Here’s to Us
by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Simon & Schuster

The American authors’ first collaboration was the Young Adult romantic comedy What If It’s Us, published in 2019. The book focused on Arthur and Ben, two teenage boys who meet each other by chance at a post office and fall for each other. The novel is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of each protagonist. Realism wins out over romantic idealism and by the end of the book they are living in different parts of the country.

At the beginning of this sequel, Ben has cleared the slate and has had time to put Arthur into his memory file while studying creative writing at a New York college. It helps that the charismatic Mario is one of his classmates. However, after playing around in a romantic space for little over a month, they are in that tricky place of being more than friends but not officially boyfriends.

Arthur is in Boston and even though he has fond memories of his summer romance, is now in a relationship with Mickey. When Arthur has to move back to New York after securing an internship with a queer off-Broadway theatre, Mickey arranges to visit after the first couple of weeks. But a lot can happen in two weeks.

Written with alternating chapters from Ben and Arthur’s the points of view, they relate how they find themselves capitulated down memory lane while they are trying to keep to the new paths they have carved for themselves. Ben finds it particularly hard not to think about his ex when he is writing a book inspired by him.

They try hanging out with friends who have their own dramas going on. It is that time at the end of the teenage years when they are all trying to balance the opportunities life is throwing in their direction with the possibilities that fleeting relationships might develop into something more meaningful.

Here’s to Us shows that you don’t necessarily get your happily ever after on the first go. Sometimes you find another person and sometimes you get a second chance with a previous one. As Beck says, “I really think we undervalue the importance of making and learning from mistakes and wrong turns—in life, in love, in friendship, in activism. But the truth is, we’re all rough drafts.”

Lezly Herbert

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