What It Means To Be Whole

What It Means #1

by Andrea Andersen

Beck Scott has done a lot of work on herself during her twenties. She has deconstructed her toxic religious upbringing, gained an education, found a career that she loves, and developed a close circle of chosen family.

All while dealing with hearing loss.

One thing Beck still struggles with is finding that spark in her romantic relationships. That is, until her clinic hires a new employee. Now, at 27 years old, Beck is struggling to learn how to navigate her new attraction in the workplace. Her best friend is telling her to go for it, and her grandmother is hopefully packing condoms in her bag.

Meanwhile, Beck doesn't want to get her hopes up.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Workplace Romance

364 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2023

About the author

Andrea Andersen is an author living with her little family in Southern California. Using her maladaptive daydreaming to her advantage, she likes to write stories filled with laughter and kisses. When she isn't writing love stories, she can be found rewatching her favorite TV shows or taking too many naps.

Reviews

[Brooke McLemore · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5; I loved the plot line and characters in the story, I just wish there was a bit more when it came to the interactions between the main couple.

[Candi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shoutout to BookTok for connecting me to a new writer friend. When I saw the author sharing about this book, I knew it was gonna be for me and ran to purchase.

1st person POV

Hard of hearing rep FMC 👂

Surfer MMC 🏄‍♂️

Mental health rep

Healing from religious trauma

The author did a fantastic job at describing things like smells, and sensations. It really got you immersed in the scenes. One of my favorites was “I felt a prickle of anxiety start to race down my spine” and “my pulse was racing with anticipation” - really made you feel it, chefs kiss, beautiful writing ✍️

The friendships and side characters felt so genuine and developed, the “Oklahoma” made me like aww 🥺 and Gram was so cute! 🥰

Love the build of ✨tension ✨
The chopsticks 🥢 love to see it

Slowwww burn 🔥
Like no kiss until 2/3 slow burn (but ie the tension 👆🏽it was worth the wait)

“This okay?” - consent kings, we love to see it.

We now stan Adam as a book boyfriend in this house, the Henley, the vasectomy, how enthusiastic he was IYKYK, “tell me what you like” 🥵

I also loved the length at 314 pages, 300 pages is the perfect length for a romance for me personally, feels like I can fly through it at that pace.

Formatting was also beautiful

5 stars! Can’t wait for Courtney’s story!!!

[Ash F · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book!

The themes in this book are so evident and so well done.
- Her relationship with distancing herself from her strict religious upbringing and learning to love herself for being her.
- Her dealings with hearing loss and the use of aids don't stop her from reaching her goals and working in an amazing facility to help kids with their speech.
- The clear feminist values of supporting women.
- The support that is given in times of being mentally unwell.
There is so much love and support in this story.

Some other fun little things I loved:
First off, the friendship Beck, Court, and Taylor have is just wonderful and I love them all so much.
Second, Gram is seriously so supportive of Beck and everyone deserves a person in their life like Gram.
Third, A (slightly) MYSTERIOUS BEAUTIFUL TATTOOED MAN WHO SHOWS UP AT WORK?? WHO IS QUIET AND HAS A HEART OF GOLD????
Say less. You've got me hooked.

10/10 this was a quick fast paced book and I read the entirety of it in a day!

[carody franklin ツ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely fantastic! I will be recommending it to all of my book loving pals. This story was well written and very enjoyable. I found myself having a hard time putting it down. I think I shushed my fiancé a few times while reading.. lol!

While I do not come from a religious background, I have always found it so interesting how other people feel about Beck’s situation. I am so happy that Beck had such a supportive and loving friend and grandmother to have her back and love her unconditionally. I appreciated Beck and Courtney’s friendship, it reminded me a lot of me and my best friend. And that is something I hope everyone finds in their lifetime.

The love story between Beck and Adam might be one of my favorites that I have read this year! I love that it was built on friendship first, even though they obviously both had crushes, and they went from there. I found myself gripping the book at times while putting myself in the characters shoes, oops!

Halfway through the book I purchased her second book in this series. I cannot wait for it to arrive!

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

The deconstruction, the representation, the TENSION.

[Gabriella · Rating 3 out of 5]

OVERALL RATING: 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler free!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I found it to be a really sweet and unique romantic comedy. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, but there were a few notable cons in the story.

I absolutely loved our protagonist. Beck had such a unique backstory that I loved getting to learn about. How many times do we come across a hard of hearing protagonist with a super religious family? I was very into it. Her anxiety and how she responds to having a crush is super relatable and very endearing. We’ve all wanted to run away like how she did after embarrassing ourselves in front of a crush. She is very easy to like and I enjoyed reading about her.

