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3hearts

You know the book that everyone raves about and you buy it only to discover you’re not sure what all the fuss was about? That might be what happened here. I saw the five star reviews, and I expected another Outlander.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a well-written book, wonderful character development, and I enjoyed it; however, it rubbed me the wrong way. The main character, Sydney, is a young twenty-something who finds out her boyfriend Hunter is cheating on her with Tori her best friend. Sydney’s a tough, smart, young woman who gives the two traitors exactly what they deserve.
She meets Ridge, a guitar player, after he sends a friend outside to invite Sidney in out of the rain. With no place to go after the falling-out with her best friend and boyfriend, Ridge offers her a room in his apartment. Reluctantly, she accepts.

Now, the music relationship between Sydney and Ridge is fascinating…

but their love affair bothers me, as well as their reactions. Ridge is portrayed at times as this altruistic guy. He ends up doing exactly what she asked him not to do. That might have been understandable considering their intense feelings for each other, but knowing about his girlfriend (which I will not give-away, as it would be a plot spoiler) makes his fall from grace harder to swallow than Sydney’s ex-boyfriend’s transgressions. And it is because of his girlfriend’s situation that I found his actions deplorable.
I think most readers became mired in the love affair between Ridge and Sydney, and if Maggie weren’t in the picture, it would have been a beautiful relationship. Many readers were more willing to forgive him apparently, than I was. Even though the author wrote the characters in such a way that Ridge’s betrayal could be eventually excused or forgiven, I had a hard time believing it. I put myself in Sydney’s and then in Maggie’s shoes and found Ridge not much better than Hunter, which made me respect Maggie a whole lot more than Sydney.
Throughout the book, I kept feeling as if I’d read this before. I even checked my Kindle to see if I had it in my archive. I did not. I discovered I had read another of Hoover’s books, Hopeless. Perhaps that is why I experienced deja vu.
When I finish a book not liking the main characters, well, that’s how I end up giving a novel three hearts instead of five. If I reviewed it based on the mechanics of writing, it would have been an easy five. Hoover is a great storyteller, too. The hard thing is, is I’m not sure any conceivable ending would have been satisfying because of the situation the characters were put in. It was sort of like watching your friend go through a messy divorce, feeling bad for her, and then finding out later that she did something as deplorable as her nasty ex-husband did. You might still care for her but you respect her less.

With all of my griping Maybe Someday is still worth reading, if for no other reason than watching the music relationship unfold between Sydney and Ridge. Ultimately, I wish Ridge hadn’t had a girlfriend. I wish his girlfriend had had different circumstances. I wish Sydney had been stronger. I give it three out of five hearts because I wanted to love these characters, but I ended up harrumphing as I finished the book.