They All Fall in Love at the End

by Haili Blassingame

Cat St. Clair is ready for her messy love triangle era now that she’s in an open relationship. But she didn’t foresee a forbidden love triangle with the only two people who are off limits: her boyfriend’s best friend and his girlfriend. Being a twenty-something writer who lives for the plot, she falls for them anyway, with deliciously disastrous consequences, in this electric literary debut for fans of Xochitl Gonzalez, Coco Mellors, Lily King, and Raven Leilani.

It’s the fall of 2024, and twenty-four-year-old Cat isn’t asking for too much: all she wants is three boyfriends, to write her little novels, and to survive another chaotic presidential election. She’s in an open relationship with her college sweetheart Jay, but nonmonogamy isn’t just a hot trend she’s trying. It’s her sliver of freedom in a world eager to wrestle it from her for being a Black woman going after what she wants with reckless abandon.

While political tensions roil the campus where Cat is slowly earning her creative writing degree, she finds herself drawn to Jay’s best friend, Tristan, who’s smart, super hot, and…in a monogamous relationship. And then she meets Tristan’s girlfriend, Nia, a captivating art student with her own gravitational pull.

Friends and family urge her to just be happy with Jay, but Cat is determined to have it all—or blow up her life trying. As she falls for all the wrong people, racking up lies, betrayals, and terrible drafts of her novel, she tries to write her way to a happy ending. But in art, politics, and love, true liberation may take more than rewriting the old scripts. It may mean inventing something entirely new.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Adult

384 pages, Hardcover

First published June 2, 2026

About the author

Hi!! I write literary and book club fiction about love, desire, and the decisions that feel impossible to make starring plucky, loud-mouth female protagonists of color. My debut is called THEY ALL FALL IN LOVE AT THE END. It has a hot-pink cover that I love more than most things in this world. I'm a producer for 1A, a show from NPR and WAMU. I've written a New York Times Modern Love essay about breaking up with my boyfriend and a piece in The New Republic about Kamala Harris and Gretchen Whitmer. I was in an MFA program in Creative Writing but didn't finish. I live in Washington, D.C with my 10,000 books and no bookshelf.

Reviews

[emma]

all i ever want to read is literary romance.

https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...

i struggled to get into this at first, which is possibly solely because it has a million teeny little chapters and i fall too hard for a stopping point.

finally, when it'd taken me more than three weeks to get halfway through, i realized i was being ridiculous and sat down to read the rest in a sitting. that was the right call.

there is so much going on in this book, love and suffering, the societal and the individual. it feels like life — stressful and joyful and painful and haunting and real.

bottom line: i recommend it.

(thanks to the author for the arc)

[Shawnaci Schroeder]

4.5/5

This is one of those books that’s going to stick with me for awhile because it truly felt like a coming of age story for adults. Such a great book if you like messy characters and messy storylines. Loved the writing style of this one because it felt like a brain dump & a journal entry in the best way. Really touched on current events & politics in a way that I haven’t seen a lot of authors do. Would be the BEST book for a book club!

[Heidi Zuva]

Thoughts while reading:

Blassingame has a way with words! Literary romance may be my way to enjoy the genre.

She said "he dragged his tongue up my throat." 🤢 Not to yuck their yum, but that gave golden retriever in the worst way and I needed a minute to collect myself.😂

This is interesting to read, but wow is Cat a mess. Sleeping with her boyfriend's best friend, without bf's awareness/consent/approval??? Guys, I don't think this is a mono vs poly thing, that's just really really mean cheating. This is his childhood best friend, FIFTEEN YEARS of friendship and they're sneaking around behind his back? Wow, poor Jay.

Okay, y'all, I cannot date with the Gen Z's. Thank goodness I'm married.😭 This sounds exhausting.

(very well written book though).

Particularly from the midpoint on, the story does a really great job of capturing the insanity of 2024/2025 politically. Especially in her email exchanges with the Gazan academic she bought a tree from, there were really interesting conversations and thought-provoking moments.

This meaningful political discussion juxtaposed with her messy personal drama was such a realistic portrayal of life (and especially student life, as students have historically been very political… but they’re also horny new adults).

The political side ended up being more interesting to me than Cat’s relationship paradigm and I wanted more of that! Like when Cat, an American student, tells the Gazan, a man living in an active war zone, that she was only in the US because people brought her (she said “me” not “my ancestors”) against her will, he took her literally because in his life the horror is active.

I want to be crystal clear, because internet reading comprehension can be poor: SLAVERY IS TERRIBLE. Black people today continue to experience disadvantages and generational trauma, and those wrongs against humanity are wrong.

What I’m pointing at in this conversation is the American tendency to demand perfection (which is awesome!) that leads us to talk in hyperbole, forgetting that the extremes we’re painting to prove our points are reality in other parts of the world.