Then we have the love interest, Adam. He’s tall, sexy, and quiet. He’s the quiet male love interest that we see in all romances, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love to read about them. I wouldn’t call him unique from any other rom com love interest, but he was still likable. The chemistry between him and Beck took time to pick up, but I was really into them by the end.

Of course, there’s the spice. I was very into it. I thought it was fun, captivating, and very steamy. Overall, very well written.

The plot was good, but really fell off at the end. I liked watching Beck and Adam’s relationship develop in a way that was funny and made sense for the characters. Without spoiling, I thought that we were getting the build up to the climax only to find out that WAS the climax. It felt kind of weak and had no relevance to Beck’s love story with Adam.

I am all for inserting hot takes into the story to make progressive views relevant to a story. That being said, they were overdone. I felt like half the time, they were put in very seamlessly and made sense to be brought up. Other times, they felt forced and took away from the moment.

Overall, this was a very cute story that many rom com lovers can enjoy. Beck really stood out as a protagonist and I thoroughly enjoyed the spice. Yes, Adam was typical, but he’s the love interest that rom com lovers keep buying books for because we keep enjoying them. I really liked the first three-fourths of the plot, and the last quarter felt anticlimactic for what I expected based on the set up. That being said, if you like lovable characters will lower stakes, it’s definitely worth the read!

[Sami✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book for an honest review.

Rating: 3.5/5

I thought that this book had a great plot and storyline that followed the life of our female main character, Beck, who also happens to be a FMC with a disability which is quite refreshing. It is not common to come across romance novels or novels in general where the main character has a disability. Especially a disability where her family seemingly denies or overlooks it considering their lack of ASL knowledge.

The characters were charming, especially Taylor who happens to be the first non-binary character I have encountered in a book. Although, some were simply not my cup of tea and felt a bit more of a YA book than an adult romance novel. Specifically the very explicit and common mention of sex toys and the way the characters spoke to one another at times.

Personally, I thought that the insertion of feminism was great, and how Adam was a known and very outspoken feminist. However, it at some points got a bit overwhelming for me and just caught me off guard because of the moments he would mention it. It just felt out of place sometimes. I just have a harder time reading books that have an agenda to it which is the feeling I got from this.

The one character I had a problem with was Courtney. She just is a contradictory friend and obnoxious character. What got me was how she was teasing Beck for liking Adam and was telling her to go for him, then seemingly switched sides and was warning her about dating your co-worker. Also, I felt as though she mentioned intimate topics a bit more than my liking which made her unlike able in my opinion, as well as the fact that she just appeared to tease Beck a lot.

Overall, I did enjoy reading this book despite the few things that did not click with me.

I will add it was quite a weird feeling to read about a story that took place in my childhood hometown of south Orange County. Never thought I’d see a mention of Irvine or Lake Forest in a book ever.

[Mella aka Maron]

DNF at 17%.

This book is a LOT of telling and not showing. It also feels like it’s… got an agenda - telling me how “woke” her grandma is even being born in 1947, giving me soooo much sexual talk between the girls before I even have a chance to get to know them: from vibrators to asexuality talks to the FMC literally saying “I’m normal because I finally found someone I’m attracted to on first sight!!!” Ummm there’s nothing wrong with an asexual / demisexual person and they never fall in attraction at first sight. “What if I never feel attraction at first sight again?! 😭” ummmm 🤨

Also, I admit it’s partially me being a tiny bit triggered that there’s a lot of work talk with her as a speech therapist for nonverbal under 3yo kids. And that’s me not really being ready for reading about that yet - I’ve had good experiences and bad experiences with therapists for my own kid sooooo yeah. Not for me.

[Bookish Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

“'I really like you.’
‘Oh—thank fuck!’ Adam exhaled with a small smile...
‘Yeah, I—wait, what?’ I asked, smiling at his sudden relief...
Adam continued speaking into the safety of my skin, ‘I thought you were going to say something like, ‘We shouldn’t be doing this’ or ‘This was a mistake’. I would have died.’”

🌊
I have to hand it to Andrea, she truly created a one-of-a-kind world with her debut novel and series. I just can’t get enough. Not only does she represent typically underrepresented communities (like the deaf/hard of hearing community, the non-binary community, and the feminist male community), but she approaches these characters in realistic and beautiful ways. Her world is where characters are beautifully flawed, loved, and accepted by those closest to them. However, there's still plenty of tension between difficult parents who only see the world through a narrow scope, secret slow-burn pining that makes you want to throw the book across the room while at the same time knowing you would wrestle anyone who dared interrupt your reading because you simply can’t part with these characters for something so trivial as sleep or a conversation with a real human.

