Having heard such a lot about Becky Albertalli's successful and young adult novels over the past couple of years, and having been meaning to pick one of them up a lot sooner I thought this was a perfect time to do so. Let's just say I was so enamoured by it that I immediately grabbed hardback copies of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (published in 2015) and Leah on the Offbeat (published in 2018) both for myself and my nieces who I know would find this very entertaining but not only that, this book has some important messages for its young readership. I have always thought that the young adult genre is one of the most influential and YA authors have an unspoken duty of care to their young readers almost as celebrities have a duty to be mindful as to how they behave or what they let escape their mouths - role models if you will. I would venture a guess that Ms Albertalli has likely gotten another bestseller on her hands with this beauty!

There is such a lot to love about What If It's Us that it's going to be a struggle to mention them all, however, I will, of course, mention those I deem to be most important. Essentially, this is a beautiful love story between Arthur and Ben but it also explores racism, class prejudice and homophobia too. This is on top of all those pesky challenges that every teenager is subjected to. Both of the boys' friends are people that any teenager would be blessed to have in their corner - they are so supportive and reliable and what I would term "keepers" or "friends for life". Anybody would be incredibly lucky to count these guys as friends! The fact that the book explores the relationship between two gay teenagers in love and dissects their relationship makes this a gorgeous book for those like myself - a huge proponent of equality and LGBTQIA+.

It deals with topics sensitively throughout but doesn't shy away from exploring or highlighting particular issues and always does so with the utmost respect. What really impresses me about this book is that it is a fun, fast and light read that is bold enough to approach many issues that are important in the lives of youngsters but without compromising the story and making it feel heavy - not an easy thing to pull off, it shows just how masterful these authors are. Authentic feeling and realistic, it picks up on many topics that most youngsters will be able to relate to and empathise with. The many references to pop culture are obviously targeting the books main audience so will either hit the spot or go completely over your head depending on your age. I enjoyed this immensely, it is a quick read that has so much substance to it. I feel if you loved <i>Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda</i>, you'll fall hard for this too - just as I did! It captures your attention firstly before swiftly following suit with your heart, Cute, quirky, unmissable and utterly UNFORGETTABLE!

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster UK Children's for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

The story of Ben and Arthur and young love. The problems of a teenager in love while overcoming social issues of race and discrimination and homophobia on top of being a gay teenage boy dealing with being a teenager in a world of confusing times.

The part I loved about this book the most was the supporting friendships of both Arthur and Bens friends but especially of Dylan as his love for Ben was unconditional and brutally honest!

If you loved Simon vs. The Homo-sapiens (Love, Simon) you will love this book!

I really wanted to read this, because I am a big fan of ‘Love Simon’. My honest reaction is that I liked it, but didn’t love it. Arthur was kinda annoying for a lot of the book. And I am not sure if the ending was right. Not a bad read, but nothing I will be fangirling over.

I'm a sucker for Becky Albertalli's particular brand of bittersweet romances, but had never read anything by Adam, so came into this cautiously optimistic. And what a read! I think this might be one of my favourite reads so far. There's some beautifully sweet romantic moments, I loved all the musical references far too much and Arthur and Ben are brilliant main characters. Really sensitive issues like money problems and feelings of academic failure are covered brilliantly too. I liked the ending too, felt very realistic rather than very romantic.

Highlights

Cuteness levels

Both main characters

Dylan 😍

Overall

I just had a really stressful week which ended on a bad note, and I came home to this book. It was totally what I needed and I loved every single piece of it. I completely forgot time on Friday evening and ended up reading until 1am which is a very rare occurrence for me. I loved this book! ❤️

This book made me very happy and fluffy 😊


The Story

The story is dual perspective between Arthur and Ben, and follow their summer in New York trying to find each other, figure each other out, and figure out what the universe is planning for them.

There are sociologically interesting elements touched on in this books too. The is a homophobia scene, a racial moment, a clash of religion moment, and the meeting of two economically different families. All of these scenes and moments were done very well.

The Characters

Arthur is staying in New York for the summer working as an intern for his mom's law firm. He is a musical buff and is a person who loved life and feels the universe is on his side. I really liked Arthur as the little naive, inexperienced, cute boy in the big city type.

Ben is the New Yorker in summer school. I prefer Ben to Arthur, or sure why but he was probably my type of guy. He is Porto Rican and from the more middle-class area of New York.

