Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the wonderful and hilarious ARC of “Maybe Once, Maybe Twice,” by Alison Rose Greenberg. This book is about the life of Maggie, a singer and songwriter in NYC, told out of order in different time periods. It’s an effective way of describing the relationships she has with two men in particular, as well as her story of following her professional dreams. Greenberg’s descriptions of being a woman are laugh out loud funny. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every page. I had not read this author before but based on this story and her writing, I ordered her first book.

This story had me swooning over the idea of having two true loves in life and wondering who you should truly end up with... I couldn't put it down! The pacing kept me turning the pages late into the night and I was dying to know which direction this heartwarming story would take. I truly loved this one and will be thinking about it and its characters for a long time to come.

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

Liiiiiterally could not peel my eyes away from this book to the point that I spilled red wine all over my Lakes!!! I was hooked the whole way through, and this is just what the doctor ordered after a book rut and some DNFs! Love love loved!!! Thank you NetGalley for this ARC! Sharing it with alllll of my friends!

Posted on GoodReads

This book will rip your heart out. If you like angst, second chances, and love triangles, this will right up your alley. It’s emotional, and the main character is messy (who makes a marriage pact, let alone two pacts with two different men?).

If you appreciate music, the book will likely be of more interest to you. I’m not a music person, but I still enjoyed the story, though I think some references will not age well (example: “Cruel Summer” being underrated, but it’s everywhere this summer). Check the trigger warnings because there are some sensitive topics that come up.

This is an amazing story about Maggie Vine who is currently a singer-songwriter who lives in NY and is trying to make it big and also spans other timelines in her younger years as well. She has two great loves of her life that have one thing in common - both of them made a pact to marry her at age 35 if still single. And both of them show up on her 35th birthday.

Maggie fell in love with Asher Reyes at age 14 in summer camp for the arts….she an aspiring singer songwriter and he an aspiring actor. They had an amazing relationship that lasted 4 years and then they parted ways. He went on to become an Oscar winning actor and she always wondered if he was her soulmate but she just met him too early.

Maggie fell in love with Garrett Scholl at age 23 when she first heard his voice while he performing on stage. They became best friends for 12 years but could just never get the timing right to become more than that.

Everything converges after her 35th birthday and Maggie is faced with incredible opportunities but also difficult choices. Her best friend Summer has always been her rock since freshman year of college and helps her through this too.

Greenberg does an incredible job of telling this beautiful and devastating story about Maggie’s journey from past to present to become ‘unapologetically herself’. Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest review

I loved the premise of this book, and enjoyed reading. I don’t have anything bad to say, the writing was lovely and the characters were super likeable. I am mostly removing stars because she didn’t end up with the guy I wanted 😂. It did get a little cheesy at times, but was cute and funny and easy to read. This one is out 10/3!

A roller coaster of emotions! Maggie’s story is 100% complicated—a struggling songwriter and singer who has has two deep loves: her first love who she hasn’t seen in 18 years; and the one love in her life that is a victim of bad timing and circumstances. This is a second chance love story, as well as a love triangle, and in the middle of it is Maggie’s heart.

One of my favorite romances of the year!! I was intrigued by the premise and received so much more out of this story than I thought I would! I absolutely loved and was so amazed by the emotional intelligence and depth to this novel. I couldn't get enough of the characters and their complexities between each other. I admit I was torn between both Garrett and Asher (and would basically turn to mush anytime one of the would speak) and I think the author did a remarkable job of handling the triangle and giving closure. Yes, it is about love, but I appreciated and respected the themes of self-worth and self-discovery and how much we learn about Maggie as individual.

I ugly cried (more than once), but I promise the author takes such good care of the reader. So painful but oh so beautiful with all the healing and growth that happens. First time reading work by this author and cannot wait to see what the author grants us with next. It was absolutely pleasure and privilege to look inside Maggie's life.

