Jess is a character of contradictions. A liberal committed to the idea that those who profit from capitalism are evil, she takes a job as an investment banker. A Black woman keenly aware of how white people cannot understand her experience, she seeks friendship with white women. And she falls in love with a white man who embodies everything she rejects. Josh is a Connecticut conservative, a fellow investment banker whose enthusiasm for the work of getting rich is matched only by his talent for it, but also a thoughtful and compassionate person. Still, Jess is irresistibly drawn to him. Until world events - the 2016 election - and Jess's personal and professional crises force her to look at the relationship and herself in a new, more critical light.

Everything's Fine is sharply-written, funny, and finely-observed. Although Jess and Josh are types, they felt like specific examples of those types, real people. And they frustrated me the way real people might, Jess especially, Perhaps because the writing is so smart and mature, I often forgot how young she is - early 20s - and found her naivete alarming. At one point, rather late in the book, she is shocked to see Josh caring for a lost kitten, genuinely convinced that his compassion is at odds with his conservatism - and this is her boyfriend!

But, Jess's blindnesses are part of the point. She doesn't always see who Josh really is, or what their relationship means, and even at the novel's end there are no easy answers for these characters who love each other and are deeply committed to profoundly different worldviews. A moving and quintessentially American love story.

This book took me through so many emotions. It is very common to say everything is fine when in reality it isn’t. Jess was struggling to navigate the culture of a job she thought she had trained for in college. She quickly learned that it takes more than a degree to succeed in a male dominated field that lacks diversity and inclusion. Jess and Josh started as adversaries in college and reconnect at her job in the financial industry. They became really good friends with different political views, beliefs and backgrounds. That friendship blossomed into much more. I think Jess was very insecure in the relationship because she was trying to find her place in her career and in Josh’s world.
Jess and Josh had an interesting relationship and dynamic. I think love can conquer all and everything will be fine.

How often have you responded "Everything's fine." when everything is not fine? We either lie to ourselves that we are indeed fine or we don't want to worry someone about why we aren't.

On Jess's first day at Goldman Sachs, she is not thrilled to work with Josh, her white sparring partner from college. They bumped heads before and sure to bump heads again in the workplace. But when Jess finds herself being the sole Black woman on the trading floor, overlooked and underestimated, it is Josh that stands up for her and opens doors of opportunity. Like romance clockwork, their relationship turns to friendship then sparks fly.

Considering the main character's professional situation, I thought I would relate to her. Welp, her actions squashed that comparison. The snap decisions, the overreacting, the need to talk but not listen made me dislike her within pages. The most annoying part is her saying, "Everything's fine." when she is literally drowning not asking for help. Perhaps the story would've been better if the focus was on Jess's mental health rather than an interracial relationship with all its politics.

Happy Early Pub Day, Cecilia Rabess! Everything's Fine will be available Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins. ~LiteraryMarie

From the synopsis: "She's black, he’s white; she’s liberal, he’s conservative. She thinks he's a racist jerk. He finds her more than a little immature." The blurb and marketing should have been done more carefully because it definitely raises red flags, but this book is not supporting or promoting the idea of romanticizing racism, as many of the reviews have stated. I wouldn't call this book a romance. It does not end on a HEA.. The story provides a realistic view point of what I would assume it is like to be a woman of color in a predominately white world, where gaslighting and racial bias is normalized, and where finding your voice and strengthening your boundaries is important. Without giving away too many spoilers, the book ends in the way in should end, but it is an infuriating journey to get there, as it is intended to be. This book did have some thought-provoking ideas and themes; however, it is very uncomfortable at times to read. They are not a couple I could root for, but maybe that was the entire point.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.
This was a very different book about a young man and woman that meet through work. He’s Caucasian and she’s African American based on a company that makes a lot of money and expects the employees to work hard and long hours. There’s no guarantee you will keep your job even if you do. They start dating even though it’s against the rules,, at one point he is even her boss. It becomes a lot about politics and racism.
I didn’t know that was going to be a big part of the book. It really drags at that point and I was disappointed .i can’t say I would recommend this book.

Favorite Quote: Sometimes it’s better to be happy than right.

Everything’s Fine begins when Jess Jones gets a job at Goldman Sachs after college, where she’s thrust into the world of golf and finance bros. Despite Jess’s brilliance and ability to outperform her peers, being a Black woman in finance is a constant uphill battle. Jess must work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously as her white male counterparts. While at Goldman, she’s on the same team as her college frenemy, Josh, a trading analyst wunderkind with a perfect future before him. Surrounding Jess, and her budding friendship with Josh, the USA is seeing increasing political divisiveness around race and political ideologies. Jess grapples with her identity and her responsibility to stand up for herself and for the Black community in her bubble of predominantly white, affluent people. Everything’s Fine will make you question if love really does conquer all, and if it does, at what cost?