Arthurs friends and Bens friends are also there. They all give you a better understanding of who the main characters are. Arthurs friends from home set the scene of who the trio is at home. Same with Ben and Dylan. But Dylan is very funny and I absolutely loved him as a character. Come to think of it, Dylan might be one of the reasons Ben was my favourite character, I would love to have a friend like Dylan.

LGBT+?

Oh, Holy Hell Yes!! The entire book is centred around a m/m romance and it's the cutest 😍

Writing

Loved it. On occasion, I found it difficult to differentiate between the two narratives and I got confused to who was talking/narrating sometimes, especially in dialogues between Ben and Arthur.

Apart from that, I loved how the texts are displayed and the overall writing was very easy to read.

Considered this book is co-authored, I couldn't tell whilst reading. I don't really know either of these authors books or writing styles, so I wouldn't know them anyway. 

Summary

Loved it!

I will totally live on this cuteness for a while.

I've already pre-ordered a copy for myself

Hey! Netflix! You looking for something else to adapt? Look no further!! I demand you to adapt this!

Georgia-native Arthur is doing a summer internship in New York and finding it's not, as expected, the city of opportunity: he's lonely, he misses his best friends, and he still hasn't won the Hamilton lottery. And Ben, who lives in Manhattan, is stuck in summer school, alongside his cheating ex-boyfriend, after flunking out of chemistry. It's not exactly the summer of dreams either of them expected. Until a meet-cute in the Post Office sets them on a new trajectory.

How, I wondered to myself, would a narrative that's part-Silvera, the undisputed king of tragic gay lit, and part-Albertalli, the queen of the queer happily ever after, work coherently? And, more importantly (because I much prefer a happy ending to a sad one), would it break my heart Silvera-style, or warm it? Without giving too much away, I'm glad to report that the ending was perfect. And, with Arthur written by Albertalli and Ben by Silvera, there's a clear enough division between the characters and their voices that the differing writing styles don't jar.

I didn't fall head over heels in love with What If It's Us, but I liked it a lot. It deals with some big issues - racism, class in America, homophobia - without ever feeling preachy and heavy. There was a similarity in tone to some of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn's novels, most notably the Dash and Lily duology, but with more of a sense of social realism. And as in those books the supporting characters are a delight, with Ben's best friend, Dylan, particularly reminding me of Boomer from the Dash & Lily novels. And that ending really is perfect.

“An actual date with a boy. This is possibly, definitely the number one best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I have no chill about it. None whatsoever.”

Actual rating 4.5

You know, Rainbow Rowell once had this twitter thread going about how she wanted more traditionally published books to be like fanfiction and how fanfiction had such a bad reputation when in actuality it gave the reader everything it wanted in such an uncomplicated manner. And in that way, saying that reads like fanfiction is the greatest compliment I can give to it: Arthur and Ben are instantaneously likable, even though these characters are completely new, I felt like I've known them for years. The conversations between the two of them are adorable and I really wanted to squish Arthur's cheeks for the entirety of the book because he is the incarnation of a Hufflepuff, not even kidding. There isn't a real plot to this book and it's not needed because it's a story about characters and losing love and finding love instead of a thrilling quest or heist - and I can definitely see some people taking issue with this.
Also the Hamilton, Harry Potter, and Dear Evan Hansen references. So many references. Like I said, this read like fanfiction and I could have honestly read 500k more about Arthur and Ben discussing these topics. Seriously, those scenes were so fluffy and full of goodness, I actually screamed 'cinammon rolls, too pure for this world' out loud.

Sure, there are some minor bumps in the story: I wasn't the biggest fan of jealousy and miscommunication being the major driving force of this plot (it felt very unlike Albertalli and Silvera's writing style to use this as plot devices), the secondary characters weren't all that fleshed out (I can't recall Arthur's coworkers' names or even tell you one thing about Harriet except for that she has an instagram where she posts selfies every day) and I do feel like the biggest "plot twist" if you can call it that was predictable from the get-go.
Nevertheless, this story has my heart. Ben and Arthur are adorable Hufflepuffs who don't get their first date right on the first try. or the second. But they put effort into it. They don't let timing and issues get in the way, instead they work on their relationship working. They don't rely on fate being on their side but actually go the extra mile to make this friendship and relationship work.

All in all, this was exactly what I expected from a Albertalli and Silvera mash-up: laughing out loud on every other page, feeling all the feels when it comes to the relationships, and quirky friends that make the story just that extra bit special.

