I’m not gonna lie - I liked this one wayyy more than I expected to!!🤌 though maybe if I realized it was a companion novel to Funny You Should Ask (which I loved) I wouldn’t have been surprised!

✨single mom x famous actor
✨age gap
✨grief journeys - she’s a widow who lost her childhood sweetheart and her daughter is a teenager trying to both find who she is at a pivotal age but also trying to mourn her father!!
✨they’re “just having fun”🤭
✨then and now timelines!

I love this cast of characters, the literal family and the found family! I loved watching Lauren and Lena’s relationship change and grow and how they both navigated Spencer’s loss - it felt very honest and raw. While admittedly the romance of this was my least favorite part it was still veryy solid! And honestly Ben is a catch🤩 I recommend!

I am finding it very hard to rate this book, vacillating between a 3 and 4. At its core, it's a good book, great in places. Solid. Emotional. It's the kind of book I enjoyed reading, but probably won't find myself re-reading.

The book is a single POV following Lauren (Gabe from Funny You Should Ask's sister) three years after the death of her husband, Spencer. It switches between flashbacks of Lauren's life before and through her marriage to Spencer and the present day, where she starts a relationship with quickly-rising movie star, Ben. The book grapples with grief, both in the way it can numb you, the ways you can push it down, and the ways it can still break out of your tightly contained compartmentalization. The final pages (maybe the last 30 mins of reading or so) are extremely well-done, as Lauren's family really faces what Spencer's loss meant to them (and how Gabe's alcoholism exacerbated the darkness of that time).

If I'm being honest, I don't think that marketing this as a romance is the best choice. It's fiction (women's fiction if you want to be specific). I think there's a push to classify a lot as romance because of it's current market power, but we forget that while a romance can't be a romance without a HEA/HFN, fiction can be fiction with one.

The book can be read independent of Funny You Should Ask, but I think it is best to pick that one up before jumping in. You gain a different perspective on a lot of the scenes in this book, which makes it a richer read.

* Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review! *

Such a wonderful read that I will be recommending to everyone - all about processing your grief, chosen family, finding love again, and living in the present moment. Beautifully written with wonderful characters!

honestly i was a bit disappointed with this one :/ while i enjoyed the romance, it took a backseat to a lot of the other subplots - which i still enjoyed ! but less of a romance than sussman’s past books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy. Totally and Completely Fine follows Lauren as she navigates life as a widowed mother to a teenage daughter. The story alternates between the past and the present and shows Lauren’s complex history. It took me a bit to get into the story, but I enjoyed the setting of the story. The characters were diverse, but I do feel like the author did this just for the diversity. I didn’t really feel the romance between the two characters either.

thanks to dell publishing and netgalley for the advanced copy! this book came out yesterday and you should check it out!

if you…
✨love an older FMC
✨love a bisexual hero
✨want a beautiful book about grieving
✨enjoy a dual timeline

i loved Funny You Should Ask a couple years ago and i was intrigued to be back in this universe.

this was a romance definitely but i do feel like it was also the terribly named women’s fiction. it’s about Lauren learning to deal with grief and dating and parenting. it makes you feel. check the tw’s.

this also had one of my favorite things when it comes to reading—short chapters! i flew through it.

Lauren's brother Gabe beat the odds. He left their small hometown in Montana and made it big as an actor. Because of Gabe's success and the money, he's been able to help his family with, Lauren runs a bookstore and craft shop. She's widowed and has a teenage daughter. When they visit Gabe on set, they meet his younger, steamy co-star, Ben, and sparks between Lauren and Ben fly. But can they overcome their baggage- grief, the age difference, Lauren's life in Montana, her angsty teen daughter? Will they be able to let themselves be happy?

I liked this romance. It is not a rom com (very little humor), but I liked the topics the characters dealt with and the family and friend dynamics. Sussman writes a famous person/ celebrity romance well and I liked this lighter in tone but not content book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

Elissa Sussman has crafted something truly special with *Totally and Completely Fine*, a novel that manages to be simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful, steamy and tender. While the premise—a widow learning to love again—might sound heavy, Sussman's skillful writing transforms what could have been a difficult read into an emotionally satisfying journey that had me alternately sobbing and swooning.

