Adorable, sweet, and utter delight. All of the sweet adjectives are needed to describe this beauty by two of the best YA authors. Will forever be loving them both!

The story follows Arthur, a Broadway-loving Southern boy, and Ben, a native New Yorker recovering from a breakup. Their paths cross unexpectedly at a post office, leading to a series of missed connections and do-over first dates. A delightful read filled with heartfelt storytelling, relatable characters, and sweet young adult romance.

This was a cute, simple and delightfully queer contemporary YA - we need more of them! Albertalli and Silvera know what they're doing and have gained considerable respect for their contributions to book shelves everywhere. Strong recommend.

I absolutely loved this book! I couldn’t put it down!! Finished it in one sitting! I could not help but fall in love with the characters even more throughout the book. Their story was wonderful and I absolutely loved these two authors working together!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchanged for an honest review. I am so glad I finally got around to read this one.

This was an easy read that I devoured in a day. A funny coming of age story that lived up to its hype for me. Most of all I enjoyed the diversity in this book. I will definitely be checking out this author duo again in the future.

I'm a little conflicted about this one. Usually I write a big long essay of a book review but I think it might be easier to break this one down into things I liked and disliked about What If It's Us by Adam SIlvera and Becky Albertalli. I liked: The fun, easy read that this is (a nice break from my usual dense fantasy reads), funny puns or innuendos, love and the fight for love, teenage angst represented pretty well (I can't say I was overly angst-y as a teen, but I related to some of the thoughts of just being 'over' everyone and everything). I also loved how inclusive the story is and the great representation. Adam SIlvera is well-known for his LGBTQ+ stories and this is my first taste of his writing.
Some things I didn't quite like: the Broadway terms (I have no idea about any of them), the idea of insta-love or love at first sight. I just find this a bit cheesy and unrealistic which can mean readers disengage a little because of this. Another one is that the start of the book is filled with writing that is difficult to distinguish between the two main characters. You don't want readers thinking "wait, who's this character?" That's why I love when chapters have the character's name listed so we known whose point of view it is. The age of the boys was also something I couldn't quite buy into; 16? I mean there was no way I was obsessively chasing down guys online or in person at 16, or thinking I had met the cutest boy in the whole world or that I was in love immediately from the moment we met. It just doesn't seem believable. Maybe the guys being 18 or so would have helped this, especially with one of them sending off items from his ex boyfriend. That seems like a serious relationship and something that would happen in an older teen. I would be thinking in their early twenties even, which helps make it seem less like kids playing grown-ups. But this is purely just my own opinion and I know people who absolutely adore this book.

Personally, I don't feel strongly about this book one way or another. I don't love it or hate it. Also, being someone who always reads fantasy, contemporaries can be tricky for me at the best of times, so I found this, as well as not being able to identify with the characters, held me back a little bit. I do think though, that anyone who loves Becky Albertalli and is a keen fan of hers, will almost definitely love this book.

I was surprised to find I had a bit of trouble getting into this one, and ultimately, didn't fully connect with the book or the characters.

I was crazy excited for this book. Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera writing a book TOGETHER? It must be a masterpiece!!! Unfortunately, I was wrong. I wanted to love this book - I really did, and there were a few things I enjoyed, like the themes around family, friendship, and the overall adorableness of the meet-cute situation - but I found the writing and voice of both Ben and Arthur incredibly cheesy and childish, I could hardly bear it. It was a great struggle reading this book, which was so disappointing seeing as the plot was actually quite good and the relationship between Ben and Arthur was fleshed out well. I just could not handle the babyish, almost fanfiction-like tone. It was definitely a surprise for me - I love both of Adam and Becky's works and never expected to be so put off by their writing.

Thank you Simon & Schuster (Australia) for the review copy!

This was such a cute read and it was amazing to see how well Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli write together!

Man I love Adam Silvera so much! This was fantastic and everything I wanted it to be. My favourite part? Diversity, complex characters, sex positivity and humour make this an A+ right out of the gate. While the story did slow in some parts, I couldn't help but be captivated by the characters and this journey they were on. Two amazing writers penning an amazing YA novel is about as book dreamy as you can get. Love, love, love it!