What a perfect story. I always love books that have multiple perspectives. And what a joy these characters are.
The story is full of hope, joy and a dash of realism for those wanting it.
It would make the perfect Christmas present for the teen in your life x

Two of my favorite authors have come together to create MAGIC! This story is sweet, engaging, adorable and well crafted MAGIC. I can't think of another word to describe it right now. We need more stories about gay men in love and they need to be read by everyone! I'm so happy i got to read this and i'm telling all my friends to read this because it's such a wonderfully written and moving story.

Before I start this review I want to make something clear. I read both of Becky Albertalli’s books and loved them. I also read two out of the three that Silvera has published. Silvera’s books aren’t really my cup of tea, I never seem to like them very much.
When I read that the two of them were collaborating I was excited but I also didn’t know what to expect. I just hoped for Becky to shine and the story to be good.
Unfortunately it was not the case.
I can get past some of the stuff, like for example the slow beginning. But there are things where I have to draw the line. This book glamourizes stalking. I would have been fine with Craigslist and its missed connections option but stalking Ben through social networks and then putting that flyer up gave me the creeps. I kid you not when I say that at one point stalking was even defined sweet. Sweet? Stalking someone is never sweet, I don’t care if teenagers are the ones doing it, it’s still wrong.
This was one of the main reasons why I didn’t like the book. Then of course there was also the huge problem of the two main characters not having any chemistry whatsoever and still trying to create something between them just because they met each other again (thanks to the stalking).
I found Arthur really annoying. I understood his being insecure but that was no reason for also being so inquisitive and jealous.
I’m really disappointed, I was hoping to like this book because of Becky Albertalli and so to also reconsider Adam Silvera. They both let me down with this one.

I did think that perhaps this was just one of those where I've grown out of the authors, but I actually reread Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda earlier this year and still liked it just as much as the first time round, so it can't just be that. And this book did seem a whole lot more cringeworthy than any other books I've read by either author.

To summarise the plot: Arthur meets Ben as he's getting rid of his ex-boyfriend's things at the post office. Unfortunately, before he can get a number, their meeting is interrupted by a lederhosen-clad flash mob (yeah, this was the first part where I went, really?). Anyway, that's the first 30 to 40 pages or so. The next 120 pages is dedicated to them... not meeting again. And then they do meet again. And follow that classic romance pattern.

So, number one on my list of things I didn't really like about this book was the pacing. I don't need 120 pages of their day to day life before they meet again. And then I don't need another 150 pages of them dating (though seemingly, on Ben's part at least, while not actually wanting to date), before the inevitable and tedious (and overdramatic) breakup because of miscommunication. I feel like all this could have been condensed into a lot less than 450 pages. And so, because I have like, no patience, I got bored. Overall, though, I could have dealt with that, rated this book 2 stars maybe, but then came the kicker.

It's overwhelmingly cringeworthy. Every other paragraph feels like it includes a pop culture reference (Hamilton and Harry Potter being common ones - and don't even get me started on that part where Arthur gets Ben to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack and then Ben makes a comment about writing Hamilton/Harry Potter crossover fanfiction. I physically recoiled from the computer). One or two I could deal with, but the sheer number of them in this? I was cringing at least once a chapter and that's really not fun. Not to mention the part where Arthur mistakes someone for Ansel Elgort and I had to feel the horror of a real life person being inserted into the narrative and subsequent secondhand embarrassment. It was not nice.

A brief list of some other things that made me cringe along the way:

> "some kind of Kinsey scale Sorting Hat"

> when they talked about Pokemon fanfiction in real life

> when Arthur talks about the green M&M being sexy along with some Looney Tunes characters on their first date

> and Harry Potter porn

> mentioning Draco/Hermione fanfiction

But one particularly major cringe came from two points, both in Becky Albertalli's chapters. In one, Arthur and Ben are kissing when Arthur or Ben comments that maybe that's something Barack and Michelle (Obama) do on his birthday (why this comment? Because Barack Obama is Arthur's "forever president"?), and the other says more likely it's Obama and Justin Trudeau, while Joe Biden watches. Literally everything about this part is so creepy, starting with the fact that these are real people. But it does not stop here. Later on, a second joke is made along similar lines, but this time about porn between Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Members of a party that wants to get rid of gay rights. Which, again these are real people, but this time it also just feeds back into the "all homophobes are secretly gay" line of argument. In the end, it was the cringeworthiness of the book that made me give it 1 star.

