Totally and Completely Fine
by Elissa Sussman

From the publisher

From the bestselling author of Funny You Should Ask comes an inspiring romance novel about honoring the past, living in the present, and loving for the future.

In her small Montana hometown, Lauren Parker has assumed a few different roles: teenage hellraiser; sister of superstar Gabe Parker; and most recently, tragically widowed single mother. She’s never cared much about labels or what people thought about her, but dealing with her grief has slowly revealed that she’s become adrift in her own life.

Then she meets the devilishly handsome actor Ben Walsh on the set of her brother’s new movie. They have instant chemistry, and Lauren realizes that it has been far too long since someone has really and truly seen her. Her rebellious spirit spurs her to dive headfirst into her desire, but when a sexy encounter becomes something more, Lauren finds herself balancing old roles and new possibilities.

There’s still plenty to contend with: small-town rumors, the complications of Ben’s fame, and her daughter’s unpredictable moods. An unexpected fling seemed simple at the time—so when did everything with Ben get so complicated? And is there enough room in her life for the woman Lauren wants to be? Alternating between Lauren’s past with Spencer and her present with Ben, Totally and Completely Fine illuminates what it means to find a life-changing love and be true to oneself in the process.

My Review

I struggled to relate to Lauren. While we all make stupid choices in our teens – show me someone who doesn’t – she seemed to swing wildly from stupid choice to stupid choice without much motivation or character development behind it. Granted, all of that is being recounted in the THEN timeline, which moves rapidly from her teenagehood through the initial romance and then through early parenthood with her now-dead husband.

Simultaneously, we are also following the NOW timeline where Lauren and her tween daughter go to visit her movie-star brother on set and she hooks up with her brother’s younger, hotter co-star. I straight-up struggled to see what that guy would see in Lauren. She’s 11 years his senior, a widow, dragging a sullen teenager around … and he’s a hot bisexual movie star.

Post-hookup, Lauren continues texting him while struggling to date in her hometown, deals with her contemptuously religious mother-in-law, struggles to relate to her teen daughter, and continues to reveal past details about things like her brother’s alcoholism and her father’s death. It’s all just … messy.

Given how messy, it all comes together a little too cleanly a little too quickly at the end. It didn’t feel satisfyingly resolved.