I love Becky Albertalli, and Adam Silvera is pretty great too. The two of them together makes for an engaging read. I found myself racing through this one, wanting to know how it would end. The dual perspectives worked well in the context of the story to keep you guessing as to if or when the characters would ever work things out. Highly recommended.

2.5 stars

I wanted to like this book so badly, but I’m not feeling it. I’ve heard so many people rave about ‘What If It’s Us’ but I just couldn’t bring myself to love it.
While I do love a good slow-moving book about love, friendship and family, there was a disconnect for me for this particular one. I’m not super surprised about this fact though because I’ve never been able to get into Becky Albertalli’s or Adam Silvera’s writing. And it’s never been a hate-thing or anything like that, it’s just again, there’s a disconnect.
I reckon if I’d heard the story from the perspective of Dylan, I’d be in love. I’m generally a sucker for a bit of snark, crude humour and just generally a joking nature. Basically what I think I’m trying to say here is that if a book is slower, I need more hilarity and more sexual tension. (

Enjoyable read as usual for Albertalli with great character development but I felt somewhat sad and unsatisfied with the ending.

This is probably the most real teen romance that I think I've ever read, but I also understand why there were people who didn't enjoy it. As it turns out, the back and forthing and general weirdness that is so standard in teens who are in love doesn't make the most cohesive and convincing love narrative.

And so I viewed these characters as a collection of people who were just doing their best to get by, and I enjoyed it more that way.

Ben is in summer school because he chose to spend his year cutting classes with his then boyfriend, Hudson, who is also in summer school. The awkwardness of course is that they are now exes who are stuck in the same place for the next couple months. The friendship from before has been completely eroded.

I felt most sorry for Harriet in these earlier scenes. She sits next to Hudson at summer school, but she and Ben also used to be friends and she is doing her best to navigate not choosing a side.

However, Ben happens to be best friends--brothers even--with Harriet's exboyfriend Dylan. So that's understandably complicated.

Into all of this comes Arthur. He's on a summer internship with his mum's law firm in New York, however his family lives usually in Georgia. His father is meanwhile unemployed which is causing just a bit of a strain on a lot of things. But I really loved the relationship between Arthur and his father.

Arthur and Ben have a chance encounter in a post office where Ben is trying to return a box of Hudson's stuff before a flash mob of dancers comes in and interrupts them. Neither boy can stop thinking of the other after their chance encounter.

The thing I most loved about this story is that none of the characters are perfect, and none of the love stories are perfect. They are all different kinds of love and different kinds of relationship that suit the people involved. This novel shows the ways in which other people will look at the love within a relationship and either elevate it or devalue it and will often be wrong just from their outsider perspective. I particularly liked how this was shown with Arthur's parents.

I finally got around to reading this book! It was so sweet and heartfelt, regardless of how many times Arthur made me want to punch him for being a nong.
I'm so glad this book didn't take course over one day, rather several weeks. I like how it also took into play the dynamics between exes and friends who get into relationships and what all of that stuff feels like (even though it did make me super confused. I had to constantly ask my friend who was who's ex...)
I just flew through this book, and it was such a great collab. I now need to read all of Albertalli and Silvera's books.

What a cute romance!! I loved the way this was written and so character driven. The alternation of the chapter perspectives really added to the story, as you had moments where you were almost having conversations with the characters to push them into finding each other. For example the Craigslist add, and Arthur thinking of doing it, but then not, and Ben checking to see if he had. One problem I had with this story is that I really disliked Arthur, his whining and selfishness in so many of the situations really frustrated me. But I guess that demonstrates good writing, as not all characters should be perfect. I really liked the friendships threaded throughout the story and found this book to be targeted to a wide audience because of all the various themes throughout. Definitely has spurred me to want to pick up more books by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera. Definitely recommend!

Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera are wonders. Together, I feel as though a masterpiece was born.

'What if it's Us' is a beautiful story that is romantic, powerful, relatable and so gosh darn cute I think I died several times over. I don't want to give away too much, but the characterisations of Arthur and Ben were so perfect for this story. Both characters came together with their own strengths and weaknesses; the narrative itself was one which did not sugarcoat emotional anxieties, but instead, I felt that both Albertalli and Silvera wrote the realities of a relationship and of growing up, without artifice. In Young Adult fiction, there needs to be more of this rawness in storytelling.

