Everything Is Just Fine

by Brett Paesel

In this brilliant, laugh-out-loud satire, named one of Washington Independent Review of Books Favorite Books of 2019, image-conscious parents on a Beverly Hills junior soccer team struggle to keep up appearances as their private lives careen out of control.




"You'll wince, laugh out loud, relate to, and relish this unsparing satirical send up."---Wednesday Martin, New York Times bestselling author






Coach Randy is working mightily to keep it together, and not simply with his vaguely unhappy wife, distant child, and a new boss who's eliminating half the sales force. This season's soccer parents are a demanding bunch. Diane's wine-fueled group e-mails are almost unintelligible; team mom Jacqui's enthusiasm for the league verges on manic; a divorced couple can barely conceal their murderous rage at each other; and another mom is laser-focused on schooling everyone on what constitutes a healthy snack option.






All the secrets and lies bubbling below the surface of their membrane-thin civility threaten to combust when Alejandro, a young, foreign assistant coach refuses to play by the Beverly Hills code, which is to mind your own business and don't look too deeply into anyone's soul. Especially your own.




Brett Paesel brings hilarity and huge heart to a world that looks enviable and shiny on the outside but is, in truth, filled with aching for connection on the inside. In the vein of Perotta and Semple, everyday life in Paesel's deft rendering is anything but.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Relationships, Audiobook

432 pages, Hardcover

Published April 9, 2019

Reviews

[Kelly (UnshelvedEdition) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting out I expected a light read, I noticed a lot of the format was written in e-mails and short chapters (winning) but what I got was so much more. The story of these complicated relationships and family dynamics had my emotions up and down, at one point I was laughing and at others I felt my heart breaking for these characters. There were a lot of layers to the characters and it was a good lesson on what you see is not always what you get with people. The adults spend so much time advocating for their children and pointing blame that no one realizes that they are the most damaged of them all

See more reviews on Instagram @UnshelvedEdition

[Brooke — brooklynnnnereads · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy a satire, especially a narrative on suburban, everyday life...this book is for you. Think part "Big Little Lies" and part "Desperate Housewives". Seriously. You'll see.

This book was...something. Honestly, throughout half of it, I wasn't even sure whether I was going to end up liking the story or not.

As outrageous and dramatic (and unlikable) as these characters were, this story seemed strangely realistic to real life. The thought of that is horrific in itself.

Without spoiling anything, I will also say that there are some sex scenes in this novel that are pretty graphic. This is coming from someone who reads romance novels regularly. For some reason, this book's scenes came off a lot different though and were disturbing to read. I'm just mentioning this because personally, I didn't necessarily think there would be any romance when picking this book up.

This definitely is an odd book and one that readers will either distinctly like or dislike. I have to say that as odd of a read as it was, I do appreciate the commentary it had on society.

Make note that this novel also gave me a whole new appreciation of the fact that there was not the technological advances and/or accessible online communication that there is now when I was a child playing house league soccer. Thank God.

***I received a finished copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review***

[Jypsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm probably in the minority, but I didn't like reading a book in email format. Otherwise, Everything Is Just Fine is a good story. True to life based on the people I know! It's funny and witty. If you have kids and sports, this one is for you. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Peggy McCoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose these are contempory characters that I should appreciate, but.....they were all so damn weak and clueless and lacking in character. Not one of them really had a thought of leading a moral or unselfish life. Dianne was the most thoughtful and most self aware, and I liked her most.
This book made me feel sorry for people who are stuck living in Beverly Hills

[Mrs Mommy Booknerd http://mrsmommybooknerd.blogspot.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

#FirstLine ~The smack of a wave hitting the beach, loosening rocks as it receded.

This book was a surprise all around. I had the sense that it would be good, but it was more than that. It was funny, but thoughtful, deep with lighter moments and was filled with the grace of the human condition! A great read!

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coach Randy is determined to have a successful soccer season this year with his team of 10-year old boys. He has more than enough on his own personal plate without having to deal with the demands of a group of Beverly Hills parents that come with a whole load of emotional baggage themselves. The various secrets and lies are all simmering under the surface and threaten to combust when the young, Colombian assistant coach refuses to play by the Beverly Hills “rules” of minding your own business and not stirring the pot. As the emails fly wildly back and forth amongst the parents, it’s clear something’s going to give. Clearly, everything is NOT just fine.

