I finished this a month ago. And I have no words for this book. Honestly. It is not only extremely offensive, it’s harmful. It’s underwritten. It’s underdeveloped. It’s fast paced at times but with unclear timelines. It is EXTREMELY triggering for Black people to read. And yet. And yet…..

Is the point of the book to show the fallacy of youth? To highlight that when we are young it’s easy to be taken by lust and good looks and gloss over the gas lighting, violence, and racism? Is it to show that everyone’s internal understanding of “fine” is different? Or that white mens belief that Trump’s racism and white supremacist rhetoric is not actually “that bad” and “everything will be fine” is harmful and scary and makes Black people question their every move? Is it about what actually makes someone Black, and what it means to “find” or “understand” your Blackness?

If it’s any of those things then this book completely misses the mark. Because none of that depth discussed above is actually in the book. Jess doesn’t change. She’s still a Black woman struggling to make it in a white world, while continually trying to separate herself from other Black people, including her family. Jess is part of the problem, but I don’t think she ever actually see it that way.

If it was about any of those topics or questions above, this book would’ve been a 5 star. But it never got there far. Never took a chance. Hides behind this “enemies to lovers” bullshit that’s actually harmful.

I wanted to enjoy this. I actually devoured it and read it so quickly. But it rarely goes deeper than the surface and ultimately could be a book where white folks can read it, feel good about themselves and say, “well Atleast I’m not Josh”. And that is going to be so harmful to Black folks.

This book was great! I couldn't put it down! The premise was fresh and new, which is hard for me to say as I read so much each year! Sometimes it feels as though I keep reading similar stories, but this was a so original!

This book captures a brief time in history when people thought they could vote for Trump and not be racist. This book captures the experience of a Black woman who grew up surrounded by whiteness. She had no reflection of herself; not even in her own home. This is a woman who had to adapt to whiteness to navigate her adolescence. She fell for white boys because that was who was around her. She had no examples showing her that she was beautiful or enough as she was. Jess’ comes from the childhood trauma of losing her mother with no outlet for her grief. As she gets older she follows the same crumbs of whiteness into jobs where she is “othered”. In her friendships she is “other”. In her relationship with Josh she battles between a sense of belonging and otherness. She is an example of how we can be complicit in our own oppression. At times, the protagonist uses whiteness to punish herself. The book leaves us with more question than answers. It is intriguing throughout. It is a catalyst for conversations about bias, complicity, racism, capitalism and relationships. Ultimately, the book is about the search for one’s true North when they have no compass..The ending is ambiguous and wonderfully dark.

This sure was....something. I devoured this in a day and i have several conflicting feelings. I think the author did make me think; i really had ot dig to understand Jess' mindset, and her decision making. I truly do love a messy main character and Jess was that for sure. I think she was real in teh way she was constantly questioning her moral judgment and if it aligned with her lived reality. I wish that her friends had been more fleshed out as characters, and I really would have loved to hear more about her Dad. Ultimately, Josh does fine as a character. He serves a clear purpose and if I can say there's one thing I appreciate about his character, is that he is disgustingly consistent. Overall, this book was definitely written to spark controversy, and it does that clearly. I tried my best to not let my judgment be clouded by the (well-deserved) controversy and criticism.

I don't think the author intended this to be some meta piece that is self aware. I think it's an unfortunate story that probably reflects some parts of reality for many readers. I can see why people don't understand her character, but I'm able to pick up bits and pieces where she feels like a real person and not just a flat mess of a woman.

Overall, i would be intrigued to see more of this authors process into this writing, especially if this is a self-insert piece. I want to recommend it if you want to get out of a reading slump, and to stoke that inner critical reader.

*i received this publication as an Advanced Reader Copy, all opinions are my own*

Oh wow, how do I express how real and true this book is. How often as a Black woman having grown up in an all white environment you life trying to adjust to the racist remarks and interactions, the bias responses and treatment. yet the life you're accustomed to can appear to contradict the very argument you're trying to enlighten people with. You do feel like a hypocrite. You do feel woefully unaccepted... and unacceptable. This book is spot on!!! I mean SPOT ON! It ended and I wanted to read more about how they both were evolving because you do see the growth in the pair. It's a great read!!!

