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.

I didn't realize this book was interconnected with the author's other books, but it can be read as a standalone (I read and loved Funny You Should Ask and less so Once More with Feeling).

Then & now chapters give a good look into Lauren's (the FMC) past & relationship history. Her husband passed away 3 years ago, and she is left in her small hometown running a store with her mother. Her 13-year-old daughter is really going through it. And then of course we have her famous brother, Gabe.

She needs an escape and takes a week to visit her brother on his latest movie set where she meets Ben.

Major themes of grief, moving on and finding yourself. Totally bingeable!


Setting: Montana, some time spent in Philly and LA.

I picked up this book expecting a heartfelt exploration of a mother-daughter relationship, but it turned out to focus much more on romance. At its core, it’s a love story between Lauren—a woman still mourning the loss of her husband three years on—and Ben, a charismatic, much younger actor her brother happens to work with.

The romantic dynamic may appeal to readers who enjoy age-gap relationships, especially ones where the older partner is the woman. However, for me, the most authentic and engaging part of the story was the daughter’s journey through teenage angst—it was the one thread that felt grounded and emotionally true.

On a personal note, I found the frequent references to bisexual and gay characters, as well as the book’s occasional anti-Christian undertones, to be distracting and not to my taste.

If you’re a fan of older woman/younger man romances and don’t mind a strong emphasis on progressive themes, this might be a good fit for you.


Thank you NetGalley and Random House/Dell for this ARC in return for my honest opinion.

When I found out Elissa was releasing a book from Gabe’s sister’s POV, I was like I need to get my hands on an ARC ASAP!! Thank heavens to NetGalley and Random House Publishing group for making my wish come true.

Totally and Completely Fine was written in the same then and now format, focusing on Lauren’s first marriage and her new love interest. This book was more than just about finding new love but also about dealing with grief in different ways. One of my favorite lines from came from Ben (hot, Irish actor who is OBSESSED with Lauren) essentially saying that no one gets over grief, but you actually go through it and I could not agree more. I’ve deal with grief in a few ways and I think that is the perfect way to describe it.

Don’t worry, this isn’t a super sad book, I only cried during the epilogue. I laughed and swooned over the sweet (& spicy) moments. Ben is so sweet and just what Lauren needed after her husband passed. It was really nice to have cameos from Gabe and Chani (I missed them so much). Oh and Ollie too!

I really can’t find anything that I didn’t like about this book and that’s a good sign bc I’ve been in book slump for months.

Lauren is still grieving her husband when her actor brother invites her and her daughter to visit him on his latest movie set. There she meets the hottest new actor in town and she starts to feel things she hasn’t in years.

Complications are in abundance but sometimes they just can’t stop those feelings.

This book deals with grief, second chances and living life to the fullest. If that appeals to you, you’ll love it.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC.

Okay sooooo good! More adult than her previous books in that it deals with more serious issues. It was the perfect mix of romance and true emotion with the story. Similar to When in Rome by Sarah Adams, this book is rich with fascinating characters! Elissa could focus on writing her next book on another character for a fun next step.

This title will go over well with our demographic and will be on the list for purchase. The author's other books have been popular, and I'd expect that this one will be too.