Before I say anything about the novel, I have to say that I picked it up because I’ve lived through the “soccer parent” experience. Having had two daughters who both played soccer for many years, I couldn’t resist taking a light-hearted look at what many parents take so seriously. I laughed out loud (and suffered slight PTSD!) at the start of the book as squabbles broke out about making the “healthy snacks” list; tussling over who gets what uniform number; and the fiasco better known as Photo Day. I know these parents... they exist! My own personal highlight was pulling one of my daughters off the field in the middle of a practice one evening because there was lightning flashing close by. The other parents (and the coach) scoffed at me for leaving the field! During a practice! With a thunderstorm approaching! It was all I could do not to yell: This a house league soccer practice for 10-year olds... is it really worth risking their lives over?!? I’m SO relieved that we didn’t have team communications via email at that time or else I wouldn’t have been able to contain myself!

Having said that, I must say that I loved the email format that was used for most of this novel. The reader really gets a sense of each parent’s personality through their email missives, from Diane’s drunken middle-of-the-night notes to Jacqui’s perpetually sunny, optimistic, borderline manic take on life and the team. Author Paesel really conveyed their personalities well, using not just their words but also their spelling and grammatical errors to give them their own distinct voices. The emails were definitely the fun part of the novel!

The whole soccer theme is just a veneer, though. Beneath the “soccer parent” humour lies a rather dark look at life in Beverly Hills and the sad, empty lives that people are leading, while they try to maintain their perfect outward appearances to the rest of the community. On the surface the novel is a fun, sexy romp, but it really has more depth to it than I’d thought it would. It won’t be to everyone’s tastes (don’t pick it up if sex scenes offend you), but I really enjoyed it.

[Sue Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the book I needed, but didn't know I did. I loved the plot, the manner in which we got to know the characters (through emails, then varied narrators), the humor and the underlying sarcasm. Some will say these situations aren't real. I'm here, living in Southern California, to tell you they are, and it's ridiculous. But, these characters were masterfully done. There are many, and at times I struggle with authors that don't differentiate them enough, and I have problems keeping track. That was absolutely not the case here. I felt like I knew every single one of these characters. So well done. I hope we hear more from this author. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an advance edition of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Sarah Obsesses over Books & Cookies · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've ever been on a team sport as a kid or are a parent of a kid who's on a team this novel will resonate. But even if it doesn't it will make you laugh. It's told through email and reads really quick back and forth between Coach Randy and the parents and the mom volunteer and even though it's stereotypical rich people foo foo problems it's a delightful read that wasn't all fluff. In fact it addressed feelings of sadness and being lost in the world, adultery, and drunk emailing. I read this in two sittings. It was fun.
It's all about the kids and the goals and the speeches from movies and focused anger and cute semi pro soccer guys helping out the team. Or is it really about the gossip and drama. You be the judge.

[Aidan Pech · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man idk this was just so awesome. Nothing really major happened throughout other than the last 40 pages but the way paesel captured the human condition through and soccer moms/dads was pretty cool. Didn’t really like the emails at first but they started getting pretty funny and added layers to the characters and how some acted different over emails than when one on one with other characters.

[Cayla · Rating 1 out of 5]

ugh these characters 👎

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just okay. A lot of wealthy, miserable people in Beverly Hill. The book alternated between chapters of email correspondence and more detailed events. It was certainly a fast read not worth recommending.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. This is a 1% angst book, letting you know that the 1% have problems and are people too. The problem though is that for these characters, the problems were of their own making. They're so bored with all of their money and possessions that they find ways to make themselves miserable. They're not getting what they need from their partners, so they seek it elsewhere. Randy is the only one with real problems- he loses his job and his wife doesn't love him and he is so dumb he just goes deeper in the hole. Society itself is broken. We no longer have communities or real relationships and that has carried over into everything in life. The theme is fine, but the book was a bit boring.

