WHAT IF IT’S US By Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

WHAT IF IT’S US By Becky Albertalli and Adam SilveraWhat If It's Us by Adam Silvera, Becky Albertalli
Series: What If It's Us #1
Published by HarperTeen on 10/9/18
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 439
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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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 nail a first date even after three do-overs?

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?

What if it’s us?

Short and Sweet Review

Arthur is in New York for the summer but isn’t really expecting anything exciting to happen, but as a fan of broadway musicals he believes anything can happen.

Ben is at the post office getting ready to send a box of stuff back to his ex and that’s when he runs into Arthur. Who would’ve thought that the universe would have brought these two together?

When Ben and Arthur initially meet. At the post office they don’t go through the proper channels to exchange information so after they meet they keep thinking about each other but have no way to contact each other. Arthur takes a chance and puts a post on Craigslist and also posters which is pretty bold and a little weird but it works. Ben and Arthur go on dates and learn more about each other but they’re not really sure how long this will last because Arthur is going back to Georgia after the summer. I thought this relationship was cute but both of them had a lot to learn. Arthur’s parents argue a lot and so when he looks at them he sees a dysfunctional relationship and Ben just didn’t have the best break up with his ex. The boys do end up having some conflict and although it sucks and it hurt my heart I understood its what needed to happen for both characters to grow. I did enjoy the fact that both of them had supportive families and I also loved their friends especially Dylan.

Overall, this book is just super cute! I loved Ben and Arthur and how different they were but it worked. The broadway references were amazing and I just love how it’s set in New York and the boys are basically on an adventure with each other. Albertalli and Silvera did amazing job bringing these characters to life and I’m excited to read the sequel!

IMOGEN, OBVIOUSLY By Becky Albertalli

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

IMOGEN, OBVIOUSLY By Becky AlbertalliImogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
Published by Balzer + Bray on 5/2/23
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 412
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s Greatest Ally title locked down.

She's never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There's Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen's biases in check. And then there's Lili—newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends.

Imogen's thrilled for Lili. Any ally would be. And now that she's finally visiting Lili on campus, she's bringing her ally A game. Any support Lili needs, Imogen's all in.

Even if that means bending the truth, just a little.

Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: she's told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero—not even Lili’s best friend, Tessa.

Of course, the more time Imogen spends with chaotic, freckle-faced Tessa, the more she starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with. . .

Short and Sweet Review

Imogen is very straight but she’s all for being an ally, her younger sister is queer, her best friend Gretchen is bi, and her other best friend Lili is newly out and living her best life at college with her group of queer friends. Imogen is finally visiting Lili at college and she gets to experience all the great things Lili has been talking about. One thing that Imogen wasn’t expecting was to find out that Lili told her friends that Imogen is her ex-girlfriend, but Imogen goes with it because she’s a good friend. Imogen also meets Tessa and it makes her question her identity.

Imogen is used to living her life as a supporter an ally to her queer friends and family. I loved seeing her journey and her character develop throughout the story and seeing her come to grips that she may not just be an ally but she may actually be bi. My favorite thing about this book was seeing Imogen spend a few days on the college campus and expand her horizons, the group of friends that Lili has are so nice and inviting. Tessa and Imogen immediately hit it off, and this is when Imogen discovers she may have a crush on a girl and doesn’t really know how to process everything. Unfortunately for Imogen, her friend Gretchen thinks she knows it all and reassures Imogen that she is most definitely straight. I’m glad that Imogen had other supporters in her circle. Over the course of nine days we see Imogen have fun at the college and then go back home and try to think about everything that has happened. There was a lot of great dialogue and fun characters in this book that really made you wish you were apart of the group.

Imogen, Obviously is a personal one to the author and a statement. I loved Imogen and she’s just someone that readers can relate to and you can’t help but to root for her and hope she has a happy ending. This book was so cute and I enjoyed following Imogen’s story and see her discover who she really is. I would obviously recommend this book!

THE UPSIDE OF UNREQUITED By Becky Albertalli

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THE UPSIDE OF UNREQUITED By Becky AlbertalliThe Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
Series: Simonverse #2
Published by Balzer + Bray on 4/11/17
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. If Molly can win him over, she'll get her first kiss and she'll get her twin back.

There's only one problem: Molly's coworker, Reid. He's a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him.

Right?

Short and Sweet Review

Molly has had a lot of crushes in her life but she’s never been rejected because she hasn’t pursued any of her crushes. Molly and her twin sister Cassie are super close until Cassie gets a girlfriend. Cassie and her girlfriend Mina try to get Molly and Mina’s friend Will to date, but Molly has conflicting feelings especially because all she can think about is her coworker Reid.

