Book Shelf: Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

At twenty-two years old, Sydney is enjoying a great life: She's in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her best friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers that Hunter is cheating on her and she's forced to decide what her next move should be.

Soon, Sydney finds herself captivated by her mysterious and attractive neighbor, Ridge. She can't take her eyes off him or stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony. And there's something about Sydney that Ridge can't ignore, either. They soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one.

A passionate tale of friendship, betrayal, and romance, Maybe Someday will immerse readers in Sydney's tumultuous world from the very first page.

More info on Goodreads......


Review:

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover is a deeply emotional and arresting novel that will ingrain itself into your heart and soul with its intense longing and emotion that has already earned it a spot as one of my favourite books of this year!

In a time where there are so many books out there, it truly is an experience to read a book like Maybe Someday. I thought the previous novels I had read by Colleen Hoover were emotional, but neither compares to Maybe Someday. Personally, I found Maybe Someday to be one of the most emotionally taxing novels I have read in a long time where the feelings experienced by both main characters affected me so.

Maybe Someday is told through the eyes of twenty two year old Sydney Blake and twenty four year old Ridge Lawson, two neighbors who find themselves bonding over their shared love of music when Sydney learns that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with her roommate and the only person she can turn to is Ridge. Living together and developing music together sees their friendship develop into something so incredibly deep soon neither can deny the attraction they share despite the fact that Ridge’s heart also belongs to another.

Maybe Someday was such an intense book for me to read. Ordinarily one of my biggest pet peeves in novels is when people are in love with more than one person and aren’t faithful, but the way Maybe Someday was written and the intensity of Sydney and Ridges feelings as they both fight so hard against what they both feel really shook me and made me rethink how I perceive someone loving two people.

Sydney and Ridge are both such great characters and the ability to read the story is completely enhanced by the varying POV’s of both characters. I think there’s so much brilliance to be found within this story, from the harsh and powerful feelings Hoover conveys to the male lead of Ridge--a contradictive deaf musician who is quite possibly one of the most incredible characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading about! I love how Ridge doesn’t let the fact that he can’t hear limit him and instead he uses his limitations and thrives instead. Colleen Hoover has written such an inspiring character in Ridge with so much personality.

Colleen Hoover really touched and tore my heart in this novel. Ridge has two amazing women in his life; his girlfriend Maggie who he adores and is in love with and Sydney, the vibrant young woman who he connects with like no one before and who he can’t help but slowly begin to fall in love with even though the fights it so, so hard. I’ve never read a novel before where the main character loved two people so deeply and so truly that their heart was torn apart and owned by two different people.

Ridge knows what he wants in this novel; Maggie. And Sydney. There was so much powerful longing within this story between Sydney and Ridge. Having just been hurt, Sydney didn’t want to be "that girl" but she couldn’t help but fall for Ridge even though she fought it tooth and nail. The brilliance of this novel is that Hoover made me feel their guilt and their pain and their desire. I felt like I was being torn in two myself, especially when I was in Ridge’s mind. Maggie was such an amazing person and I could feel how much Ridge loved her. I felt like I was being unfaithful to Maggie when I would see him with Sydney and want him to be with her because I could feel the depths of his love for Maggie and I loved her in turn.

I very much appreciated the honesty Hoover features in this novel between Sydney and Ridge. They never actually hide from the fact they are developing feelings for each other. They’re both very addiment they don’t want to hurt Maggie and cause her pain and are upfront about what they feel. They try so hard to fight it and its actually really sad because they cause themselves so much pain by wanting to do the right thing.

The fact that Ridge has two amazing women in his life is a brilliant inclusion on Colleen Hoover’s part. When he’s with Maggie you think he should be with Maggie and when he’s with Sydney, you as the reader want him to be with Sydney. It’s not even a physical or sexual relationship between Sydney and Ridge that develops, but more a perfect harmony between two people who share so much. Ridge is in love with them both and would have stayed with Maggie without a doubt, but you have to wonder whether this really would have been out of a misguided notion of loyalty.

And yet, when the inevitable happens and there’s pain and heart ache experienced by all, it’s a bitter sweet beauty to see Colleen Hoover write the ending that seemed so logical and inevitable to the story. Weaving together such a powerful story with such a beautiful soundtrack, Hoover has cemented Maybe Someday as one of the best books I’ve read ever and leaves me still lost in it’s story even though I’ve turned the final page!

Rating:
Source: Sent for review by Simon & Schuster (Thank you guys!)
Format: Paperback
Buy it: Bookworld | The Nile | The Book Depository | Amazon
My Recommendation: This is one of the best books I've read this year--if you enjoy NA don't miss out on this one!
Cover: I think it's awesome; represents the book really well.
Will I read sequel/continue with series: This is a standalone novel, but I'll read whatever Hoover puts out next and of course I'd love some kind of spin-off if Hoover ever writes one......