[A.D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

With her latest work, "Everything is Just Fine," Paesel delivers an engrossing satire about the frenetically hidden vulnerabilities of a group of Beverly Hills soccer parents and coaches. These vulnerabilities are revealed via a chain of team emails, private texts and IMs, and varied narrators.
This format is a clever way to allow the reader to differentiate between the novel's many characters early on, thanks to the personal writing quirks of each individual and what these quirks imply. There are time stamps revealing immediacy of response, excess exclamation points and smiley faces, over-the-top signature quotes, and the garbled typing indicative of a solo wine binge.
The emails begin with a mix of forced jocularity and passive aggressive swipes-- enough to leave the reader with a sense of secondhand embarrassment. As the story progresses, the pedestrian pettiness proves a poor cover for escalating marital discord, struggling children, financial difficulty, affairs, and willful denial. It is only when various characters allow their masks to slip, and they begin to invest in each other, that they achieve any semblance of personal growth.
Paesel brings us characters who are, at times, painfully annoying, while simultaneously granting them a depth of vulnerability that allows us to care for and relate to them. In other words, they are endearingly human. We have all, at one time or another, known, cared for, or been one of these people.
Though "Everything is Just Fine" ends with a faint air of hope, it is a dark comedy, as depressing as it is funny, the contradictory elements inherent to human nature laid bare.This book will make you laugh, cringe, and sigh.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Lauren Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first novel I have read by Brett Paesel. I bought it from a discount store and the cover called her a “bestselling author” so I figured it was worth a try. It was just ok. It was a little longer than necessary although I will say some pages were just emails with a lot of space. So it was a quick read. This book isn’t going to stick with you long after you’ve finished it or teach you some profound life lesson. And that’s OK. It’s a story about regular people finding their way through life, parents of 10 year-olds dealing with their kids and adult issues. Maybe some characters will remind you of people you know. It’s an escape which is why many of us read.

[Gayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review at http://www.everydayiwritethebookblog....

verything Is Just Fine is about the private lives of a group of parents whose 11 year-old sons are on a Beverly Hills soccer team. The book is told in large part through emails among the parents as the fall soccer season gets underway. There’s the hapless coach who writes emails with spelling mistakes and quotes trite movie lines, and who is also hiding his work misfortunes from his wife. There’s the boozy divorcee who hits Reply All late at night when she’s had too much wine. There are feuding exes who can’t tolerate being at the same game, an eternally positive team mom who can’t admit that her son may be on the spectrum, and a workaholic absentee mother whose nanny covers the games. These characters interact through email exchanges and occasional chapters told through third person narration as they all dig themselves into deeper holes at home.

I don’t know that Everything Is Just Fine is ‘laugh-out-loud’ funny. There are definitely funny moments throughout, but it turns out to be a sadder and deeper book than it’s billed as. These characters are having trouble connecting and communicating, and they have deep regrets about how they’ve lived their lives. There isn’t a healthy marriage in the bunch. So while there is some voyeuristic fun in watching their lives implode and snickering at the email stereotypes, in the end it was all kind of depressing.

In the end, Everything Is Just Fine was a quick and painless read, but it’s not a book I can strongly recommend. It was like reality TV – easy to digest but not very filling.

[Kelly Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything is Just Fine is full of things I love - broken people and ordinary problems that spiral into terrible secrets. The story revolves around a group of parents involved in a children's soccer team. There are some standby stereotypes - overzealous mom, philandering husband, semi-alcoholic divorcee. The characters are well developed, however, and come across as genuine - sometimes cringingly so.

Set in Beverly Hills, this is a fun read where you don't feel compelled to root for anyone. The story is told through a series of team reports / group emails, personal correspondence, third person narration and one IM transcript that made me happy the author didn't try to include another one. The story is also told from different perspectives and, for the most part, it moves along at a good clip.

The only problem is that the plot does sag in the middle and becomes easy to skim read. Anything based so closely on real life always runs the danger of becoming tiresome and that is an issue in this book.

Still, it's a fun read and throws enough curveballs that readers will be entertained. In many parts it reminded me of suburban comedies like Desperate Housewives, American Housewife or even Pretty Wicked Moms.

23 Word Review: Group of parents survives a kids soccer season. Rich kids, broken parents and enough schadenfreude to keep you reading 'just one more chapter'.

