I really thought I'd love this book based on the description but it just fell a flat for me. It was decent, but I probably wouldn’t read it again. Although the concept was great, I found the characters unrealistic and their relationship forced from the start.

This rom com was jam packed with a forced proximity romance when Autumn and Elijah find themselves accidentally moving in together. Autumn was him out of her house and he wants nothing more than to get to know her. Full of witty banter, this romance was hilarious to watch blossom while something suspicious happened in the background with Autumn’s career and tragic past.

I enjoyed this book, but I wouldn’t read it again. It was a really easy, quick read and I loved the banter! I really liked the representation of long term illness/chronic condition in the main character. The plot twists to me were entirely predictable, even from the beginning of the book. So the whole time suspense was building I felt like I was just ready to move on bc I already knew what was going to happen. The final reveal and unveiling of the stalker was also unsatisfying to me.. it just seemed so Scooby Doo cliché. At points it felt like the author was trying to check all the boxes for a romance suspense novel - all boxes were checked, and in neat ways, but the flow between the boxes wasn’t there.

2.5/5 ⭐️

4🌟

Wow, I knew straight away from the get go that I was going to really enjoy this book. It’s starts so strong with such a traumatic event that it immediately hooks you.

Autumn was such a interesting character, seeing someone so motivated to achieve her goal even when she’s held back by living with chronic back pain was so lovely! She’s such a strong, independent character who has done so much on her own. However, it was nice in the end to see her have someone to lean on in Elijah. It shows that you don’t have to face everything alone even though you can.

I loved the relationship between Autumn and Elijah. If you love your enemies to lovers and a bit of forced proximity then this is the book for you! I found the tension between them so well written and it didn’t feel forced in the slightest. My only fault with this was that I wished they’d been enemies for a tad bit longer as the tension building was great!

Not only was this a great little romance book but it had a slight bit of mystery happening as well. I enjoyed having to think about who could possibly be stalking Autumn and it just added that extra bit of intrigue to this book.

Thank you @netgalley , @callaghanwriter and @ibpalovesindies for this ARC. Definitely check this book out when it releases on the 8th June!

Ms Perfectly Fine - Kate Callaghan

4🌟

Wow, I knew straight away from the get go that I was going to really enjoy this book. It’s starts so strong with such a traumatic event that it immediately hooks you.

Autumn was such a interesting character, seeing someone so motivated to achieve her goal even when she’s held back by living with chronic back pain was so lovely! She’s such a strong, independent character who has done so much on her own. However, it was nice in the end to see her have someone to lean on in Elijah. It shows that you don’t have to face everything alone even though you can.

I loved the relationship between Autumn and Elijah. If you love your enemies to lovers and a bit of forced proximity then this is the book for you! I found the tension between them so well written and it didn’t feel forced in the slightest. My only fault with this was that I wished they’d been enemies for a tad bit longer as the tension building was great!

Not only was this a great little romance book but it had a slight bit of mystery happening as well. I enjoyed having to think about who could possibly be stalking Autumn and it just added that extra bit of intrigue to this book.

Thank you @netgalley , @callaghanwriter and @ibpalovesindies for this ARC. Definitely check this book out when it releases on the 8th June!

I want to start by saying it had great representation of people with chronic pain. I have close friends who suffer and it's good to have a main character that gives them a voice.

On to the review! Full of romance and forced proximity troupes along with a good twist on the mystery storyline I happily read this book in a weekend excited to know what happened next.

My only little thing is the quickness of the relationship, but it's not uncommon to see these things in this type of book, so as I was entertained was able to ignore it.

Highly recommended!

Goodreads and StoryGraph reviews in link. There is only one link but they are the same one with just slight variations. Thank you for the book!

This book was faced paced and entertaining. Some parts felt unnecessary though. There were some grammatical errors. Also, for chapters 8, 14, and 24, there wasn't a new page for the new chapter so it just looked like a continuation of the text.

"I didn't mean to pressure you. Sometimes I forget how much you go through because you
hide it so well. If you're happy, then I'm happy." - we learn to hide behind a smile

I can't put into words how much I loved this book, this is mainly due to the representation of Chronic Pain, which isn't seen or spoke about as much as it should. Thank you Kate Callaghan for doing this. I have read other authors who have attempted do to a hidden illness or chronic pain related and I have DNF a number of times of just this aspect and how badly it was written and you can tell their was very little research, but yours definitely wasn't the case.

I am a fibromyalgia warrior and I have had it for over 5 years. I was thrilled with how it was depicted in the book - it showed how we are at a constant war with our own bodies, how Elijah accepted and took on that Autumn was in pain. Which isn't always the case, so often people say get over it or the pain is just in your head. The pain is really and if you are hit with a flare up it bloody well is painful. I loved the title of the book, the amount of times when my body is screaming in agony and if someone asks if you are ok I usually just go I'm fine as their is only so many times you can say why you hurting or what's the matter with you. Usually unless you have chronic pain yourself you can truly understand what we go through on a day to day bases.

