Everything's Fine by Cecilia Rabess is one of those books that just hooks you from the get-go. I was lucky to snag a free copy from the publisher in exchange for a review, and let me tell you, this novel was an absolute delight to read.

The story revolves around Jess, a smart and determined young woman who starts her career at Goldman Sachs. The catch? She's teamed up with Josh, a conservative guy who enjoys playing devil's advocate a little too much. Right from the beginning, you can sense the tension and differences between these two. Josh is basically Jess's polar opposite, and it's hard to imagine a worse team-up, at least from Jess's perspective.

But here's where the story gets interesting: as Jess becomes the sole Black woman on the floor, she's often overlooked and underestimated. And it's Josh, of all people, who unexpectedly steps up to support her. That's where the heart of this novel lies - the development of their unlikely friendship, laced with undeniable chemistry. Watching their relationship evolve is a rollercoaster ride, and it's both electrifying and captivating.

One of the things I loved most about this book is how it delves into the idea of compromise for love. It makes you question whether it's more important to be right or to be happy. The characters are complex, and their struggles and choices feel real. This book takes place in 2016, a year that brought significant cultural and political shifts, which adds another layer of depth to the story.

Cecilia Rabess has crafted a narrative that's not just about a love affair but a love affair that turns into an inferno. The prose is sharp, poignant, and often quite humorous. I found myself laughing out loud at some points and deeply contemplating life at others. Rabess isn't afraid to tackle important topics, and she does it with style.

What really sets Everything's Fine apart, though, is the backdrop of the story. The time period, the cultural shifts, and the dynamics of the characters all come together to create a powerful narrative. As someone who enjoys books set in specific time periods, I was thoroughly impressed by how Rabess captured the essence of 2016.

In the end, Everything's Fine is a stellar debut that I won't soon forget. It's a book that keeps you engaged, makes you think, and leaves a lasting impression. Cecilia Rabess delivers a compelling story with complex characters, and the book is laced with witty and thought-provoking commentary. If you're looking for a page-turner that's also brimming with hot takes on life, love, and the world around us, this is definitely a must-read. Trust me; it's more than fine; it's fantastic!

Thank you net galley for the ARC.
A relevant book about two people dating with different political views that draws in aspects of todays political climate. All Jess's life she believes "everythings fine' without processing things that are happening to her. I would not call this book a romance like it is listed but a thought provoking book that can encourage conversations of racial biases that occur day to day

I dont really know how to properly review this/what my voice can add to the conversation surrounding this book. I think I understand what the author was trying to do, and I also understand why many readers are very upset with the book. One big issue is that it is being marketed as romance, but the MC is in a seriously mentally abusive relationship. It is really about a WOC falling for a white man who is constantly barraging her with microaggressions and gaslighting her into thinking shes over-reacting. On the one hand, i think it is important people understand that white men really are this stupid and egotistical. But, I think my issue is that Jess didnt come out on top or dig herself out of this horrific relationship with this man, if anything she defended him right to the end. I just wanted her at some point to really stand up for herself so that was disappointing. Overall I dont think I would reccommend this one as I think it is doing more harm than good, but I dont know that i agree with the outrage either.

Reading this was very stressful. I understand what the point of this was, but I didn’t enjoy reading it. Romance, this was not, and the ending really brought back some very negative feelings for me. While it was very well written, I have mixed feelings. I always say that any book that can make its readers feel big emotions is doing what it’s supposed to, but I don’t know how to feel about this one.

I appreciate the author’s viewpoint here. Maybe some differences are too big to overcome. I would love a follow up on where these characters are now.

And it’s definitely not “just a hat.”

Is the only controversy surrounding this novel that it was marketed as an enemies-to-lovers romance? Sheesh. It's not a romance! It's sharp personal and political commentary, compare it to Riley Keid. Yes, the main characters fall very much in love. Yes they are different races and identify as opposites politically. Makes for a great and interesting novel!

I can't for the life of me figure out why a WOC who holds great disdain for her Anglo male counterpart would catch herself not only dating him, but professing a great love for him. Jess and Josh were not enamored with each other in college and should have kept it classy just like that for the remainder of their adult live but no... they reunited at work after undergrad and, somehow or other, fell into a lust that Jess (IMHO) mistook for love. I cannot imagine being a Black woman attempting to love a White man that extols the nonexistent virtues of The Great Orange One ( aka #45). Her pandering to his whims and minimizing her views so as to not upset him irritated me to no end. I guess he deserved a pass because he gave up strawberries because she was allergic... it was a good attempt on Ms. Rabess' part at providing commentary on life during 45's Reign even if I did not agree with all parts of it.

