COMING SUMMER 2026
Perfect Enough:
A Memoir
Meet Kelli
Kelli M. Castillo is the author of Perfect Enough, a memoir about motherhood, perfectionism, and the long, uncomfortable work of becoming someone new.
Before becoming a stay-at-home mother, Kelli owned and ran a successful marketing business, a background that shaped both her certainty that she could handle anything and her shock when she couldn't. When her older son was diagnosed on the autism spectrum, Kelli discovered that the hardest part wasn't learning to parent differently: it was confronting who she was when competence wasn't enough, and what was left when the systems she'd relied on her whole life finally failed her.
She lives in Northern California with her husband and is the mother of two adult sons. When she's not writing she can be found trash texting her youngest about sports, driving across town with leftovers for her oldest whether he asked for them or not, and lovingly annoying her husband as any good wife should.
She is currently working on her second memoir.
Between Chapters
The Book
Perfect Enough is a memoir about a woman who believed competence could solve anything and what happened when life proved her wrong.
A driven former business owner, Kelli entered motherhood certain that preparation, discipline, and effort would be enough. But when her first son doesn’t respond to routines, rules, or reassurance—and is later diagnosed on the autism spectrum—her carefully constructed sense of self begins to unravel.
What follows is not a parenting manual, but a deeply personal story of female growth: confronting perfectionism, navigating postpartum depression, reckoning with identity loss, and learning to loosen control without losing purpose. Spanning more than two decades, Perfect Enough explores how motherhood became the catalyst for one woman’s transformation forcing her to redefine success, strength, and what it means to be enough.
Honest, compassionate, and quietly funny, Perfect Enough is for women who have done everything “right” and still found themselves needing to become someone new.
Get in Touch with Kelli
I love chatting with Book Clubs, Libraries, and Community Groups. If you’d like to discuss “Perfect Enough” or have me speak at your next event, please reach out!