I also felt like the disability representation, while distinctive in the contemporary romance space, was approached with care and understanding to give the reader education and make them feel compassion. Have you ever seen a Dan Fogelman project (like his popular television series This Is Us)? Andrea’s characters are like Dan’s. They aren’t just one thing. Beck isn’t just hard of hearing. She’s complex: she’s confident, yet totally nervous around her crush, smart, compassionate, and brave (even if she’s scared to be). Adam isn’t just the shy, hot love interest in this story. He battles depression, bears the weight of others’ expectations, and is an unapologetic feminist. Life is never about one thing. We are constantly pulled in a million different directions and rarely, if ever, do our anxieties wait for us to have our shit together before they decided to crash the party.

Mixing in her special New Girl/Schitt’s Creek brand of comedy, Andrea gives us an entertaining story while commenting on inequalities and double-standards in our society. But we are also treated to quirky and memorable characters that everyone can relate to or can someone in their life to. Intimacy was approached realistically (even somewhat hilariously) while still delivering the spice adding to the overall comedic and quirky nature of the entire cast of characters to make this a very entertaining read. I am such a fan of this author and I can’t wait for more people to discover her incredibly uplifting, embarrassing, funny, and one-of-a-kind world. Don't sleep on this author or series!

"'You don’t feel like your other half is out there somewhere?' Eloise pressed... 'We are all complete, individual people. There isn’t another half of us floating around out there, waiting to meet us, so that we can somehow become fulfilled... find someone who can elevate your life. Who can hold your hand along the way... I just think that the idea of needing someone is desperate and doomed to fail, whereas wanting someone is thoughtful and generally lasting.'"

[Lianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked (and appreciated!) some parts of this book. The emphasis on female empowerment, consensual relationships, honoring pronouns, accepting differences, and mental health were SO refreshing in a light romance novel. I thought the relationship was very cute and sweet. I also loved the chosen family that comes together and how much they all support and love each other in different ways.

I thought that the writing of the story felt a little bit 'tell not show' at some points and the characters acted and seemed much younger than their ages in the story. I think part of that was intentional in that the MC was inexperienced and new to dating and relationships but sometimes it took me out of the story because it didn't quite fit for me.

Overall, the story kept me intrigued and I flew through it which is a sign, for me, of a good read. I am hopeful Andrea continues writing and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

[Katharine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first intro into a purely romance novel, usually I go for fantasy/romance. Let me just say that it did not disappoint! The steamy tension is so hot that it led to me binge reading the book! Also there aren’t many books that make me laugh out loud while reading them, but this one did several times.

But what makes this book stand out in this genre is the author's refusal to play into the stereotypical tropes of romantic relationships. It has an abundance of healthy communication that makes it a great role model for what we should be trying to achieve in real life.

What It Means To Be Whole hits home over and over again so be prepared for feeling lots of emotions! I know quite a few friends who are going through similar life difficulties to what is portrayed in this book and I think it could be very valuable for them to read. I will definitely be recommending this book and I can't wait to read more from this author!

[Lani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mental illness rep
Workplace romance
Hearing loss/ASL rep
Religious deconstruction/trauma
Friends to lovers but instant attraction

Some parts felt a bit slow for me but that’s probably because Beck & Adam took FOREVER to make their move. However, I really enjoyed what it means to be whole! The portrayal of overcoming a very religious upbringing felt incredibly authentic and relatable. I loved the way the author handled several things that I feel like most of us can relate to or have been through.

I loved the characters; they all felt super relatable and their relationships with each other were positive and exactly what you would want in a friendship. Courtney ended up stealing the show for me in this book though. Her goofiness had me dying.

Andrea Andersen is definitely my go to author for when I want a feel good, feminist, and positive read.

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tbh, this is the first romance book I’ve ever read. The romance in this book is so good. But beyond that, the more I read of this book, the further I was pulled into this world and the more I was invested in the lives of the characters. This story was such a stunning example of all of the things that should be common in life: healthy boundaries, living without shame, success of women without men if they choose to, confronting your trauma, self-confidence, healthy relationship communication, and taking action to show those you love that you care about them. Not to mention the phenomenal representation of male vulnerability. I was absolutely rocked by this story.
I can’t wait to read the next one!

[Kiann Maranville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beck’s story is akin to my own when it comes to deconstructing religion and growing up outside of it - it was written so well and really digs into what it’s like to learn how to live a different life than you were raised in. Beck & Adam’s relationship was a very slow burn until it wasn’t, and you have to love what brings them close (even though poor Adam didn’t deserve to go through what he did to tackle Beck). Seeing Beck’s friendships, romantic relationship, and self grow through the book was great. Will definitely read again!