[Henriette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got a free copy from NetGallery and would like to say I enjoyed it, but I did not. The story may have been good, but I wouldn't know as the format and more so the characters were just a total turn off for me. I have been a youth coach myself and had some annoying contact with parents, but in this book through the emails at the start of the book all I could see were not just parents of young kids but also the youth coach communicating with each other via email in a really irritating manner. The coach was so annoying, I just felt like telling him to shut up. How could he ever expect respect from kids and parents with that style of communication? He is the type of person I would stay really far away from. Anyways, I wanted to know what the story was all about but every time I picked it up and read more of these annoying team emails I cringed and thanked the Lord that I do not have this kind of drama in my life and therefore I decided not to spend any more time on finishing the book. There are so many other books on my to read list that it's not worth wasting time on a book where the characters annoy me this much, even if the copy of the book was free. Of course this is just my personal opinion and other reviewers seem to have really enjoyed it, so maybe it's a tolerance level issue or a cultural thing... who knows.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moms and Dads are rallying around their 10-year old sons in the Beverly Hills youth soccer league. There is an over-the-top friendly coach and an enthusiastic team mom. There is an assistant coach, a divorced mom who regrets the divorce, a divorced copy with the wife resentful over her husband leaving her for the nanny, a mom who strikes her child because she is so unhappy, and a young paid kicking coach that several of the moms lust after. The team parents communicate primarily by email after each game, some overly enthusiastic and effusive after the games, while others email after drinking too much.
While some of this is humorous, much of it is a commentary on how parents place too much emphasis on the youth leagues, and competitiveness at a young age, how dissatisfied some people are in their marriages - and instead of talking to their spouse, they go elsewhere for satisfaction. It examines how children feel isolated and alone, and how parents reveal their feelings inappropriately in front of their children without understanding how young the children are to deal with these issues. It deals with anger, depression, affairs, job loss, secrets, and autism.
I enjoyed this novel, and will probably read more by this author.
#EverythingIsJustFine #BrettPaesel

[Ryo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway.

This book is a satirical, mostly light read about a group of soccer parents and the drama in their lives. The emails, while they can often be humorous, are often way over the top, in a way that seems artificial, and it gets a little repetitive after a while. The plot starts off fairly light and frivolous, but as relationships, affairs, workplace drama, and other developments start, it becomes more serious, even as some of the characters, particularly the annoying coach in the center of it all, seem to keep their ridiculous personas. The book kind of lags in the middle, when it's mostly the same drama with the same people keeping the same secrets, but as things get more serious, it actually becomes an interesting examination of people who want love and connectedness with other people, but look in all the wrong places for it. The ending was a bit abrupt, though; the weird, almost deus ex machina plot device basically also provides a quick, half-page summary of what all the various characters are up to at the end, without a satisfying resolution of any of their plot threads.

[BonLivre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and #NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Overall, I thought this story was well presented. The strongest writing and most insightful observations were saved for the last 10% of the text, and I admit that the story up until then was a little too easy to put down. Seemingly gossipy in nature I struggled with actually caring about any of the characters - and there were a lot to choose from. However, the exploration of themes such as electronic communication versus honest conversation, seemingly “perfect” conditions, building false barriers, and the restrictions of circumstances and choices were strongly represented. By the end these thought provoking topics outweighed inconsistent chapter construction (though I thought the use of texts and email conversations were interesting), floundering pronouns, and unnecessarily crude scenes that absolutely pulled me out of the story. I wish the small dash of magic/psychic abilities was better developed.

[Steffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sometimes when we lose, it's hard to remember that a lot of great things are still happening."

The plot didn't intrigued me that much but when I started reading, oh boy, I couldn't stop. I'm not a parent nor do I like sports but the narrative was so good! I loved that the story was told from different viewpoints and e-mail conversations. The characters were well drawn in their language. Some were truly annoying but so real. Following their lives was really entertaining. Balancing secrets to maintain the picture of a perfect life, the characters struggle with marital and divorce problems, insecurities and unhappiness. It's funny, hilarious and I still think about poor Randy. It's emotional and sad while being entertaining. Very humane and depressing but with great comedy.

