They all fall in love at the end by Haili Blassingame

They fall in love at the end is the story of a 24-year-old coloured woman, Cat St. Clair, navigating her life—one that’s simple—until it isn’t.

Cat works part-time at a restaurant and soon finds herself making out with three boys despite her parents' disapproval. One is a co-worker from the restaurant who she knows will be a brief fling. One is her years-long boyfriend who wants more from their relationship than Cat’s willing to give, and the third is her boyfriend’s best friend who she is magnetically pulled towards. She strains relationships with everyone around her as they become complex and disruptive.

Trying to fulfil her dream, Cat is writing her first novel with the help of her lecturer and fellow students in her creative writing degree programme. The novel reflects her parents' lives, her own life in real time, and the indecisions she’s facing.

Set during the lead-up to the American elections and the onslaught following the re-election of the Trump administration, the promises to make America great again and the signing of multiple executive orders, Cat and her friends suddenly find themselves as onlookers as ICE agents detain activists and thousands lose their jobs. Student visas are revoked as Trump announces funding to universities will be cut, and suddenly her scholarship is cancelled, her favourite professor disappears, and she loses her part-time job.

“I was stuck in this bizarre patriotic portrait, watching it rendered in the worst way.” Then Cat’s mother decides she’s leaving home, and her father accidentally shoots himself in the foot.

Cat is a black woman going for what she wants with reckless abandon while trying to understand the world around her. They all fall in love at the end is a literary love story.

Reviewer: Carole Brungar

Simon & Schuster