Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a physical arc of Cecilia Rabbis’ debut novel, Everything’s Fine.

Jess is a recent graduate working as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Although brilliant, Jess is a new employee and the only black woman in her department. She is struggling to be taken seriously. She reconnects with Josh, a college acquaintance and semi-nemesis, who is also working on her floor. Josh is brash, conservative, and argumentative, also white. Although the two seem to have little in common, their debates shift in tone to an unlikely attraction. They discover that the other person is more nuanced and caring than the labels that they had assigned to them. However, this is 2016 and a historic election is about to impact their fragile relationship.

Everything’s Fine is a whirlwind of a book. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a female character working as an analyst and inhabiting this world. Rabess comes from his background and undoubtedly this influenced her writing and choosing this particular setting, but as a reader, I was fascinated. It’s not my world and I won’t pretend to understand all of the technical aspects, but Rabess’ writing is accessible and I understood enough of Jess’ career to not only follow the story, but to be intrigued. As a woman, I connected with Jess’s struggles in a male dominated profession. As a white woman, I listened to her struggles as a black woman in her work, but also dating Josh and life in general. The story was very eye-opening.

One aspect of Jess that will likely resonate with many readers is that she is young and struggling to define herself. This is her first major job and first adult relationship. She’s at that point in life, where she is transitioning from college to being an adult on her own, yet she does not have everything figured out. She struggles with people labeling her, even when she does not quite know where her life is headed. It is a time of figuring things out and lots of uncertainty. I’m in my mid-forties now, but Rabess took me right back to my twenties and all of the emotions associated with that time in my life.

I rooted for Jess and Josh. Their relationship is passionate and complicated, but also between two people who are essentially good, even if they have fundamental differences. There are also some steamy sex scenes!

At the heart of Everything’s Fine is the message that labels are destructive and that people can, and often do, change throughout their lives. Individuals are so much more complicated and diverse than society allows us to believe. I loved this book and can’t wait to read Rabess’ next novel. She’s a fabulous storyteller!