Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - If We Were Us

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

If We Were Us by K.L. Walther

7 reviews

dogoodwithbooks's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I would like to thank NetGalley and Tantor Audio for providing me with a free audio e-ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A re-release of K.L. Walther’s debut novel, Maybe Meant to Be tells the story of four high school seniors as they navigate love, friendships, and leaving high school behind at their New England boarding school.

I previously read Walther’s most popular novel, The Summer of Broken Rules, which I liked reading and was curious to read Walther’s re-release of this book. While I really wanted to like this book, I just don’t think this title was ultimately for me. Specifically, my problems with the book mainly address character development throughout Maybe Meant to Be and the narration of the book itself.

Starting off with narration, while Alexa Elmy and Graham Halstead were fine narrators, there definitely could have been some improvements. I feel like Elmy had a very hard time separating the characters’ voices, especially for the female characters since almost every single one of them sounded the same. Meanwhile with Halstead, while he’s mostly able to separate character voices, he’s not how imagine Charlie to sound and I personally feel like his voice for Charlie makes sound older than he actually is.

Moving on to character development, I feel like that was the area Walther needs the most work on (though I do understand that this was her debut and that it’s not a current reflection of her work). A majority of the characters had little to no depth to them, with Charlie and Luke being the only exceptions. While Charlie and Luke’s character development and their relationship fully fleshed out, I don’t think Nick gets the development necessary for his character arc and Sage got to be really annoying during the middle/near-end of the book. Alongside an easily forgettable ensemble cast of friends that are almost carbon copies of each other, I feel her character work could have been improved.

Now, there are some things that I did like about Maybe Meant to Be. A solid plot in of itself, I really loved the world-building Walther invests in bringing Bexley (the boarding school which the characters attend) to life and I think that’s one of the finer points of the book. Additionally, the relationship between Charlie and Luke was developed very well and helped me enjoy the book more.

Overall, while I wanted to like the book, this just wasn’t it for me.

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sparkinspace's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really liked this book. For having a falling for my best friend's brother trope, it didn't feel over done and I'm so happy that Sage and Charlie's friendship was what was in the foundation of this story.

I found that Sage inner conflict of why she couldn't be with Nick a bit sad, that of all the time they spent together he never knew that part of her. I also didn't like how the later part of the book more or less forced Charlie to come out. I would have liked him to have that journey on his own more than Luke forcing his hand to still be his boyfriend. It gave me a little bit of an ick.

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jillkaarlela's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Taylor Swift songs: “treacherous (tv)”

Age rating: 13+ (closed door)

I honestly did not love this nearly as much as I loved “the Summer of Broken Rules”. This was definitely for the younger side of YA, which is not a bad thing, I just wasn’t expecting it. If you like Emma Lord (wrote “Tweet Cute”, “you have a match”) you would really like this!

Now, on to my criticisms. I think this was an overall good story, but I didn’t really connect with any of the characters. I think having it in dual pov with two different couples really limited our time with each and I would have liked more development of each of the main characters and their relationships. We got to see a lot of how Charlie and Luke fell in love, and why they liked each other. However, when the book started, Sage and Nick were already together, so we don’t get to see much of why they like each other. There also wasn’t as much emotional depth as TSOBR. Also, the main conflict of a gay character was coming out, which a lot of people find triggering or problematic. Charlie’s character in general also bothered me because he was a serial dater and constantly led on girls and broke their hearts to cover up the fact that he was gay? He just hurt a lot of people that way, and it didn’t sit right with me.

Overall, this was good, just definitely not my favorite.

Side note: I don’t know how they got away with so much at the school, honestly. Like, the guys stayed in each other’s rooms every night without getting in trouble? I know not to bring practicality into stories, but that genuinely baffled me.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me an advanced reader copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

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aelis_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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parasolcrafter's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

theres nothing Egregiously wrong with this book, but like so many ya romance books i feel as though its just...kinda needlessly sterilized, yknow??? idk how else to put it and maybe that just means that books like this arent up my alley but...idk. i feel like this book could have been more realistic and have more stakes to it but it didnt :/ which i Guess is fine but it just makes things boring and predictable.

also...the conflicts were paced very weird. like

nick & sages breakup and then rekindling

takes up a literal half of the book, where

charlie & lukes breakup

happens within the last few chapters and their 'problem' (i struggle to call it a problem bc

its related to coming out to charlies family

, which is nothing little imo) is resolved in a matter of pages. the entire flow of the conflict is off; i think it would have been better if the breakups occurred at the same time and took the same time to resolve, bc it really made it seem like luke & charlies problems were secondary to sage & nick, when sage & charlie are equal protagonists in the book. also, i think charlies coming out is a much bigger issue to overcome than sages problem and the way it was resolved so fast feels a little off, yknow??

idk...maybe im just looking too much into a book that isnt more than surface deep :/

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greenlivingaudioworm's review

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing 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

3.0

Content Warnings

princess_peach's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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