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.

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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

This book lands firmly middle of the road for me.

Maggie Vine made a pact to get married if they’re both still single at 35 with two significant men in her life and they both show up. One of them from the beginning was the clear choice to me but the story jumps around constantly to different timelines of their interactions to give you background on their relationship.

While all this is going on Maggie is working endlessly to get her music career to take off and is faced with some challenging personal traumas. There are lyrics and different songs of Maggie’s sprinkled throughout the book
And the full lyrics to all her songs are included at the end. I also always appreciate a good Taylor Swift reference, which is particularly fitting for a songwriter.

I felt conflicted at the end with where Maggie’s path ultimately took her but I do believe many people will quite enjoy this story and where it ends up.

3 stars
⭐️ ⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maybe it’s on my for not checking the trigger warnings but SA and r*pe were thrown into this book pretty carelessly to make a plot point work.

This is my first story by this author, and I would happily read more from her. I expected angst, based on the blurb, but this story ended up being so much more than that. A love triangle is one of my favorite tropes (even if not all the characters know they are in one orbit isn't a triangle in the traditional sense). This one was more because it wasn't just surface stuff. There were some deep-seated issues that needed to be confronted-daddy issues, past traumas, compromise, and SA as well. These are the things that formed our main characters and made this a kaleidoscope of color for my reading pleasure. I cried and laughed along with Maggie and felt my heart break with other characters.

Interesting romance about choices. We get the delicious backstory and we can't help but feel we know what choice the main character should make I can't say I was thrilled about the choices made, given the options. I think that's the sign of a good book. You get involved. You want the character to think the way you do. You feel invested. So, the author did her job. I hope you get invested, too.


Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for an e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

Alison Rose Greenberg has solidified herself as an auto-buy author for me. She is writing complex stories that don’t oversimplify life or love in any way. Her characters are a bit messy, but that’s life. I appreciate that her books end happily but not in a perfect or cheesy fairy-tale way.

It’s definitely worth mentioning how well ARG handles trauma - TWs for mentions of suicide and sexual assault. I haven’t seen the ripple effect that a traumatic event can have specifically called out in a book before which was really interesting.

I don’t gravitate toward love triangle stories (they stress me out!!) but this one really sucked me in. On one hand, we had a second chance summer camp romance (!!!) and on the other, a right person wrong time friends to lovers romance (!!!). Parts of the story were heartbreaking, but I felt completely satisfied by where everything ended.

I really just loved this book you guys. I know Alison is a Swiftie and this book FELT like a fountain pen song in the best way and iykyk.

This was a case of wanting to love it more than I did. The start was strong and the writing and lyrics were so powerful. I was highlighting line after line in my kindle. However, as the plot meandered, I found myself very frustrated with Maggie and her two maybe suitors. I didn't understand why we had to wait until 35. Why did we not talk since we were 17? Why could no one commit? Two right loves at the wrong time... it got to be a little frustrating for me as a reader. I did wanted to shake everyone. The Garrett story line was extremely frustrating by the end.
The writing was fabulous, but the story just wasn't for me. I did love the lyrics and the emotion, but I just couldn't support the MC's choices (or lack of choices). I'm usually a love triangle fan, but neither of these men (boys truly) did it for me.

This was unfortunately not what I expected. My expectations of a story about a woman dating in her thirties were very different from what I got.

At times I had to remind myself that she wasn’t much younger. I also found the timeline all over the place and difficult to follow. At times it seemed to switch back to an earlier year mid paragraph.

I think this will be a book that some people will really love, for me it just did not hit the spot.

Rating:4

Maybe Once, Maybe Twice was quite a unique read. With changing timelines, you get to know Maggie Vine and the two greatest loves of her life. While throughout the book I found myself wondering who she was going to choose, it wasn’t until the very end when I realized there book was written with one clear winner, and luckily it was the one I would have chose.

There are a lot of layers to this story, which I think also made it unique. I would highly recommend reading this. I did a combination of reading and listening and with the time jumps it made it really hard to follow along. The narrator did great, but it’s not the easiest to follow on audio.

DNF @ 20%

This unfortunately wasn’t for me. It was already a little too messy, and the dual timeline was throwing me off, but when Garrett shows up, kisses her senseless, then announces he’s engaged that was too far for me. I like a bit of mess, but I can’t do cheating (physical or emotional). It’s a DNF for me.

*I received a free arc of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review