Friday 21 March 2014

Book Review: Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover.


Product details:
Publisher: Simon & Schuster.
Paperback, 384  pages.
Release date: March 18th 2014.
Rating:  3½ out of 5.
Ages: 17+ || New Adult
Source: Received from publisher for review.

Sydney is living in an idyllic bubble - she's a dedicated student with a steady job on the side. She lives with her best friend, has a great boyfriend, and the music coming from the balcony opposite hers is fast becoming the soundtrack to her life. But when Sydney finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her, the bubble bursts. The mysterious and attractive man behind the music, Ridge, gives Sydney hope that she can move on and they begin to write songs together. But moving on is harder than she expects, Sydney can only hope…. Maybe someday… Colleen Hoover draws you in to this passionate tale of music, love and betrayal…


Twenty-two year old Sydney has just discovered that her boyfriend of two years, Hunter, has betrayed her in the worst possible way.  He’s been cheating on her, and not with just anyone, but with her best friend and roommate, Tori.  Sydney throws a few punches, packs her bags and moves out of her apartment. Then she finds she has nowhere to go. Enter Ridge. The hot guitar-playing guy from the apartment across the way, Ridge takes Sydney under his wing. He even takes her out for cake, because, while this is Sydney’s day from hell, it also just happens to be her birthday. Also, Ridge was the one to break the news to her about Hunter’s cheating ways, so he feels bad. Hmmm…Or maybe Ridge just wants to have his cake and eat it too. While the attraction between these two is undeniable, there’s something Ridge isn’t telling Sydney, something he ‘forgets’ to mention, and it’s that he has a girlfriend: a girlfriend of five years, a girlfriend who loves him very much, and who he loves just as much.

Why, then, when Ridge knows that he’s attracted to Sydney does he invite her to live with him? Why, when he has a girlfriend, when he’s in a happy, long-distance-yet-committed relationship, does he invite Sydney to stay? That’s not okay. Ridge may have the best of intentions in life, and he may not intend on taking things any further than friendship with Sydney, but he also knows right from day one that he’s attracted to her. Then, as a guy in a relationship, he has the responsibility of respect towards his girlfriend. In no way should he go there with Sydney. Seriously. This guy needs to man up and grow a pair.

As for Sydney, well, for a girl whose boyfriend recently cheated on her, you might think she’d want to spare another girl the same kind of hurt, but no. Even after Sydney meets Ridge’s girlfriend Maggie, even after the two bond and form a fast friendship, she doesn’t curtail her feelings for Ridge. She also doesn’t move out of his apartment, which, really, would have been the decent thing to do. Instead Ridge and Sydney embark on an emotional affair, an emotional affair where they share their innermost thoughts and feelings with each other, an emotional affair that sees them hang out night after night in Ridge’s room where they co-write lyrics for his band, where they fall asleep on his bed, and where they fall in love. Ridge and Sydney also pride themselves and are super pleased with the fact that there are totally honest with each other. It’s a shame that neither of them is honest enough to tell Ridge’s girlfriend what’s going on.
  
While I’ve heard a whole lot of good things about Colleen Hoover’s books, Maybe Someday is the first one I’ve read. Cheating is a tricky subject to tackle, and while Hoover is sensitive to the fact in that she makes Ridge and Sydney’s an emotional rather than a physical affair, I have to say that I was never on board with these characters. I never rooted for them. I never wanted them to be together. I didn’t in any way agree with their actions. I just thought the whole thing was wrong. Cheating’s a big no-no for me. It’s a total deal-breaker. No matter how much you dress it up; no matter how sexy or sweet or sensitive you write a guy, it’s just not going to work for me. I was on Maggie’s side. I can totally understand how Ridge and Sydney found themselves in their predicament, but for two characters who continually pat themselves on the back for their honesty, they were pretty shady in a lot of ways, even with themselves, even with each other: especially with Maggie. I gotta say, it all just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Leaving Ridge and Sydney aside, I struggled with this book at first because it not only takes a while to get going, but it is also pretty slow-paced and a little repetitive throughout. Also, for a work of New Adult fiction, Maybe Someday walks very much on the tame side of things. I don’t know about you, but I like my ‘NA’ hot and steamy, and I guess this just didn’t do it for me. I liked Hoover’s writing, though, and I liked her secondary characters. Well, there’s no contest there, really. I liked the secondary characters in this book more than I liked the primary characters. The lyrics included in the text didn’t really leave much of an impression on me, because, honestly, while I love music, I find that lyrics in books just never really seem to work. Here, Ridge and Sydney use confess their feelings for one another through their lyrics, so, yeah…

Overall, Maybe Someday was a worthwhile read, but it’s also a romance, and as you can see, it didn’t exactly leave me swooning.  There is a lot more I could say about Ridge and in particular the complexities of his relationship with Maggie, but then, we’d be here all day.  I will say, though, that by the end of the book my thoughts on Ridge were pretty much the same as they were right at the start: I still think that guy needs to man up and grow a pair.

