I wanted to hop on and share with you a debut that publishes today that should be on your radar!

They All Fall In Love At The End by Haili Blassingame follows 24-year-old Cat, who is in an open relationship with Jay (who is not a fan of the concept, but is a fan of Cat). As you can guess, things become a bit messy when Cat falls for Jay's best friend, Tristan, while also crushing on Tristan's girlfriend, Nia.

But TAFILATE is not a romance; there is literary merit to this story as well. Cat is slowly bumbling through her MFA program, while also dealing with the unraveling of her parents' marriage. As you can probably guess, she's also being pressured to choose Jay because everyone has an opinion about nonmonogamous relationships, including Cat's. And the icing on the cake, this is told in a modern-day context, set in DC, where Cat is in the midst of political chaos that means navigating the world in disbelief over the absurdity that is the current administration.

I didn't know what to expect when I started reading, but what I got was such a surprise. For starters, the writing is sharp, and Blassingame establishes her literary voice upfront. On top of that, this book is funny. I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud over Cat's musings and the back and forth between her and the characters. But I also felt the gut punch of Cat's emotions trying to deal with having the right to make her own choices while constantly feeling like the choices she would make would inevitably hurt those she cares about the most.

This isn't a romance. There is no "traditional" happy ending. This story is raw, it's honest. It's real. It's unapologetic in every way.

I'm left in awe at the audacity of Blassingame making room for the Black girls who love literary fiction, and in this case, literary romance. While this can be on shelves alongside Sally Rooney, Lily King, Coco Mellors, and Raven Leilani, it's deserving of it's own space as an exceptional debut.

They Fall In Love At The End is out today!