What If It's Us

There's never enough romance and love in a book for a romantic soul reader. If you're one as well, check, this book for you.Do believe in destiny? Fate? Universe which brings two souls togeter? Check, it's all in here. A few more checks for you: unforgettable first love, first kiss, first touch. Second chances, do-overs, tears of pain, tears of joy.Wery well written, easy to read, making you long for more. With a few drama-queen shows, yet beautiful and entertaining.Looking forward to book Two.

There is something magical about this time of year. I spent the last couple of days eating way too much food, shopping for gifts, and decorating the house for the holidays. And though this year required us to do things differently than we have in years past, those holiday traditions still bring the same amount of magic that they always have. One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to curl up next to the fire with a good book. The Texas weather finally brought us winter this weekend, so I decided to take full advantage and finish reading What If It's Us. This cute love story was the perfect way to kick off the holiday season.Arthur is soaking up every moment of his summer internship in New York. The soon-to-be high school senior is completely committed to taking in all of the sights and sounds of the city life, even if that means neglecting the duties of his job. Today though, his internship has sent him on a mission that allows him to fulfill both of his desires. Today, he's been tasked with dropping off work documents at the post office. Yes, this is just a simple errand, but the city is ripe with adventure and opportunity.Ben is at the post office for an entirely different reason. He's got a box full of stuff that belongs to his ex-boyfriend. The breakup is still so fresh and difficult that Ben can't bear to even see his ex. Having all of this stuff that reminds him of the relationship isn't helping either. It makes sense to just mail it all back to him and rid himself of that part of his life for good. As you can imagine, fate has other plans. Ben and Arthur meet in line at the post office and have a really cute conversation. The spark between the two is undeniable, but then they are separated. Was this just a chance encounter meant to fill that small moment of time, or is this something more? You'll have to read to find out.I was so drawn into the story and characters that it is almost impossible for me to objectively comment on this book. In What If It's Us co-authors Becky Albertalli (of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda fame) and Adam Silvera deliver the kind of meet-cute YA romance that you'll have a hard time putting down. I don't normally read this genre, so I was a bit apprehensive at first. As I started reading, I couldn't help but find little pieces of myself in each of the characters. There's something about navigating the final years as a teenager that is universally relatable. Take away the fact that the main characters are gay (this story could have been equally effective with a heterosexual couple), and you are still left with a story that is just too compelling to not read. Is this a great work of literature that will be touted for its prose and structure? Of course not. But there's so much about What If It's Us to like about that you won't mind the little things that would normally detract from a novel. A sequel has recently been announced, and I really can't wait to read more about these characters.

3.5*This story is told from alternating perspectives, Arthur (who had ADHD) and Ben (who is Puerto Rican). Arthur is spending the summer in New York as an intern for his mother's law firm when he follows a very handsome boy (Ben) into the post office. Ben is trying to mail a box full of his ex-boyfriends stuff when he meets Arthur. Ben gets Arthur's name but Arthur doesn't get Ben's name and so when a flash mob breaks out at the post office, they get separated.The first 150 pages of this book is how Ben and Arthur are trying to find each other in the big city. So this book was a bit slow to start. But when they do finally meet up this dosen't become an instalove kind of thing. They do ease into.Being a collaborative effort between Becky Abertalli and Adam Silvera, I wasn't sure if this was going to rip my heart out or give me warm fuzzies, but truthfully it was a great blend of both. It had a lot of bittersweet moments mixed with moments that were just sweet.Having read a few other books by these authors, I was sorry to see that this didn't feel like it had the same kind of depth that "Simon Versus the Homosapian Agenda" and "They Both Die At the End" had. I felt like those two books had a lot more depth to them and a bit more deepemotionality and not just a ton of surface level fluffiness. The vast majority of "What If It's Us" was a lot of surface level fluffiness and I did not find myself loving this as much as the other two previously mention books I read by them.Overall this book was cute and enjoyable, but the characters felt a bit flat to me.

This was recommended to me by my friend and the moment I read it, I couldn't put it down. Although, the ending was something that caught me off guard. But, overall, I did enjoy the book.

The book was good! Mostly. It was hard to get over the HP references on nearly every page. It felt like a chore at some points. You could tell it was written by millennials that's for sure. It's hard to enjoy a queer love story when randomly the characters are throwing a birthday party for a terf. Sequel was so much better. Worth reading even if just to read the sequel!

I tend to lean into these love stories with such rose-colored lenses. Growing up gay decades ago didn’t provide youths with stories like these, especially if you lived in an area where “queer” was derogatory. This sweet story of a chance meeting becoming a beautiful coming of age romance really is just heartwarming. Arthur and Ben light up the pages with their relationships to friends and family, and at times, their own identity. The way that Silvera and Albertalli leave their own marks in the paragraphs and weave together their personal writing styles, creates a beautiful hybrid style easy to digest. I look forward to reading the next book to see where these characters go.