The story follows Lauren, Gabe's sister from *Funny You Should Ask*, as she navigates life three years after losing her husband Spencer. What makes this book exceptional is Sussman's use of dual timelines, weaving together Lauren's past with Spencer and her present-day struggle to raise her teenage daughter Lena while unexpectedly falling for movie star Ben Walsh. The flashbacks don't just provide context—they create a rich emotional foundation that makes Lauren's grief feel authentic and her tentative steps toward new love all the more powerful. Getting to know Spencer through these glimpses into the past made me understand exactly what Lauren lost, which in turn made her journey toward healing feel earned rather than rushed.

Ben Walsh deserves special mention because wow, is he compelling. Sussman has created a love interest who's not just devastatingly attractive (and the chemistry between him and Lauren is absolutely scorching), but genuinely kind and patient. His age-gap romance with Lauren never feels contrived, and watching him seamlessly integrate into small-town Montana life while respecting Lauren's boundaries was delightful. The supporting cast shines too, particularly the mother-daughter relationship between Lauren and Lena, which feels authentic in all its messy, hormonal, grief-stricken complexity.

What elevates this book beyond a simple romance is how beautifully it handles grief and guilt. Lauren's internal struggle with moving forward doesn't magically resolve—it's messy and complicated and real. Sussman never makes grief feel like something to "get over" but rather something to carry forward in a healthier way. The representation of LGBTQ+ themes, particularly around Lena's coming-of-age story, is handled with care and authenticity. While you don't absolutely need to read *Funny You Should Ask* first, having that context enriches the experience significantly, especially seeing Gabe and Chani as secondary characters supporting Lauren's story. This is romance with real emotional depth, and I'm already eager to see what Sussman writes next.

For a book about grief, a widow trying to find love again (with a huge helping of guilt), it was an easy read. Yes, I was sobbing in the beginning and the end, but in between we got dual timelines of Lauren’s life with her late husband, Spencer, and the current timeline of raising her teenage daughter on her own.

This book is a sequel/overlap with “Funny You Should Ask” which was released in 2022. I read it last year, but had the hardest time remembering the details, so I relistened to some key parts for a refresher. Do you need to do this? No. But for me, it helped because Gabe (Lauren’s younger brother) is in this book a lot.

I enjoyed the dual timeline; the bittersweet nostalgia of Lauren’s past added so much to the story. It’s a cute small town, movie star/normal person romance in the present. Lauren’s grief is written so beautifully that it’s hard not to tear up reading it. If you are a fan of Funny You Should Ask, definitely pick this one up as it is an excellent sequel (and better than the first book in my opinion).
Thank you, Elissa Sussman, Dell, and NetGalley, for an advanced digital copy of this book.

This book follows Lauren (Gabe's sister from Funny You Should Ask) as she deals with grief and loss while trying to balance the needs of her teenage daughter with a new and unexpected relationship. Written in 1st-person POV, alternating timelines. The views into her past gives the story depth by adding insight into her struggles with grief and her relationship with her husband. The book almost feels like it was as much about Lauren's husband Spencer as it was about her, and we do learn a lot about Lauren's personality through the flashbacks. I liked getting to know Spencer, especially as Lauren got more and more comfortable with opening herself back up to love. The push-pull between Lauren and Ben (especially from Lauren) added some tension to the story, but it was sometimes a little frustrating. There is quite a bit of romance here (age gap and midlife representation, as well as gender fluidity), but it felt like the bigger focus was on Lauren learning how to be happy again. Pay attention to content warnings, although the description should alert you that there are heavier themes here.

I think this book would work okay as a standalone, but having already read Gabe's story definitely gave this one some extra layers. There are a lot of callbacks to Gabe and Chani's relationship and the sequence of events, especially since the timeline of Lauren's story overlaps with Gabe's story. And Gabe and Chani show up quite a bit in this book (as does Ollie), which is a nice extension of the last book. So while you don't have to read Gabe's story first, I highly recommend it. I enjoy this author's voice and writing style, I'm looking forward to whatever she writes next. This review was based on a complimentary copy of the book, all opinions are my own.

This book was one of my favorites from this year. Hilarious, heartfelt and so hot! Elissa Sussman's writing is unlike any other and I will read anything she writes. What a treat!

1⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Ballantine for an advanced copy of Totally And Completely Fine.

To me this honestly felt like ChatGPT or AI wrote parts of this book. I also feel like the author wanted to tell way too many different stories and the book was all over the place. This was not my kind of book at all.

I really liked this book. It’s honest, emotional, and still has funny and warm moments. Lauren felt real to me. She’s dealing with grief, raising a teenager, and trying to figure out what’s next. The mix of past and present worked well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the eARC.

