I had to DNF this one because I just couldn’t get into the premise… and the love interests were kinda awful in my opinion. Sorry!

I think we've all heard this one before: a character makes a promise with their best friend or their current significant other or just a random acquaintance that if you both find yourselves single by, in this case, 35 you'll marry each other and have the family you clearly want, but that's been eluding you thus far.

Well, if you're Maggie Vine you make that promise with two people at very different times in your life. And, for better or worse, they both show up. First there's Garrett. Garrett and Maggie met over ten years ago when he captured her attention at a bar during a musical set. They immediately clicked but have always been off when it comes to the timing - never seeming to both be available at the same time (whether that's emotionally or physically). Now, Garrett does show up to her 35th birthday, but he's engaged so clearly there's a line they shouldn't cross but also a lot of baggage left between them.

Then, there's Asher Reyes. Oscar winning, heartthrob actor - whom Maggie first met at summer camp when they were teens - is adapting Maggie's favorite book into a movie musical. It's too much of a coincidence, and Maggie is determined to compose the music for the movie. It would be the break her career desperately needs.

This book is, so far, one of the best descriptors of everything it takes to be a solo musician. The sacrifices, the uncertainty. Knowing you have the talent and the voice, but being just shy of actually gaining the fame you seek. It's a very lyrical story and I think this was done very well by Alison Rose Greenberg. The story is told from Maggie's point of view so of course we're going to get those lyrical flourishes and way with words that seem to be a staple of song-writers. Saying so much with just a few lines. And I would be lying if I said I wasn't playing Fleetwood Mac's Gypsy on my head on repeat while reading this.

For all that, this story is so full of angst. Maggie spends a good portion of the book pining away for what she cannot have with Garrett. It was difficult to get a sense of who he is because we're seeing him through Maggie's lens and there's a lot of fawning and adoration. She puts him and their bond on a high pedestal when clearly he's very fallible. By the time we get to the gut punch that he did not really come to her on her birthday in good faith, I'm ready for her to move on.

I think Maggie's a little more realistic when it comes to Asher, but to be fair, she's had years to come to terms with their ending which Garrett's it still fresh. The pivot from Garrett to Asher felt a bit jolting as were so focused on Garrett then all of a sudden there's Asher from her past being mentioned. I found a few jolts throughout the story. There's so much focus placed on one person, or event, then suddenly we switch gears and oftentimes it comes out of nowhere even though within the context of the story it makes sense.

I felt like these moments did Maggie's story a disservice because it removed the emotional impact. I couldn't get invested because oftentimes we're changing things up on the next page. There's no time to process what just happened.

I will say that looking back on the story in hindsight, by the end as Maggie's story has completely unfolded, we're given insight into how things could have been so different for her. It makes the story all the more heartbreaking and the fragility is noticed in how just the slightest curve can throw your life into a tailspin. We could have been reading a different version of the story which is an interesting concept idea. I almost wish Alison Rose Greenberg would give us that sliding doors-type book as a companion to this one.

Despite the angst and the unexpected pivots, I was very interested in how Maggie's story would end up. I didn't really mind the love triangle aspect of the story because while it is a romance novel, I'd say the biggest thing is Maggie's journey whether that includes Asher or Garrett is just one aspect of her overall journey and I think that was done perfectly.

This second chance romance involves Maggie and the only two men she has loved in her life, Asher and Garrett. She made a marriage pact with both of them at very different points of her life and now at 35, they're both back in her life. I was rooting Garrett when Asher came in to the picture and I fell in love with him as well. I love that the chapters are based off on Maggie's age and what she was going through at that age that changed outcomes in the future. We see as she struggles in her career to make it and be successful while also struggling with the feelings of wanting a child amongst other things. Summer is the ultimate best friend that is always there for Maggie and seems to have the perfect life, but nothing is perfect. All the characters had their own struggles that put them in different places in their lives emotionally and physically. I definitely enjoyed this and was anxious to see if Maggie ended up with either of her love interests.

I know this book isn't going to be for everyone, but if you appreciate a messy love story with sizzling tension, all-consuming heartbreak, and loads of angst, this is a winner! Absolutely gripping from the start, I loved following Maggie throughout her years of musical aspirations, romantic relationships, and dreams of becoming a mother.

I love a good "friends to lovers" story line and this has it twice :) And this book will cause the Team Garrett or Team Asher discussions.

I really like how the chapters are different years of her life and how they all blend into each other over the course of the book. When you question why earlier on, and then get the answer in another year of her life.

There is a trigger warning for a small part of the book, but it's written in a such a very gentle way, it was not difficult to read.

My favorite relationship in the story is that between Maggie and Summer. It's a true love and makes your heart smile.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for an advanced copy of this book. Readers should know there is a described instance of sexual violence without trigger warnings.

Maggie Vine is a 35 year old woman always on the brink of her big break. That is, until the two men she made marriage pacts with return to her life. Throughout this story, Maggie closely examines love and what she believes is necessary for her relationships to flourish. She learns how to become a better friend to those around her and to herself. She learns that sometimes what you think you want, isn't what you really need, which is a lesson that everyone can benefit from.

