Review: Come Here Often? by Ellie Center

 In today's society everybody seems to have anxiety, there is not a week that goes past, when I here somebody say this or that gives them anxiety and stresses them out.  I am not saying that their anxieties are not genuine,  however there are different levels of anxiety.     This novel is quite an eye opener into the world of somebody who is living with high level anxiety, and just how difficult it can be and how much it overpowers their life.

Kat's world is a little messy, her beloved support companion "Lily" a golden retriever has passed away and Kat is missing her terribly.   She has resorted to drinking excessively with her girlfriends of an evening and is getting sloppy in her performance and attitude at her workplace.  

Her long term boyfriend, Sam, of 5 years had gifted her a membership to a fancy new gym, and one day Kat decides today, is going to be the day I am going to make some changes.  She goes to the gym and registers, does a tour of the fancy gym,  which has multiple different classes, a cafe, a bar, a child care, massage rooms, swimming pool etc.   Once Kat has finished the tour, she decides to hop on the exercise book for a bit, after a brief 4 minutes she is exhausted and then her phone rings it is her work number.     Kat is terminated from her job effective immediately.     She is furious and decides to do a few more rounds on the bike, taking out her frustrations on the bike.

Kat decides to give Sam a call, tell him that she is at the Gym, as he would be proud of her, for taking the plunge.   Sam is unhappy with Kat, after a big fight they had the previous evening, and says it has been coming, and he then proceeds to break up with Kat, as he says she is not the same person she was when they were first dating. 

By now Kat is at a complete loss, and is falling apart, she does not know what to do next or how to control her emotions,  she attempts to leave the health club, but finds her anxiety is kicking in highly and she cannot force herself to take the last few steps out the front door. 

Kat decides to wander around the gym, she discovers Yummi's cafe, the bar where she orders herself some drinks.     She relaxes by their swimming pool, has a spell in their Sauna.   The gym also has massage rooms, a hairdresser and beautician, a shop that sells clothes, shoes and underwear, a child care centre.  This Gym has everything, so much in fact, you could practically live there.

I found myself getting cranky at the character Kat, at times I wanted to shake her and say come on, you can do this, and at other times I was in tears with her, feeling her pain and stress levels.   

It is extremely sad to see how she turned to alcohol in her times of needs, and the thoughts of Zanax were never out of her mind.

Kate Hanford did a great job as Narrator and make the novel, interesting and a pleasure to listen to.

This books shows us the difficulties and the strains of living with high level anxiety.   

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture Audio and Bookouture a for this advanced audio. This book is available to purchase from  May 23rd, 2022 

3 Stars: It was a good book and well-crafted. I would recommend it to the right person.

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