If We Were Us – Book Review

Hello friends! Can you believe how fast time is going by? These days I measure time in blog posts and Instagram content, and while I am enjoying it immensely, it stresses me out too. It feels like I have way too much to do and not enough time to do it. I’m not even going to mention the fact that the due date for my masters is in three months. Yikes! Anyway, here’s my If We Were Us Book Review.

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Title: If We Were Us

Author: K.L. Walther

Rating: 3 Stars

Genre: Contemporary, LGBTQ, Romance, YA

Content Warnings: Underage drinking (US), eating disorder, internalised homophobia, sex, smoking.

Format: eARC

Publisher: Sourcefire

Date Published: June 2nd 2020

Goodreads Description: Everyone at the prestigious Bexley School believes that Sage Morgan and Charlie Carmichael are meant to be….that it’s just a matter of time until they realize that they are actually in love.

When Luke Morrissey shows up on the Bexley campus his presence immediately shakes things up. Charlie and Luke are drawn to each other the moment they meet, giving Sage the opportunity to steal away to spend time with Charlie’s twin brother, Nick.

But Charlie is afraid of what others will think if he accepts that he has much more than a friendship with Luke. And Sage fears that things with Nick are getting too serious too quickly. The duo will need to rely on each other and their lifelong friendship to figure things out with the boys they love.

I received a review copy from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Review

This was a cute, fun read that I enjoyed a lot. It took me back to some of my later high school years and early university years. It also made me want to read an older version of this book. Let’s get into it.

Characters

We follow the perspectives of Sage and Charlie in this book. I really enjoyed their friendship and their unwavering loyalty to each other. However, the characters did sort of blend together. Their voices were very similar and I had some trouble distinguishing between their POVs.

The main focus of the book is the relationship dynamics between Sage, Charlie, Luke and Nick and it was explored very thoroughly. Nick was definitely one of my favourite characters and I wish we could have gotten some more page time with them.

I don’t want to be one of those reviewers that say “the characters were too juvenile for me” because this is a YA book and intended for a younger audience. BUT, I will say that the way these characters jumped from one relationship to another, especially Nick and Charlie, made the relationships that were supposed to matter, matter a bit less. Although I suppose that’s how teenagers work. I can’t remember, I’m like 24 going on 80.

Characters = 5

Atmosphere

This story is set in a prestigious boarding school. When I was 13, I wanted nothing more than to go to a boarding school and have crazy adventures. So this book spoke a lot to my 13-year-old self. I loved reading about the adventures they have and it made me really nostalgic for my early university days (but with more drinking and a lot more swearing).

Atmosphere = 6

Writing

The writing wasn’t bad, just a bit confusing. The POV tends to shift very fast, and the scenes also shift without warning. I had to reread some things to make sure I didn’t miss anything. It was jarring and made the reading experience a bit hard.

Writing = 5

Plot

I will say that the plot is not exactly something new, but I enjoyed it a lot. We can never have enough LGBTQ stories that explore the themes of friendship, relationships and coming out. The plot goes in circles for a while, but it picks up toward the end.

Plot = 6

Intrigue

As I said, the plot goes around in circles for a bit, and it gets repetitive. There were a lot of secondary characters to keep track of and I didn’t care about half of them most of the time. I loved the shenanigans though, and that’s what kept me reading most of the time.

Logic

This book makes use of the miscommunication trope, and its cousin, the “keeping secrets to protect someone else but letting that secret ruin your own life” trope. It annoyed me, although I do understand why Sage was keeping secrets. I know it’s not always the easiest to talk to people, especially where sexuality is concerned, but an honest conversation between Sage and Charlie could have saved us a lot of trouble.

Logic = 5

Enjoyment

I enjoyed If We Were Us. It was a cute, fun contemporary read that was a nice break from the heavier fantasy stories I read.

Enjoyment = 6

CAWPILE = 5.4/10

Stars = 3 Stars

Let me know your thoughts on If We Were Us.

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