Kat Noad is a dental hygienist with extreme amounts of anxiety. She joins a gym, loses her job, and her boyfriend breaks up with her all on the same day. Kat experiences panic attacks and discovers that she is incapable of leaving the gym, so she decides to stay for a few days, concocting elaborate lies to fool the employees and her friends.

This was a DNF at 57% for me. I don’t often leave one star reviews, but the half of the book I read was very depressing. It is essentially one long monologue of an anxious and depressed woman; there is very little dialogue. The book was described as “Perfect for fans of Sarah Adams, Tessa Bailey and Sally Thorne,” and a romantic comedy, but the contents don’t match that promise at all. Kat is very mentally ill and not at all a likable (or frankly relatable) character. Maybe she experiences great growth in the second half of the novel, but I won’t ever know because I couldn’t take any more of the constant negative drivel. Kat is primarily depressed because of the death of her dog 6 months prior. There are very sad descriptions of the illness and final days of her beloved dog. There is also a story about the death of a childhood pet rabbit. The whole book so far has just been one big happiness drain, which is exactly the opposite reason why most people pick up “romance” novels. At almost 60% of the way through the book it is also still unclear who the romantic interest will be (I’m guessing Marcus), but they’ve had very little interaction and other than his good looks, there is no indication that Kat is interested in him. I don’t recommend the book to readers of romance novels because it isn’t one. Instead I would classify it as women’s fiction.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

CW: anxiety, depression, panic attacks, mention of DUI, death of pets, improperly taking antidepressants

This book had so much potential, but it just didn’t wow me. The idea of Kat being anxiety-locked on her new health club was really intriguing and some bits were relatable to anyone that may have struggled with anxiety, but sadly I found her character too entitled and it made it hard to relate to her or feel sympathy - instead I felt more sorry for Sam and her friends! I’d love to have found out a bit more about a few other characters too, maybe even a dual narrator with the security guy or Lura, Kat’s exercise rival! I did like how exercise is shown as a way to help anxiety, and the concerns raised over exercise addiction and alcohol as a coping mechanism, but I think I wanted more of a connection with the main character than I got.

Thank you to Netgalley & Bookouture for the opportunity to read this, but this was not for me at all.

Come Here Often? was a case of cute cover and funny blurb, but no follow through.

My main beef with Come Here Often? by Ellie Center and the thing that has colored my reading and review of the book is that IT IS NOT A ROMANTIC COMEDY. Whoever is doing the marketing for this book is way overselling and pushing the story as something it is not. I’ll get into exactly why in a minute, but potential readers be warned. Do not pick up Come Here Often? if you want some gooey feel good romance because this is not that book.

Our story is about Katherine “Kat” Noad, a 32-year-old dental hygienist who walks into Great Fitness, an upscale Nashville health club one Monday morning, after her long term boyfriend bought them both memberships. Apprehensive about exercise, Kat nonetheless wants to make changes in her life and starts. Only, within an hour, Kat is not only fired but dumped. Kat is someone ruled by her anxiety (but also not putting real effort into managing it), which sets the stage for our story. After her morning from Hell, Kat tries to leave Great Fitness only to find she cannot without having a panic attack. She decides to temporarily camp out until she can leave, and over a week, we see Kat sleep in questionable places, meet an assortment of personalities, and have a nonstop existential crisis over how she’s been living and what to do next.

You’ll note that in my plot summary, I don’t mention Kat’s romantic life beyond her long term boyfriend dumping her. The reason why is that, while Kat is like perpetually horny and thinks about dating nonstop (both past failures and imagined futures with the guys she meets), Come Here Often? is all about her anxiety. I don’t think at any point in reading I got to go two-three pages without her breaking down and thinking about it more. This complete change in plot-type from the summary annoyed me, because I walked in expecting to read a quirky romance about Kat falling in love with Marcus, a personal trainer at Great Fitness who is onto her current living situation. Instead, Kat and Marcus don’t seriously interact until about 40% of the book, and even then they have only 1-2 major interactions in the raining 60%. That Marcus doesn’t even get a last name should have clued me in to the fact that he may be the main love interest but that he is not important (for reference, even the exercise buddy she talks to 2-3 times gets a last name).

Once you get over the incorrect genre label for Come Here Often?, the question becomes what to label it if not a romantic comedy. The best umbrella label I can come up with is Women’s Fiction. This is a book about Kat coming to terms with how she is living a self destructive lifestyle and letting her anxiety control her actions, and what steps she makes to start a new journey. This is best seen through the writing style itself, as Come Here Often? is roughly 300 pages of Kat’s inner monologue broken up by occasional chunks of dialogue. I know that inner monologuing is a staple for first person POV, but because of her perspective, this means the plot runs off on tangents and has to be yanked back to the central storyline at the beginning of each chapter. For a multitude of reasons, this pissed me off to no reason. How can this book be the novel equivalent of a bottle episode and still take forever to get to the point?

