Finally someone who gets anxiety at the most random times just like me! Felt so nice to be seen and know what Kyle goes through with the overthinking of her choices and hoping she can just get through her days at Hope House. All the characters at Hope House just broke my heart from time to time and I was rooting for all of them to find peace.

I fell in love with Joey, Jackson and Jamie, all the J’s! I also enjoyed the ending, you don’t know what’s going to ultimately happen and yet life is “willy nilly” that way. Thank you to Amy Watson for being so vulnerable and leaving it all on the page! I can’t wait to read more of your work in the future.

I was a sobbing mess throughout in a good way and I enjoyed seeing Kyle’s journey on learning to love herself before she can love anyone else. She did things for herself and had so much growth without even realizing it…sometimes taking those first steps is the biggest and most difficult step to recovery.

Thank you to Amy Watson, NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC!

#ClosertoOkay #AmyWatson #netgalley

Closer to Okay
by Amy Watson

Thank you so much Alcove Press and NetGalley! I enjoyed this book. It would be a great book for reading or late teens. Suicide is final, information of any sort will keep helping a person. Thanks for allowing a helpline to others.

This was an okay book. I think the most enjoyable character was Eddie which I am sure is a surprise. I think most of the other characters were bland and not fully developed. I wasn’t able to relate to Kyle at all. Dr.Booth was a horrible way to represent the mental health field. I did enjoy the descriptions of the coffee and other foods.

OHHHH the way i have been in kyle's position but sadly i was not as wise as her. That feeling when you're so mentally unstable that you feel like you need someone to hold you up so bad or else nothing in the world is right. Trying to desperately form a connection with someone when you're in a bad place and depend on that person with your life is not a good decision, folks!

I wish i read this book all those years ago so i know what to consider or what to think of when i was facing the same challenges as kyle's. At first i was blanching inside because if i read another book about an unhealthy relationship i am going to scream. But turns out, kyle chose what's best for her and honestly i'm proud of her for that. All those detailed descriptions of coffees and pastries feel like a free therapy session too.

3 stars.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for this book.

This book was a very fast read, which is surprising considering how dark the subject is. But I think because this book was such a fast read and wasn't particularly long, I just couldn't really connect to the characters.
There were a lot of sad and tense scenes in this book and they just fell a bit flat in my opinion... Which makes me a bit sad because I really liked the premise of this book.

I also didn't like the way some of the characters were characterized. I don't know how to properly explain it because my brain fog has been quite bad the past couple of days, but yeah some of the characters just were written weirdly.
Still liked reading the book tho and I'm glad that I read it so fast! The depression and anxiety rep (in my opinion) was pretty good and accurate. It was one of the things I really liked about the book!

Closer to Okay follows Kyle, a baker admitted to a psych ward after battling depression and attempting suicide. While recovering she’s drawn to one of the owners of the coffee shop she can see from her bedroom window.

I thought the premise was interesting, especially the setting. I thought this was a unique way of approaching a romance, with the main character having to consider how starting a relationship would impact their mental health. From my perspective I think Kyle’s mental health was handled well, I understood her concerns and how her mental health impacted her decision making.

I did think that the pacing was slightly odd, it felt like the characters relationship developed too quickly, it felt a bit rushed. I think more time could have been taken to develop their relationship so it felt more realistic.

I thought the plot point with Dr Booth was resolved too quickly, it was anti climatic and felt like an afterthought.

Generally I enjoyed it and would recommend as a quick read.

Thank you to Alcove Press & Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book to review.

Closer to okay is a book that managed to touch me. What a beautiful and special book! We are introduced to Kyle who is admitted to a mental health facility. Amy Watson manages to give you a realistic look into life with a mental illness. I think she wrote this well and respectfully. Kyle is a fine character to read from, you quickly lock her in your heart. You feel for her and want to help her. Amy Watson's smooth, fine writing style makes you fly through the book. I found it hard to put the book down, I wanted to read on. The love for coffee and baking shines through the book, it is almost tangible. I was in the mood for coffee and baking. Closer to okay is highly recommended, it has everything a good book needs. It has a little bit of everything; sadness, serious topics and romance. What more could you want?

