Review: Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

Title: Maybe Someday
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Source: Simon & Schuster Australia. Thank you!
Goodreads | The Reading Room

At twenty-two years old, aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to decide what to do next.

Sydney becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony. She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one…

Review by Nara

Seriously, Colleen Hoover is one of only a very small number of New Adult authors that I can actually stand. See, the main problem that I have with most NA books is that they're too angsty. Drama, drama, drama, drama. But what I love about Colleen Hoover's books is that, while there is usually a lot of drama (because to be honest, a contemporary romance without some sort of conflict is going to be boring), it never gets to the point where it's angsty and annoying.

Hoover's male leads are always so well developed, and Ridge is no different. A few major bombshells are dropped about him quite early on in the book, and while it probably wouldn't be considered a spoiler to say some of those here, I'd really rather not. Better shock value to find out for yourself.

Maybe Someday is written in dual point of view (Ridge and Sydney), and wow, Hoover does an excellent male POV. She makes the voices of the two characters so distinctive; you don't even need the cue in the chapter title to know who's narrating. And the banter! My god, the banter! It's hilarious and adorable and half the time I was sitting there going JUST GET TOGETHER ALREADY, PEOPLE. And their music sessions! Gahhhh they were just so excellently written.

One of the best things about this book is that the songs that Sydney and Ridge write together are actual songs. If you don't know the story, Colleen worked with artist Griffin Peterson to write and record all the songs in the book. You can listen to them all for free here. My favourite track HAS to be Hold On To You, not just because the lyrics and melody are beautiful, but because it fits the story SO well. Just...this:

The stars all shimmer like a melody
Like they’re playing for you and me
But only I can hear their sound

FEEEEELS. I can't even. If you haven't read the book, you probably don't get how feels-inducing those words are, but suffice to say: READ THE BOOK.

Maybe Someday really made me experience the whole spectrum of emotions. It made me laugh out loud (this doesn't happen very often) and it made me squee in delight. It made me put the book down for a moment to recover from the complete and utter shock of some of the revelations.
Basically, it made me feel everything ;)

By the way, if you didn't know, Colleen Hoover actually wrote an epilogue for the book as well, and posted it online here. Not sure how legit a super young cardiologist is though lol.

Incredible

Favourite

Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Romance: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 3/5