witchbuns

Elsie Palmer, 2025

5 Stars for Perfect Chaos

The burn on this is slow and sizzling. I want to restart this book and re-read it for the second of many times, and it’s five stars because I can’t wait to share it with friends, especially those who are new or reluctant to Romance. This is the reason I read this genre, this is the reason I want to write, and this is true talent from one of the best. Initially I was nervous that I wouldn’t love Charley because we see her Type A personality with full rigidity and a toxic relationship to work, but she unspools when Ethan comes into the story (which is quick, maybe chapter 2?) and we see her in relation to him and it’s play, play, play. 

I was impressed with the flashbacks because they were fully additive to the story and the letters between them as high schoolers were hilarious. Laurel and Petey as secondary characters were also a riot which really pushed this book over the edge for me into a must-read. I was nervous for how the third act would break their relationship but Ellie Palmer made me understand how Charley was scared. Let’s be real, there are abundant handfuls of romance books where the Type A female can’t unbutton her cardigan and seize the day with a long-haired hunk (usually brown-haired) but this isn’t really that book. For me the big differentiator of how this story plays out is that Ethan was sort of a mess, and we see why Charley doesn’t trust him and hasn’t built confidence in their relationship. He comes at her full-speed with wooing and telling her how much he cares, but he doesn’t explain his absence and he doesn’t give her proof and background as to why she can trust him. For example, he makes her the fish dinner but he doesn’t explain to her why he’s making the dish, the care and time he took to cultivate the ingredients, and what he expects from her. Instead, he just makes it look easy, effortless, and that doesn’t give Charley confidence or even proof that he cares. She doesn’t want easy; their relationship is alrady easy as friends. To be lovers, she needs proof that he’s caring and changing and being devoted. I love these choices that Ellie Palmer made and how the end and epilogue is also a bit messy and above all, comfy and lived in. 

Ellie Palmer is a must-read and now one of my favourite authors. Four Weekends and a Funeral was one the best books I read last year. I want to own them both, if only to share with my friends.