I really loved this book other than the food that kept me drooling it was a perfect blend of mental health, baking and friendship with a dash of love - because why not
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for their next read

Such a powerful, realistic fiction has truly honest approach to mental health issues including angsty, emotional romance between main characters.

Kyle has a pure talent to create delicious sweets, rolling doughs into art pieces, working on kitchen shifts of Hope House: mental institution for troubled souls.

After her attempt to take her own life, she slowly learns to focus on her teenage years long depression more seriously. For a long time she rejected to admit that something wrong with herself, drowning in self-harm, insecurities. Now she’s having regular weekly seances with Dr. Booth: might a villain to make her life miserable but also he might be the one who can help her heal properly!

The characters of the institute symbolize the characters of One Flew Over Cuckoo’s Nest ( especially Nancy reminds us of Nurse Ratched) They suffer from psychosis, PTSD, OCD, anorexia. Their problems are realistically told. Some of them can heal and get out from the house to confront with outside world as some of them fail or become voluntarily indefinite residents of the institution.

Kyle uses privilege to spend time at outside for limited time: she starts hanging out at the Coffee Shop, spying on brooding, charismatic coffee maker Jackson who is famous politician’s son. He’s an introvert, hiding behind a shield, keeping everything inside.

Both of them are emotionally unavailable but that doesn’t prevent them form an intimate relationship.

I found Kyle and Jackson’s achy, angsty, heart wrenching love story a little too agitated. I even thought maybe it make more sense for them stay away from each other but conclusion of their story was so logical and promising.

Overall: even though it was way too much sad, dark, depressing story, it was real, honest and well written. I have to congratulate the author for handling all those triggering subjects with so much care.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Brilliant... Marvelous... STUNNING! Where does one begin to describe how much I fell in love with this book. Everyone. And I mean EVERYONE needs to read it!

A very focused story of rehabilitation from clinical depression wrapped in a romance.
The book was a very fluid and fast read, perfect as a light long weekend book. I liked that the point was made not to look for happiness in another person - that before you can love someone you have to love yourself. I just wish that had been elaborated on.
Admittedly I'm not a romance reader, so the plot wasn't so gripping to me. I also had trouble with the hero being so aware of her own feelings and her needs and being able to express both so clearly. This kind of pulled me out of the novel - it didn't feel like the voice of the character anymore but more the intention of the author. But that's a minor issue.
I'm sure many will enjoy this story.

Thank you so much Alcove Press and NetGalley!

Kyle is at Hope House after a suicide attempt. She has struggled with her mental health, but seems to be getting better. She has hopes of leaving Hope House and being able to continue as a pastry chef. While on her outing privileges, she starts to go to a coffee shop nearby and begins a relationship with one of the owners. She's not sure exactly what her path is going to be and who is going to be with her.

There was so much to love about this book. I liked all of the characters at Hope House and Trace, the guy from the pizza place that Kyle is at. I did not like the romance part, however, Jackson and Kyle didn't make sense, and he's so miserable. The pretentious coffee shop he owns is fitting for his personality. Since this book is categorized as Romance, I didn't understand why it had to be Jackson and Kyle. If you take that part out, it's a really great book about struggles of mental illness and how resilient Kyle is.

I wasn't planning on finishing this book today. In fact, I planned to read about a chapter a day. I read two yesterday, and ended up finishing the rest of the book today. It's way too late, and I'm lucky I have the day off tomorrow, because I would have continued reading this book whether I had to work tomorrow or not.

This is the best fictional book about mental health I've read in English. The only books that come close are the (semi-fiction) books by Torey L. Hayden.

I'm struggling to find the words to review this book. The title and the cover were what got me interested in this book. The description helped as well.

I have some experience with mental health issues (and physical health issues. I just got all the health issues). I have autism, and have struggled with depression as long as I can remember. Got that from my dad, who struggled with depression and alcoholism. My dad has been in mental institutions multiple times, and because I was young, and he avoided contact with us I'm not sure if it was voluntarily or not. If he did well, he'd want to see us. If he got worse, he didn't. I can't blame him, because I know how depression makes you feel like a burden. I've never personally been institutionalised. But I have considered it and discussed it with my mother, back when I was in elementary school. I was just a little autistic girl trying to understand how the world worked, and constantly failing. My mum talked about what it would be like, the therapy, talking, group sessions, and I distinctly remember asking if I couldn't just be put in solitary confinement for a while. When I was told that wasn't likely, I gave up on the idea, and reading this book, I know I made the right choice, because it would have done me a whole lot of bad. Thankfully my mum was amazing and without her I wouldn't have been able to function at all.