"I dared to pull myself back from nothing and play through pain you can never even imagine?
No! Sure, everyone has their issues, but try adding a body that fights you every step of the way."

Autumn is lucky that she is able to carry on doing what she loves and has fought back after her accident and carries on playing the piano- not everyone is lucky enough to do this. Elijah is a game designer and after an unexpected house share , they have to learn to live together, even though Autumn is constantly trying to get him to leave, which makes Elijah want to stay more.

Autumn and Elijah is a slowish burn with him for falling first and fast. The romance was a bit quick, one minute they seem to be disliking each other to then falling for one another. But this was unstainable, living together in one space and then realising that one another is exactly what they each needed.

I enjoyed the mix of romance and suspense aspect to the story, what one point you thought you knew where the story was leading to and then at the end it was bam it was going in this direction.
I was also quite pleased that the person who was responsible for the roses was mentioned throughout and it wasn't just sprung upon you like some recent romance/suspense books I have read, where the culprit was mentioned once and you were expected to believe this was the person behind it all.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, as you can tell especially the chronic pain parts- giving a voice to those who don't always say anything and suffer in silence. I will definitely be reading more of Kate Callaghan work in the future.

“Whether you have emotional scars, physical ones, or both, you are worthy of being loved.”

*Thank you Netgalley for an advance copy for an honest review.

I really thought I'd love this book based on the description but it sadly just fell a little flat for me.

This story follows Autumn, a pianist with a chronic illness from an accident alongside the mental trauma and her initially unwanted room mate, elijah who is a games developer with family troubles.

Although the concept was great, I found the characters to be quite one dimensional with little substance. The romance felt quite unrealistic and forced from the start rather than naturally flowing as you would expect from a romance. This book does include LGBT representation via the main characters bestfriends. However, these characters were written in a way that felt the characters only supported the relationship between the FMC and MMC without having any other purpose than to push the characters into a relationship without even knowing them.

Overall, I'd say some people may love this book but to me, the story was just a bit too unrealistic and questionable even for a romance!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I really wanted to like this book. The cover alone had me hoping for sweet and spicy rom com and then the promise of a suspenseful secret? I was ready.

Sadly it just didn’t live up to the hype. I don’t think I’ve disliked an MMC as much as Elijah in a long time. I understand it was meant to be part of a cute banter persona but damn he seemed to lack just basic understanding of societal norms. Like maybe when you move into someone else’s home of six years without telling them you don’t put their stuff in storage and act surprised when they are mad, and maybe don’t eat their food or completely disregard their feelings over and over again.

The suspense element of the book was fine but easily guessed in the first 20% of the book so it felt like it was really dragged out.

*4.5 stars rounded up*

I adored everything about this book. There was so much to enjoy that I finished it in one day.

I enjoyed the characters Autumn and Elijah. Autumn is an absolute firecracker that’s not afraid to go head to head with Elijah, even after everything that she has gone through. Elijah is funny and witty and I fell in love with his character at the first chapter.

This book also brings in issues such as chronic illness and grief in such a respectful way. Overall, I found this book to be a perfect combination of romance and mystery. I look forward to reading more books from this author in the future.

I've never read a book by Kate Callaghan before, but when I saw the description of her newest book, I knew I had to check it out! "Ms Perfectly Fine" has a cute sounding storyline: Autumn and Elijah are two strangers forced to share an apartment when Autumn's roommate loans her room out without telling her. This book has one of my favorite tropes: Grumpy x Sunshine. However, the chemistry between the two fall flat, and the rapport between them just doesn't seem believable. I really wanted to like this book more than I did, unfortunately.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Well, this sure isn’t your normal enemies to lovers romance. Autumn and Elijah are enemies at the start, but that is by circumstance and not from a history of wrong-doings. They both have issues from their past that they must overcome, and they both must work on their issues alone. They somehow manage to work well together as they challenge each other. Then you throw in the mystery of a stalker, and this rom-com veers into the genre of suspenseful thriller. Although there is a lot to laugh along with, this story is actually pretty deep and complicated. The interplay between Autumn and Elijah is fun but also sincere. The different elements of the story are woven together flawlessly. Not exactly the light read that I expected, but it was a wonderful surprise!

This was a while story it showed just because someone might be against you you should never give up on happiness. This book was approved by netgalley and the publisher for me to read and review .