13 comments :

  1. Great review! I have the book on my wishlist, but have never read anything by her yet either. Maybe I should start with one of her other books.

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  2. I'm still so disappointed by the plot of this, it's just not right and then I read some other reviews and there's a ton of slut shaming too by Sydney to justify her behaviour which annoys me no end. As I said I loved Hopeless and Losing Hope destroyed me and Slammed sounds great but defo going to skip this one! Thanks for the heads up love, I was going on other reviews thinking it would be great because they conveniently skimmed over how they behaved, yeah not happening!

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  3. ChristinaBookAddict21 March 2014 at 11:26

    Cheating is such a tough topic. I just read Tempting Fate by Jane Green and I had a hard time with the main character, b/c she had an affair. It made me really dislike the main character, which I think happened to you in this story as well. I would definitely be Team Maggie if I read this book. I have never read Hoover's books, but I will have to keep my eye out. Thanks for the honest review!

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  4. Thats so sad. I've actually read her previous books - Hopeless and it's sequel, Losing Hope, and I honestly have to say they were both beautiful and completely original in their own right. I haven't read this yet, but I hope you give her another chance, I really loved Hopeless.

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  5. I've heard Hopeless is really good. I might try that one out next!

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  6. Even after Sydney falls head over heels for Ridge, she doesn't even try to understand Tori's actions. Of course what Tori did was awful, but her & Sydney's friendship is never explored in the book - that would have been an interesting angle to take. I think you have the same stance on cheating as I do, and so I reckon you'd encounter many of the same problems as I did with this one. I will check out Hopeless, though!

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  7. Definitely. I never got on board with Ridge and Sydney. Also, Maggie was a really great girl, which made things even worse!

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  8. I've heard a lot of good things about Hopeless. I'll definitely check that one out!

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  9. I've heard of Colleen Hoover somewhere...mmm, I feel like I'd like to try something of hers, but I'm NOT a really huge NA fan. The few I've read, meh. While this doesn't sound too bad, the slow and repetitiveness would probably break my braincells.

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  10. I had the same issues with this read as you did. I felt like the odd duck out because so many people RAVE about how swoony and wonderful Ridge was. I just thought he was a douchebag. I loved Colleen Hoover's other books but I think she missed the mark on this one. Writing a cheating book, whether it's "just" emotional cheating or not is tricky. The writer has to give you a reason to still like the characters involved in the cheating. She did not do that, IMO. I didn't like the way Ridge treated either women. To me he was more at fault because he allowed feelings to develop before Syd knew the score, knew he had a girlfriend. But you're right, she should've moved out once she found out. Have some dignity and self respect is what I kept thinking and don't let this guy make you his dirty little mistress. Things ended very conveniently and I don't think Ridge would've ever been the one to end things making Syd second choice when in comes down to it. How can I get behind a romance like that? Utter fail in writing a cheating book. Well, sorry for this long comment, but I felt the need to rant. I was so disappointed and angry that I wasted my time on a read that pissed me off. Excellent review! :)

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  11. NA is very hit and miss for me too. I loved Deeper by Robin York, though - definitely one to check out!

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  12. I'm so glad you left this comment. Honestly, I read through some Goodreads reviews of this one and I was baffled that people were 100% on Ridge's side. WTH?! I don't know how anyone could have found his behaviour appealing. He was 100% not willing to take responsibility for ANYTHING and let his girlfriend make the call for him. If she hadn't made the call, he would have stayed with her. But instead he got dumped and settled for Sydney. Also, you would think that after her own experiences, Sydney would have dealt with this situation with a whole lot more dignity and tact - especially after she made friends with Maggie! Argh! /Rant.

    Tracey Garvis-Graves deals with this subject in Covet and she handles it well.

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  13. It's funny that you mention Covett! I said the same thing to a friend. Tracey did handle it extremely well and while there was some emotional cheating (I won't spoils for others if there was actual cheating) I could understand it even if I didn't condone it. I liked all three parties in that book and could understand their plight. Tracey did an excellent job of making you feel for each and every one of them, whereas CoHo failed IMO and instead I disliked Ridge strongly. Writer fail.

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