Elissa Sussman writes such wonderful romance novels. I really thought this one was so well done and the depiction of grief was spot on. I have loved all of her novels and this one is no different.

I absolutely loved this book!! I do think anyone who reads it needs to read Funny You Should Ask first so you have more context on Chani and Gabe! It made the reading experience so much sweeter. I adored Ben. He was a smitten kitten from the moment he met Lauren. The story of grief told in this book was so real and raw. How they let Lena feel her feelings out loud and never made her feel bad for that was done beautifully. I also liked how the author dealt with lgbtq+ representation in this book, especially with the coming out story. This book was a must read. I think everyone can learn a thing or two from it.

(3.5 stars) This was a heartfelt read about second chances and being vulnerable and honest. It had a hopeful message. Trigger warning for grief.

There’s a lot to love here. The setup is rich with emotion. Lauren is a wonderfully layered character. And Elissa Sussman does a beautiful job capturing the weight of loss and the ache of wanting something more. The dual timelines helped ground the story in Lauren’s past with Spencer, and there were some really touching moments that hit me hard. Her growth felt earned, and I appreciated how honestly her grief was portrayed without ever veering into melodrama. That said, the romance didn’t fully land for me. The spark between Lauren and Ben is there, but I didn’t always feel the emotional build-up I wanted. Some of the pacing in the present-day storyline dragged just a little. Still, this is a tender, thoughtful book about second chances, healing, and learning to live out loud again. It didn’t quite knock me over, but I’m glad I read it.

I have really mixed feelings about this book, and I waffled a lot between giving this book three and four stars (if possible, I'd most likely give this 3.5 stars). It's technically a companion novel to Funny You Should Ask, but I feel like it makes sense regardless of whether you read that one. Lauren lost her husband three years ago and is struggling to connect with her grieving and hormonal teenage daughter. She's just trying to make it from day to day, but then she meets Ben on the set of her brother's new movie. They have an immediate spark, and although there are so many complications in their way, they keep running into each other again and again.

This book is ostensibly a romance, but unfortunately the romance didn't really work for me. I could feel the lust and attraction between Lauren and Ben, but I didn't get an intimate connection between them until way too far into the book. This book goes back and forth between the present day and the earlier timeline where Lauren met, fell in love, and had a family with her husband Spencer, and to me at least, that structure deprived both romantic relationships - Lauren and Ben, as well as Lauren and Spencer - of a lot of depth and necessary emotional weight. I appreciated that the author was trying to tell a story about love after grief and how loving someone after your loved one dies isn't a betrayal and two things can be true at once etc., but if she wanted us to believe that Lauren loved Ben and wanted to be with him, I just didn't see it. I also didn't totally get the connection between Lauren and Spencer, but at least in the flashbacks you could feel how rock-solid their love was, even if I had no idea why they even liked each other. Lauren also somehow comes across as not having much of a personality, which I never like.

I found the family dynamics and relationships, meanwhile, really moving and intriguing, and the last 25% of the book made me cry multiple times. I LOVED the relationship between Lauren and her daughter Lena. It felt so true to being a teenager and trying to make sense of yourself and the world, with the double whammy for Lena of losing her father, the parent she was closest to. Lauren's growth as a parent and in her ability to really talk to her daughter about their grief and how they were both feeling inspired me in terms of how I want to be as a mother, especially given Lauren's inner dialogue about how her family didn't really discuss emotions and she wasn't sure how to do it with her daughter. I also appreciated that the book dealt with the repercussions of Lauren's brother Gabe's previous drinking problem; the characters didn't act like he was sober now and there were no longer any emotions to contend with, but really tried to reckon with the damage. The family storylines in the book tilted this towards four stars for me, and I would have liked a lot more of that than the romance plotline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is the first novel I read by Elissa Sussmman and i personally really enjoyed it. I loved the dual timeline from past and present. I also really enjoyed the setting in Montana.

With Lauren navigating the loss of her husband being emotional as well as her trying to figuring out her new fling was nice to read. As the reader you could feel the closeness with the family and all of the difficulties they had been through.

Highly recommend if you like a romance with some heavier topics discussed as well.

I was so excited for Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman! I loved her debut and this was a cute follow up. I loved the return of the characters I loved, but this still felt like its own story. I was smiling ear to ear while reading.

Highly recommend for anyone who loved Elissa Sussman’s debut Funny You Should Ask!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for an advanced copy of this book!