Usually these politically charged novels aren’t for me and a couple chapters in when I realized, I almost stopped reading, but I’m really glad I stuck with it. Yes, politics are a big part of this book but it refreshingly discusses both sides of an argument in a really educational way which I appreciated and it made it less “in your face”. Besides that though, it’s hilarious and I just loved Jess and Josh’s relationship. Highly recommend!

Everything’s Fine is about a relationship between a liberal Black woman named Jess and a conservative white man named Josh, who first meet in college but then become friends when they reconnect while working at Goldman Sachs. As Jess struggles to find her footing in the hyper-competitive, white male driven world of finance, Josh is labeled a rising star and rockets to the top of a prestigious hedge fund due to prep school connections. At the same time, the two kindle a romantic relationship that is shunned by her friends and kept secret from her father. Their romance intersects with the 2016 election season, and Jess is forced to consider how far compatibility can stretch. It is important to note, however, that while a romance centers the plot, the novel is not part of the romance genre, and instead should be considered a work of literary fiction.

After this book was published, it became the subject of a lot of controversy for its marketing as an enemies to lovers romance, the argument being that racism is not a little quirk to get over in a relationship. It was the target of review bombing (when people, many of whom haven’t read the book, tank the its star rating on platforms like Goodreads to diminish its popularity - see this New York Times article for a helpful explainer), by angry users before it was even published. After finishing the book I did some research into the controversy, and found this comment by the author from an interview done by The Cut to be particularly illuminating.

"People were questioning the limits of my imagination as a Black writer, and they were conflating me with my character, suggesting there’s no way this could be fiction and nuanced.​ That there was no way I could write a story that asks more questions than it answers. And, more damning, I felt like a lot of the feedback was about holding a Black character to a higher idealized standard than we do white characters, who are celebrated for their messiness, their flaws. When a messy, chaotic 20-something character is a white woman, that’s fine, but I was hearing that people didn’t want that same amount of nuance from a Black-woman character. It surprised me, because it felt quite dehumanizing. Demanding perfection either in the form of perfect victimhood or the perfect hero doesn’t reflect who people are, and it doesn’t reflect their full humanity."

My take is that this book is worth reading. You don’t need to agree with the characters, their beliefs, or their decisions to recognize that the book is a nuanced, complex, and thorny portrayal of identity, privilege, and relationships with oneself, one’s partner, and the larger world.

The marketing for this book was almost antagonistically bad: rage-baiting this as an across the aisle, enemies to lovers political romance, just so publishers could try and get that sweet, sweet Colleen Hoover “oh you THOUGHT this was a love story?? heh…well THINK AGAIN” tiktok money. While the first ~50-75% is structured convincingly enough like a romance novel, this book is an examination of the tension in a seemingly great relationship between a liberal Black woman and a conservative white man spanning Obama’s 2008 election to Trump’s election in 2016.

And like. Don’t get me wrong. That election timeframe IS annoying. I found a LOT about this book annoying. Even if there’s a surprising amount of nuance within their fictional relationship, reading a romance between two 23-year-old Goldman Sachs employees fucking SUUUUUCKS. The author, Cecilia Rabess, is a data scientist who has worked with Google and Goldman Sachs, and allows the protagonist Jess to skirt around her six-figure plus bonus salary by making all her friends much wealthier than her. I get that cost of living is higher in a city, but if you make less than 45k a year or still have student loans at 30 this book is going to be. Irritating.

There’s three paragraphs where Jess goes to pride and cries watching two of her friends kiss, and when everyone asks where her conservative boyfriend Josh is, we’re reminded that he’d rather be at brunch with his corporate boss (because if there’s one thing everyone loves more than bi girls’ straight boyfriends at pride discourse, it’s straight girls’ conservative boyfriends at pride discourse). At one point Jess is disappointed that she wasn’t able to help with an elementary school trip to the company she works at, because “now all these kids think all traders are white and male and it would be nice for them to have a different kind of role model.” DAY TRADERS????? You think underprivileged children need better DAY TRADER ROLE MODELS????? The people with the made up job where they trade fake money SO THEY CAN INCREASE COMPANY SHARES OR WHATEVER AND MAKE THE CORPORATIONS RICHER????? Okay it’s fine. I’m calm now. I’m chill.

Anyway. I think lots of people would find this a funny and insightful read, and that early marketing did Cecilia Rabess a huge disservice. It’s really not a bad book. There’s some genuinely thoughtful moments of clarity on overlooking red flags in a relationship that feels otherwise great, and I appreciated Rabess’s literary restraint with any reoccurring symbolism, such as the strawberries Jess is allergic to, but eats because they’re her boyfriend’s favorite (I still think the UK cover art is better lol). At the end of the day, though, I am simply a hater, as is my god-given right. Forever and ever amen.

