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robinks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was such a cute story, with a fun cast of characters (that the voice actors brought to life beautifully). The conflicts between the guys and their feelings were so realistic. I can’t wait to listen to the sequel, especially after the epilogues!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content
Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Medical content, Alcohol, and Mental illness
justinekorson's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It really is a book thats been SET in it's timeline. The story was published in 2018 and honestly... that's when you should have read it. I bought it back then but never got to it. Because of this, reading it in 2024 wasn't a good experience.
All the references to Harry Potter weren't it for me. I haven't been a supporter or fan of Rowling in a long time because of all the trashy shit she's said over the part few years. This book came out JUST BEFORE she made all those TERF comments on Twitter(X) so I didn't like reading that. There was also so many references to Hamilton too that it was honestly annoying. It felt like every other page had either a Hamilton reference or a Harry Potter one and I didn't enjoy that.
Arthur and Ben's third act break up was also... so overdramatic?? I felt like I was watching some reality TV show where the people exaggerate everything. I understood where Arthur was coming from, thinking Ben was cheating on him but they were literally in a public place yelling at each other and then Arthur turns around and yells at his best friends for hiding their relationship from him. when they tried to apologize Arthur twisted their words around so badly that he upset himself AGAIN when all he had to do was listen to his friends. It was especially shitty because... Arthur never even really apologizes for being a bad friend. He'd practically dumped Jessie and Ethan when he started dating Ben and when he did talk to them, all he talked about was Ben. It was so painfully obvious that Ethan and Jessie wanted to tell Ben something too but he never caught on.
Overall... I wish I read the book sooner and I also don't know how I feel about reading the sequel I have.
All the references to Harry Potter weren't it for me. I haven't been a supporter or fan of Rowling in a long time because of all the trashy shit she's said over the part few years. This book came out JUST BEFORE she made all those TERF comments on Twitter(X) so I didn't like reading that. There was also so many references to Hamilton too that it was honestly annoying. It felt like every other page had either a Hamilton reference or a Harry Potter one and I didn't enjoy that.
Arthur and Ben's third act break up was also... so overdramatic?? I felt like I was watching some reality TV show where the people exaggerate everything. I understood where Arthur was coming from, thinking Ben was cheating on him but they were literally in a public place yelling at each other and then Arthur turns around and yells at his best friends for hiding their relationship from him. when they tried to apologize Arthur twisted their words around so badly that he upset himself AGAIN when all he had to do was listen to his friends. It was especially shitty because... Arthur never even really apologizes for being a bad friend. He'd practically dumped Jessie and Ethan when he started dating Ben and when he did talk to them, all he talked about was Ben. It was so painfully obvious that Ethan and Jessie wanted to tell Ben something too but he never caught on.
Overall... I wish I read the book sooner and I also don't know how I feel about reading the sequel I have.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Alcohol, Racism, Medical content, and Chronic illness
thebookpaiges's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Alcohol, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Classism, Cursing, Medical content, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship
mj_86's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Homophobia
Minor: Racism
thetinysnail's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness
Minor: Racism and Sexual content
whosfernn's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
A beautiful story about teenage love and longing (plus how it's possible to be friends with your exes). Totally going to read the sequel if I get chance!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Hate crime
Moderate: Mental illness and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Racism, Death, Medical content, Sexual content, and Alcohol
ericadawson's review
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
My caveat is that I don't normally like/read romcoms, but I'm always willing to branch out when I can. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I'd hoped.
In What If It's Us, we're taken through the month-long romantic journey of a post-office meetcute between Ben and Arthur. I liked Ben, I liked his comparatively chill personality, and I liked that he was chill for the most part. His aloofness being a result of just a nervous nature was nice.
I did not like Arthur. His sometimes annoyingly horny antics and internal thought processes had me cringing through a good deal of his PoV chapters. I can't really root for someone who's so socially unaware that he'll call his Puerto Rican boyfriend "so white" and then buy 36 condoms and brings all of them to his boyfriends house because he wants sex and just assumes his boyfriend is ready. Arthur's flaws aren't flaws that I'm against--but I hate their execution. He lacks self awareness and I'm not really sure he gained it by the end of the book, although the epilogue was nice.
