I thoroughly enjoyed this novel! I loved the writing style and the story and the characters! I'm not a huge music fan but I certainly did keep my finger on YouTube pretty much the whole time, listening to the songs that Luke and Vada texted each other back and forth! Their story was so heartwarming and sweet and I just loved their connections and I had a huge smile on my face every time they were together.

The main character, Luke, is spoiled, immature, overdramatic and whiny. I like Vada, but she didn't really grow as a character in her own right as much as I would've liked. Overall this book wasn’t horrible, just not my favorite. It was predictable and monotonous. I liked the music referenced and it was a good time-filler.

Cute, light read. This would be good for someone looking for a romance, but wants a book that isn't solely about the romance.

I loved this book! Luke and Vada are such a breath of fresh air compared other YA couples. They’re relatable and took me back to my first love. It was so sweet and such a fun read with their love of music matching mine! So many great songs included. Aww! Such a good, fun read!!

4 stars / This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com on 7 July 2020.


Luke Greenly and his twin Cullen host a popular local podcast called Grass is Greenly. The twins couldn’t be more unalike - Luke blonde and quiet, Cullen dark and flamboyantly gay. Their dad is a former punk rock superstar still madly in love with his wife who teaches at the University of Michigan.

Vada is a music prodigy. Her “sperm donor” gave her the genes for musicality and honed her skills. But since he divorced her school principal mom, he hasn’t given her another thing. Vada harbors a lot of anger toward her father, and angst about her future. Already accepted into UCLA’s music journalism program, her dad refuses to even discuss helping her out with tuition. Her escape from reality resides in her job at the Loud Lizard, a local dive bar/club, and her modern dance class.

When the modern dance class invites the music composition class to observe for the annual dance recital, Luke decides he wants to compose a piece for Vada to dance to in the recital. Suddenly Vada, who has been pining for Luke since freshman year, and Luke who has been crushing on Vada just as long, are thrown together. Their shared love of music eases them into a comfortable friendship, but will it ever be more?

With a fabulous setting of the Loud Lizard as a background, the adventures of Luke and Vada finding each other amidst their hectic senior years of high school are draped in current and classic music. The author clearly knows her way around a song, as the whole novel is sprinkled with references to great music - popular and obscure. It plays as a soundtrack to Luke and Vada’s lives.

The unrealistic expectations of Luke’s dad, wanting him to be a music star, are very much like any parent - sometimes pushing the child to be something they don’t want to be. Vada’s tragic relationship with her dad is all too real as well. Her dad moved on to a new family and left his original child behind. Her fears about being able to afford school and achieving her dreams are very much what most teens today experience.

Loved this YA novel. With some graphic language, and themes of Christianity, homosexuality, and teen romance, it might not be for everyone. However, it touches on reality for teens today. I think this novel will be gracing many a teen’s bookshelf for years to come.

3.5 stars
This was a cute, sweet read! The characters were what made the story for me and I enjoyed their dynamics immensely!

More Than Maybe is more than a love story, it’s about family and friendship. Luke and Vada are likable protagonists with amazing banter. The side characters were also very fun to read about. Cullen and Phil were my favorites and I enjoyed their interactions with the protagonists.

Luke and Vada are so cute together. I found it so sweet that they already had crushes on each other at the beginning of the book. However, I found their love story to be a bit mellow. There wasn’t enough tension and drama. This is purely subjective because I am not used to reading cute love stories without drama.

Now, let’s talk about the protagonists: Luke and Vada!
I loved Vada! She reminded me of myself sometimes; ambitious and awkward around their crush. I felt that I could connect to her - her experiences and worries. Luke, on the other hand, I hoped he was a bit more fleshed out. I did not really find him that interesting because I did not get to know him on a personal level as I did with Vada.

I love the music references and could connect to the book as I am a music lover myself, however, I felt that the music/pop references were a bit too overwhelming as it occured on almost every single page.

The reason why this book did not get the full 4 stars is because the plot was a bit lacking. Nothing really happens throughout the book until the last three quarters. But the ending was satisfying and made my heart burst with joy.

