Editors Reads Verdict
Hoover's most structurally inventive novel: the music component is genuine (she released a companion album simultaneously), Ridge's deafness is portrayed with care rather than used as a gimmick, and the central moral question about emotional infidelity is explored with more nuance than her later books.
What We Loved
- The companion album makes the music an actual experience rather than a narrative abstraction
- Ridge's deafness is researched and rendered with genuine care
- The emotional infidelity question is handled with unusual moral seriousness
- Sydney is one of Hoover's most fully realised protagonists
Minor Drawbacks
- The cheating setup will alienate some readers from the outset
- Secondary character Maggie deserves more page time than she receives
- The resolution depends on coincidences that strain credibility slightly
Key Takeaways
- → Emotional connection can be as transgressive as physical attraction
- → Art created in collaboration reveals character more honestly than conversation
- → Doing the right thing for someone else's sake is its own form of love
- → Disability is a lived experience, not a plot device
| Author | Colleen Hoover |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Atria Books |
| Pages | 374 |
| Published | March 18, 2014 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Contemporary Romance, New Adult, Drama |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Contemporary romance readers who want a love story structured around a genuine moral dilemma and an authentic engagement with music and art. |
Maybe Someday Review
Maybe Someday is the novel Colleen Hoover wrote when she decided to genuinely complicate the love story rather than simply delay its resolution. Published in 2014 with a companion album of original songs written by Griffin Peterson, it remains her most formally ambitious work — the music that Ridge and Sydney write together exists as actual recorded songs that readers can listen to while reading, turning the novel into something closer to a multimedia experience.
Sydney is twenty-two and discovers, with humiliating specificity, that her boyfriend has been sleeping with her best friend. She moves out with nowhere to go, and her downstairs neighbour Ridge — a songwriter who is deaf and communicates primarily through his phone — offers her a room. He has a girlfriend. She is trying to rebuild her life. They begin collaborating on lyrics through text messages, and the connection between them becomes impossible to classify as merely creative.
Hoover is unusually direct about the ethical stakes. Sydney and Ridge are emotionally unfaithful to the people they are supposed to be committed to, and the novel does not allow them to feel good about it. Ridge’s girlfriend Maggie is not a villain; she is a person, and her presence gives the story a moral texture that most romance fiction smooths away entirely.
The portrayal of Ridge’s deafness is handled with evident research and consistency. His perspective on music, composition, and the way he experiences sound is woven through the narrative without sentimentality or condescension — a rare achievement in mainstream fiction.
The book’s weakness is its ending, which relies on a coincidence that tidies things a little too neatly. But the journey there is Hoover at her most thoughtful.
Our rating: 4.5/5 — Hoover’s most structurally inventive novel and her most honest engagement with the ethics of falling for someone you shouldn’t.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Maybe Someday" about?
Sydney discovers her boyfriend has been cheating on her with her best friend. She moves in with Ridge — a musician and songwriter who happens to be deaf — and the two collaborate on music through written notes and an undeniable connection neither of them wants to acknowledge. A love story about the ethics of attraction and the power of music.
Who should read "Maybe Someday"?
Contemporary romance readers who want a love story structured around a genuine moral dilemma and an authentic engagement with music and art.
What are the key takeaways from "Maybe Someday"?
Emotional connection can be as transgressive as physical attraction Art created in collaboration reveals character more honestly than conversation Doing the right thing for someone else's sake is its own form of love Disability is a lived experience, not a plot device
Is "Maybe Someday" worth reading?
Hoover's most structurally inventive novel: the music component is genuine (she released a companion album simultaneously), Ridge's deafness is portrayed with care rather than used as a gimmick, and the central moral question about emotional infidelity is explored with more nuance than her later books.
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