What If It's Us

by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

Told in two voices, when Arthur, a summer intern from Georgia, and Ben, a native New Yorker, meet it seems like fate, but after three attempts at dating fail they wonder if the universe is pushing them together or apart.

• ISBN10: 0062795252
• ISBN13: 9780062795250
• Publish Date: 9 October 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

3.5*

So this book is super adorable. Here's the thing: I don't have much to say beyond the "super adorable" part? I liked both characters a lot. Arthur, especially, made me chuckle. I loved how much family involvement there was from both guys' families. And I love that friendships were a big focus. I just... had trouble feeling more than "aw that was cute"?

Part of this is probably a "me" issue, because I can be pretty picky with contemporary. But I learned that I need more than just a cute romance in a book, apparently. So we can chalk this up to a learning experience, yay! Also, maybe I am a little bitter about meet-cutes in general, but I suppose that is an issue for a therapist and not a book review. 

I am also obviously here for the diversity- I love that it's a totally adorable book about two gay guys navigating the dating world! So I definitely don't want to downplay that aspect. Plus, I have to give it props for making me smile a lot, and also for gushing about Hamilton. These are huge, huge wins.

Bottom Line: If you enjoy meet-cutes and romance, this will absolutely be your jam. The characters are impossible to not root for, and you will want to squish them and give them all the happiness forever and ever amen. 

[Amber]

What If It's Us was my first read by both Albertalli and Silvera. I know, I know, I'm a disappointment of a book blogger. I just never thought to pick up their books before. I thought this would be a good introduction to their work, so I requested it when I saw it was up on Edelweiss. While I wasn't disappointed by the book, I don't think it lived up to the hype that I had built up in my head.

This book is a really cute contemporary. That's the only way I can describe it. It's fluffy, it's super sweet, the main characters (one of them, anyway) was adorable, and it was all just really nice. I was expecting something a bit more mind-blowing, considering how much everyone seems to love these authors. I'd be interested to see what fans of the authors' previous books think of this one and how What If It's Us matches up.

I don't know how the authors went about writing this book, but I liked Arthur a lot more than I liked Ben. Arthur isn't even the type of character I would gravitate towards or connect with, but I thought he was just lovely. Ben, on the other hand, was irritating as hell and I couldn't get over the stuff with his ex-boyfriend. Just. Nope.

I've read that some people didn't like the ending of this one but I ended up really loving it. Without spoiling things, I loved the way that everything wrapped up, I loved the epilogue, and I just thought it was done really well. I'm not a massive fan of everything wrapping neatly with a cute little bow, so this ending sat incredibly well with me.

To be honest, I was expecting a lot more from both of these authors, but I will still be reading their other books because I really enjoyed this one.

[Stephanie]

Warms the heart while stabbing you in the feels. Exactly what I would expect from a team up from Albertalli and Silvera.