Elizabeth Obermeyer

I am back with another review, this time for your end-of-summer reading consideration. Not that we are in the end days of summer currently, but this is a book that will be published later in August, so there’s lots of time to a) anticipate its release, b) add it to your summer tbr list and finally and most importantly c) pre-order it!

I was introduced to Sonal Champsee by a mutual friend at The Wild Writers Literary Festival in Waterloo last November and was immediately drawn to her friendliness and her sense of humour. When our friend mentioned Sonal’s debut novel was being published in 2026, I knew I wanted to read it, based merely on our brief interaction. I knew she was an author who would have something to say that I would definitely want to read. 

Thanks to NetGalley, I was able to secure an ARC of Everyone Can’t Be Wrong and, not to brag, but my instincts were correct.

I love a story that gives the reader so much from the get-go, and Champsee dives right in for us. From the first page, we are not only introduced to the main character, Payal, but almost immediately we become fully aware of the challenges she is facing in her life. We see her doubts and insecurities and her mixed feelings about the life she’s chosen—or more accurately, the life she has gone along with for years. Like a lot of women, Payal has settled for the option that creates the least amount of waves in the family. But of course, that isn’t much of a life.

Payal works for her family’s accounting business, basically running it without thanks and constantly failing to meet her family’s expectations. And even though she didn’t really want to become an accountant, it’s also not clear to her or the reader if she truly knows what she wanted to be or do. And therein lies part of the problem. 

Added to this stress is the fact that Payal and her husband Bryan are dealing with what the medical field calls unexplained infertility and their relationship is struggling under this strain, leading Payal to ask herself even more questions about the life she is leading. Does she truly want children and the house in the suburbs, or does she feel that is the proper next step, the next box to tick in the path toward the life everyone seems to expect her to want?

Payal is every woman who has made sacrifices for her family, for her marriage. Every woman who has gone along with something because she didn’t want to suffer the backlash and the consequences of not going along with it, and even so, there is always someone making her feel inadequate. From her husband who insists on positive thinking to the point that it became annoying (this is not a slight against the author, just an observation, because we all know that guy who would rather tell us how to feel than actually really listen to us) to her parents and her extended family who all think they know what’s best for her. Payal is exhausted, and who can blame her?

The lines” What would people think?” or “What will people think?” come up over a dozen times in the book, usually asked by Payal’s mother, and this is an excellent indicator of what Payal is up against. Appearances at all costs. It’s got to weigh on a person. 

As a side note, the “What Will People Think” question was flung at me SO many times in my life, that I found myself tensing up, readying for a fight each time I read it. So Payal, girl, I get you. 

Solace and understanding ultimately comes for Payal from an unexpected place and person in Amit’s girlfriend Shannon, who she quite dislikes or at least dismisses early on in the book. 

At one point Payal tells Shannon “…it’s like I’ve been running after everything I was supposed to do for so long, I don’t even know what I want to do anymore.” 

When Shannon then asks her if she ever had a dream, Payal thinks back but, she says, it’s all a blur. 

Everyone Can’t Be Wrong is a fantastic novel full of heartache and humour, loss and discovery, hope and despair, and I absolutely loved it. The writing is smart and compelling, and the characters are real and familiar and full of life, and Payal’s journey to herself had me invested from the very first page. 

Big thanks to NetGalley for providing the ARC, and big thanks to Sonal for putting out the call on Instagram for reviewers! Everyone Can’t Be Wrong is published by Inanna Publications for release August 21, 2026 and you can pre-order it now via the publisher or through your local indie bookstore.