*I received an advance digital copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Julie Fogarty Oldbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was an easy read that conveyed much of the story through email exchanges. (I noticed a lot of grammatical errors, but I soon realized they were intentional as they were representative of the characters who were writing the e-mails.) The characters were well-developed, and I liked that I could really get inside their heads.

I found this book had a great balance of being entertaining and emotional. Overall the book is very well-written, and not that this has much relevance for a book review, I think this book could easily translate to a major motion picture.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

[Michael Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

One would think at first glance that this is a light and lively read. You will be mistaken. Although it moves fast, that isn't the result of the varied writing styles, incorporating email banter into the flow. It moves fast because I guarantee as one reads this, some character, some story line will connect quickly with ones' life. Don't we each at times present ourselves to the world with our best bona fides? As Patrick ponders at the close of the book..."that sliver of wisdom many don't get until they are much, much older (if at all). Which is simply this: Most of us end up being fine in the end".

I am taking away from this good read the comment "Yearning to ascend above our daily existence" and again kindly saying to myself, it is time to choose courage over comfort.

[Amber · Rating 1 out of 5]

At the beginning, I loved this book. I enjoyed the email conversations and found them especially amusing as a sports mom. But then things went super downhill. The language is horrendous and there were such graphic and degrading references to things that I almost stopped reading. At that point, I was invested in the characters and wanted to see how it ended, so I pushed on. It got worse....
And then the one kid ends up with super powers and can actually fly?? The departure from reality there was so weird and out of sorts with the rest of the book and the point I thought it was trying to make (about real life among families in an upscale neighborhood). First and last book by this author, which is a shame as it drew me in at the beginning and had such promise.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand, this is a quick read that held my attention until the last 50 pages or so.

On the other hand, one of the main characters, the coach, is so cringey and cartoonish (think Michael Scott in The Office) that I did not care about him in the least, which made the 400+ pages seem to drag on by the end. This could easily have been a 300 page book without losing anything of value.

I thought this would be a fun book for me as my children all played soccer for many years, but the communication on those teams was nothing like what happened in this book or we would have quit after the first season.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is told in a combination of narrative voices and emails. I usually dislike multiple perspective narratives, and always dislike a book told through emails, so this combination was not appealing to begin with. The story-lines are all surrounding families (mostly the parents) of 10-year-olds on a soccer team. It ended up feeling scattered, with too many characters who weren't really developed. I like the idea that we see that no one's life is perfect, but this story ends before most of the "fixing" or resolution of conflicts and problems.

Note: I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

[Courtney Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

I was surprised at how much I loved this book. While satirical, at its core it’s a book about the intricacies and the delicate processes of our relationships and how we react to what life throws at us. Paesel does an excellent job at creating heavy situations for the chacacters but balances them out with humour and a light-heartedness that is surprisingly relatable. I both know these characters in my everyday life and can relate to their inner thoughts and feelings myself.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emails, private messages, and texts skewer a group of parents in Southern California. Coach Randy has to manage the high maintenance parents more than the kids- and omgoodness are some of these people pains! Some of this feels over the top and a little crazy but sadly, it's also representative of how parents can get over kid sports. While this is set in Beverly Hills, if you pare away some of it, it could be set anywhere. It's smart, funny and a fast read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. How much you enjoy this depends, I think, on how you feel about the format but it worked for me.

[kimreadsandreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick, easy read alternating from emails to prose, different characters having their part of the story in their own voice. It works for me, although some might not like this writing style. Having been a soccer mom for over two decades, the idea of a soccer team being a community, a family, with all the team emails and drama on and off the field surrounding each players families, it all
Seemed so familiar. It did make me very thankful to have my particular soccer families and not some of these!

[Nicole Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
It’s okay. It’s really light; there’s not much of a plot or story. Some of the characters are really relatable and the ones that aren’t are entertaining. I guess the point is that nothing is as it seems and even the most seemingly privileged and happy people have problems. Despite it being well written with relatable characters, the lack of any substantial plot or any real depth makes it not worth it for me. To be fair, I don’t have kids in minor league sports and haven’t dealt with the parent email chains first hand so maybe I’m not the intended audience to appreciate this fully.