Totally and Completely Fine Review
5/5 stars

Wow! I have been (not so) patiently waiting for Lauren’s book since it was first announced. Let me be the first to tell you: this book was so worth the wait.

Lauren Parker, older sister of movie star Gabe Parker (from Funny You Should Ask), has spent the last three years since the death of her husband trying to survive. On a trip with her teenage daughter to visit her brother on the set of his upcoming movie, Lauren meets Ben Walsh, a handsome, up-and-coming actor. From the start, the two have undeniable chemistry, jumpstarting feelings Lauren hasn’t felt in years during their “one-time” tryst. Except Ben shows up weeks later in her hometown to star in her brother’s play. As the two continue to feel the pull towards one another, it begs the question: does Lauren’s heart have space for one more?

I loved Funny You Should Ask - in fact, I re-read it for the third time in preparation for reading this book. And I am so glad that I did. There’s something just so captivating about Elissa’s writing that completely draws me in and I end up forgoing the world around me for the one she created with her words.

This book was told in two timelines: then - which provided a glimpse into Lauren’s history with her late husband, Spencer, and now - as she navigates the world without him. At its surface, this book is a story of two romances, one between Lauren and Spencer and one between Lauren and Ben. But even more than that, Totally and Completely Fine is a story about loss, grief, and how to find happiness and love in a time when it feels like both are impossible.

I thought Elissa did such a beautiful job with this story, interweaving grief with hope. I felt all the emotions alongside Lauren, who felt so real and raw to me. I also really loved the portrayal of Lauren’s relationship with her daughter Lena, and their small town community in Montana.

Do yourself a favor and preorder this one with your tissues ready!

So many thanks to NetGalley and Dell for the ARC!

Totally and Completely Fine is a beautiful exploration of love, grief, and family. I loved following Lauren as she navigates falling in love again after the tragic death of her first husband. The small town setting further complicating that attempt. It was also great to continue to get more insight into Gabe from Funny You Should Ask. Highly recommend this book.

RATING: 3.25/5 STARS

Totally and Completely Fine left me with mixed feelings. Elissa Sussman's writing has a singular sharpness and candor that I enjoyed. Lauren and Ben were unapologetically themselves, and their dynamic and interactions had a propulsive edge that had me tearing through this book. This story became messy and dramatic but it also felt very real in its imperfection. I would say for a romance novel, this book explored familial relationships as much as or even more than romantic ones. I loved seeing Gabe and Chani through Lauren's perspective. This added a wonderful additional dimension to their characters from Funny You Should Ask, especially since Gabe was featured quite heavily in this book. But I feel that the storyline with Lauren's daughter, a core aspect of the novel, was very one dimensional. Frankly, for how unlikeable she was throughout, the resolution of her anger and bitterness towards her mother was underwhelming.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for the ARC! While I did not connect with this one quite as much as Funny You Should Ask, it was a cutie lil rom-com. Totally and Completely Fine also dealt with the complexities of grief and family dynamics (whew!).

Thank you to NetGalley and Elissa Sussman for the ARC copy of this book.

4 ⭐️
2.5 🌶️

Elissa Sussman is quickly becoming a new favorite for me. I enjoy the banter in her books, and the way her books are *more* than just a romance. Take this book for example, so many interesting themes to navigate - loss, single-parenting, teenage-parenting (I hear that isn't for the faint of heart), finding love again after grief, and social issues like being queer and purity culture.

The book itself - I loved Lauren as the FMC. She really just owns who she is and takes no prisoners. She's older and wiser, and it really shows in her internal monologues. NO YA here haha. One thing I loved was the "piece of chewing gum" sex ed conversation she has with her daughter. As someone who has religious trauma, and grew up very religious, I had a similar conversation as a young adult. You know the one - young girls are like a piece of gum, no one wants one after it's been chewed up and spit out. I like that Elissa as an author doesn't shy away from criticizing this, and that Lauren's deceased husband, Spencer, had to navigate that as a man as well. I love the way she described Lauren's feelings about sex while she was in high school, how her own feelings about herself and society's didn't align, the way she was miscast as being loose or having low morals. These are really important topics to deconstruct. Sex is sex, it's fun, and it doesn't make a woman any less worthy the higher her body count is and it should be normalized. And I love how she brings up that we don't do the same thing to young men, addressing the double standard is so important.