I’ll admit that I loved this book so much that I am struggling to put it into words. This book is the stand out book of this year. I encourage everyone to run, not walk, to purchase their copy. Maggie’s struggle to find and pursue her dreams are relatable to everyone. Fans of authors like Emily Henry and Taylor Jenkins Reid, fans of angst, fans of romance, fans of New York dreams coming true need to read this book.

A big thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. Okay we were all young once,,,but who makes marriage/wedding pacts with 2 different guys? I guess I am just not that lucky. I liked the book-but I do not like the jumping back and forth in time. I just don't care for the time travel. So I have to be honest and say I skimmed those sections. It detracted for me from the book-but I still really liked the book! How much drama can one person have in their life? Wow! Maggie is a super complicated woman but has the most amazingly talented friends. I enjoyed Maggie and Ashers journey. Well worth a read 4 stars

4 1/2 Stars

This book pulled me in and didn't let go until I read the last word. It was a beautiful love story about a woman who finds herself at a crossroads when she turns thirty-five. Her life is tough enough already and then is further complicated when two of her former boyfriends show up to check in on her with their "if I'm thirty-five and not married..." pact.

I just fell in love with the characters. The main character, Maggie is relatable and someone you wish the best for. Even though her two previous love interests, Garrett and Asher are very different men, they both hold a special place in her heart. It's hard to figure out which one you want to see her end up with. There are positives and negatives about both of them. Overall, I'll say she didn't end up with the one I really thought she belonged with....but hey, I'm not the author of this book. Regardless, it was well done and a story that had me shedding tears at so many different points. Since it was told in multiple time lines, you got the history of how Maggie met and fell in love with each of these men. They truly did each hold a piece of her heart and it broke mine a little to know she'd miss out on something with one of them. I did feel the book was a little rushed with the wrap up at the end. Considering all the build up throughout the story, I expected a little more time for the resolution at the end. For this reason, I kept my rating to 4 1/2 stars.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The audiobook was beautifully done with spot on narration. I really enjoyed it and bounced between that and the ebook effortlessly. It enabled me to gobble up this book rapidly as I was hooked from the beginning.

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the ebook and audiobook. I voluntarily chose to read/listen to each of them and write a review. The opinions contained within are my own.

Maggie Vine made the same marriage pact with two different men at very different times in her life. When she hits her 35th birthday, both of them, Garrett and Asher, come back into her life and she has to decide which one is the right choice for her. This book takes the reader throughout Maggie's story with both men, alternating between the past and present timelines.

Overall, I thought this book was cute! It was definitely a bit messy (and honestly, she didn't end up with who I wanted her to), but i still think it was very well written!

Than you to netgalley for the eARC - 3.5 Stars.

Maybe Once, Maybe Twice:⁣
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Thank you @smpromance for my gifted copy. ⁣
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“Time was on my side, this whole damn time” ⁣
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I don’t know what I loved more, the emotional depth on the pages, or the playlist that I know is somewhere on Spotify waiting for me to listen. ⁣
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I love how we were intertwined in knowing each person and phase of life. I loved it wasn’t linear. I didn’t know at first if I’d want to cheer for any of them, but I realized with reflection, different people do come in your life at different stages and make similar impacts. It was masterfully done. In all honesty, I was cheering for Maggie, and making sure she was happy, with or without someone by her side. (But yes, I cried at the end). ⁣
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As someone who also gate keeps music as my little secret, there are just some things that are so amazing that you just can’t do that. You have to tell the world about it because everyone needs to experience the heartbreak, the love, the loss, the journey that you just went through. ⁣
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This book touched a part of my soul I didn’t really know I had. It unlocked a lot of feelings and emotions and I’m so glad it’s out in the world. Released 10/3.

Rating ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .5/5
Spice 🌶 🌶 /5

This book was beautiful and heartbreaking in its depiction of love and loss. Maggie feels things so deeply and falls in love so overwhelmingly completely. Reading about her relationships through her lifetime was so well written and you could feel her pain through the pages and her lyrics. I enjoyed the dual timelines, but found them getting redundant about two thirds of the way through the book and felt they started to pull me away from the main storyline. I loved Summer and her strength and beauty as Maggie's best friend. I truly wanted the best for both of them.

Asher and Garrett were both stunning artists but I definitely connected with Asher more than Garrett as the book progressed. I loved how major plot lines were resolved and the healing Maggie was able to do. I found parts went on a little longer than they necessarily needed to but ultimately this book was beautifully written and an amazing love story filled with artistry and poetry.

Thank you St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this beautiful book.

Overall a nice second chance love story.
If you like non-linear timelines this one definitely jumps from time periods each chapter or so. This felt fragmented and made it harder to connect with the main characters.

“Maggie, you have to at least look like you care. It’s your thirty-fifth birthday, not your funeral.”
“Feels a little like my funeral.”

Genre: Women’s Fiction
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 2 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Touches on heavy subjects like sexual assault, death, infertility, and suicide. Contains some sexual content.