Everything’s Fine is one of the best books I’ve read, and the story will stay with me for a long time. Rabess’ writing is approachable, quick-witted, and hauntingly beautiful. As a woman who’s worked in financial technology for over a decade, I felt connected to Everything’s Fine through Jess’ experiences. I loved how Rabess describes the constant awareness one feels in an environment where you’re different. Rabess beautifully articulates the emotions, feelings, and awareness a Black woman feels all the time in these environments. I am not a Black woman, so I can’t begin to imagine the inability to let your guard down for even a moment when you feel aware of those key differences.

In addition to eloquently discussing race and challenging unconscious biases, through Everything’s Fine, Rabess explores socioeconomic disparities through the characters. Some of the characters have luxury and privilege, while others feel they do not. Through the lens of wanting more and achieving more, Rabess challenges readers to question what happens when you feel like parts of you are incongruent as you grow.

Everything’s Fine will make you question what you think you know about bias, race, politics and ideology, and about socioeconomic differences - but done in such a way where you don’t know it’s happening until you have an “oh shit” moment.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

I can quite honestly say that I did not enjoy this book for so so many reasons.
1. It’s billed as a romance yet the connection between the characters is not believable. Not once did I get any sense of “love” between them.
2. I didn’t like any of the characters in this book. They were flat and 1-dimensional. Neither of the main characters grew or changed throughout the entire book. Once again I couldn’t figure out the attractions between them.
3. The content was boring. It’s like the author wanted us to know she was super smart and kept pushing topics on us that were not necessary to the story.
4. The politics and politics of racism were heavy throughout the book but then not actually handled. It felt like some justifications were made to qualify some blatantly racist behaviors by one main character. I’m fine if opposites attract but why would anyone want to date someone who clearly viewed them and their views as inferior? The author tried but did not manage to romanticize this for me 🤷🏽‍♀️

1.5 rounded up to 2. I only kept reading because it was ARC. Otherwise I would have put this one down never to revisit it.

This was quite a book. I saw it tagged as a romance but I’m not sure that’s accurate. I’m sure it doesn’t fit the enemies to lovers trope. I will say it was a hard book to read at times, when the love interest infuriates you every time they have a real conversation it’s hard to like him let alone fall in love with him. That being said I’m not sure it’s a bad concept for a book. Where are the lines? What matters and what doesn’t matter when compared to love? I like a solid ending, so it was a little frustrating that it wasn’t totally spelled out but I think it was more powerful that way. Jess and Josh met in college and Jess hated him from the moment he was quoted saying something cringy about Obama when he won. They find themselves working at Goldman and Saks and Josh seems to fit right in while Jess, who is female and Black, doesn’t fit in anywhere. I wanted to like Josh, but every time I almost got close he spoke and I hated him again. The writing was excellent and it was a heartfelt and compelling story.

I’m sorry, but I did not enjoy this book and wanted to stop reading several times but persevered.

The plane metaphor was the one redeeming part.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the e-ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for this Arc, in exchange for my honest opinion.

First off I only read a couple of chapters, so rating this book will be at 3 stars because I couldn't finish this book.

This was not a romance book whatsoever in my opinion or enemies to lovers. I found it really hard to read because I don't like the writing style or even the main characters. I'm not really into reading about politics, so that threw me off too. This book was just not for me. I hope the author found the audience it was meant for.

I read this so you don’t have to. I’m going to ignore most of the moral issues people (including myself) have with this writing and just stick to the fact that it’s not well written. The story is weirdly choppy and hard to follow. Not a single character is well developed. Random actions are added next to dialogue that make no sense. The writing doesn’t follow a linear pattern, but not in an artsy way, in an “I needed a better editor way.”

Just because it needs to be said: a guy quitting eating strawberries for you because you’re allergic doesn’t erase that he’s a piece of shit.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my painfully honest review.

I'm not sure what this book is supposed to be. Is it fiction about race and class or is it a romance novel? It's tackling all these things at once and it doesn't work.

Jess is an unlikable heroine. She doesn't know what she wants and puts up with being treated like crap. Her love interest is Josh who is clearly a racist. He's white and she's black. It's a hot mess. Their relationship feels toxic most of the time.

The writing is fine but there are attempts at humor that fall flat.

I don't recommend this one.