One last point: I didn't actually much like Ben as a character either. He's honestly a bit of a dickhead, and spends his time when he's starting to date Arthur comparing him to his ex-boyfriend. And he writes a self-insert fantasy story, which is honestly, just another cringeworthy thing to add to the list. (Someone also pointed out to me that he's a bit like an Adam Silvera self-insert, and I am really scarred.)

Maybe it'll be different for other readers, who don't find the pop culture references as cringey, and who are bigger fans of these authors, but in the end, it was just too much for me.

This book was honestly so cute, but also an emotional roller coaster!! But to be honest, I didn't expect any less of these two authors! I really enjoyed it and definitely recommend it :) However, there were some little things that frustrated me and got me a bit disappointed (like the ending).

I received this earc yesterday afternoon, and while I'm typing this review today, I started reading it and never stopped. This book felt incredibly real, and I wasn't bothered at all by the co-writing between Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, I feel like it actually made the book better since they gave their own character such a specific voice.

While the books main focuspoint is the relationship between Arthur and Ben, it also focuses on both of their friends, on Dylan, Samantha, Hudson, Harriett, Jessie and Ethan. And I can't forget the parents of course. All of this was incorporated in the story and made it so much more real. I felt myself wanting to read faster and faster because I just wanted to know how the story ends. Which is still pretty unsatisfying to me, but I do hope they will keep this in the movie because it's the perfect blend between Becky and Adam.

This book has raced up the list of favourite books I've read this year and currently stands on number one. It is basically written as a romantic comedy and there were so many times I actually laughed. I can imagine it being a hilarious, sometimes painful, but realistic movie which people can relate to. Maybe not with the relationship between Arthur and Ben, but for sure with everything else.

What If It's Us is a YA novel by two well-known authors that combines classic romcom tropes with a realistic sense of teenagers navigating life. Arthur is in NYC for the summer and it's living up to his dreams. Ben has lived in New York all his life and has recently broken up with his boyfriend, who he's also stuck in summer school with. When Arthur and Ben meet by chance in a post office, it isn't clear whether the universe is trying to get them together or ruin things between them.

What really sets What If It's Us apart is the way that it both embraces romantic tropes—such as someone only being in the city for a limited time—but also gives them a realistic spin, showing how life can seem like a musical or a comedy when really it is just life, full of ups and downs. There is a sense of uncertainty throughout the book as to what will happen with Arthur and Ben which powers the narrative and shows how it is difficult to expect good or bad with confidence. The supporting characters are endearing, particularly Ben's best friend Dylan, and the book is a great light read that gives complexity to its teenage characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for providing me with a copy for review.

This collaborative book between Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli follows two young boys in New York, Arthur and Ben, who meet in a post office one day when Arthur is running errands for his internship and Ben is attempting to mail back his ex-boyfriend's belongings. The pair feel a connection and are awash with luck, as though fate is pulling them together, but they also face many mishaps along the way, as though the universe is also trying to pull them apart.

It was such a wonderful and easy novel to read that I read it in just a few sittings across a single day. The concept is a really interesting take on the meet-cute trope that I haven't seen before and was great to read. It made the story unique and revived the trope by adding a layer of tension and confusion to their meeting. It was one of the many aspects about it that demonstrated the perfect blend Adam Silvera's and Becky Albertalli's writing styles.

  The characters themselves were great and felt so realistic. It was easy to understand many of their actions whilst also becoming frustrated and needing to keep reading to find out what's going to happen. I loved how the novel switched perspectives between Ben and Arthur so that you could really understand each character and see the story from their point of view, as well as how each author had wrote from the perspective of a different character, making them feel very separate and unbiased. Each author managed to brilliantly encompass the other author's writing with their own so that the novel flowed seamlessly and the characters remained consistent when they were being wrote about and included in the chapters from the other characters perspective.

One of my favourite things about this novel was the ending. I found as I was reading it that it was impossible to predict what was going to happen, especially when you consider the typical endings found in each authors respective books, and I loved the way it eventually rounded up. It was fitting and true to both authors.

Overall, I loved reading this and can definitely see it being a novel that I would re-read. I highly recommend it and can't wait for it to be released so that I can see everyone's thoughts and reactions to this beautiful story.

What a lovely read!
I had only read one of Becky Albertalli's books before and none of Adam Silvera's but this cute fun read made me want to rush out and get them all.
There are lots of fun references to pop culture and fancoms which i think will appeal to anyone and the friendship dynamics are realistic and sweet.
This book tackled some difficult topics but did so tastefully and respectfully.

I enjoyed this immensely and recommend to all.