I received an ARC from S&S/Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ever since I’ve heard about the book, I was curious to see how the author would handle tackling a romance/relationship between a liberal black woman and a conservative/Republican white man. I think, for me, it was hard to suspend my beliefs to believe two people who were complete polar opposites (and had different fundamental ideologies) could even fall for each other, let alone maintain a relationship for more than a few weeks at best.

Jess has to either be super delusional, blind, or willingly chose to ignore Josh’s problematic and terrible takes (along with his racism) because she willingly got into a relationship with him knowing his racist, dismissive and awful takes from college, and was then surprised when (to no one’s freaking surprise, but hers) when he continues to spout and believe the same things. So her “I thought you changed!” comment in the third arc breakup/fight came off super ingenious and flat because never once had I ever gotten the impression he’s changed.

Jess has made a loooot of poor judgments throughout the book that it was hard to sympathize with her at times (not finding another job, running out of money with rent and student loans draining her savings and still going out to eat/etc to keep up with her rich friends, not telling her dad she’s jobless so she could have insurance, not telling someone she’s allergic to strawberries).

Honestly, I found myself agreeing with her friends when they ask her why she’s even with him. They didn’t have the same fundamental beliefs, and I honestly thought they were poorly suited for each other before they got together, wasn’t sure what Jess even saw in him, their chemistry was nonexistent, and I thought their relationship was flimsy at best that it never once felt like an epic romance of star-crossed lovers whose love needs to endure the obstacles that is the mid-2010s political climate. (Like the book even explicitly stated these two would dodge a lot of topics because ~love~).

As a woman of color, I don’t think this book was written with BIPOC as the target audience. I’m not sure who the target audience is, but it’s def not us.

I think this book is plane on racist. Why would you write this? There is absolutely no excuse for this book to exist.

This was a super fun read! It intertwined a lot of the racial and political thoughts of today without being completely one sided. It was fast pace and easy to read- I definitely was curious the entire way through!

Thanks to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t know what to think about this book at first. It reads like a romance novel, written in punchy present tense and filled with sweet moments. But behind those moments was such a looming sense of dread. No matter how well things were going, the other shoe might drop at any minute.

Jess is smart — like, math-major-who-gets-a-job-at-Goldman-Sachs-out-of-college smart — but somehow that is never enough, because she is Black. She struggles to do her job well in the face of micro-aggressions and racist assumptions, and finds herself working with a racist former classmate with whom she argued politics in a class about critical thinking.

He has changed, grown, read about racial issues, and suddenly he is her only friend at work. It’s honestly very sweet and romantic — don’t we all want an introspective partner who continually develops as a person?

We watch their romance unfold, but behind it is such fear and uncertainty. What will he say when the office bros joke about affirmative action? Why does he think he grew up poor when he went to private schools in Greenwich, Connecticut? Worst of all, what happens when Trump is the Republican nominee?

Reading Everything’s Fine felt like scrolling through social media, cringing at the bad news about anti-trans laws or seeing another incidence of racial violence. It was somehow both so quotidian and so disturbing.

I appreciated this particular point of view, seeing Jess experience all the grey areas of real life, never knowing who her real friends were, or if her boyfriend could love her or see her as she really was.

This book made me think about what it really means to be known, how much we tolerate, and whether it can ever be worth it.

I give it 9/10 stars and recommend it to people who are ready to examine their own views, assumptions, and relationships.

Good debut book with a deeper undercurrent of current day issues. Overall I enjoyed, however I feel like the marketing was somewhat off for the story itself. Book was definitely not what I was expecting based on the blurb. Overall I think the writing was good and the sort was both funny and endearing.

I had seen lots of controversy behind this book which only intrigued me more. I can say this is definitely a book I would not be proud to publish. Although I always want to support Black authors I could not get behind this book. I felt it just was too political and I don’t think that should always mix with romance. I hope this author writes something more with the times in the future.

As a white woman, I am foregoing my full review. I would prefer to amplify black voices - particularly those of black women - on this topic.

I wanted to like this book and was hoping that Josh would not be the prick I believed him to be from the description, but of course he was.

This was far from an enemies to lovers story. I feel like the love part never took place. Jess and Josh never reached a place of understanding.

I do think this was more so a story of personal growth for Jess. The real battle was internal for her as she became more aware of her own personal struggles and her place in America. I wish the author just focused on her instead of forcing this romance on the reader.

