Here’s To Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera #BookReview

From the creator of 13 Reasons Why, What If It’s Us is soon to be a feature film!

Ben survived freshman year of college, but he’s feeling more stuck than ever. His classes are a slog, his part-time job working with his father is even worse, and his best friend Dylan’s been acting weird for weeks. Ben’s only real bright spot is his writing partner Mario, who’s been giving him a lot of Spanish lessons and even more kisses. Mario’s big Hollywood dreams make Ben start to dream bigger—and the choices he makes now could be the key to reshaping his future. So why can’t he stop thinking about a certain boy from his past?

Arthur is back in New York City for the first time in two years, ready to take the theater world by a storm as the world’s best . . . intern to the assistant of an off-off-Broadway director. Of course, it sucks to be spending the summer apart from his sweet, reliable boyfriend, Mikey, but he knows their relationship is strong enough to weather the distance. Which is why it’s no big deal when his ex-boyfriend Ben stumbles back into the picture. And it’s definitely fine that Ben’s blissfully happy with some mystery boy. First loves are special, but it’s way too late for what-ifs. Right?

Even as the boys try to shake off the past, they keep running into each other in the present. Is this the universe trying to tell them there’s a do-over in their future?

I haven’t read What If It’s Us but this novel gave me a good idea what had happened to Ben and Arthur in the first book, from how they met to how they parted ways and why, so this can be read perfectly as a standalone.

Ben and Arthur hadn’t seen each other in two years but the minute they’re back in the same city it seems like the universe draws them and their thoughts back together. It’s not long before they were playing with fire but they both act like they don’t know it, as if it’s completely normal to hang out all the time with your ex and to text each other non-stop while you have a new partner. I was trying very hard not to judge them and to go with the feeling pushed upon me. I wasn’t itching for them to get back together at all, especially since Arthur is together with the incredibly sweet Mikey, and Ben is in the stages of officially becoming Mario’s boyfriend but I just hoped if push came to shove they would do the right thing in the end.

I’ve written two whole pages of notes on this novel but I have a feeling that I still don’t know what to say about it. I love sweet romance stories but this is not my favourite type of romance novel because I hate for people to get hurt in the process and there was definitely a love triangle vibe and while nothing really happened I felt there was some emotional cheating going on which is probably even worse.

They were both so hung up on the past throughout the novel and how they felt then that they transposed it to the present but you’re not the same people any more after two years and I didn’t feel they were very mature. OK they didn’t act like hormonal teenagers jumping in bed with each other but I did miss some reflection about their situation. There was so much jealousy going round that it made me cringe. I wanted to shout stop and think what you’re doing you guys. The side characters were great and one of their friends, Dylan, was quite a force of nature. He expresses his love for Ben at every opportunity and I found this strange at first (I wondered if he was gay too) but I started to really enjoy his witty one-liners. He brought the fun into this novel.

There’s some will they-won’t they going on but you just can’t ignore the direction the authors are steering to. After all the pining going on I was happy I finally got to this point. I’m not entirely sure I’m in the right demographic category for this novel as I think it’ll be better received by a much younger group of readers. I never fell fully in love with either Ben or Arthur because they both made some questionable decisions but even though I wasn’t their biggest fan I am happy with the way it ended.

I bought a paperback copy of this novel. This is my honest opinion.

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