Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Waiting on Wednesday: Here's to Us by Becky Albertali and Adam Silvera

Happy Wednesday? I just opened Blogger to copy and paste this post from my school's platform where I crosspost the Daily Book Talks and saw that I failed to post Teen Tuesday here! That does not surprise me. Yesterday was hard. For the last ten years, this whole week has been hard for me and my family, but this year has two additional reasons for sadness.

October 3 marked four months from when my husband had his massive stroke, one that left him paralyzed on the right side and unable to speak. October 5 marked two months from the day he died, exactly nine weeks later. It was also my mother's birthday. She would've been 87. October 9 marks the eighth anniversary of my sister, Liza's death. She died at age 55 awaiting a lung transplant while I was undergoing breast cancer treatment. I got to live and I miss her nearly every day. 

I am trying to be patient with myself and my grief, but it's still quite raw and made more raw but the old grief of missing my mom and closest sibling. Being back at school helps distract me and get me moving, but I'm definitely not the teacher I was a year ago. I'm fine interacting with the kids, but grading? or posting lesson plans? or attending to meeting topics? It's all very hard. My ability to concentrate is shot. Often, I get stuck - just sitting with absolutely no idea how to move forward. Nothing for it but to push through and try not to whine too much. I miss him so much, but now I'm starting to miss me.


Here's to Us by Becky Albertali and Adam Silvera. 480 p. Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins Publishers, December 28, 2021. 9780063071636.

Waiting on Wednesday features Here's to Us by Becky Albertali and Adam Silvera. This is a sequel to the pair's 2018 parallel narrative, What If It's Us? Here's the publisher's synopsis: 

Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera reunite to continue the story of Arthur and Ben, the boys readers first fell for in the New York Times bestselling rom-com What If It’s Us.

Ben survived freshman year of college, but he’s feeling more stuck than ever. His classes are a slog, his part-time job working with his father is even worse, and his best friend Dylan’s been acting weird for weeks. Ben’s only real bright spot is his writing partner Mario, who’s been giving him a lot of Spanish lessons and even more kisses. Mario’s big Hollywood dreams make Ben start to dream bigger—and the choices he makes now could be the key to reshaping his future. So why can’t he stop thinking about a certain boy from his past?

Arthur is back in New York City for the first time in two years, ready to take the theater world by a storm as the world’s best . . . intern to the assistant of an off-off-Broadway director. Of course, it sucks to be spending the summer apart from his sweet, reliable boyfriend, Mikey, but he knows their relationship is strong enough to weather the distance. Which is why it’s no big deal when his ex-boyfriend Ben stumbles back into the picture. And it’s definitely fine that Ben’s blissfully happy with some mystery boy. First loves are special, but it’s way too late for what-ifs. Right?
Even as the boys try to shake off the past, they keep running into each other in the present. Is this the universe trying to tell them there’s a do-over in their future?

Here's to Us releases on December 28. That leaves plenty of time to borrow the first book and get to know Ben and Arthur.

No comments:

Post a Comment