Thanks netgallery for allowing me to review this book.
I do wish you had put more of what this book is about, I wouldn't of applied for it if I had know
I felt like it was basically giving a white male a free pass to be racist while this Black female is falling in love with him. I couldn't even finish it. I really enjoyed how this author writes and would love to read something else by them and they definitely have potential but this book isn't it.

This is very different book than I expected. It’s thought provoking and makes you ask questions of why and how. Feels of sadness, anger and love for the characters. A coming of age story about a women trying to find her way in the world. She meets Josh. They are two very different people fall hopelessly madly in love. They both are experiencing the same thing but also feeling and experiencing it different due to the differences in their lives and how they perceive things. Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Hmmm, this was a huge miss for me, Using racism as an obstacle for two people from different political parties seemed... not great. Then you throw in the white main male character being absolutely horrendous to the Black main female character and it just does not work at all. In fact, it's quite off putting. I know this is supposed to be "enemies to lovers" but it's just inhumane and not realistic whatsoever. The second that Josh said some of the things he said to Jess, I would have been out the door and never looked back. I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt despite the premise but nothing about Josh made me want to read a story about Jess, a Black woman, falling in love with him. Josh does nothing to try to even learn and change. Instead, Jess is the one compromising her beliefs for him. From the very start with his thoughts against affirmative action, it's clear what kind of person he is. Why would Jess ever fall in love with him? It doesn't make sense. I think this book tried to be like Devon Daniels's Meet You In The Middle (which was so much better) but failed spectacularly. I think it's rather insulting and I will not be recommending this book.

5/5 stars

This book is on my list for my favorite reads of 2023.

Being a black woman who grew up in the surburbs and being one of the few democrats in a very republican identifying community, I can relate and see myself as the main character.

This book isn’t a thread you will read on twitter nor will it have characters being reprimanded for being unfair; mainly because this is what happens in real life and I appreciated that.

You will see flawed characters; characters that are being prejudice or having microagressions and they will not be explicitly called out or get fired from their jobs or be “canceled”; this is to represent actual reality, for the reader to see what and how it feels to be a black women in our current society.

You will feel frustration

First, thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for giving me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I truly don't even know how to rate this book on a scale. I don't think it's really deserving of a star rating, but if I absolutely HAVE to?? Then one star.

One.

My first thought was: "I am confusion." I tried to save my judgements for the end because I kept hoping there would be a lesson hidden in here somewhere. Like surprise! You thought this was a book about a relationship full of hate f**king but actually it's about this (insert profound lesson here)! After having successfully reached the end (through much effort) I'm still not even sure what the lesson was. Or IF there even was one. There were a few possibles, but with the way the book ended it invalidated all of the arguments in its favor.

At its core: it is a story of a black woman trying to navigate in a white world, without completely forgetting who she is in the process. I do believe this story could have been told without trying to shove the romance down our throats. I don't understand how romance came into play AT ALL. They had zero chemistry. They never got along. They disagreed on the most basic human rights. He told her to her face that she couldn't articulate her point on Affirmative Action because he assumed she was a direct beneficiary of it. He told her that black people have low IQs. He gaslit and belittled her in every conversation, felt the need to explain things to her as if she didn't know, even though they were in the SAME career field, and through all of that she was still able to look at him and say: "Take my pants off."

Make that make sense.

Enemies to lovers is a popular rom com trope but oppressed vs. oppressor should absolutely not be a thing involving romance. When someone tells you in so many words that people who look like you are beneath them, you need to pick up your things and run in the OPPOSITE direction.

Enemies-to-lovers does not apply when one half is using the "enemies" part to excuse his racism.

To put simply, I feel very icky about this book, but I'm also torn between wondering what Cecilia Rabess's intention was in writing this. In a way, this reads like an attempt at making racism palatable and more "understandable" towards White audiences at the direct suffering/disadvantage of a Black main character (e.g., Green Book, The Help). On the other hand, it's non-fiction portion with data and information addressing institutional racism was exceptionally well-done, but it was masked by a very questionable romance.

This book takes place from the start of Jess and Josh's rivalry in a law and society class following the 2008 election to the hallmarks of their relationship leading up to the 2016 election. Even though Josh never says the words "I'm racist" and essentially worships the ground Jess walks upon, his thought process is nevertheless rooted in systemic racism; Josh just refuses to acknowledge it because of his beliefs on the economy.