This story would be better if the author cut out the entire racism undertone. Trying to humanize those who support MAGA extremists is problematic. Jess is treated as naive, in truth she is black trying to distinguish herself amongst a sea of white upper middle class men who cannot look past her race. This was difficult to get through

3.5
Thank you to #NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This book is NOT supporting or promoting the idea of romanticizing racism
so all of these people that are writing reviews for a book you haven’t read… you have no idea what your talking about
Please read the book before writing a review!
However the blurb and marketing should have been done more carefully because it definitely raises some alarms

Jess and Josh’s relationship is VERY flawed
(they both only want to see a super specific side of each other (but as the end of the book suggests… *spoiler?* Jess will no longer compartmentalize her view of Josh/ and will end the relationship))
the book is just a depiction of it and is in no way saying their relationship is okay (or just fine as Complacent Gaslighting Lovebombing Josh described everything as (their relationship, their current social climate of 2016, etc))
(people who read the book recognize the crushed strawberry cover as a metaphor of their relationship)
This book posed a rather realistic WOC pov in regards to being in a predominantly white environment and how racist or prejudice behavior/ responses can affect a persons total demeanor

I didn’t LOVE this book but overall it was very thought provoking and I found myself not wanting to put it down

Everything's Fine is a compulsively readable, fast-moving novel about Jess, a young analyst at Goldman Sachs. She is a young, progressive black professional who finds herself working with former college classmate, Josh, who she butted heads with in college due to their very different perspectives. He's white, conservative, and strikes Jess initially as very judgmental and shortsighted. He's assigned as her "buddy" at work and they start to bond, despite previous animosity. They become closer and closer and I found their relationship compelling even as it could be infuriating. The novel touches on issues of race in a variety of ways, as well as interracial dating, and workplace expectations. Rabes does a wonderful job of illustrating uneasiness in their relationship and making us question how our behavior and beliefs can shift when we're with others. I found it to be a thought-provoking, but highly readable novel.

Thank you Simon & Schuster for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

Read if you like:
🇺🇸 Politics
🔀 Opposites Attract
♥️ Romance

This book was a lot, and not necessarily in a good way. There is discussion of politics but a lot of the differences between this opposites attract seemed to be rooted in ignorance and racism and was hard to read.

Thank you to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my review.

Thank you to @netgalley and the @Simonbooks for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I liked the main characters, Jess and Josh, and I was rooting for them to get together. Their journey from coworkers to friends to a relationship felt laborios. I had a hard time following all of the dialogue about statistics and finance. It was obviously something they bonded over and helped establish a connection between them; however, it seems so niche, and there were several times I was at a loss for understanding. I had a hard time reading about the political disconnect between them as well. There were some great moments of chemistry but it was overwhelmed with political discord, and racial tension that just killed the mood.

I really like the idea of a romance between a liberal and a conservative. It's a concept that is off-putting to a lot of people, but honestly, I think that's the problem with America as a whole. No one is willing to meet halfway or accept differing opinions without hate.

My problem with the book, unfortunately was the writing style and characters. The writing felt very surface level, which kept me from being fully immersed. I wanted the pace to slow down and let me and my senses get absorbed in the scenes, but instead I felt like everything flew by in rushed brief summaries or awkwardly short stints of dialogue. I read like a school assignment someone was rushing to complete on time.

I also understand the enemies-to-lovers trope is hot right now. But I think, especially in contemporary works, and even more so when racism is involved, you need to make sure you don't make the male lead too insufferable in the beginning or any redemption in the reader's eyes will be hard to earn (if they don't just DNF it first!).

The discourse around this book has really turned me off of reading it. I appreciate being gifted the ARC and do not think it's fair to rate it lowly because I have not finished it, but I cannot with good conscience finish the book.

Everything’s Fine is a phrase many of us use without any thought. Deep down, is everything really fine? The heroine of this story, Jess, is a beautiful black woman motivated by causes and advocacy while being a mathematic genius. Fresh out of college, Jess gets a job at a big NYC bank in a job guaranteed to bring in the dough. On her first day of work, she discovers Josh, the jerk she knew in college, is also in her department. Their relationship starts as enemies and eventually transforms into a story of opposites attract.
I loved the idea of this unique story of a couple with differences: race, politics and attitudes. Can a liberal and a conservative actually find love together regardless of the differences? However, this book is much more than a love story, it’s a tale of a woman of color finding her place in life during 2016. The character development in this story is great, you can’t help but love Jess and Josh. However, at times I did find the flow of the story to feel off and confusing. The ending definitely was unexpected! Overall this is a unique read and as a white woman, I’m grateful to read a story of a person of color.