Everything's Fine
The completely addictive 'should they – shouldn't they' romance
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3.8 • 139 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'Acutely smart' – Elizabeth Day, author of Magpie
'Completely addictive' – Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones and the Six
'Funny, sexy, unafraid, completely unputdownable' – India Knight, author of Darling
An instantly addictive 'should-they, shouldn't they' romance set against the backdrop of New York during Trump's first presidential campaign. Cecilia Rabess' Everything's Fine is hilarious, heartbreaking and impossible to put down.
Jess first meets Josh at university. He is an entitled white guy in chinos, ready to inherit the world. She is almost always the only Black woman in their class. And she’s not expecting to inherit anything.
After graduation, Jess and Josh end up working at the same bank. They share lunch, they share sparring matches, they share ambitions. And suddenly they’re sleeping together . . .
'Spectacular' – Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Romantic Comedy
'Addictive and extremely funny' –Jenny Colgan, author of The Summer Skies
'Stunning’ – Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss
'Plain funny as hell' – Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl
'I loved this. One Day with teeth' - Naomi Wood, author of This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
'Our most explosive discussion yet . . . The PERFECT book club book' – Casual Readers Book Club
*A Times 100 Best Books of the Summer and Guardian Book of the Year*
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Cecilia Rabess’ debut novel pivots on conflicts of race, class and gender. The unlikely friendship between Jess—the only Black woman at Goldman Sachs—and Josh—her white, right-leaning college nemesis—sparks every kind of emotion in the reader. The novel, situated in the Trumpean era, maps the shifting political landscape through the story of this ambiguous friendship, which in turn develops into an even more surprising romance. Jess is an acutely captivating protagonist, poised as a sincere and witty character through a flagrantly unorthodox lens. Caught among the ironies of this moving-yet-confident tale, we are confronted with questions about what it means to love—and what love does to a young woman.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rabess delivers a breezy yet unsettling debut about a liberal Black financial analyst who falls in love with a white Republican coworker. It's the middle of the Obama years and Jess Jones, newly hired at Goldman Sachs, runs into Josh Hillyer, an old college classmate with whom she used to argue over politics. To her surprise, they slowly become friends despite his conservative views as he mentors her and helps her navigate office politics as the only Black woman in the firm. Eventually, Josh leaves Goldman to work at a big-time trader's AI-powered firm, and he brings Jess along with him. Sparks inevitably fly between Jess and Josh as they try to work out their drastically different outlooks and backgrounds. Secrets are revealed, Jess gets in trouble with the boss, and everything comes to a head as the 2016 election approaches, building to a conclusion that lands as either shallowly romantic or an incendiary critique of capitalism, depending on the reader's interpretation. Rabess's humor is on-point, and the chemistry between the leads is electric; each scene involving them is fraught with a double-edged sword—after they hook up, Josh starts talking dirty and Jess responds, "Way to ruin the moment, you creepy loser," before they have sex again. This is sure to spark conversation.
Customer Reviews
Easy read
Cute story, easy read, slightly abrupt ending but maybe that’s just me
Compelling read
I’m not sure how the writer wants you to feel about the main characters? They’re certainly flawed & most of the time narcissistic, therefore unlikeable, but maybe that’s the point? Enjoyable.
Ugh
Parts of it were just so annoying to read.