K.L. Walthers has gotten lots of love for her more recent releases since ‘Summer of Broken Rules’ blew up. Having read both that book and ‘What Happens After Midnight’ I have to say that I’m so so grateful the recent popularity has sparked a rerelease of this book, otherwise I might never have read it and that would genuinely have been such a shame.

This book is actually fantastic. Formerly ‘If We Were Us’, ‘Maybe Meant to Be’ is the story of two best friends and the people they fall in love with during their senior year in high school. The characters and their relationships are wonderfully written, and as a former boarding school kid myself this story was like catnip to me. I loved it. Easily my favorite K.L. Walthers book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I could not get into this story or connect with the characters and ended up not finishing it.

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️

Maybe Meant to Be was so romantic and cozy, and I found myself smiling so many time.
This is a love quartet of two couples in a boarding school told from two points of view.

What you'll find in Maybe Meant to Be:
Dual POV
Rom-Com
Friends to Lovers
Secrect Relationships
Coming-of-Age Stories
Boarding School

“I’ve known it for a while now. More than anything, I want to marry you someday. I want us to play street hockey with our kids in the driveway and teach them to”

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you NetGalley for this #gifted copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the audiobook of Maybe Meant to Be by KL Walther. All opinions are my own.

This was a nice fall YA novel. I liked the narration on this and would recommend the audiobook.

This was a sweet YA book about friendship, secrets and growing up. I enjoyed that it didn’t follow the typical mold of what you expect from a romance and also included queer representation with respectful allies.

The narrator was a good choice for this story.

Overall, I’m giving this one 3 stars.

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️

Thank You to NetGalley and Sourebooks Fire for the Audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

I went back and forth about how I felt about this book for a long time. It was a short read, but it dragged. The characters were interesting enough to keep me reading... barely. I think the problem was that the entire plot revolved around two relationship dramas and so almost all the conflict existed solely inside the two main characters' heads.

I listened to the audio and was working on an art project, and I think that's the only reason I finished it. It had separate narrators for each of the two main characters, which allowed me to easily differentiate between them. The way their POVs were written, the tone was very similar.

There's a LOT of angst. And it's almost all self-inflicted.

The casual homophobia of Charlie's family is never addressed or questioned which left me feeling icky.

Everyone is so very very shallow. They're spoiled rich kids at prep school and they were so completely unrelatable.

I did not like the way Luke basically forced Charlie out of the closet. That's never ok. And it was never addressed.

The entire plot can be summed up by "two rich kids make themselves and those around them increasingly miserable because they have hang-ups they can't get over."

Charlie at least has reason to be afraid of coming out. He's been pressured his whole life to be a manly man. His aunt doesn't - but she hints and insinuates and pressures him to come out (despite the casual hurtful homophobia everyone else at the table is laughing at).

Sage's parents (who fell in love when they were young) divorced so she's convinced herself that relationships will inevitably fail if you're too young when you start them. So she can't date Nick because she wants forever with him. And she can't tell Nick that Charlie and she won't ever be together because Charlie is in the closet. So she dates him in secret for awhile but when he gets jealous she can't say anything. And even more people get dragged into her and Charlie's circle of misery.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for providing an early copy of the audiobook to review.

This was a sweet YA romance but it certainly wasn't anything groundbreaking. I like the relationships fine but I didn't know that the setting is a preppy boarding school. I probably wouldn't have picked this one up if I'd have known that beforehand. I prefer my boarding school books to be dark academia with critiques on class. However, if you're in the mood for a young romance with LGBTQ+ themes and are fine with a preppy setting then I think you m ght really like this! It just wasn't for me personally.

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and Tantor Audio for the ALC.

Story: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Narration: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Everyone at Bexley School thinks Sage and Charlie are meant to be together. Everyone but Sage and Charlie. When twins Luke and Nick show up, things change. Charlie is drawn to Luke and Sage is growing closer to Nick. The two friends must lean on each other as they fall in love.

This was a very cute YA romance with plenty of emotion and feels. Every character is lovable in their own way. The narration by Alexa Elmy and Graham Halstead is top notch.

ALC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5 stars rounded up

Thank you Tantor Audio for the advanced listening copy!

Sage Morgan and Charlie Carmichael are Bexley School's "it" couple. Only problem is, they aren't dating. Everyone things they are meant to be... everyone except them! When Luke Morrissey shows up on campus and immediately connects with Charlie, the status quo is upended, leaving Sage time to spend with an equally unexpected companion... Charlie's twin brother, Nick. With both Sage and Charlie deep the in the throes of something real and both absolutely terrified about it, will they miss their chances at true love?

This book was SO CUTE. I didn't actually read the synopsis before going in (just saw this was by the same author as THE SUMMER OF BROKEN RULES and requested immediately!) so I had no idea what to expect. This made for a fun and exciting read -- not always the case with romance! This is definitely a young adult book -- no spice anywhere in sight-- but it was absolutely adorable. Every character was loveable, great representation, and a fun boarding school setting!

PS I listened to this on audio and think both narrators were fabulous -- they suited the characters really well and were fun to listen to!

*thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.
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This book was cute enough, I have absolutely loved every other K.L. Walther book I have read so I was super excited when this one was announced. Although I did enjoy it and found it entertaining. The story seemed very simple and was underwhelming at times. I did enjoy the characters and the relationships between each one but the plot was not not my favorite.

This was another adorable, bingeable read by K.L. Walther. I loved that the story actually had a lot of depth & covered a wealth of topics. The author dove into topics that span a modern coming of age story. I was able to follow the audiobook easily and enjoyed the narrator. The setting at a boarding school made it easy to follow and the character development was really strong.

Thank you for an ALC!