[Alaina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was this a romance or a book about feminism, electric vehicles, LGBTQ+ rep, "wokeness" (literally FMC described her grandmother as woke), or men's responsibility for birth control via vasectomy (I'm sorry...in your mid 20s?).

I mean I get there are issues...but when I read a romance it's partly to get away from the issues of the world. I definitely wanted more romance and less grandstanding.

Also, I reported quite a few grammatical errors in this book: it should be "pec" for pectoral (not peck), and there was a break/brake mixup at one point as well. Overall just not very clean.

[Kaely Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a truly enjoyable read. There was some exposition that felt a little forced, but otherwise the book flowed really nicely. It has the perfect amount of buildup to make the conclusion satisfying and the depiction of recovering from a hyper religious upbringing felt very honest and relatable. This book makes you feel better about the world with its feminist and sex positive portrayal of romance.

[Sum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid 3/5⭐

I love the premise, the representation, the plot. it's very refreshing.


But to the author, if you ever come across the chance to re-print, or publish a second book, PLEASE hire a professional editor. I pushed through the countless grammatical and punctuation errors because I wanted to love the writing as much as the idea, but it was difficult with the amount of errors.

With proper editing and revision, it has potential for a 4 or 5 star.

[Elizabeth DeSalvo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute Perfection!!!!!
Adam had me drooling. Tattooed feminist man, asking what Beck likes in bed and my heart broke when they were on the rope course.
Gran and Court are so supportive with the help of Taylor.
I wish I could slap her parents faces.
Slow burn and first kiss 2/3 of the way in was so worth the wait. Laughed and smiled a lot throughout the story and it started with an accidental sack tap.
Can't wait for Courtney's story and will be pre-ordering it soon.

[Yara Gharios · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved it!

I didn’t put this book down until I was done, and I must say I really enjoyed it! I loved the representation of a deaf character and the FMC and her friends are so fun! My only hangups were some pacing issues in the third act but also I wasn’t as into the MMC as I hoped to be. Overall though, a great read, and I highly recommend it!

[Cecelia🐈‍⬛ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a 2.5🌟 for me. I think personally I needed dual POV to really feel their connection. I did enjoy both characters even if it was only from Beck’s POV but it still fell flat for me. I wish I would have seen more of Adam & Beck’s interactions and getting to know each other. Loved gram, Courtney & taylor absolutely great side characters and stoked to read about Courtney in the next book!

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I am in love with the reality of you."

I really have to stop deleting TikToks that make me add books to my tbr, because I have no idea what made me put this on there. Like, Adam is adorable ... adorable! but I lost interest in trying to invest in Beck when she complained that her hourglass figure made pants too hard to buy.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was awesome, and a debut?! I loved the found family and relationship Beck has with Courtney and her grandma. I loved that the book talked about how supportive Court et was in helping Beck process and deconstruct her toxic upbringing, and that we got to see our characters in their work environment. I also love disability rep in stories. The relationship between Beck and Adam was ❤️

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow.

I read two of this authors books and didn’t realize I was going backwards! I love to see where Taylor started from.

But wow. These characters were just so amazing and sweet. The burn is incredibly slow and it was a bit frustrating to get there as Beck was very much in her head … but wow. Adam was worth the wait.

I literally read this in an afternoon!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun story and great characters. I love the hip granny. She’s a lot of fun.
Several issues are addressed and handled well. They resonated with me in my life experiences.
I recommend this fun, light read!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A welcome cozy read

I saw a video by the author on TikTok and had to find this series. I loved it! I needed a break from epic romantacy series and this fit the bill. Likeable, flawed humans living life and falling in love. CA t wait to continue!

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this. it was cute and heartfelt. wasn’t incredibly spicy but i enjoyed the building of the friendship/relationship more. it’s been a lite read before bed and when i needed to kill some time.

[_ale_ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful story that depicts the process of falling in love and the confusing feelings that come with it. Really wholesome (the first real, healthy relationship i‘ve ever read about in a book where the couple is mature and communicates). can only recommend this treasure.

[Lee Tent · Rating 5 out of 5]

😁👍🏼

Really enjoyed this story! Great to have a late 20s FMC, the deconstructed Christian past was eating me for filth!!! Love that Beck found a happy, healthy, not perfect, but growing life, and meeting Adam is the cherry on top!

[Haley Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun, cute read! So many lovable characters, spicy scenes, and overall good vibes 😍

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun and unique read. I loved it!