Arthur is only in New York for the summer, but if Broadway has taught him anything, it’s that the universe can deliver a showstopping romance when you least expect it.
Ben thinks the universe needs to mind its business. If the universe had his back, he wouldn’t be on his way to the post office carrying a box of his ex-boyfriend’s things.
But when Arthur and Ben meet-cute at the post office, what exactly does the universe have in store for them?
Maybe nothing. After all, they get separated.
Maybe everything. After all, they get reunited.
But what if they can’t quite nail a first date . . . or a second first date . . . or a third?
What if Arthur tries too hard to make it work . . . and Ben doesn’t try hard enough?
What if life really isn’t like a Broadway play?
But what if it is?
So here is some honesty for you, I’ve never successfully read a book by Adam Silvera or Becky Albertalli.
I’ve tried many of their books and DNF all of them. I tried so hard! As a queer individual I wanted to support these two great peoples work but even though I bought the books I could never actually finish reading them. Imagine that crazy nun in Game of Thrones following me down the street with a bell of shame cus that what I pictured every time I gave up on their books.
I’m a very picky contemporary reader so that’s probably like 98% of it.
So when I got offered an ARC of What If It’s Us I was a little reluctant but the stars were aligned for me. You see this book is set in New York City and I was travelling to said city for the first time in less than a week. I thought it was kind of like fate, a queer love story set in NYC before I travel to NYC.
So I sat down and promised I would give it a shot, I wasn’t even going to think of past novels. This one was going to stand all on its own, after all it was written by two authors something that I had really enjoyed in the Illuminae series by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman.
Que the dramatic music but I loved it. I read the entire book in a day, on my phone to boot as my e-reader is currently out of commission so you should know that means I really loved it because I hate reading on my phone.
It’s so funny and so cute. Almost unbelievably cute but they set the reader up for it so well I didn’t mind it. This book feels like summertime, its the perfect summer read and yet its being released in October. You should still read it anyway because you’re probably going to be missing summer in October and this book is packed with summer feels.
The characters are so fleshed out from the main pov’s to their best friends. This is a book about relationships and not just romantic ones. Relationships with family, relationships with friends. How to forge broken relationships and how to create new ones. It all felt so real even surrounded by the many unbelievable things happening around them.
Adam Silvera wrote Ben’s half and Becky Albertalli wrote Arthur’s. They felt oddly personal and so real. I got the feeling that the authors wove in parts of their own lives with the character they wrote. Each character had their own voice and that voice stayed the same even when it switched to the others characters pov.
I read in an interview that they re-wrote the ending like four times and I don’t ever want to know the original ending because I loved this ending. A rare thing for me because I’m not a fan of single books, I much prefer a series but this book was perfect as is.
As a feminist this book thrilled me, as a queer woman it checked all the boxes and as a Broadway nerd this book is swoon worthy. Come October 9th you should all go and pick this book up because its going to knock your socks off.
Stars – 5.
The Scribbulus 