Maybe Meant to Be is a sweet coming of age story told from multiple POV's. Although this didn't really blow me away and I didn't think this was unique I still enjoyed reading this as a cute YA love story and I recommend if you want to read a feel good book.

2.5/5 (rounded up to 3)

CW: death of a parent (mentioned), cancer (mentioned), divorce (recounted), homomisia

I would like to thank NetGalley and Tantor Audio for providing me with a free audio e-ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A re-release of K.L. Walther’s debut novel, Maybe Meant to Be tells the story of four high school seniors as they navigate love, friendships, and leaving high school behind at their New England boarding school.

I previously read Walther’s most popular novel, The Summer of Broken Rules, which I liked reading and was curious to read Walther’s re-release of this book. While I really wanted to like this book, I just don’t think this title was ultimately for me. Specifically, my problems with the book mainly address character development throughout Maybe Meant to Be and the narration of the book itself.

Starting off with narration, while Alexa Elmy and Graham Halstead were fine narrators, there definitely could have been some improvements. I feel like Elmy had a very hard time separating the characters’ voices, especially for the female characters since almost every single one of them sounded the same. Meanwhile with Halstead, while he’s mostly able to separate character voices, he’s not how imagine Charlie to sound and I personally feel like his voice for Charlie makes sound older than he actually is.

Moving on to character development, I feel like that was the area Walther needs the most work on (though I do understand that this was her debut and that it’s not a current reflection of her work). A majority of the characters had little to no depth to them, with Charlie and Luke being the only exceptions. While Charlie and Luke’s character development and their relationship fully fleshed out, I don’t think Nick gets the development necessary for his character arc and Sage got to be really annoying during the middle/near-end of the book. Alongside an easily forgettable ensemble cast of friends that are almost carbon copies of each other, I feel her character work could have been improved.

Now, there are some things that I did like about Maybe Meant to Be. A solid plot in of itself, I really loved the world-building Walther invests in bringing Bexley (the boarding school which the characters attend) to life and I think that’s one of the finer points of the book. Additionally, the relationship between Charlie and Luke was developed very well and helped me enjoy the book more.

Overall, while I wanted to like the book, this just wasn’t it for me.

I loved The Summer of Broken Rules so I was ecstatic to get this one! Unfortunately I started this one like 5 different times before I finally was able to read it, but it was a good listen!

Meet Sage, Charlie, Nick, and Luke.
Sage and Charlie are best friends, Charlie and Nick are twins, and Luke is Sage’s new friend.
It could be this simple, but not everything is simple.

In the beginning, I wasn’t clicking with the story, and I can’t explain why. But as I learned more about the characters, something began making sense to me, and I ended this book loving the story!

Sage and Charlie seemed off to me. Something was bothering me, and I didn’t know what. As soon as I learned they were keeping secrets and not being their true selves, I started enjoying the story. Secrets can be good, like a surprise party or gift, but they are usually bad, and they take a toll on people.

Passing that point, the reading went smoothly. You can be sure you will enjoy this book.

I loved to read how they bloomed and was happy for the characters as they freed themselves.

This was the second book I read from the author, and I want to read more.

As for the audiobook, it’s well narrated, and you can understand who’s who perfectly. I have nothing wrong to point out about it.

4.5*

Rating: 2.75 stars

This book follows Charlie and Sage during their senior year at boarding school. Charlie and Sage have been best friends their whole life and everyone thinks they are meant to be together. What people don't expect is for Charlie, the guy who dates a new girl every month, to be falling for the new guy at school and for Sage to be in love with Charlie's brother.

This book was a quick read and fairly entertaining. I liked the discussion on discovering and coming to terms with your sexuality that this book provided. The book did have several shortcomings. I found that throughout this book, the author told us what was happening rather than showed it. I also wish that the backstory of Sage and Nick. They have obviously known each other for a long time, but this was never explored in much depth. I found that the main focus of the book was on Luke, since both Sage and Charlie often talked about him in their POV.

The narrators on the audiobook did a really great job of portraying the two characters and brought a lot of life into the book. There were no major issues with the narration that I picked up on. After having both read the book and listened to it, I would definitely recommend the audiobook over the physical book.

This was a GREAT story to listen to! AWESOME narration! Great main characters. The plot was easy to find. The story was engaging and easy to follow. Will be purchasing this book. Shout out to Netgalley and publishing for allowing me to listen and review this story.

4 STARS!

Very cute listen about boarding school, friends, and lovers! Thank you NetGalley for the chance to listen to this book!

(3.5⭐️) Taylor Swift songs: “treacherous (tv)”

Age rating: 13+ (closed door)

I honestly did not love this nearly as much as I loved “the Summer of Broken Rules”. This was definitely for the younger side of YA, which is not a bad thing, I just wasn’t expecting it. If you like Emma Lord (wrote “Tweet Cute”, “you have a match”) you would really like this!

Now, on to my criticisms. I think this was an overall good story, but I didn’t really connect with any of the characters. I think having it in dual pov with two different couples really limited our time with each and I would have liked more development of each of the main characters and their relationships. We got to see a lot of how Charlie and Luke fell in love, and why they liked each other. However, when the book started, Sage and Nick were already together, so we don’t get to see much of why they like each other. There also wasn’t as much emotional depth as TSOBR. Also, the main conflict of a gay character was coming out, which a lot of people find triggering or problematic. Charlie’s character in general also bothered me because he was a serial dater and constantly led on girls and broke their hearts to cover up the fact that he was gay? He just hurt a lot of people that way, and it didn’t sit right with me.

Overall, this was good, just definitely not my favorite.

Side note: I don’t know how they got away with so much at the school, honestly. Like, the guys stayed in each other’s rooms every night without getting in trouble? I know not to bring practicality into stories, but that genuinely baffled me.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me an advanced reader copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.