Review: What If It's Us, by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera

This book is so good the movie rights have already been acquired.

Fair warning, a lot of my thoughts on this book are just crying queerly. I have a lot of feelings about What If It’s Us, the gay meet-cute story we never knew we needed.

What If It’s Us begins outside a post office in New York, where Arthur - nervous, Jewish, intern at his mum’s law office - is on his way to pick up coffee for the real lawyers. Arthur, who I’m not sure if I was friends with in high school or if I was in high school, impulsively ducks into the post office when he encounters Ben.

Ben - awkward, Puerto Rican, in summer school because ADHD + hot boys = no studying - is trying to mail a box of things back to his ex so he can avoid ever having to deal with that whole mess, which is also intensely relatable.

They meet, they cute, but then they separate without learning each other’s names or phone numbers, and even though I knew from the blurb they would find each other I died inside. This turned out to be common throughout this book.

There are a lot of good morals about having healthy (and unhealthy) relationships here, woven in with the story of two strangers trying to get to know each other and themselves. There’s a lot of honest portrayal of how it feels to be LGBT(QIA) and trying to live your life, perpetually slightly worried that someone will somehow sense your queerness and attack you for it.

I have read literally all of Becky Albertalli’s books so it’s no surprise that I fell right into the writing style, which although I sometimes laugh at the sheer density of pop culture references, is as familiar as my tumblr dash. I have not read any of Adam Silvera’s books, but I think now I’m going to have to fix that.

Finally, and totally self-indulgently, I need you all to know that at one point in the book one of the side characters idly tells Arthur that she identifies with the SAME LABELS AS ME. THAT’S ME, YOU GUYS. I CRIED. I’M CRYING AGAIN NOW TELLING YOU. NEVER LET ANYONE TELL YOU REPRESENTATION ISN’T IMPORTANT.

Review: The Boneless Mercies, by April Genevieve Tucholke

Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are Boneless Mercies – death-traders, hired to kill quickly, quietly and mercifully. It is a job for women, and women only. Men will not do this sad, dark work.

There are so many women in this book. There are very few men in this book at all. It’s glorious. It’s been a week since I read it and I recall two. Two men whose importance to the story is almost entirely tied to their emotional significance to the protagonist. Is this what being a man feels like?

The Boneless Mercies is a heroic saga focusing on a band of young women who travel a vaguely medieval eastern european continent as mercy-killers for hire. On the off chance you aren’t already leaving to go pick up a copy, I will do my best to explain why you should.

First - this is not a kissing book. This is not a book ‘about women’ where there is as much or more time devoted to how she feels about some guy as there is to the actual plot. In fact, while Frey does eventually do some kissing, the book is more than half over by the time she even thinks about it. Instead, she thinks about her quest, and her companions, and how her quest might be affecting her companions. There is a lot of entirely platonic compassion and love and I dig it.

Second, the tone of this book is GLORIOUS. Reading it felt like floating, if that makes any sense. Picking up this book is like walking into an old growth forest, hearing the complete lack of machinery, knowing you are the only person for miles. It truly captures the poetry of traditional fairytales and epics. Like breathing night air. I loved it.

Third, and this is a little big repeating, but the women in this book! They are all different, they are all complex, they all have different stories and motivations and they’re all fleshed out and deep and have skills and flaws and gosh I just love them all so much. Juniper, in particular, is my favourite.

The Boneless Mercies is a standalone novel, and it suits it, it is one heroic tale from beginning to end, but it is the kind of standalone where I wish I had another twenty chapters to tell me about how they lived the rest of their lives in comfort and safety, so that I could know for sure that my girls were okay.


Read this book if you loved:

• Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo (or if you would have loved the Grisha trilogy, if not for that love triangle...)
• The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
• Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
• Women.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: No Limits, by Ellie Marney

Boozer, brawler, ladies’ man – nineteen-year-old Harris Derwent is not a good guy. 

His one attempt to play the hero – helping out his old flame, Rachel Watts – has landed him in hospital. Now injured, broke, and unemployed, he’s stuck back in the country, at his father’s mercy. Harris needs to pay off his dad’s debts, and fast. But working as a runner for a drug cartel is a dangerous path – especially if Harris agrees to narc…

Here it is, the review where I shamelessly drop that I've now met Ellie Marney twice. We talked about pens. I felt cool by association.

No Limits has its own backstory (how meta!) about a publishing company that didn't want to take a risk on a book about older characters that dealt with the ice industry in rural Australia and an author who was too awesome to give up. I could talk about it forever, but I'm not going to, because Ellie Marney did it better.

So instead of repeating what everyone else has already said better, I'm going to ramble on for a while about how this book made me feel.

Reviews: Happy Valentine's Day!

Ah, Valentine's Day. I have such a complicated relationship with Valentine's Day. On the one hand, I totally resent all the shops I walk past trying to bully me into believing my love can only be expressed through sparkly things and dropping my life savings on whatever's under the "For Him" sign this week.

On the other hand... I really really like sparkly things, you guys. And everywhere is covered in hearts, and there's chocolate. Lord, there's so much chocolate. I'm a hopeless romantic sucker, which is why for your reading pleasure here are my five recommendations/micro-reviews for hopeless romanticism this week. Are you single? Who cares, fictional people sure don't! Are you taken? Doesn't matter, books are great anyway. Read on!

Review: Love, Lies and Spies, by Cindy Anstey

Love, Lies and Spies at Goodreads

Well that sure was some insta-love!

To be really honest, once I got past my knee-jerk eugh, I didn't really mind the totally out of nowhere instant romance. This would lean towards 3.5 more than 4 stars, but I felt generous because I just had a lot of fun with it. Juliana's undying interest in the 'lady beetle' made me smile a few times, and I always love when a character refuses to acknowledge their feelings.

Our dashing heroine here is Juliana Telford, who is really only interested in spending time with her father and studying the mysterious lady beetle. Unfortunately for her, she's living in the 19th century, where publishing your findings is difficult as a man, and nearly impossible for a woman. Especially when your field of research is ladybugs. She has hatched a plan to accompany her cousin and her neighbours to London to accost some printers in person. A few days before she is due to leave she falls off a cliff and is rescued by a mysterious stranger with very, very blue eyes...


This book is not particularly deep, or intense, or thrilling, and its cover doesn't use an oxford comma, but it is a fun historical romance that might cheer you up or keep you entertained for an evening.