Anyway, this would make great book talk fodder and there’s the option to keep it light (thoughts on her likening having only one partner as a poly person to forcing a lesbian to date a man 👀🤐) or dive into the larger political discussion.

Final note: as a Zimbabwean-American first gen I love that Zimbabwe was the random country she chose. 🇿🇼 🤌🏽

[bg]

i need someone smarter than me to read this so we can talk about the ending

[Katie B]

Thank you Scribner for sending me a free copy!

4.75 stars

This book took me on a reading journey I was not expecting, but that turned out to be a great thing. I had anticipated a typical messy love triangle type story but it was so much more than that. My memory fades when it comes to most books, but this one is sticking with me.

Cat is a 24 year old Black woman pursuing a creative writing degree at Howard University in Washington D.C.. She dated her boyfriend, Jay, for years before asking for an open relationship and he reluctantly agreed. Cat is now finding herself drawn to Jay’s best friend, Tristan, and Tristan’s girlfriend, Nia. The story is set against the background of the 2024 U.S. presidential election and the aftermath of all the policies and actions by the government since then.

I love how the author approached writing Cat as she gave her depth. She could be strong with her convictions but in other areas she is seemingly walking around aimlessly. It was a gripping read and I appreciate how the story examined what’s been going on in this country and abroad since the 2024 election.

I always struggle to articulate why I loved a book so much. Please just take my word for it that this is a literary fiction book worth checking out.

[Sabrina]

if supporting women’s rights and wrongs was a book

[Patrycja Krotowska]

Crisis, Capitalism & Horniness: The Novel

Cat, grll, have fun and GROW UP. Egh, a global trauma playlist with a sex soundtrack.

[fatima]

5⭐️ i need this on my tv screen. this book was a beautiful mix of pain and pleasure. reading it while all the same atrocities are still happening down to the bachelor being messy was frightening.

Haili has a way of making the next sentence, paragraph and page even more addicting than the last and i inhaled this book.

I was giggling, shaking my head, blinking away mist in my eye.

This should be just as big as Normal People. But not because it’s or Haili is trying to imitate NP or Sally but because it’s a love story in the middle of life happening, the dark and the frightening.

Cat may not be for everyone but she’s for me.

[jocelyn • coolgalreading]

3.5? i thought i would love this more than i did, but i loved the writing

[Gabriella C]

Current events fanfiction

[cyd]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was a perfect example writing in a modern setting without beating you over the head with references . Being set in 2025 it would’ve been very easy to add random references to the political landscape we live in without adding any extra commentary and allowing the reader to fill in the blanks. The main character had clear opinions and even though unlikeable at times was super understandable. I don’t read many books featuring polyamory but I felt this was written in a very natural way. This book is for sure a love story but not a romance so don’t go in expecting that. I enjoyed the ending but some of it was a bit rushed. The open ending worked really well here and I definitely recommend this.

[Eden]

This book will stick with me for a long time and it encompasses everything that I love about literary fiction. While I would not call this a romance, it is definitely lit fic with a romantic relationship in it. They All Fall in Love at the End is a story that takes place in present-day DC, set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 2024 election season. Cat St. Clair, a 24-year-old graduate student pursuing an MFA in creative writing, is trying to navigate her open relationship when she develops feelings for her boyfriend’s best friend and his girlfriend. As her personal and family relationships begin to unravel, Cat is forced to confront what liberation and happiness might truly mean for her.

This literary debut was so spectacularly messy and I had such a hard time putting it down. It's rare for me to fall in love with characters almost immediately after starting a book, but that's how I felt with this one, especially with Cat. As someone who loves to write, the way in which she processes her own relationships and that of her parents through the written word really resonated with me, especially during the 2024 election. Blassingame was working magic with her writing and I was in awe the entire time.

A few particularly poignant quotes that stuck with me:
"I don't think I'm good actually. But what choice do I have to be anything else?"
"But why should I have to make up fake people for someone to care about real ones?"
"There was no more room in my heart for worry, so I only hoped."

I highly recommend giving this a read and I look forward to more by Blassingame.

[Haili Blassingame]

hot

[Molly]

This book made me feel old. Also, my expectations were off - I went in thinking it'd be a fun romance vibe, and instead got a Gen Z 20-something grappling with her messy decisions around polyamory, politics, and general angst about the world in the 2020s.