-2.5 stars-

Maybe it’s me, not the book.
When I requested this book, I saw the cute cover, and the blurb and thought “this looks pretty fun!”
It sadly didn’t live up to the cute cover.
The characters were likeable, but a little one dimensional, and we never really got enough depth from them.
Yes, it was cute—but the romance was far to rushed, and they flipped from enemies to lovers like <i>that</i>.
The banter was probably my favourite part in their relationship, but it didn’t exactly feel feasible at times.
Romcoms aren’t meant to be exactly realistic, but this was just a little too far.
The side plots were interesting, but I feel like the book needed to be longer, so not to rush them.
It was a little unnecessary, and I wonder if I would have enjoyed the book more if it was just a romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kate Callaghan for this digital ARC. all opinions are my own.

Autumn sticks to her routine in order to live her life as best she can with chronic pain, however, after a mix-up, she is left with a new housemate, Elijah. Elijah is happy to share the house with Autumn, however, she is unwilling to go along with that plan and will do anything to get him out of her home. The two are at odds but eventually, along the way, find themselves drawn to each other. Autumn is hesitant to pursue anything, but once Elijah makes it clear he is sticking around the two are inseparable.

Ms Perfectly Fine is perfectly fine but needs some fine-tuning. The writing is decent but the plot points get lost in the domesticity aspects and the pacing is rushed in places. The suspense and mystery were added in the last quarter of the book and felt like an afterthought, I also would have loved to read more about the aftermath but the book wraps up very fast.

-I received an ARC of this book in return for an honest review-

I was immediately hooked and intrigued by this book when I read the description of romance AND mystery - my two favorite genres.
I loved the characters - great chronic pain representation, resiliency, sarcasm and wit/banter, and just good humans.
I am not typically a fan of the enemies to lovers trope, but it was so perfectly developed in this book.
The only thing that fell short for me in this book was the mystery aspect. I was hoping for a bit more mystery/thriller, but it still gave the book a nice B plot.

This books was interesting, not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing haha. I downloaded solely because of the title. In my mind, it referenced T-swizzles song “Mr.perfectly fine” but Autumn was anything but perfectly fine. She just was unnecessarily rude and it really through me off how anyone could fall for that so quickly (granted that may be an unpopular opinion). But I did love the story, the realistic aspect of it, the turn of events one the grumpy x sunshine and the writing. Overall, I’ll give it a 3 and I’d definitely give this author another shot!

“Whether you have emotional scars, physical ones, or both, you are worthy of being loved.”
“He barely knew her, and yet he couldn't wait for her to get home-even if it was just to fight with her again. If that's not toxic, I don't know what is,”
“In rehab, she was known as Ms Perfectly Fine,"
Wonderfully sweet and romantic with a hint of mystery that will have you trying to grasp as much as possible from every page. That’s exactly how I felt while reading this book !!!!! Autumn and Elijah’s story was absolutely thrilling in the best possible way. She is a pianist with a chronic pain she gets after an accident when she was very young, and she lost her best friend. She is back at rehearsals but the pain is still there. Only while she is going through her very introverted like routine, a handsome man jumps through her door saying that he is going to be her roommate for the foreseeable future !!!
Enemies to lovers, forced proximity, banter and slow burn that will give you goosebumps every other chapter !!!!
While Autumn will learn how to open up with someone else, and she will be trying to figure out what’s so suspicious about her life, Elijah will be there right when she doesn’t expect him to be but right when she needs it the most. He is the sweetest human being even when he doesn’t know about her injury and chronic pain and I just started loving him very early on in this novel!!!! I’m so glad I had a chance to read this book and I can’t wait for it to be out !!!!
"You don't need to be sorry for making the right decision for yourself, not for me. I'll take only what you are willing to give."
"There is no part of you I'd ever want to avoid," he assured her. "You've no idea how much I've longed to touch and taste every inch of you. Scarred or not, it's part of you and deserves to be cherished."
"The world isn't built for those of us with chronic issues. Do we get some sympathy? Yes, but once the novelty wears off, that's it. We're told that our suffering has happened for a reason, that we are so strong and an inspiration, but it's all bullshit to make them feel better because soon, they get bored!”

Ever since her accident as a teen, Autumn has a routine and it works for her. As she prepares for her first solo performance since that tragic day, the last thing she needs is a stranger moving in and disrupting her life. Yet that's what she gets when she wakes up to Elijah moving into her home without warning. He's fascinated by her; she's exasperated by him. Antics ensue!

What I appreciated about this latest release from Kate Callaghan is that while yes it is a cozy rom com littered with our favorite tropes to love and hate, it also has a semi believable underlying plot. There's a bit of a thriller mystery to it as well that adds a more uncontrolled obstacle to their relationship.

This was another straight read through for me as I found myself invested in their relationship and what prank they would pull on each other next.

Great romance read. Loved the writing style from this author. Really hooked me in from the start and needed to know more and more.