Much gratitude to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my sincere review.

title: Maybe Once, Maybe Twice

author: Allison Rose Greenberg

publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

publication date: October 3, 2023

pages: 336

peppers: 3 (on this scale)

warnings:

on-page sexual assault
death of a parent
vomit

summary: The book jumps timelines between important moments in Maggie's life from age fourteen, when she meets and falls in love with Asher, to age thirty-nine, at the end of the novel. In that time, there are two men whose love changes her, and other men who cause other impacts on her life. While she works consistently to get her singing and song-writing career going, she learns a lot about herself.

tropes:

second-chance (and third and more) romance
death of a parent
strong best friend
we make beautiful music together
famous lover
creepy "mentor"

what I liked:

The book gives a thorough accounting of much of Maggie's life through seemingly disjointed snapshots, mostly on her birthdays. 
Best friend Summer is a great character.


what I didn’t like:

I thought this was a romance novel, but by 75% of the book, I still didn't know who the MMC was supposed to be. (If I had not gotten romance vibes from the cover, I might have had a different attitude about there being two male leads in Maggie's life.)


overall rating: 4 (of 5 stars)

This book. I went in reading thinking by the description that there would be angst but this book was truly deeper than I thought it would be.

Maggie Vine was a complex character. A creative musical talent with a lot of independence and fire. I also believe she was so many current women today. The writing in this book was so much better than I anticipated but at times it did feel a bit over the top and contrived and bordering on pretentious but it did feel lyrical and beautiful and that I appreciated. A few times I said out loud, "Wow great line, or That blew me away." while smiling.

Short version I adored this book. Long version, Garrett. Garret why? Garrett had me intrigued. He was written beautifully with depth and a bit of hidden pain buried deep in that generous giving soul. Garrett had so many chances to just tell her how he felt and make a move but he did not. Instead, he stayed with a girlfriend, throughout many times in the story but later told Maggie he would have left any of them for her. I felt the story put too much burden on Maggie to make a move which of course was quite a bit of the arc for the story but for two people who longed for each other and because the story is written in first person we felt Maggie's pining of Garrett to almost obsession of him. Obviously I have a lot to say about this story but a review should only be so long and simply put for me this is a high recommend.

Garrett's voice first attracted Maggie to Garrett and he was a soulful singer. They connected on so many levels but it wasn't their timing in the book it was their hesitation. But wow within that hesitation such great lines and moments. It made me love this story. As time went on Maggie learned to live without Garrett in her life and it opened up a place for Asher. Asher was a great character also but by then as a reader my heart was in it for Garrett. The author did a spectacular job feeling the chemistry between those two and the love between them. Feeling this thing between them that almost became tangible but never absorbed. Great scenes, great lines, and great moments in the story.

What a great clever story. It's not the same ol same ol and it is beautifully written. It's not even a love triangle it's a story that feels real and that many of us need the time to grow and deal with our stuff before we settle into our future. This story will stay with me.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review Maybe Once, Maybe Twice by Alison Rose Greenberg.

Maybe Once, Maybe Twice is a contemporary romance that follows Maggie Vine, a musician who is turning thirty five soon and made a marriage pact-the classic “if we are both still single at 35, we should just marry each other”-with no one person but two. Garrett and Asher both represent different parts of Maggie’s life but who would be a better partner for her?

This book feels very Taylor Swift coded with the beautiful writing style, the references, and the angst but there are parts of it that just didn’t work for me. I feel like this is one of the most difficult books I have had to read and review in awhile because half of it worked so well and half of it did not.

The biggest issue I had with this book is the confusing use of time jumps. I have read a lot of books that utilize time jumps but the ones in this book were just odd choices and very hard to keep up with. Maggie wasn’t a very likeable character to me so it really detracted from the story as a whole. None of her reasoning for things made a lot of sense to me. Some of the humor used in this didn’t quite hit right.

I did really life both love interests. They were very different and cared about Maggie in different ways which was interesting to read. Asher came off as a little too perfect sometimes but being in Maggie’s POV, that makes sense. Summer was definitely a standout character for me.

I feel like this would have been a perfect book for me if it didn’t have so many things trying to work together at once. It was just a lot to process all the time through this whole book. That being said, I did enjoy the writing a lot and I’m very interested in reading more from this author.

What a great love story. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about Maggie having two love interests but I loved them both and enjoyed the ending with the various time jumps throughout her life.

When I read the synopsis for this book I was intrigued but a little on the fence as to whether I would enjoy it being that there are two main love interests. I am surprised at how much I ended up liking it. Hearts are broken, hearts are mended and songs are written. This book was funny, romantic and delightful with some sadness throughout, just what I want in every rom-com.

This was so frustrating to read!
Oh my goodness girl, make up your mind😅
But I did love all the song/lyric references.

I personally don’t think this book is a good fit for me, but I know many others will enjoy it!

Thanks to NetGalley I received an advanced electronic copy of the book to read and provide a review.