Overall, I enjoyed this but I had expected more.

Music blogger, Vada Carsewell, is well on her way to making her a 5 year plan a reality - working at the Loud Lizard with her mom's boyfriend, curating the Liberty Live summer fest, and getting accepted to UCLA's prestigious music journalism program. What she doesn't expect is that the boy she's had a major crush to become a part of that 5 year plan. Luke Greenly, son of a British punk rock star and star of a podcast with his twin brother, does not want to follow in his father's footsteps of fame. He does, however, want to make music. When his secret music hobby leads to a partnership with longtime unrequited crush Vada, the two have to confront their feelings for each other.

I should've known that I was going to love this book. Grungy clubs, music references throughout? Definitely right up my alley. The love story between Vada and Luke was so sweet, and I loved every minute of it. I also loved the complex relationships both leads had with their fathers. We see the effect that these relationships had on the characters and how it impacts the decisions that they make. I also loved all of the supporting characters - I wish they were my friends and family too! I thought that this book was fabulous and highly recommend and plan to put in the hands of some students once we are back in school. 5 ⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

rating: 3.5 stars

More Than Maybe is an addicting read about music, love, and following your dreams. It gave me a little Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist vibes (which is a huge compliment, by the way) and I enjoyed it!

I really liked the romance and character development in this book. Luke and Vada has such amazing chemistry, and having music bring them closer together made their relationship even cuter in my eyes. They aren't perfect characters, either. Both of them could be quite complex, which I enjoyed. I love when YA novels feature flawed characters. It makes the story much more realistic.

Now let's talk about the music. The music alone gave this book an entire star. Maybe it's because I'm a huge music junkie, but I got so excited every time they talked about a song that I personally love.

Overall, this was a fun and enjoyable read.

If you took the Lil Sebastian Tribute Concert from Parks and Rec, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and 90s/2000s alternative and grunge, you have More Than Maybe. Aka my new favorite book. Aka the best thing I've read. Aka the greatest romantic comedy alternative music lovefest I've ever read. At one point in the novel, Vada describes a coworker's relationship as a Hallmark movie plot and I have half a mind to write this review like that. But I won't. Just know that I binge read it in a few short hours and haven't stopped swooning since then.

Like Vada can recognize a good song or good concert by the number of times she closes her eyes to feel the music at a deeper level, I recognize a good book by the sheer number of times I giggle, kick my feet out, or wheeze uncontrollably. And I did all of those. Repeatedly. Every single chapter.

Okay, well. Anyways. Time to talk about the greatness that is More Than Maybe. Vada has taken over her boss's blog, Behind the Music.She reviews up and coming bands and pushes them towards the limelight as her followers increase. She has a clear list of goals: go to her dream college, run the music blog, host the summer music concert series, and maybe, just maybe get her dad to fund her college. Luke on the other hand dreams of writing music. But not performing. Distinctly not performing. He loves his dad, a former punk musician, but he doesn't enjoy the limelight and just wants to compose. Despite coexisting in similar circles, neither has stepped outside their comfort zones to talk to the other beyond just normal conversation. Even though they both have a maddening, almost stalkerish love for each other. The most perfect love. The love that every alt rock song croons about. It isn't until Cullen, Luke's twin brother, secretly records him singing a love song about Vada and posts it to their podcast, The Grass is Greenly. It boosts Luke to the famous status he has never wanted. And everyone wants to know who the mysterious girl he's singing about is. As more and more opportunities come up for them to connect, Vada and Luke grow ever closer, just like the music that binds them.

I can't tell you one single thing that stood out to me except that everything did. The songs Erin Hahn chose as the background music for this novel speak to the reader's heart as much as they do Vada and Luke. I've developed a strong love of alternative music in the past few years and let me tell you I was utterly surprised I knew every single artist mentioned in the book. The characters felt vulnerable and so relatable. There wasn't a moment that I felt distanced or unconnected, which has happened so frequently in the books I've read. Having the experience of hearing the lyrics to Luke's songs near the end of the book just blew my mind away and made me fall harder. Even more so was seeing their "falling in love" tracklist (okay that's what I'm calling it, even if it isn't really called that) at the book's end. I won't stop swooning for a while and Vada and Luke are officially one of my favorite couples. Ever.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK! Sometimes I have a hard time enjoying supporting characters in books (I don't know why but I know it's a me problem), BUT this book did not disappoint whatsoever. I know Luke wanted a life outside of the spotlight, but I felt like he was a diva. The musical knowledge throughout the book made my little band nerd heart happy, because you can really tell when authors just scan Google for details but no, Erin Hahn did a fabulous job.