I also really enjoyed the age gap. I love a younger man for a mature woman. Ben just seems like such a breath of fresh air for Lauren. He's fun, playful, sweet, but he's also able to break down her walls and catch her off guard and I love that he sees her.

What I didn't love about this book is the actual romance itself. I just don't buy it. Not because of the age gap, which is a stretch, or even the mega-star man and the normal girl next door mom also a stetch, but it just felt really rushed. There is not one ounce of slow burn here, it's quick and bright. I feel that this book is more women's literature than a romance. It's women's literature with a romance subplot. And it was good, but it just missed the mark for me, by a little, on both counts. Like, while reading this book I was really missing the love story between Chani and Gabe and then I was just wishing that I was reading that book again. Like, there was so much more tension and pining in that book, we didn't really get much of that here. But I see where this was all going, I get the appeal. I think this book is really a lot more about grief than anything, and BOY did it serve that up. Emotional damage.

Elissa Sussman always writes books that drag me in. I ADORED the messy characters in this book. I remember reading a blurb some time ago but the minute I received the arc I just jumped in. It took me a bit longer than it probably should to realize Lauren's brother is fhe MMC from Funny You Should Ask 😅. I loved the dynamic between Lauren and Ben. I also appreciated illustrating life in a small town. It's can be so hard to not take in what everyone else's opinions are. I do wish we had seen more between Spencer and Lauren. At times, it felt like the flashback scenes were rushed. Although they clearly made an impact and had me crying at the end. Elissa writes difficult topics so well. They way she wrote these characters really made me connect with their grief and root for them.

Thank you yo Netgalley for providing an advanced copy!

This is my first E. Sussman book, and I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the writing style. Lauren’s character was fairly well-rounded, but Ben was a bit of a cliche. The attraction was immediate, but that’s how it is with chemistry in real life sometimes as well, so I’m not going to say it was a poor choice. This was not a true “age gap” romance as the trope is usually a dramatic difference in age, and that just didn’t feel like it applied here. I’m glad the author went that direction.

The topic of the book, grief and how we move on from it, was not a heavy as it could have been. I actually felt it was handled with the respect deserved. Did I get a little teary at times? Yes. Is that just because I happen to be a crier? Not sure. I did like that there was an angsty teenager grieving while also going through the trials of a normal adolescent. That aspect of the book felt visceral and real.

Overall it was an adequate book, I just didn’t feel like I was hanging off every word, hence the 3⭐️.

Totally and Completely Fine takes us back to Montana with Gabe's sister and I loved it.

Grief, loss and love is a funny thing. she's a single mother, Lauren is doing her best while raising her teenage daughter but lost herself a bit in the process of all. A. widow, she wants nothing to do with the famous and handsome Ben Walsh. It's emotional, heart-wrenching and hopeful how we cope with grief and love after loss. Spencer and Lauren had such a pure love and it was sad but happy looking back but Lauren being able to glow again, rally her family and friends that love and support her and ben who she just had so much chemistry with. I loved seeing Gabe and Chani again too and seeing Lauren and Ben. Such an inspiring romance!

Parts of this book were difficult to read as Lauren was dealing with the death of her husband Spencer. But isn't that what life is about anyway? Dealing with the difficult times and feeling like we are just not good enough? Not a good enough parent, a good enough partner, a good enough sibling? And hoping in the end we will get through our grief and learn the lessons and have a support system to come together to be Totally and Completely Fine in the End? We all might not have a Hollywood star for a brother, who is fighting his own demons, or fall in love with the James Bond, but this lovely book has lessons we can all learn from and put our own lives in prespective.

I am such a fan of Elissa's writing style. This is the third book I've read by her and I get so caught up in her stories. This one definitely had the most spice throughout but it felt relevant to the plot and the character development, which I feel like is really rare to do that well. I loved the story. I loved seeing the return of characters from Funny You Should Ask. I just enjoyed reading this and it was funny and sad and hopeful and heartbreaking and wise. All around great book.