Mixed feelings about this one. I found the main character pretty irritating. I couldn’t stand most of the decisions she made and it was annoying to read most of her thoughts. I’m only taking off one star for that though because I did really like the overall story and premise. It covered some really interesting and timely topics and the writing was very well done for a debut novel.

A huge thanks to Netgalley for gifting me an eARC in exchange for my honest review! I did not enjoy this book for a couple of reasons. The characters were flat and boring. The romance amongst the main characters did nothing for me. I read dark romance so I am all for a problematic couple but these two had noooooo chemistry. I was not invested in them nor in their relationship. It is a shame because this could have worked a FICTIONAL racist character that is white with a FICTIONAL black woman??? It could have worked!!! Also the last page did nothing for me as well.

Sometimes opposites attract, but is it worth it? You get to decide.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a story about Jess and Joss.

They had first "met" in college.

She is Black, cute, a "Obamas Democrat, righteous in your face kind of girl, and he is an ultra-conservative Republican white, blond, gorgeous kind of guy.

They meet again at Goldman Sachs years later on the job. They are both smart and both opinionated. And it isn't uncommon for them to find themselves in situations where they are arguing about race and politics and ethics. But, as it turns out, he turns out to be her best ally at work.

But as their relationship deepens, so does the political turmoil leading up to the 2016 election. And that certainly affects her relationship and feelings for Josh.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book. But it was conversational. And visual. And the inner world of Jess and her relationship with Josh worked for me. I could feel the tension. I could see the stress of the world around them.

This isn't a light romance novel. It is a serious look at relationships and differences and tackles the question of how much we can and should tolerate from our loved ones when it comes to their beliefs and actions.

Also, the characters felt so real to me. They were so messy and didn't always do the right thing. They frustrated me at times. And they excited me, too. I could clearly feel the tension that Jess was experiencing as she questioned what to do with her Josh problem, especially when he decided to vote for you know who in the 2016 election.

I wasn't sure I loved this book but it was interesting. The relationship between the main characters is quite the commentary on race relations. I understand the message, I think, that the author was trying to deliver and I enjoyed the story, I'm just not sure what the author was trying translated through the writing which was, in my opinion kind of sophmoric.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my review.

The marketing on this book was honestly so fucking bad. But this book! was very, very good. Rabess has a powerful voice, one that was made for a book like this, which frankly didn't read like a romance at all to me. This was a book about power dynamics in relationships, manipulation, and women of color and the voices they deserve. This wasn't a Purple Hearts remake, and I don't think Rabess was making any kind of statement about love trumping all. I think the statement was "love is blind and you should be fucking careful about that." Incredible read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a ARC!

This book was a struggle. The main idea might have been interesting but in the current climate its hard to imagine it could work. It asks the question could a liberal black woman and a conservative white man find love?

I think the answer is no.

I don't think Josh is redeemable.

The story itself might have been worth 2.5 stars but the whole book feels like a montage. There were so many pages with 2 or 3 scene breaks that it was hard to connect to what was happening. It also jumped around in time so much that I never felt like I had a place in the story. I felt like I was reading snips of an outline not a full story,

The "romance" between Josh and Jess felt forced. She would say that she was attracted to him, but we never saw why. Everything felt antagonistic but not in the "do I want to grab your shirt and throw you off a cliff, or rip it off you way." It more felt like "this man things I am less than" but I guess I have to be into that because otherwise what conflict would the story have.

Overall I wanted to DNF at 20% but I pushed through and it was not worth it.

There are so many recent books about working at Goldman Sachs recently. In this story, Jess, who is a black girl from the midwest, works there after graduating from college. There is no work/life balance, and the job is not at all what she expected, but she perseveres. Not only does she get herself on the sales desk but she gets on the board as a top performer. One of her coworkers, Josh, who she knows from college, also works there. Where Jess is as liberal as can be, Josh, on the other hand, is a white guy who grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, her polar opposite. With so many obstacles and differences of opinion between Jess and Josh, is it possible that a relationship between the two could work? Well, you'll just have to read this debut author's novel to find out.

I have very complicated feelings about Everything's Fine. I have seen all the discourse about it and see both the merits and the criticism. I'm glad I read it so I can have an opinon. It offers a whole lot to think about and would make for good book club dicussion.

I have a strong memory of election night 2016…. Me, watching the election returns and crying, my then husband texting me laughing emojis as more states came in for Trump. There’s a reason we’re divorced now.

Can two people at opposite ends of the political spectrum make a relationship work? Or has politics gotten too polarizing over the past decade? In Cecilia Rabess’s debut novel, Everything’s Fine, the author explores what it’s like to love someone who sees the world differently than you do. It’s not easy. But in the end, is it worth it?

To read the rest of the review, click on the link below.

Oh wow this was such an interesting read!! it was eye opening and I enjoyed the perspective. I really enjoyed the writing style of it as well.