What are the chances that you’d be promised true love not once, but twice? “Maybe Once, Maybe Twice” follows Maggie Vine, an aspiring singer, as she reconnects with two very important men in her life—men that, at different points of her story, she promised to marry if she turned 35 and they were both still unwed.

Told through shifting timelines, we get to see life through Maggie’s eyes at different stages of her adulthood—and even childhood. Alison Rose Greenberg’s writing is engaging and entertaining while not getting the timelines so tangled up you get confused; the back and forth just feeds your curiosity to see how it will all turn out in the end.

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed it so much, actually, that I read it in less than 24 hours, I just couldn’t put it down wondering who Maggie would end up with. I would highly recommend this book if you’re a reader that enjoys your romantic fiction with heavy subjects, lots of flashbacks, and alternating timelines.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: October 3, 2023

“I was thirty-five, and the road less traveled was officially a dead end."

I absolutely adored this and really don’t think it’s gotten enough hype. I loved the alternate timelines of Maggie’s life and her interactions with Garrett and Asher. I loved seeing her as a a older adult finding love and fighting for the life she wanted. I also loved her friendship with Summer. I’m not usually a fan of love triangles but I absolutely devoured this.

The alternating timelines just did not work for me in this book. I think Maggie’s growth and evolution through heartbreak could have been much more compelling if the timeline wasn’t so messy. The communication tropes were working overtime and just made me completely frustrated. Just tell people what you want, good grief.

Sidekick Summer had a much more interesting story in the end.

If you like second chances, Taylor Swift heartbreak songs, and triangles, this may be for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for this honest review.

I wanted to like this one, but it fell a little flat for me. I am not sure if it was the character, or the way the story was laid out (back and forth in time). I think also not knowing about a major even in Maggie’s life had an impact on how I viewed her decisions. It was frustrating that we learn about the event right at the end.

I also have some feelings when women feel the biological clock ticking and feel like their lives aren’t complete. But that is a personal thing.

Overall, this was fine.

[cw - death by suicide, sexual assault]

Alison's previous book ended in such a way that made me curious if it was her preferred way to show character growth. That on top of a rather intricate love triangle had me wanting to flip to the ending for a spoiler in a big way. (I didn't do it, but I REALLY wanted to).
Maggie has always felt big emotions and carried big dreams. She won't settle for a job that makes her money when she can live what she loves through writing and playing music. At the age of thirty-five, her life is exactly what she doesn't want. But a marriage pact (or two??) from her past spins her world into chaos.
Alison's writing is so lyrical. I am not big on highlighting or marking up books, but I couldn't help myself with how beautiful the sentiments came across to me. I loved every minute of it even when I hated one of the love interests and rooted in the most extreme way possible for the other. Above all else though, the friendship between Maggie and Summer shines brightest of all.
Thank you to St Martins Press and Netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

I think I missed something. This book is getting such great reviews and I really did not like it. It was a DNF for me as I found it to be whiny, predictable and annoying. The two different timelines did not work for me - I felt that it was disjointed and they never felt connected. The main character drove me nuts - I did not find anything likeable about her. To me she was whiny and had a very "poor me" attitude, yet I never felt like she was really doing anything to change the track her life was on. I really felt disconnected from the entire story - and after I hit that halfway mark I just stopped. I both read and listened to this and I did not find either to be very engaging. My review seems to be the minority, so maybe I am the wrong reader for this book!

Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

I loved this book!! These characters drew me right in and I couldn’t wait to see how it all played out. Such a beautifully written story- I could FEEL her passion, heartache, love, and tension. So good! I love how it ended. I think millennials/ those in their 30’s will especially appreciate the song references and the throwbacks to our 20’s. All the feels in this one!

Maggie Vine is 35 and her life is not going how she thought it would. Her music career has yet to take off. She's very single. And she just found out her chances of having a baby are slim to none.

When the two lives of her life, whom she separatley made marriage pacts with, both show up in her life, Maggie is faced with big decisions that will impact her entire future.

I went into this book thinking it would be a cute and romantic read. What it actually ended up being was an incredibly empowering story about Maggie finally taking her life into her own hands to get the life she wants and deserves.

The story was beautifully written between the present day and the past. I like that the flashback chapters were not chronological, but more like breadcrumbs to help you learn about pivotal moments in her life that become significant later on in the present.

I appreciate that Maggie is written as a character with her own flaws and does not have an easy life. She experiences so many moments that are romantic, hopeful, fun, tragic, heartbreaking, and even traumatic. Her experiences truly help shape who she is and help her come into her own.

While Maggie finds love with more than one person, I feel like this really ended up being a love story with herself. She goes through a major self discovery journey and finally, after years of therapy, heartbreak, and second guessing herself, forges her own path in life to get what she wants in her career and her personal life, for herself and herself alone. She is strong, brave, and inspiring.

In the end, I think she ends up with the right person. Its a long road to get there, but absolutely worth it. This novel has all the angst, romance, a nd empowerment you could want, and is beautifully written! I definitely recommend everyone read it!

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!

Tags: second chance, friends to lovers, found family, multiple timelines, marriage pacts

Spice: 1/5

First person
Single POV
Multiple timelines