Yikes is all I can say. This is the second Becky Albertalli book I’ve read where I’ve been annoyed by the characters, I think this book actually gave me a headache. Molly has had a lot of crushes in her life I think she’s on number 26 or something but she usually keeps her feelings to herself. Anyway Molly’s sister gets a girlfriend and I don’t know if Molly felt left out but she was basically third wheeling and Cassies remedy to this was for Molly to get with Mina’s friend Will. The problem here is that Molly thinks Will is cute but she actually has feelings for her coworker Reid. The even bigger problem here is that Cassie keeps pushing Will on Molly and Molly doesn’t speak up. So basically Cassie thinks Molly is being selfish and ruining things on purpose but Molly DOESN’T LIKE WILL! Any feelings Molly does think she has for Will come because she’s basically talking herself into it like yeah it’s possible we could be together, she’d be settling. Anyway there was one scene where Molly goes off on Cassie and I’m like “yeah you go girl tell her how you really feel,” but then Molly backs down and I was just disappointed. The little three way crush was too much for me the back and forth I had enough of it. I’m sure Reid and Molly’s romance would have been even better if we didn’t have to go through all the nonsense that came before it. Also I was tired of Molly’s girl group Cassie especially. I did like Abby though even though she was miles away she was a better cousin/friend to Molly than any of the girls who were actually with Molly instate.

Overall just writing this review and thinking about the things that happened are giving me a headache. There are better Becky Albertalli books unfortunately this is one that fell short.

LEAH ON THE OFFBEAT By Becky Albertalli

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

LEAH ON THE OFFBEAT By Becky AlbertalliLeah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
Series: Simonverse #3
Published by Balzer + Bray on 4/24/18
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic.

She’s an anomaly in her friend group: the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high.

It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.

Short and Sweet Review

It’s senior year and in the short amount of time before graduation Leah is trying to figure things out. She’s bi but the only person who knows is her mom, she’s an amazing artist but she’s not comfortable showing her drawings, and her solid friend group seems to be fracturing.

Alrighty this book was rough for me to read. I loved Simon in his book so I thought I would love his best friend Leah in her own book, but I was wrong. I think the thing that really threw me was how cynical and pessimistic Leah was. She would say unnecessarily mean things to people and I just hated it, because the people she would talk to that way didn’t deserve it. Leah has a love interest in this book who is apart of the friend group and it was like hot and cold. Sometimes Leah would get along with this person and at other times she would lash out at them. I like that we got to see Simon and caught up on things going on in his life. Not much happened I feel like it was Leah going to school, talking about college, and going to prom. There could have been so much more character development with Leah but it just wasn’t there in the end.

I wanted to love this book but unfortunately it just fell flat for me.

KATE IN WAITING By Becky Albertalli

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

KATE IN WAITING By Becky AlbertalliKate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli
Published by Balzer + Bray on 4/20/21
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Contrary to popular belief, best friends Kate Garfield and Anderson Walker are not codependent. Carpooling to and from theater rehearsals? Environmentally sound and efficient. Consulting each other on every single life decision? Basic good judgment. Pining for the same guys from afar? Shared crushes are more fun anyway.

But when Kate and Andy’s latest long-distance crush shows up at their school, everything goes off-script. Matt Olsson is talented and sweet, and Kate likes him. She really likes him. The only problem? So does Anderson.

Turns out, communal crushes aren’t so fun when real feelings are involved. This one might even bring the curtains down on Kate and Anderson’s friendship.

Short and Sweet Review

Kate and Anderson have been friends for a long time! Though they may seem codependent, they’re not, even though they actually do almost everything together. So when their crush from summer camp, Matt ends up going to their school they decide that this can be a communal crush. But Kate and Anderson soon learn that communal crushes aren’t fun when actual feelings become involved.

As soon as the book starts we see the friendship between Kate and Anderson, they really consult each other on everything. They also have two other friends Brandie and Raina that are in their group. Once they realize Matt is going to their school they decide that this can be a communal crush and this is where the trouble begins. So everyone that is important in this book is in the play so theirs lots of rehearsals. Matt and Anderson have a class together, and Kate sees Matt during rehearsals and also at her house. Even though Anderson and Kate promised that they would be happy for each other when it comes to stuff happening with Matt we can see that each of them begin to get jealous of each other. I will say that’s the only thing that bothered me, they would be okay and promise not to get mad but then a few chapters later one of them would get jealous and it became a cycle. I think my favorite part of this book was Noah. Noah and Kate used to be friends but now he’s more so her brothers friend. But now Noah is in the school play so there’s lots of him to go around. I honestly preferred Noah and Kate he just had so much to offer and he was sweet and really trying to make an effort. There’s nothing wrong with Matt but there wasn’t much chemistry but with Noah and Kate it’s flying off the page.

