October 18th, 2026
Home | Log in!
❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
Welcome to FreshFiction

Are you a reader
or an author?

Help us personalize your experience. Choose your role below.
You can always change this later using the switcher button.

or

You can switch anytime using the floating button.

Limited Time Fresh Fiction Access

Exclusive Marketing Opportunities for Authors

Curious about how Fresh Access helps authors gain more visibility and connect with active readers?

Discover premium promotional opportunities, enhanced exposure, and author-focused services designed to help your books stand out.

Read More →
On Top Shelf
📚 New Books This Week 📰 Latest News 🎪 Reader Games 👻 🎃 Halloween Contest Giveaways 🎃

October Reads Worth Falling For

Danger, desire, second chances, and unexpected romanceβ€”discover this month’s Fresh Fiction Featured Books.

Slideshow image


slideshow image
A poisoned cousin, a five-year-old's life, and a family with too many secrets.


slideshow image
Supernatural sparks fly
between a bookseller
& her hard-boiled ghost.


slideshow image
If Her Highness thinks I’ll let another man claim her and my child, she’s lost her royal mind. Sophaya’s mine.


slideshow image
She found a body. Then she started asking the wrong questions.


slideshow image
He ghosted her ten years ago. Now she’s stuck with him for Christmas.


slideshow image
She’s the lady everyone overlooks. He’s the prince who can’t look away.

This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith

Purchase

Add to Wish List


Also by Leesa Cross-Smith:

As You Wish, July 2025
Paperback / e-Book
Goodbye Earl, July 2023
Hardcover / e-Book
Half-Blown Rose, April 2023
Paperback / e-Book
Half-Blown Rose, July 2022
Hardcover / e-Book
This Close to Okay, April 2022
Paperback / e-Book (reprint)
This Close to Okay, February 2021
Hardcover / e-Book
So We Can Glow, March 2020
Hardcover / e-Book

THIS CLOSE TO OKAY
By: Leesa Cross-Smith

Grand Central Publishing
April 2022
On Sale: April 12, 2022
Featuring: Tallie; Emmett
320 pages
ISBN: 1538715368
EAN: 9781538715369
Kindle: B089SPDTP6
Paperback / e-Book (reprint)
Add to Wish List

Other Editions
Hardcover (February 2021)

Multicultural African-American | Women's Fiction Southern

On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing at the edge of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett. 

Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. What she doesn’t realize is that Emmett isn’t the only one who needs healing—and they both are harboring secrets.