This author understands depression. I wasn't surprised when I read she based this book on some of her own experiences on her author page. It's so obvious when reading, and that's exactly what makes this book so relatable. The only other author I've found so far with a similar understanding is 三秋縋who is my favourite Japanese author.
Some examples:
I haven’t rewired that part of my brain yet, the one that lets me ask for help
I wake up crying. Everything I’ve ever loved has gone away
This is depression exhaustion, when nothing can override the need for escapist sleep.
My depression cycles through its favorite topics on shuffle: I’m alone forever, not good at anything, not worth anything, there’s no point in keeping going, there’s no point in anything

This book is both the story of Kyle trying to work on getting "better" and a romance. The focus is more on the first, though the latter plays a part. The romance does not cure her depression, like in so many other books.

Reading about Kyle's time in the mental institution, and especially about her doctor, was frustrating. This book, this doctor perfectly illustrates all the issues I have with health care. Doctor's with God Complexes who think they know best. And who would NEVER admit they were wrong. Not all doctors are this way, of course. But too many are. In mental and physical health. Dismissive of patients complaints/needs, because if the doctor thinks something it's definitely right. that's how more than 10 hospitals with even more doctors managed to miss I had a neck hernia. Took them 10 years to find out, always telling me "nothing was wrong" so I "couldn't be in pain." Even more fun was the doctor who said that "while I definitely had a hernia, and a hernia could result in the pain I had, he still thought it was unrelated and I actually didn't have pain at all. .

I mean, doctor Booth says things like:

Nancy noted in your records that you’re not sleeping properly. I’m unhappy with that, Kyle. If you’re not sleeping during my prescribed hours, you’re not doing what is being asked of you. If you’re not open with me, I can’t help you.
Like we can sleep on command? I can't. Can you? If someone tells you to sleep from x to x, can you do that? I think not.

Or when he pushes a patient far past his limits and things end badly, and he takes no accountability.
“Why didn’t someone stop this?” I spin around and point at Booth. “Why didn’t you stop this? You knew how fragile he was, and you kept pushing him and pushing him! This is your fault!”
“Now, calm down, Kyle. I understand you’re upset. We’re all upset. Joey was a very sick young man, and I know you need to blame someone.”
It is his fault. 100%. Everyone knew he was going to far. Everyone. Yet he still continued and continued and ends up blaming the patient, because of course there's no way the doctor would make a mistake, right?

Or when he act like Kyle doesn't want to get better and she replies:
No one wants me to get out of this place more than me.
Booth can keep me here as long as he wants. Until he deems me competent. Until I’m compliant

Or how he wants control over everything and gives no information about important things. It's a power trip.

Of course he’s reminding me he’s the one in control, even as I earn my freedom. That fucker.

And then there's this little gem:
It’s trite, but you have to love yourself before you can love someone else, Kyle.
Which made me go: please read Fruits Basket, Vol. 1 sir, because that scene where Thoru talks about how sometimes having someone else care about you giving you the strength to love yourself is just way more powerful than this bullshit.

I hate doctors. Not my current one, he is great, but like 98% of them. I have a lot experience with doctors, and most of them negative, and this book's doctor Booth felt like an accurate description of many of the doctors I have encountered.

Jackson and Kyle are both great characters. They're complex and multi-faceted and while the romance progressed rather quickly (yet at the same time not at all...) they were a cute couple. I also really enjoyed all the side characters, who were complex and interesting and different too. The characters go through a lot of development throughout this book, in a realistic way. They move forward, and backward, and forward again. It's not smooth, but it feels real.

I feel like I can't really bring under words how much I love this book. This is such a good representation of mental illness, in a way that doesn't romanticise it, nor villainizes it. It's just treated as the illness it is. The characters feel real, and the setting is well-developed and (while enraging) also feels very real. It made me learn more about mental health institutes, and gave me some super relatable characters. It was well-written and well-paced, and messy. The messy ending felt perfect for me, because you can't just instantly fix mental health problems.

