and figure out who to keep living following Spencer’s passing.

I appreciated how messy and layered this story is because it reflects the complexity of real life and how each of us are imperfect and a little broken, but worthy of loving and being loved.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the early copy! I've been itching to get my hands on this one; Elissa Sussman got me hooked for life on her books starting with Funny You Should Ask. While that one still remains my favorite, Totally and Completely Fine was a lovely follow-up that I really enjoyed reading.

Lauren is a firecracker of a heroine — equal parts sarcastic, soulful, and slightly emotionally fried (girl...same). She’s got the small-town baggage (always a hoot), a tragic backstory (necessary of course), and a wildly inconvenient attraction to a ridiculously charming movie star (girl same!!). The movie star in question? Ben Walsh: swoony, complicated, and just the kind of chaos Lauren doesn’t need... but definitely wants. We first met Ben in Funny You Should Ask, and I'm so excited to see him pop up again!

The story unfolds in dual timelines, so that we can see Lauren's life with her late husband, Spencer, and the now present as Lauren explores her connection with Ben. I always struggle a little bit with dual timelines like this one, because you get to know the person the main character loses, but that's also the beauty of it — you feel their loss just as acutely as they do by the end, which makes a happy ending for them all the more sweet.

What starts as a spicy little fling quickly turns into something more; while this is a romance, it's less about intense and fiery chemistry, and more about healing and growing through connection with others. We also see Lauren's relationship with her daughter, which adds and additional layer of depth to the overall theme of rebuilding after the loss of a loved one.

One thing Elissa writes so well are strong female characters and Lauren is no exception — her voice is sharp, honest, and refreshingly unfiltered, and her journey toward figuring out who she is, without a label or a man defining her, is just as satisfying as the romance itself.

If you like your love stories with a little mess, a lot of heart, and a heroine who’s more than just “fine,” this one’s for you. This is a story about finding joy in the mess, that accepting that sometimes everything *isn't* fine, and finding light and joy in the darkness — a message that's especially important right now.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This took me 3 months to read, not cause it was bad, cause i devoured it past 50%, but because since it dealt with grief and had a child, I KNEW i was going to cry and I do not like to feel. Sure enough, by 85% onward I was BAWLING my eyes out.

This book deals with grief. Lauren had a rough start after her father died at I want to say 11 or 13. The book is split between the past with growing up after the death of her father, and the start of her relationship with Spencer. The present deals with her meeting actor Ben Walsh. Chapters go back and forth until we get to more than halfway and then it sticks in the present, and her growth with dealing with a teenage daughter dealing with the loss of Spencer. This also shows the timeline of Gabe's addiction from Funny You Should Ask.

Anyway, this book is SO GOOD. Sussman seriously captured grief so well in this story. This is her 3rd book and I have loved her writing in all of them. Not many authors can handle a then and now kind of storyline but this author does it so well. I loved reading this book even though it took me a bit to get through, my bad. But I cried so much and I am so happy I got through it with her.

I’m fine. I’m completely fine. Totally and Completely Fine was a wonderful and heartwarming read from Elissa Sussman.

In the town of Cooper, Montana, Lauren Parker is a grieving widow trying to make the best of things with her teenage daughter.

The “then” chapters took us back to a romantic story where Lauren and Spencer were raising their daughter and enjoying life together. The author let you into their home and their lives with tremendous warmth.

The “now” chapters returned to the struggle of day-by-day life while the memory of Spencer was always present.

Lauren’s movie star brother Gabe, was larger than life and really brought the big bro vibes to the story! On set in Philly, Gabe introduced his costar Ben to Lauren and the romance/adventure began.

I really enjoyed the characters brought to life in this book. It showed the love of family, mother/daughter, friends and partners and the work it takes to get there.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this!

This heartbreaking tale of love, loss, and family both found and by blood, will reel you in and keep you reading! This book made me cry and filled me with hope.

The last quarter of this book is a great mediation on grief, second chances at love, and family. However, until that point, I was having a hard time buying the romance and enjoying the characters.

I really wanted to like this book because I enjoyed Funny You Should Ask (I even did a reread to get pumped) and this book fell so flat in comparison.