Although I could go on for thousands of words about Arthur and Ben and their story, I will keep it short. However, the reason as to why I only have this book a 4 out of 5 stars is because of two things. Before I delve into the reason, however, when it was announced that Albertalli and Silvera were to collaborate together, I wondered how their writing styles would work together in a non-abrasive way. I say this because Albertalli is known for her quite light, cute, endearing and happy-ever-after endings and stories; Silvera, on the other hand, writes intense narratives of love and loss, with less-than-happy endings. You can see the conundrum. It was the ending of this book which I felt could have given us more! It felt underwhelming, in my opinion, but I want every love story to end happily and not ambiguous at all. Another point of critique would be the 'conflict' that was written. Although it only lasted for a few pages, it felt like there had to be a conflict and it was just, kind of pointless. Although I do understand its purpose, to push the narrative to the next stage and of course, the relationship between Ben and Arthur, I just wanted more for these two incredible characters.

Overall, a fantastically written novel that is so utterly pure and beautiful, that it will make you laugh, smile and cry buckets.

Huge thank you to Hachette Australia and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book!

It could just be because I read this while I was in the middle of and trying to pull myself out of a fairly heavy reading slump but this was another one that I thought was "just ok".

Full (spoiler-y) review here: https://wmsreads.tumblr.com/post/181237005492/

When this book got announced I think I — to be honest — lost my shit. I remember thinking how badly I wanted an Adam & Becky team up and then it happened and I didn’t know how to handle it. I went into this book with really high expectations. Adam Silvera is one of my favourite authors and Becky’s books (I haven’t read Leah on the Offbeat yet) have made me feel so happy. Seeing a lot of mixed reviews was a little worrying, but fortunately I was not disappointed. This really does have all the elements of a Becky and Adam book combined. I can see why people may have wanted more, but for me it was enough.

Representation wise this story has a m/m romance (both Ben and Arthur are gay and already out to their family and friends). Ben is Puerto-Rican and Arthur is Jewish, which is #ownvoices for Adam and Becky respectively.

Even though everything happens between Ben and Arthur relatively quickly it always felt believable. Their relationship was really awkward at times, but they didn’t know each other and were so different (Arthur is super practical and Ben is super lowkey) that it only made sense for things to not go smoothly. They have multiple first dates and like honestly that would be me lmao. The fact that it wasn’t perfect from the get go is why I loved it. Seeing the development between them and the way they grew closer was so great. They were adorable!

I absolutely adored the friendship groups in this book. They’re messy and complicated (Arthur’s dealing with the complications of keeping long distant friendships and Ben’s dealing with complicated dating among his friend group making things weird), but that’s what I loved about it. There was seriously such great dynamics between everyone. I especially loved Ben’s friendship with his best friend, Dylan. In fact, in general, I loved Dylan. He was such an incredibly well-developed side-character.

I know not everyone is a fan of pop culture references, but I dig them. This book has a lot of them so be prepared. Every time there was reference to Harry Potter or Hamilton I got way too excited. The only references I didn’t get where the ones for Dear Evan Hansen, but it didn’t really take anything away from the story for me.

One criticism I do have is that at the start of the book it’s kind of hard to distinguish between Ben and Arthur’s voices? The eventually do grow into their own characters and they have so many different personality traits, but at first they kind of blend together? And I had to check whose POV I was reading from. Sometimes Arthur really annoyed me …. like he definitely needed to Chill™ but I am an adult so that could be a bit harsh and also it’s probably just a personal preference because I prefer characters like Ben.

I think the ending, once again, is where a lot of people have a problem and I can see why. It almost makes the story seem redundant in a way, but for me I couldn’t see it ending any other way. It felt super realistic. Like, these kids knew each other for a month? Ben was still in the middle of processing a previous break up. Anything else, in my opinion, would have felt way too forced and contrived.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was lucky enough to obtain a early copy of this book and I am very late with my review but nonetheless here it is. What If It's Us is a coming of an age book, in which it looks at self-discovery, self-acceptance, love, relationships and that transition between teenager and adulthood. The authors did an amazing job with the diversity represented, it was refreshing and were able to truly depict the atmosphere of New York.

Overall, it was a cute story and would recommend it, especially to those who adore contemporary YA books.