He's also rude, and his frankly extreme jealous had me groaning and rolling my eyes (if your boyfriend and your boyfriend's ex both leave the summer school building because summer school is over for the day, then "why is he (ex-bf) here?" has a painfully obvious answer that is not "cheating"). In general, I found Arthur's voice/writing to be weaker than Ben's overall.
It's a shame, because at first I was really rooting for Ben and Arthur to get together. But what ended up happening was that both of them got more annoying and gave me more secondhand embarrassment after they got together. A Hamilton obsession on top of a JKR/Harry Potter obsession on top of an Obama-worship personality is a lot for two teens in one book. Considering that Hamilton is explicitly racist (why would you make slave owners Black unless you didn't like Black people?), Obama had some serious scandal with his drone strike program, and JKR is.....what she is now, this book was frankly painful to read.
The dialogue was nice at first, if only because I'm more used to the formality of high fantasy writing, but that also got old (mainly on Arthur's end) very quickly as well. Dylan's personality got old as well. I lost patience with the former very quickly, and I really lost sympathy when he basically threw a temper tantrum outside Ben's school over a wild assumption he made.
Can I say this book had potential? I'm not sure. Arthur annoyed me throughout. I liked Ben a decent amount. I really like Sam, but Sam and Dylan came across like adults or at least older teens than Ben and Arthur. Too much second-hand embarrassment for me to really settle in. Three and something stars.
In What If It's Us, we're taken through the month-long romantic journey of a post-office meetcute between Ben and Arthur. I liked Ben, I liked his comparatively chill personality, and I liked that he was chill for the most part. His aloofness being a result of just a nervous nature was nice.
I did not like Arthur. His sometimes annoyingly horny antics and internal thought processes had me cringing through a good deal of his PoV chapters. I can't really root for someone who's so socially unaware that he'll call his Puerto Rican boyfriend "so white" and then buy 36 condoms and brings all of them to his boyfriends house because he wants sex and just assumes his boyfriend is ready. Arthur's flaws aren't flaws that I'm against--but I hate their execution. He lacks self awareness and I'm not really sure he gained it by the end of the book, although the epilogue was nice.
He's also rude, and his frankly extreme jealous had me groaning and rolling my eyes (if your boyfriend and your boyfriend's ex both leave the summer school building because summer school is over for the day, then "why is he (ex-bf) here?" has a painfully obvious answer that is not "cheating"). In general, I found Arthur's voice/writing to be weaker than Ben's overall.
It's a shame, because at first I was really rooting for Ben and Arthur to get together. But what ended up happening was that both of them got more annoying and gave me more secondhand embarrassment after they got together. A Hamilton obsession on top of a JKR/Harry Potter obsession on top of an Obama-worship personality is a lot for two teens in one book. Considering that Hamilton is explicitly racist (why would you make slave owners Black unless you didn't like Black people?), Obama had some serious scandal with his drone strike program, and JKR is.....what she is now, this book was frankly painful to read.
The dialogue was nice at first, if only because I'm more used to the formality of high fantasy writing, but that also got old (mainly on Arthur's end) very quickly as well. Dylan's personality got old as well. I lost patience with the former very quickly, and I really lost sympathy when he basically threw a temper tantrum outside Ben's school over a wild assumption he made.
Can I say this book had potential? I'm not sure. Arthur annoyed me throughout. I liked Ben a decent amount. I really like Sam, but Sam and Dylan came across like adults or at least older teens than Ben and Arthur. Too much second-hand embarrassment for me to really settle in. Three and something stars.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Racism
eslsilver's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Medical content
booksngrannies's review against another edition
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Homophobia and Racism
claire_0_0's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
at times it felt like conflict was made only to be extremely quickly resolved. there were points where things were resolved unrealistically, and it felt like, through some conflicts that felt almost staged, everything seemed to unrealistically work out for the characters. otherwise, the characters and themes were interesting and I was hooked, dispite my eye-rolls at some of the plot points. I probably won't read the sequel, like I didn't read the epilogue. might recommend to someone who likes simple romances and doesn't like conflict, but not for people who like more complex themes and ideas in their stories.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Toxic friendship