The last thing I want to say about Come Here Often? is that, with Kat as the sole focus and narrator, she ought to be at the very least a character I can root for. She’s not. She’s a whiny princess with alcoholic party tendencies who loves to play the victim. When her best friend called her a female Peter Pan, it was like lightning struck because that’s exactly what she is. Even by the end, when she’s supposedly enlightened and changed after her week at Great Fitness, Kat still reads as the same immature woman. If any other character at least got some personality outside of fitting a situation, I’d talk about them here, but they didn’t.

So, if you are still reading my review at this point and are unsure whether or not to pick up the book, all I can say to you is: Do not spend your own money on it. If this becomes available at your local library or on Kindle Unlimited, go for it. It’s that sweet spot of mindless entertainment that I won’t remember in a month but suits just fine now. But my personal opinion is that this book as I read it is not developed enough to be worth spending hard earned money on it.

Rating: ⭐️.75/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

**I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-arc.
Well. That's an unfortunately misleading description. This is supposed to be a rom-com? With no romance and no comedy? It's more like a case study for psych grad students. The main character, whose best friend has nothing good to say about her - the nicest thing is that she's a narcissist - is so unlikeable, it's not even like you can root for her. And we're to believe that she manages to elude all employees 20 hours a day at this gym? And stays overnight - several nights in a row? I mean, yes it's fiction, but that's a bit unbelievable. And where in the world is there a fitness center like this? It sounds like an entire mall inside a single two-story building. The author isn't a bad writer which I why I gave this 2 stars instead of 1.

It honestly takes a lot for me to not finish a book, but this one was an instant DNF but I kept reading to see how this story went... this I my review.

DNFed at 54%

First of all, I have no idea who thought this book should be marketed as romance, humor book. It could count as humor, if humor is me making fun of this book. The humor in his book was not it for me at all. This is a women's fiction book, and when I completely changed my view of this book I was slightly intrigued just cause I wanted to know what was going to happen.

Second of all, chapter one was a massive red flag. I should've DNFed when I finished this chapter because I do not think it's funny to write a book about a woman having a panic attack so bad she has to live in a gym for 4 days, (maybe? I didn't finish). The constant mention of her grief about her emotional support dog, and her boyfriend and her boss had very valid reasons for breaking up with her and firing her.

Third of all, this book needed a major trigger warning of anxiety. The whole 54% book was her inner monologue of her anxiety and we had very few interactions with other people. I have no idea what the romance part comes into play. Her and her exboyfriend are definetly not getting back together and Marcus has a girlfriend (IDK). They only have talked maybe once, and the other times are like small casual conversations. It did seem like he was flirting with her, but she is definitely an unreliable narrator.

Now continuing the reasons why I didn't like this book, the constant comparison between people with celebrities. We had Jake Gyllenhaal, the Hemsworth, Salma Hayek, Amy Schumer and so on. To the point that somehow Jake Gyllenhaal goes to this magical gym that has EVERYTHING. It has a store that sales cocktail dresses and high heels, to a bar where you can drink alcohol.

I'm sorry, but this book and I are never ever getting back together (is this a song?).

I would like to say Thank you NetGalley and BookOuture for the e-arc of this book. I really did try to give it a chance.

TW: Alcohol, Eating Disorder, Grief, Panic Attacks, Vomit, Body Shaming, Mental Illness, Sucidal Thoughts, Fat Fobia and Animal Grief.

First, thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I gave this book 2.5 stars. I tried to like it, I really did. But it was not romantic or funny. Kat deals with crippling anxiety, Nothing funny about that. I believe that this book was labeled as the wrong genre. I just didn't like it.

I think I would have enjoyed this book so much more if I hadn’t kept reading on and expecting something substantial to develop between Kat and Marcus. This book was labeled as general fiction, comedy, and romance and this was 99% a gen fiction story that fully explored and reflected the trials of dealing with a mental illness. I did find some of Kat’s quips funny…A very interesting setup with how the gym became Kat’s safe haven while also becoming her makeshift prison because she didn’t have the tools for coping with the hardships she was facing- both of which happened to her the very first day she arrived at the gym!

Will recommend!

A very big thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the advanced copy and the opportunity to share my thoughts!

I feel like the cover and description are misleading. This is not the Emily Henry type love story I was expecting. The characters are unlikeable and the story didn’t feel believable. Mental health is important but that isn’t what I was expecting from this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Kat is starting her day of change and manages to get fired and dumped over the phone within five minutes of each other, what better way to embrace all the changes then to live at her new, swanky gym!

This was marketed as a rom-com and I was sorely let down. Had that not been the impression I went in with, this might’ve been better. It’s a quirky idea and had the potential to be a hilarious rom-com but fell flat with home repetitive and frustrating it was.