Thank you!

This is a great YA romance!

I don't know why, but I love any book that has music as a common theme. I love it even more if there are songs mentioned throughout the book that I can listen to while readying and this delivered. I think it helps get in the same mindset as the characters and now how they're feeling.

I also really loved these characters. They were just so cute in how they liked each other from the start but were too shy to say anything. I loved how they interacted with each other knowing that and seeing how they got closer.

I overall just really loved this book and it would make the perfect summer read. Can we please have a sequel to see either where the characters end up, or Cullen's point of view and his story?

THIS BOOK. I repeat again, THIS BOOK. My goodness, all the heart eyes and swooning and music, oh my. I loved this so much. Vada and Luke's story, their relationship with themselves and each other and music, were everything I could have possibly wanted. The way the author intertwined music and how it makes you feel and particular songs into this story, was just incredible. Plus all the coming of age teenage angst and romance. I loved every single second of it. Music is so healing and powerful and this book was proof of just that. Thank you Erin for writing another incredible book. Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC.

This was such a great story. Very touching and very swoony. I loved the romance and friendship and the story of self-discovery. The pacing was well done and the characters were all wonderful!! I hope to check out another title by this author soon.

Music is the reason I'm alive on this planet. No, really, I don't mean that hyperbolically - my parents met when my dad leaned my mom a copy of the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, and their one-year anniversary was a trip to the original Lilith Fair in 1997. Understandably, then, when I read the description of this lighthearted YA romance, I was excited (as I always am when a book includes music as a focal point.) The premise - rock royalty falls for a music blogger - was so interesting (a You've Got Mail for the 2020s.) Unfortunately, and I don't say this lightly, this was just so... bland.

The premise that so intrigued me was ultimately devoid of tension. I'd expected more will-they-or-won't they; what I got was just... they will. As in, both characters had independently developed crushes on each other long before the book began, so the intrigue and conflict raised by that scenario were snuffed out. As were many conflicts of this book, in fact - Vada's father turns up at her workplace? Now he's gone! Conflict with a rival club? It's over in a chapter! Tension when Cullen releases his brother's song? It's all forgiven. As soothing as it was to read a fluffy book devoid of conflict, it was also just SO boring.

Look - I get it. Not every book has to have dragons and world-ending prophecies. Some books are just small, intimate portrayals of human relationships, and that's fine. But God, would it kill this book to have a little more tension? Drama? Intrigue? Make me feel something, goddammit

I loved the concept but oddly I felt like the girl's voice didn't sound as authentic as the boy's character. They were even a little hard to tell apart in the beginning. I felt like it was going somewhere but it fizzled out. Maybe if I was in middle or early high school I would have liked it more. It just seemed written in a very basic tone.

Story
I can’t remember the last time a book so completely engulfed me. Seriously, this book was amazing. More Than Maybe is just the right amount of cute, set to the best soundtrack you could possibly dream up. I don’t normally listen to music while reading, but this book made me. I listened to all the songs the characters referenced, and it just pulled me into the story completely.

It created this lush, intense experience and I am here for it. Seriously, I wish Daisy Jones had this soundtrack.

Writing
My only issue was the writing. Scenes tended to switch very fast and were sometimes cut off too soon. It made some parts a bit disjointed and it wasn’t easy to follow. The book needed more angst and considering all the swearing that went on at least one steamier make-out scene. I love some good angst.

Characters
Luke is my perfect man. Cute, funny and BRITISH. Yes, I have a thing for accents. Leave me alone. Seriously though, I loved Luke. Vada and Luke were the perfect pairing and I wish I could get more of them. I loved every bit of Vada’s internal monologue.