[Letho]

felt like i was going insane while reading this

[Helen Wu ✨ (Loves audiobooks)]

I think I expected a different kind of story. Not in a bad way. This one lives closer to politics, community, and the mess of the real world. Sometimes I wondered if I was missing the point. I loved Jay. I liked Nia. I understood Tristan. Cat, though, pushed every anxious part of me. Maybe staying true to what you want is always hard. The book wrestles with desire, duty, and that pull between who we are and who we think we should become. I felt the weight Cat carries. It pressed on me too. It made me wonder if we are all a little tired inside. The world feels cracked. Do we fight harder or just try to stay afloat. When institutions make choices driven by money and pressure, it is hard to believe in anything steady. And yet perspective shifts when you talk to someone far away. The questions linger. What is the right ending. What is the right life. Do we reject ourselves before anyone else can. Do we bend to fit in. This book stirred a lot in me, even when I wasn’t sure I understood every angle. It left me curious. And unsettled. And thinking.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC!

[Diana Vasquez]

There were elements that made for something interesting (2025 in DC, polyamory as a black woman, her mother) but it all fell away by centering an almost rage bait-y duo of characters navigating infidelity. And for what exactly??? Idk. It’s a no for me dog.

[Sahil]

this had the potential to be so much better of a book than it was, but it felt unfocused. i was confused as to what the book was trying to be. a novel about politics? a story of a girl's journey with polyamory? a love triangle? all of those things feel like they don't fit, but at the same time the book was trying to do all three, and wasn't doing them all that well because everything felt messy and not structured or handled well enough.

i enjoyed the first half of this book, with the conversations around polyamory, especially with the main character having to continually stand up for herself when she was being judged so harshly by everyone around her, especially the love interest, who was the biggest hypocrite to ever exist. those conversations were so interesting, and i wanted more of them! but then it felt like the plot just stopped making sense or feeling like it fit. this felt like a novel that was trying very hard to replicate a specific period in time, both politically, and socially, with constant references to tiktok things that were viral at the time, which genuinely made me cringe. but the politics side of it just felt very random, because it did not feel natural, and also because i wasn't sure what the purpose of it was. to show that the characters were aware of current events, and were an active part of them? i didn't get it. it didn't fit the wider story of the novel. it just felt like a random side quest that didn't fit anything.

also, the blurb of this book was SO misleading because it hints that this book is queer, with what with the falling/flirting with both the boyfriend's best friend AND his girlfriend but that was not the case at all. it was more like an infatuation with the girlfriend that never went anywhere besides a weird threesome. also the sex was written so badly!

it was also an issue to me that in a book focusing on polyamory, the main character could not adequately explain why she was pursuing polyamory. she managed to do it in a very confusing way in her own internal monologue but when she was asked by other characters, it was like she was a blank wall. like girl speak up!! this is your time!! there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be polyamorous, and she was very open with her partner in terms of introducing the idea, but she was SO messy with every single thing that she did, and there was never any explanation. why was she drawn to her boyfriend's best friend, other than physical appearance? i don't know. they both spend the majority of the novel lying to everyone, and then when it finally comes out, the boyfriend is like it's okay, i understand. what? absolutely not! the main character was so selfish, and messy. messy is fine but this is the sort of messy that is intentionally hurtful. the kind where you are so selfish that you know your actions are going to hurt people you supposedly care about, yet that doesn't stop you in the slightest. fuck off. the novel spends a great deal of time with all of these characters, but never actually does anything interesting with them, it never goes anywhere. and then it just ends.

also, sorry, but what the fuck was that random side plot with the dad having a gun and randomly pulling it out during a family argument and shooting himself in the foot by accident? it felt like i had taken a weird drip on drugs.

it's such a huge shame because this had so much potential to really be something!! but it was just meandering and a little all over the place.

[Christie]

Young, hot ebony wants to have her cake and eat it too. A story I didn’t know I needed but I’m so grateful that it found me when it did 💞

[alyson]

Actually stop, I hate every single character in this story except for Jay (why do you have me siding with a man…?).

Our main character, Cat, is a black female writer and a polygamist in a monogamous relationship with her long-time boyfriend, Jay. Throughout the novel, she has conflicting feelings for her boyfriend’s best friend, Tristan, and his girlfriend, Nia.

As someone who supports women’s wrongs and rights, I couldn’t get past Cat’s blatant selfishness despite her being vocal about her polyamorous beliefs. It’s one thing to open up your relationship and it’s mutual (I guess), but it’s another to fuck your boyfriend’s best friend MULTIPLE TIMES when he is completely unaware of this happening! Are boundaries not a thing even when it comes to openness? When does it become too far?

To be real, I don’t even understand Cat’s fixation on Tristan because this dude is fucking insufferable. He is a self-proclaimed “devoted Christian” with strong monogamous values but has no issues fucking Cat on his kitchen’s stove while having a whole girlfriend…ARE WE OKAY???? LIKE GENUINELY???? He constantly shames Cat for being polyamorous, doesn’t want to open up his relationship with Nia (and we all know it’s because this would dismantle his cheating fantasy), is possessive over Cat for some fucking reason, and clearly does not give a shit about his friendship with Jay. He’s the biggest hypocrite and enemy of the state IDGAF. At least with Cat, she was true to herself!