I wanted to like Kat and embrace the representation of anxiety but she’s very much the “uses her anxiety as an excuse to be a bad person” character and she’s not even open about it! The happy ending epilogue was nice and left me feeling that Kat somewhat redeemed herself for me.

I’ll definitely read future releases from this author but I’m going to go in without a rom-com expectation even if it’s marketed as that.

DNF at 20%. Kat reminds me of my least favorite literary character of all time which made the first quarter of this book so insufferable I could not even begin to think about finishing it. She was so self centered and so self involved it just made such an unpleasant reading experience for the little bit that I did get to read.

I thought the writing was poor which made everything so much worse.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is funny, engageing, easy to relate to, really easy to read, light hearted and a great beach or summer read.

I couldn’t get with this book. This poor h was not just dealing with hard knocks, she was dealing with debilitating depression and anxiety.
Very unrealistic turn of events. Did not want to even finish this book

✨Book Review✨
Come Here Often?
By Ellie Center

I received this as an e-ARC for review and I have to say, this one was sadly a big no for me.

It was my first time reading this Author.The synopsis sounded interesting, and I thought this was going to be a cute little romantic comedy read…..but I didn’t find it funny, and I’m not sure where the romance was!?!?There was a kiss, but I’m not sure that qualifies for a book to be labeled in the romance category in my opinion.

From the beginning, the storyline was lacking, and I found it so hard to relate to the main character Kat. She was just all over the place.

I kept reading hoping it would get better, and unfortunately, it never did for me.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️/5

I want to thank @NetGalley and @Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and give my honest review on this

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. I tried so hard to get into it. I truly hated the main character and every decision she made. I couldn't even find a redeeming supporting character to help!

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

Let's just that i loved the blurb before requesting it. It was so quirky, humorous and funny.
But sadly this book didn't leave upto it and couldn't relate with the main character.

All those gyming talks throughout felt repeatative & didn't help much for the character growth.
I really liked the mental health rep, my heart went out for the mc and her distress.

There’s a line between funny and insulting. I went into this hoping it would have Ali Hazelwood- Christina Lauren- Meghan Quinn kind of vibes.

The idea of this is great. It seems pretty straight forward. You think you’re getting a scorned woman with no place to go so she’s staying in her gym until she all of a sudden bumps into the love of her life. Maybe she even gets back with her ex. That’s a good romcom no? It’s 100% what I was expecting to happen here. I guess that is on me for assuming.

Instead, right off the bat I was annoyed with the main female character. In the first 5 pages all she could talk about is how fat she feels, yet doesn’t care, yet she’s at the gym because her boyfriend also thinks she’s a slob, apparently.

When he has the nerve to end things with her, over a phone call mind you, she freaks out and can’t believe it. HONEY. He sent you to the gym. What did she expect!

There’s also a lot of stereotypical gym shaming. Again, that line between funny and insulting. You can see where that one went.

I really wanted to like this because of her Big A aka anxiety but clearly her therapy isn’t working and she should go somewhere else. Get a new dog. All the things, because this just isn’t it. Characters can be raw and real without being a repetitive Debbie downer.


Really, I’m sad because this one missed the mark for me. I feel like the cover and blurb are pretty misleading. Maybe not reaching the right target audience. I’m a huge mood reader and may have felt a little different about this one had I knew what I was getting. Though probably not. The main character is this books biggest flaw.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately after trying multiple times, I just could not get into this book. The main character just wasn’t for me, I couldn’t get past her personality and her inability to own up to her mistakes.

Hmm, this review took some thought. It started off so relatable- early 30s, never exercised, and until a couple of months ago would have agreed with Kat's pie and lattes comment of pilates. However, the rest then seemed a little far fetched. her narcissistic tendencies seemed to stretch to making at unlikeable. I didn't find the staying at the gym that believable, particularly without a proper back story. And staying in the gym without at least a hint of not being able to walk if a complete newbie to exercise also isnt believable.
I did like a storyline involving the little girl, that was powerful.
I think any books shining a light on mental health should do good, and maybe it seemed far fetched as ive never been in that position to understand it.

I’m graduating in a few weeks, and the thought of making it on my own scares the hell out of me. I also have anxiety disorder, like the main character does, so I was able to get in her head and care for her pretty easily. I felt invested in her journey throughout the book, but the ending and epilogue felt really sudden to me. I was surprised and disappointed by the way things worked out since I felt that this was a thoughtful depiction of what it’s like to live with mental illness before that point. I know this is marketed as a rom-com, but I wouldn’t classify it as one at all since the only romance is in the epilogue, which felt shoved in clumsily as an afterthought. It’s also lacking in the comedy department and is actually kind of depressing. I enjoyed a good amount of this, but people should not go into this expecting a light-hearted rom-com.