Here's another way to view this book: Josh and Jess would engage in these long debates (literally... think Socrates and Cephalus) on the economy and racism. Jess would try to teach him why the economy can't function the way he wants it to without addressing racism's role in it, just for him to say something along the lines of "yeah, but you want to benefit from this system without feeling guilty for it because you're Black."

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying this book or maybe I'm not the author's intended audience, but I can't look past the book's excuse of racism.

Shelf Awareness MAX Shelf, Thursday, February 1, 2023:

Everything's Fine is a love story but not necessarily a romance; there are no guaranteed "happily ever afters" to be found in the pages of Cecilia Esther Rabess's complex, thought-provoking debut novel. It asks big questions about where love fits amidst race, politics, identity and values in the lead-up to the 2016 United States presidential election.

After graduating from college, Jess has landed something of a dream job at Goldman Sachs, with a paycheck large enough to cover rent and her student loan debt and still buy fancy shoes and go out with girlfriends. And along with debt-capacity models and credit-risk analyses, federal fund rates and LIBOR (the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate) and a key card that doesn't work in the company gym, there is Josh: Jess's former classmate, now assigned to be her mentor in her first months on the job.

As one of the only women and one of the only Black people (and definitely the only Black woman) working in the "bullpen" of financial associates, Jess finds Josh all too secure in his place as a white male in the office, in the company, in the world, to ever be approachable. But the two can't seem to keep out of one another's orbit: first appearing side by side in the student paper following the historical election of Barack Obama in 2008 (and representing very opposite opinions on his success); arguing about reverse racism and affirmative action in a course on Supreme Court topics; antagonizing each other loudly over cheap drinks at a local dive bar they both show up to with their friends. She is Black, liberal, constantly trying to prove herself and solidify her place in a world shaped by whiteness and white supremacy. He is white and conservative, and assured that he is always in the right, that everything will work out for him. They are wildly, entirely different. And yet there's something that binds them.

The antagonism between the two is palpable--first of the political variety, and ultimately, a kind of uneasy friendship underwritten by a decidedly sexual tension. In what reads like the ultimate take on the "opposites attract" trope, Jess and Josh become an item and fall deeply, madly in love, alternating between verbal sparring and intense passion in a relationship that seems to work, even when it doesn't. "Sometimes you make me really, really, really mad," Jess tells Josh after he utters yet another comment that downplays the role of race in her experience as a Black woman. "But other than that, he is perfect, they are perfect, she has never been more in love, everything's totally fine."

This is where Rabess shines, building nuanced, multi-layered characters in an equally nuanced, multi-layered relationship, two people who are seemingly incompatible and yet undeniably work together... most of the time. Within this incredibly complex relationship, Everything's Fine becomes more than the love story at its center, as Rabess probes into deep, messy questions of race, politics and personal values--and the ways these appear within Jess and Josh's relationship, particularly as the political landscape shifts in the tense lead-up to the 2016 election. Jess herself questions their compatibility time and time again:

" 'I'm Black, you're white. I'm liberal, you're conservative....' Said that way it almost sounds like poetry. Opposites attract. The best kind of love story. But that's not quite right.... They're not really opposites. More like two people playing for different teams."

Is there something inherently incompatible about this arrangement? Between a liberal and a conservative? A Black woman and a white man? And what of the larger context, a country increasingly polarized and political parties with increasingly disparate values? "Love conquers all, except geography, and history, and contemporary sociopolitical reality."

Rabess asks all of this, but--it's important to note--does not offer easy answers to these questions. Everything's Fine is as complex and complicated as the world it reflects, messy and interconnected and imperfect in the most realistic ways. The result is a love story, as noted, without a clear happy ending; not only is a happily-ever-after not guaranteed here, it's not even clear what a happy ending would be. The two staying together? Or splitting up? Finding a compromise, or converting to the same political party? What's realistic, what's believable, what's acceptable and what's desired, what will make them happy in the end--the answers to each will vary depending on the reader and what they bring to the story, their context and perspective and beliefs. What is guaranteed is that Everything's Fine will leave every reader thinking more deeply about all of these questions in the way the best of fiction does, pondering Jess and Josh's story long past the last page and also asking themselves about love and race and politics and how they intersect in a messy world. --Kerry McHugh