A good take on depression. Personally I felt the story was all over.
Kyle's journey to healing is insightful. The ending definitely leaves one wanting

Thank you net galley for sending me an arc of Closer to okay in exchange for a honest review!


I really wished I could of rated this higher.
The beginning was extremely promising and I found both the main character really likable and a very good representation of depression. The writing especially when it came to world building and descriptions was extremely intriguing and pleasant to read.


However even though the book had a seriously strong start,it started to feel rushed after chapter 10 or so. The romance felt quite underdeveloped and the sudden change in Jason's character from being a more "grumpy" character to suddenly having a soft spot for the mc happened way too quickly in my opinion. Some of the events that happened in the book for the sake of moving the plot,had a complete lack of sense and at some point I just really had to force myself to care about characters.

3.5 stars
It was an enjoyable reading.
I like the way people are represented in Hope House and the way the author told Kyle's story. The mental health rep in the book was really good. I loved all the characters.
I felt like Kyle's story with Jackson was missing something. I like the fact that they got together at the end, but still I felt like I was missing some chemistry between the two.
Still, the book was good and I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC!

"Mental health facilities offer a strange alternate reality where it's acceptable to wear pajamas all day, sometimes the same ones for days on end." Closer to Okay is quite a lovely book about depression. If that sounds like an oxymoron, it's not trying to be. Amy Watson's book quickly draws you into the life of Kyle Davies. Kyle is an inpatient at a mental health facility after a suicide attempt following a period of depression. The book follows her journey toward resuming life, including the changes that she makes toward accepting her illness as an illness, and ensure it is managed so the suicidal ideation she has had for as long as she can remember recede.

"That's one of the things about depression: you should care, but you just ... don't." Watson offers up some good insights about depression that go beyond the social understanding of it as feeling sad all the time. For example, Kyle hates telling people no, explaining that she dislikes being "anyone's source of disappointment." Kyle also assumed she wasn't sick, that with a traumatic childhood, she assumed "was just screwed up like everybody else" with the novel showing her progression toward accepting her illness as genuine.

What made me pick up the book was the integration of food and baking into the story. By and large this works, as baking is one area that provides Kyle with solace, despite her lack of self-belief in other life areas. Though at times the metaphor did get a bit tortured: "The flour is me—the foundation. The milk is my childhood—a building block. My depression is the sugar—too much and my mental cake sinks in the middle. My job is the baking powder—lifting me up in spite of all the sugar. The only thing missing is the eggs—the emulsifier. They bring the mixture together." By and large though, Closer to Okay illustrates how hard it is to go from a mental health facility back to your life still being affected by depression and not go straight back down the same path. The recipe seems to be connection, and that's a worthwhile message.

This book was a beautiful insight to anyone struggling with depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses. I was rooting for Kyle the entire time and appreciated how there wasn’t just a straight line to recovery and a magical perfect happy ending. Some of the dialogue felt a bit contrived, but the overall story and characters were well written.

I found the Hope House story to be better developed than the romance. I really connected with the people at Hope House, with the exception of Dr. Booth, in a way that I didn’t with Jackson until much later on. Sometimes I would actually wince while reading when Kyle was making unhealthy decisions because I was so invested. Though it took me a few chapters to really get into this, I ended up enjoying it and think that this kind of representation is really important.

Thank you, NetGalley, Amy Watson, and Alcove Press for this ARC.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get into this book. It took me far longer to read than usual and, upon finishing, I felt unaffected. In short, I didn't feel as if enough had been put into building character or strategically pacing the story to impact me as a reader. Dialogue is on the more simplistic side and characterization feels a little one-dimensional.

I did appreciate the several strong descriptions of coffee at the beginning of the book and wish that level of vibrancy continued whenever food was mentioned. I also appreciated the thread of hopefulness throughout however, without feeling connected to the main character's hopelessness and depression, it wasn't satisfying enough to keep me engaged.

There are many more positive reviews of this book than there are negative or neutral so, please, give it a try if you are curious. I hope you like it. Unfortunately, it wasn't the right fit for me. 2 Stars.