Totally and Completely Fine was such an emotional read. The grief throughout this book was written well. I love the way Elissa writes between 'then' and 'now' chapters in her stories. It always makes me want to keep reading. Personally, I preferred the 'then' chapters as Lauren and Spencer’s love story was beautiful and I rooted for them so much, even though this story is about Lauren and her family's grief because Spencer passed away. What kept this book from being five stars was the "love" story between Lauren and Ben. From the start, they are sexually attracted to each other and sleep with each other quickly, but throughout the book, it never felt as if their feelings went any deeper than physical. Lauren and Ben's type of romance is just not something I ever like reading as it is hard for me to root for. It is another reason I preferred Spencer's love story with Lauren because they felt so real and pure. I understand the point that Lauren would experience different types of love but I just wish her and Ben were written in a more romantic way. We also get to see Chani&Gabe and Ollie in this book as well as Lena, Lauren's thirteen year old daughter. Finally, I loved getting to see more of Chani and Gabe as a couple and through Lauren's point of view. I will still read anything Elissa Sussman writes, and I look forward to her next book!

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the arc!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC.

This book was a raw portrayal of a widowed mother in her 40’s dealing with grief, raising a teen daughter, and juggling a new love interest. The chapters bounce back and forth between “then” and “now” showing glimpses of her younger troubled self and moments of her relationship with her husband. It took a bit for the new romance to grip me, but once she stopped fighting her feelings I loved them together. This was my first book by Elissa Sussman and I’m already a big fan.

This book was just not for me. I feel like it fell short on plot and characters and it just led to it not being a story I particularly felt attached to. I just wanted to finish this book to be done with it.

There was insta-lust between the two lead characters, with literally the second short conversation between them being about sex. There was no build-up of chemistry and it just fell flat. I wasn’t really rooting for them as a couple, emotionally nor physically.

I also felt like it was odd to have this permeating theme of sexuality and queerness for almost every single character. It’s mentioned several different times that the MMC is bisexual, but in ways that it doesn’t really add anything to the plot or flesh him out as a more dimensional character. Same with the FMC’s daughter — she’s this flat character of being a moody, sullen preteen who then comes out 60% of the way through the book and that’s pretty much the only plot-line this child has. I’m all for books touching on these themes but at least do so in an interesting way. This book felt like it was checking a box for inclusivity/diversity but not taking the effort to write a good story around it.

The story did a wonderful job of portraying grief and
handing a second chance at love. I thought the timeline jumps were so well done and I personally preferred the “then” chapters. Lauren and Spencer’s backstory was really beautiful and their love for each other was so evident. It did feel like there were a lot of side storylines that made it hard to really focus on the main characters. I did not feel very connected to their love story- it seemed to happen rather quickly and was almost insta-lovey. I enjoyed this read and I look forward to more from this author. 3.5 stars

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Totally and Completely Fine surprised me by being more women’s’ fiction than romcom. I enjoyed the dual timelines, the LGBTQ+ representation, and revisiting the Montana setting from Funny You Should Ask.
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I started this without knowing it was a spin-off of Sussman's Funny You Should Ask and the MC is Gabe Parker's widowed sister, Lauren. The romance was an afterthought of Lauren's character growth as she navigated loneliness and being a single mom. I was all for the age gap; I am kind of tired of the celebrity trope Sussman has done in the last few novels.

Read if you like:
•Single Parent
•Celebrity Romance
•Age Gap
•Dual Timeline
•MC in her 40s

🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open Door: At least one intimate scene with the reader present, euphemistic language for act and body parts.

Absolutely ate this up. I love a duel timeline it’s going to pull me in every single time. This was a story about love, grief, and exploration. I loved the pacing of the story very much. I’m not always a fan of insta love but felt this was written very well. Cant wait to read more stories by this author.

It’s remarkable how real and raw this book felt. The emotional depth of the story is incredible. It’s a beautiful story of love and grief and how the two intersect. It’s a wonderful love story. The chapters alternate from past to present which I really enjoyed. I loved Funny You Should Ask so I was so excited to read this one and it did not disappoint! If you haven’t read Funny You Should Ask, I would definitely read that before this comes out so you can get introduced to the characters in the story. I liked that this story presented a real picture of what family can look like. Overall, a beautiful story and I will definitely be rereading when it comes out!

I liked this book!! It was interesting with a good story line and good pacing. I think the themes or past lives, future choices, and decisions are written about in a good way. I like the writing style and the characters in this book

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Loved this latest from Elissa Sussman!! She walked the line beautifully of insta-lust and insta-love. I find that sometimes insta-lust can wind up being insta-love which is not a trope I personally…love. Sussman does a terrific job of showing Lauren and Ben’s chemistry while giving their relationship space to truly grow.