Also, I tried so hard to like Nia but she really started to piss me off toward the end. I can see why her and Tristan were together; they have the same self-righteous mentality and ride off each other’s high horse. The part where she dissed Cat for going to work instead of protesting left a sour, sour taste in my mouth. I would’ve lost my cool and slapped that bitch.

Jay is wayyyyy better than me. I don’t know why he put up with this shit for so long when he knew, deep down, him and Cat were no longer aligned. And, that’s okay! Sometimes, we need to come to conclusion that some things are not meant to be. Though, it took them months—and I mean, MONTHS—at least both him and Cat finally came to a mutual understanding that it’s just never going to work. I still hate Tristan.

And, if I read the word “compartmentalize” one more time, I might gouge my eyes out.

[nat :3!]

call me something phobic but this was so damn bad jesus christ
your boyfriend wants only you? yeah ges def trying to trap you

[Lise]

The book might be good for 20-somethings (and usually I like these books) but not for older people. Or, it's just boring.

[Janna]

I wanted to like this so bad bc it sounds so interesting but it fell so so flat. Too many scrambled plots that had nothing to do with each other, the relationships felt very hollow and nonsensical, character motivations made no sense. It basically felt like a series of diary entries but not one I would wanna read. Some of the writing was good but I was disappointed :(

[andrea]

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy!

--

this book is about cat st. clair, a twenty four year old black writer at howard university who convinces her boyfriend jay to open their relationship and then immediately falls for his best friend tristan and tristan's girlfriend nia. it's set against the 2024 election and everything that comes after.

i think i'm maybe not woke enough for this one because i spent a lot of it frustrated. cat insists that jay not wanting to be polyamorous is a violation of her personhood and i get the impulse but you can't make someone want something they don't want just because you want it. that's not liberation, that's coercion. and then she sleeps with his best friend anyway and calls it growth. the relationship stuff felt less like radical self exploration and more like she just wanted permission to do what she was going to do regardless and got annoyed when people had feelings about it.

the political thread was more interesting to me. the election. the aftermath. the realization that the result means bad things for so many of us. the way educational institutions teach about genocide while expelling their own students for protesting one. that part felt real and urgent and grounded. but it never quite connected to the relationship stuff in a way that made the book feel whole. it was like two different novels sharing a cover. the political sections made me want to sit with them longer and the relationship sections made me want to shake someone.

cat is messy and selfish and the book knows that. i'll give it that. but knowing it and doing something with it are different things and i'm not sure the ending earns the introspection it reaches for. interesting debut. didn't quite land for me.

[Stefanie]

I feel like I was desperately trying to grasp for more pages and more of this story as I was nearing the end. I miss it already.

[Rachel Hassett]

I read this book as a pride month pick and while undoubtedly the central theme is based around Cat’s desire to be polyamourous and focuses on her sexual relationships with different people of different genders there is so much more to the story than that.

The novel deals with relationships, love, family trauma, racism, politics, education, growth and what I think is most important … finding yourself amongst it all.

[Reeka Hazenstab]

I fucking hated this because of so many different things. The polyamory? More like constant lies and selfish decisions with zero regard for the people around her.

Jay deserved more from both his “best friend” and long time life partner that he TRIED to dive into polyamory for.

The fact that Cat can’t articulate why she feels polyamory is her at her core but can’t be honest with the person she loves the most baffles me. The way Tristan is a HYPOCRITE drives me mad. Because ARE YOU COOL??? You don’t believe in polyamory. You’re Christian and constantly say monogamy is the only way for you…yet……YOU CHEAT ON YOUR GF WITH YOUR BEST FRIENDS GF. Make it make sense. You can’t because it doesn’t.

Also, whoever said this was sapphic. You’re a liar. I hope your favorite book drops into a puddle and a car runs over it.

[Brandice]

They All Fall in Love at the End is a story about Cat St. Clair, a Black college student and aspiring writer, in an open relationship. She finds herself in a forbidden love triangle and keeps making questionable choices. While doing so, Cat also works as a server and continues to observe her parents’ contentious relationship.

They All Fall in Love at the End is contemporary fiction that was entertaining, and had both cringeworthy and thought provoking moments. The story is set in 2024 and includes current events, both political and social. Even though I wondered what Cat was (or wasn’t) thinking for most of the book, I really enjoyed reading this and look forward to seeing what Haili Blassingame writes in the future.

[Miki_reads]

I feel slightly queerbaited and 100% rage baited (rtc)

[melody]

hilarious and accurate and heartbreaking depiction of what it was like being a young adult in 2024 (election, palestine, etc.) and trying to stay afloat while it feels like the world is melting around you. it’s also about someone navigating polyamory, though i’m not sure if it explored it as much as i would have wanted it to. the way everything concluded didn’t feel as strong as the rest of the book