This is a short, light and enjoyable read. Its about undergoing lots of stress a young adult in college, being a senior in college, having a crush in her professor, writing a blog which only have one follower, father issues and achieving her goals. One may relate to one of her dilemmas which make it appealing to the readers. 

I voluntarily reviewed a copy that was given to me by YA Bound Book Tours.

http://muretbookworm.wordpress.com

Millie is a college senior. While everyone around her seems to know what they want to do with their lives, Millie is consumed by fear and anxiety. She harbors a secret desire to be a science fiction author and even has a blog devoted to the genre, but she's too scared to do anything about it. Her only female friends are her mother and her roommate Fran, who has just abandoned her to move in with her sister. But Millie does have a lot of guys in her life: her friend Mike; Sam, the set designer who seems to have designs on her; Trent, an English exchange student she meets via a dating app but hasn't actually met yet; the mysterious danish_cupcake who always comments on her blog posts; hot Professor Rodney; Dustin, who asks her for help with a writing assignment; her favorite sci-fi author, Luke Danielson; her Grandpa, who is more like a father to her; and last, but not least, Walter, her estranged father, who is trying to reconnect with her after abandoning her when she was two.

I really wanted to like this book, but I never quite connected with Millie. She has absolutely no self-confidence, even though she has so many guys interested in her. I also found it a bit hard to reconcile her shyness and anxiety with her willingness to perform onstage in a musical theater production. Her own mother is a nurse and can't even spot Millie's anxiety. It also feels like things become too normal too quickly after Millie is put on medication. As for the writing, there is too much telling, not enough showing, and constant over-explaining. There are also numerous editing and formatting errors in the version I read. Finally, Sam is such a sweetheart, but I don't understand why he wouldn't kiss Millie, even given his explanation. If you can overlook these faults, this is a quick, fun read - even given the serious issues of mental health and parental abandonment.

Warning: coarse language. Even though this book is technically in the new adult genre, there is no sex.

I received this book in return for an honest review.

Full blog post (18 March): https://booksdirectonline.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-fantastic-mess-of-everything-by-beck-medina.html

The first several pages with learning about Millie and Fran were good. Solid introduction to their dynamics, history, and personalities.

Shortly after boys are introduced it becomes readily clear that Millie is much more attractive than she thinks. While that trope is mildly annoying, it hurt worse this time around because I was convinced Millie was one of us regular people.

Nope. She may not be the goddess of beauty, but she's still on Mt. Olympus. Millie doesn't see it though because of low self-esteem and anxiety disorder while best friends with Fran the Star.
She's a rom-com protagonist who needs to get her shit together. Anxiety depiction is spot on, and love the positive medication rep. I'm on Buspirone now and have taken it as a stand-alone pill. It’s like the starter anxiety med. I've never been numbed but it's highly variable from person to person.

So, don’t take this as the end-all be-all. It doesn’t mean it’ll make you numb or whatever nor does that mean it affects those around you in the same way. Keep in mind, the “numb” sensation was just after she started taking it to describe not having a panic reaction when faced with triggers and she’s clearly not a zombie on it.

The flip side is it’s not a cure. She’s still an anxious person with an anxiety disorder and she has her psychological hang ups to work through. But it helps her manage and cope, which is great to see.

Millie’s feelings towards her father is understandable and I was screaming right along with her. The relationship with Dude on the other hand…boy, that played me. The ending was adorably sweet and solidifies what I said earlier about Millie’s looks.

These are all New Adult age characters but there's no steam sex scenes. It's a slow, romantic, and cute type romance. I think the comparison to Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl is a good one.

Given the social issues included it’s weird saying it’s “light and fun” but…it kinda is. It’s a feel good contemporary romance where love doesn’t save the girl, she faces her issues and gets the help she needs.

4 Stars, besides the rough beginning with Millie the Whiney Clueless Goddess where things didn’t seem so bad and all the boys are crushing on her. I came to go “OHHHH” and things got better. A+ mental health representation.

I initially thought this book was going to get a very low rating. Within the first 2 chapters I had found 3 obvious grammar mistakes that someone should have caught. But as I kept reading I discovered I really did like the story. It made me smile and laugh at times and I could feel Millie's embarrassment and pain at others. I would just suggest having someone proof read it before any new editions come out.

The first several pages with learning about Millie and Fran were good. Solid introduction to their dynamics, history, and personalities.

Shortly after boys are introduced it becomes readily clear that Millie is much more attractive than she thinks. While that trope is mildly annoying, it hurt worse this time around because I was convinced Millie was one of us regular people.

Nope. She may not be the goddess of beauty, but she's still on Mt. Olympus. Millie doesn't see it though because of low self-esteem and anxiety disorder while best friends with Fran the Star.
She's a rom-com protagonist who needs to get her shit together. Anxiety depiction is spot on, and love the positive medication rep. I'm on Buspirone now and have taken it as a stand-alone pill. It’s like the starter anxiety med. I've never been numbed but it's highly variable from person to person.

So, don’t take this as the end-all be-all. It doesn’t mean it’ll make you numb or whatever nor does that mean it affects those around you in the same way. Keep in mind, the “numb” sensation was just after she started taking it to describe not having a panic reaction when faced with triggers and she’s clearly not a zombie on it.

The flip side is it’s not a cure. She’s still an anxious person with an anxiety disorder and she has her psychological hang ups to work through. But it helps her manage and cope, which is great to see.

Millie’s feelings towards her father is understandable and I was screaming right along with her. The relationship with Dude on the other hand…boy, that played me. The ending was adorably sweet and solidifies what I said earlier about Millie’s looks.

These are all New Adult age characters but there's no steam sex scenes. It's a slow, romantic, and cute type romance. I think the comparison to Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl is a good one.

Given the social issues included it’s weird saying it’s “light and fun” but…it kinda is. It’s a feel good contemporary romance where love doesn’t save the girl, she faces her issues and gets the help she needs.

4 Stars, besides the rough beginning with Millie the Whiney Clueless Goddess where things didn’t seem so bad and all the boys are crushing on her. I came to go “OHHHH” and things got better. A+ mental health representation.

Find my full review at https://spinesinaline.wordpress.com I received a copy of this book from Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book! I think I was able to enjoy it more because I'm so close in age with the main character and we're both coming up on the end of our undergrad degrees (yikes!).

The characters and dialogue are really well-written so that they come off very natural. At some points it is a little awkward, but the characters are awkward so it’s something that is worked in to the story rather than making it stand at odds. The author embraces the awkwardness and that also helps make it that much more realistic!

Looking forward to more from this author!

I wanted to like this book... the reviews and comments on here gave me great hope for it.

The thing is, this is clearly an early work for Medina. And all writers are going to have early works... we grow from somewhere. But some of those earlier works are just that early... not ready for the reading of the masses. It doesn't mean the idea was bad or that the writer sharing should stop writing... but this one only gives a small glimpse of what could be.

I could not finish this book because it needed more editing and polishing. After getting through 30% through it was a jumbled mess... while the setting and ages of the characters make this a NA, the voices of the characters read more like a MG book.

Overall I have great hope though for future books from Medina just hope that more time is spent on editing and polishing.

***I received a copy of this book for a book tour and an honest review.