The side characters were also all really great and fleshed out, making this one wholesome book that I stan.

I really loved Erin Hahn’s first book, You'd Be Mine, so I was excited to see this one on NetGalley. Unfortunately, this book didn’t do it for me as much. Both books feature music heavily, so if that’s something you like in a book, I’d recommend giving these a try.

Luke and Vada were fine as main characters, but I didn’t LOVE them like I loved Annie Mathers and Clay Coolidge (from YBM). I didn’t feel like they had much depth and I wasn’t super invested in the things they were trying to accomplish. The romance between them is a bit of a slow burn, but almost too slow? They both like each other for the whole book, it just takes them forever to finally admit it to each other. Secondary characters were also fine. We just didn’t really get to know any of them very well. I liked that Vada had a good relationship with her mom’s boyfriend/boss. I think it’s important to show something besides the “evil step-parent” trope every once in a while.

I wanted more from the relationship between Luke and Cullen. Honestly, it felt like they were just friends–not brothers and certainly not twins. I mean…I’m not a twin so I obviously can’t say what that relationship is like, but it seems like they’d be a lot closer. Zack seemed more like a brother to Luke than Cullen did at times.

The plot didn’t really grab me–I think there were just too many moving parts. Vada’s trying to go to college and write for Rolling Stone and she and Luke have the senior showcase and they’re also trying to save the bar and then Luke’s dad is opening a rival club and all the podcast drama…there’s just too much! I think the story itself needed to be pared down a bit. If we could have really focused on a couple of the elements, I think the story would have worked better.

Overall, I thought this book was just okay. I think it hurt that I came in with really high expectations. Or it could just be me. Its rating on Goodreads is over 4 stars, so perhaps I’m just missing something. My last critique is that this book has a lot of swearing in it. A LOT. More than I deemed necessary to be honest. So just a warning there.

Overall Rating: 3
Language: Heavy
Violence: Mild
Smoking/Drinking: Moderate
Sexual Content: Mild

Note: I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy.

What a sweet YA! I loved the music references - the characters were both a bit shy with their feelings and would text songs back and forth. Definitely pick this up if you love romance and a variety of music!

As much as I liked You'd Be Mine, this one didn't work for me at all and I'm so disappointed. First disappoint is that this cover is illustrated (which I know is a huge trend lately) but the You'd Be Mine cover was so nice but instead of matching that, they gave that book an illustrated cover now too.

Some of it is my own fault- I don't follow music / care that much about it beyond the few artists I love so the constant music talk and title drops did nothing besides annoy me because of how much of it there was. Like I guess I was supposed to load up the titles and listen along with them but also no thanks? And wow yet another thing I don't care about: social media / going viral. Thankfully that happens pretty late in the book.

This book suffered from the "too many pop culture reference" bug that seems to follow me and I hated that. Just not the book for me

More Than Maybe by Erin Hahn is YA romance at its absolute best.

Emotional. Satisfying. Heartfelt. With the perfect amount of teenage angst and sass.

This is the kind of book teenage me would have DIED to read. Heck, I’m in my thirties, and I adored it.

Vada and Luke have been crushing on each other for years from afar. He reads her music blog. She listens to his podcast.

Both of them love music. It’s their shared language. Their friendship really begins when they partner up for the senior showcase—she will dance to a song he composes.

Add in a twin brother (for Luke), best friends (Zack and Meg), an absentee father, a hole-in-the-wall bar, a illicitly recorded and released viral sensation of a song, and an epic grand gesture—*chefs kiss* Perfection!

Yes--this is clearly Vada and Luke’s story, but More Than Maybe is more than just a story about falling in love. It’s a story about finding your passion and being brave enough to chase it. About finding your favorite person and holding on tight. It’s about family—the one you’re born into and the one you choose.

And obviously it’s about music. How it connects people, drives people, shapes people, and how it speaks for us when we can't find the words.

As I read along, I loaded up every song mentioned in the book. It was an incredible, immersive experience! Side note: Vada and Luke have excellent taste in music.

Five stars—I loved every word of it.