I didn’t really like the characters. They didn’t feel like real people to me, just caricatures or tropes. The flashback chapters were unimpactful and boring. The bow chapters were so over sexualized that I didn’t want to continue reading.

I’ve read a few books where the main theme is grief and I would reccomend those over this book any day of the week.

Thank you to Dell and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This companion novel to Funny You Should ask leans heavily towards women’s fiction rather than romance. In it, you follow Lauren, a 41 year old widowed single mother. The story is told in now and then chapters. The then chapters highlight her relationship with her late husband. The now chapters follow Lauren’s relationship with Ben, a movie star she meets on set while visiting her actor brother, Gabe, on set. Unfortunately, I found the romance to be incredibly half baked. I didn’t understand what Lauren and Ben saw in each other outside of sexual attraction and the fact that they both liked food.

I really loved this book. I'm so glad I got to read it early. I was really excited to read a book about dating later in life and it not be about how everything is great. Lauren is a great character. Grieving the loss of her husband, while trying to raise a teenage daughter - that's a situation I understand (although my perspective is from the grief of losing a marriage, not a husband), but I don't have a wealthy benefactor to pay all of my bills for me, so that's different. I liked the side stories of Lena and Eve, and Gabe and Chani, and I liked the flashbacks to get the whole story of how Lauren and Spencer came about, how Gabe evolved, and how Lauren's life changed so much within the confines of the very small town she is still existing in. I really appreciated that we got a whole picture of Ben, not just as a love interest or a movie star, but as a flawed person, a "queer elder" (IYKYK), someone with a background and baggage and a history worth learning about. I also very much identified with the trappings of religion and the judgy people who will try to tell you who and how to be. Overall I really liked this book, and will recommend it far and wide.

Funny, emotional, spicy, poignant, heart-wrenching, enjoyable. Sussman doesn't disappoint! Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

This tender and powerful story is about grief, healing, and the fear of moving on. Sussman does a great job with the complicated mother-daughter relationship.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House-Ballantine for the e-arc of this book, that I had shelved in my tbr and I was very excited about.

Elissa Sussman writes a genre of romance that I always have a good time with, her characters are part of the movie/theater scene, and I always enjoy a celebrity romance kind of vibe.
This time we find a main character who is going through grief, and juggles all kinds of relationships: mother-child, sister-brother, widowed daughter in law-mother in low, love, lust, friendships.
One thing that was impressive in this book, is how you get to know the main character in relation with all these different characters, and by the end of this story, it felt fulfilling.

I couldn’t give this more than 3 stars, because the age gap kind of bothered me, but also the ending was a little too cheesy for me.

I would say tho that grief and love for someone who died was represented in a very heartfelt way, it was very quiet and very real.

I know I’m not supposed to quote anything from an arc but I hope this will stay in the published version:
“Love is a shape-shifter.”

It’s safe to say that Totally and Completely Fine was… completely fine. I found it to be weirdly shallow feeling, which is surprising considering some of the subject material, but I just think the author tried to incorporate too many stigmatized character traits into the cast of characters that none of them felt fully explored and fleshed out, and neither did the characters themselves feel fully fleshed out or unique in any way. For the most part it felt very run of the mill, each character fulfilling the role assigned but not really accomplishing much aside from the predictable “healing journeys” set out for them. I felt the same for “Funny You Should Ask” as well, though I did enjoy “Once More With Feeling”, so I am not sure of my full opinion on Sussman’s books, but I am leaning towards them being quite average and that they could use a lot more character work in terms of depth and feeling real, and work on less cliche feeling attributes seemingly only provided to add complications, not to actually fully expound upon with nuance. None of the characters felt unique in any way, or like real people at all, and the story felt like a jumble of anecdotes interspersed with overdone romance scenes and very sudden spicy moments that felt out of sync with the rest of the story honestly. I can see Sussman’s attempts at destigmatizing things like grief, alchoholism, promiscuity, etc. but it made each character just feel like a disorder given a name to fill a quota of diversity and not a genuine three dimensional character. There’s more I could elaborate upon but truly, as I said, it was just fine.