This was a pretty good I liked the friendships and the family relationships. Also the romantic relationships and how those all came about. I really loved reading about the play rehearsals and how most of the drama took place there. Thinking back I like this book a lot more than I thought I did despite the drama ring around. Definitely pick this book up!

SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA By Becky Albertalli

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA By Becky AlbertalliSimon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Series: Simonverse #1
Published by Balzer + Bray on 4/7/15
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 320
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met.

Short and Sweet Review

Simon isn’t out yet but he finds happiness sending emails back and forth with someone from school who is calling themselves Blue. But when a classmate, Martin, sees those emails he decides to blackmail Simon into becoming his wingman. Now Simon has to navigate being blackmailed and making sure his secret isn’t out before he’s ready.

Simon is obviously our main character, and he lives a pretty normal life, he’s in the school musical, has a good group of friends, but no one knows that he’s gay. Simon finds comfort emailing Blue someone who also isn’t out yet. Here’s where things get a little messy, after using the school computer Simon forgets to log out and his classmate Martin sees the emails between him and Blue and decides to use that against Simon. Now Simon has to try to help Martin get with his friend Abby. I thought Martin was the worst character and I was furious about what he did. Although Simon was put in a tough situation he tried to make decisions that he thought were right which in the end he learned weren’t. I really liked Simon’s friends and how supportive they were, I especially liked the emails between Simon and Blue! Simon learns to be comfortable with who he is and eventually meets Blue!

I thought this was a really cute book, it was a fast read and had an important message. I did cry a few times but I also laughed! Definitely read this book, the movie isn’t bad either!

YES NO MAYBE SO By Becky Albertalli, Aisha Saeed

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

YES NO MAYBE SO By Becky Albertalli, Aisha SaeedYes No Maybe So by Aisha Saeed, Becky Albertalli
Published by Balzer + Bray on 2/4/20
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 448
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

YES

Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at all to almost anyone) Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.

NO

Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now her parents are separating. Why her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing—with some awkward dude she hardly knows—is beyond her.

MAYBE SO

Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer—and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural crush of the century is another thing entirely.

Short and Sweet

Jamie is volunteering for his local state senate candidate and everything is fine as long as he sticks to doing things behind the scenes. Jamie is not comfortable around people so the thought of knocking on doors is not his idea of a good time.

Maya is having the worst Ramadan. Her best friend is getting ready to go to college and it seems like she doesn’t have time for Maya. On top of it her parents are separating. Maya’s mother thinks that the solution is to have Maya go canvassing.

Maya and Jamie learn that going door to door isn’t as bad as they thought it would be. The more time they spend together they learn that figuring out how to navigate their cultures and their crush is a whole different story.

Characters

Jamie: Jamie is a great character I loved how real he was. He cared about his family and friends and tried to help whenever he could. The only thing Jamie doesn’t like about himself is how he gets nervous when he has to talk to people he doesn’t know or public speaking.

Maya: Maya is also a very well written character. She’s having her own troubles this summer and it includes feeling like she’s losing her best friend and her parents due to their separation. Maya doesn’t like change so all of this is a lot to take in for her. Canvassing isn’t what she wants to do but once she starts she realizes that she really does care about the issues.

Romance

Jamie and Maya: I liked Jamie and Maya I think they brought out the best in each other. Jamie is Jewish and Maya is Muslim so when they were just friends things were fine but once they started to develop feelings for each other they really had to figure out how they were going to make things work.

My Thoughts

~ Jamie and Maya were childhood friends but they haven’t seen each other in a long time so when they’re partnered to canvass together its perfect.

~ I like how Jamie was more outgoing when Maya was around, but Maya also benefitted from Jamie because she found a new friend and also someone who gave her a lot of good advice.

~ While canvassing these two actually found that they were interested in things happening, mainly a new house bill that was going to be passed. These two did a lot to get people to know what was going on including social media and making flyers.

~ I thought Jamie’s family was great they were all very supportive, Maya’s parents were great too. Maya’s family was just adjusting to their new circumstances.

~ I thought Jamie and Maya’s interactions were cute, they were awkward at first but I love how much Jamie was trying.

Overall

Who would’ve thought that a book about canvassing would be so cute and entertaining? This book does deal with politics but I throughly enjoyed it and I was impressed by how Jamie and Maya become more involved because they know that they can make a change. I did like the ending and I’m just so happy I got to read Jamie and Maya’s story. I loved this book and thought it was cute and funny and a great look into political activism.