I liked the story and found it compelling. There are parts that felt rushed and other parts that dragged. I mostly just wish it didn’t feel like I was reading a 2003 Livejournal entry. There was a lot of over-the-top flowery language and exaggerated descriptions that took me out of the story at times. To give the author credit, it felt on brand for the singer/songwriter character who emoted her way to the very end.

Side note: worst smell of a main male character has to be Asher as a “rebellious cowboy who took refuge in Connecticut.”

Maybe Once, Maybe Twice by Alison Rose Greenberg is a captivating and poetic narrative that delves into the complexities of love, loss, and rediscovery. With a melodic backdrop, this novel takes readers on an emotional voyage, exploring themes of passion, desire, yearning, and staying true to one's artistic spirit.

The time jumps in this one were a lot. So many different storylines to keep track of, and repeat experiences. It’s like when we got a realization in current time, then we jump back X amount of years to experience the same sort of thing then. While the characters were decent and likable for the most part, they weren’t strong enough to carry the entire story. This had a lot of surface for me and lacked a lot of things that would make it a deep and meaningful read. Overall an okay book, but nothing astounding.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ARC.

It’s legit hot outside and I’m so sick of summer, except that Summer was quite possibly the best part of Maybe Once, Maybe Twice. The good news is that Summer is a character, not a season we now roast alive in. The bad news is that Summer is not the protagonist of this story, Maggie Vine is. And Maggie Vine doesn’t really do it for me-maybe because she doesn’t entirely know what she wants. Does she want a baby? Does she want Garrett? Does she want a successful music career? Does she want her first love Asher? The book swings through all these possibilities, and often back and forth throughout the story. Adding to my teeth gnashing was the fact that to “help” the reader understand the backstory of her various pursuits, romantic and otherwise, the story also goes back and forth in time, making reading the age that Maggie is at the start of each chapter more than a little bit important. It made the story hard to follow when I was already struggling to understand what the main point of the book was to begin with. Unfortunately these things overwhelmed two things I enjoyed about the book that didn’t get the attention they deserved, ironic in a book that felt really long. One was the filter free Summer realizes that her priorities in life aren’t unmoving, and that realizing something she thought about what she wanted had changed and was going to have a detrimental effect on her life. The other was Maggie dealing with a toxic relationship that had a major impact on her life. These are two really great emotional situations that deserve more attention and exploration - certainly more than a scene riding a miniature pony bareback without underwear on, which I’m sure was meant to be funny, but ended up being unnecessary and cringe-worthy instead. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Maggie Vine, a 35-year-old singer-songwriter, continues her quest for the elusive big break while intricately navigating the landscape of love and family. The convergence of her two profound loves, both tied to separate marriage pacts made at distinct junctures, prompts a profound period of self-discovery.

"Maybe Once, Maybe Twice" masterfully weaves a tale of empowerment, entwining themes of love, loss, and the vibrant tapestry of life. Within its pages, readers encounter the tapestry of relationships that uplift and dishearten, evoking a range of emotions. At its core, the narrative champions the act of staking one's claim on desires, choosing the path less trodden over the easy and conventional. This is a testament to self-belief even amidst fear.

Alison Rose Greenberg crafts relationships of unparalleled resonance, particularly exemplified by the captivating character of Maggie's closest friend, Summer. The portrayal encapsulates the quintessential friend—one who anticipates needs without utterance and loves boundlessly.

The dichotomy between Team Asher and Team Garrett reverberates through the story, each pivotal figure leaving an indelible impact on Maggie's odyssey. Both serve as muses, champions, and loves at distinct junctures, each contributing seismic influence to her evolution. While my allegiance remains secret, the eventual outcome left me joyfully satisfied.

Yet, amidst the entanglement of relationships, it's Maggie's profound connection with herself that resonates most deeply. Her persona is one of confidence and vulnerability, embracing life's offerings while ardently demanding what she's owed. Rather than a passive observer, Maggie takes the stage, directing her own narrative even when the script is arduous. She epitomizes unabashed, vivacious living and loving, fearlessly amplifying her own voice.

Maggie Vine emerges as a radiant burst of color, a supernova that collides with the heart's core unapologetically. A heroine for the ages, she offers a lens through which life is a kaleidoscope—a medley of hope, joy, vulnerability, and complexity. The narrative serves as a poignant reminder to embrace the fleeting moments, endure the pain, and cherish love, for life's melody deserves to be danced to wholeheartedly. In a world with but one life, wasting it on lackluster endeavors becomes inconceivable.