Maggie Vine's 30th birthday starts with asking her longtime crush and friend Garrett to marry her for her 35th birthday. But when her 35th birthday comes around, they share a hot kiss, and the news he was engaged. Not to mention that Garrett isn't the only man with whom she's had this conversation with about her 35th birthday. The story unravels in flashbacks and the current life events that cause them.
The way Maggie unfolds and her story is shared is so masterfully done. It was one of the few books I'd go back and reread sections as I went to make sure I knew the information in the order the author intended. No napping or mentally checking out during this one. The music underlying the whole story is so fitting and lovely I wished I could hear recordings.

#arc
#netgalley
#maybeoncemaybetwice

This was hard to want to pick up, and I eventually gave up. I enjoyed the narration, but the characters felt annoying to me. Garrett was super gaslight-y from the start, and I found it weird how obsessed she was with him. Her first love, Asher, seemed fine, but I was over being aggravated by her split attraction. The depth of her feelings for both of them left me unsettled, and I knew I would be annoyed with whoever she chose.

I thought I would love this one but some of the word choices the author used just made me so uncomfortable that I couldn’t even finish it. I’m sure a lot of people will love it but this one just wasn’t for me.

“‘Find one person in the audience who loves you no matter what. No matter if you’re great or good or just okay.’ He pointed to himself. ‘Sing to the person that feels like home. Everyone else will disappear.’” 🥹

“The only promise is that nothing is promised to us.”

Filled with the romance and angst that defines the years you come to know yourself, Maybe Once, Maybe Twice is a novel of second chances and finding your own way.

I feel seen. I am Summer. Summer is me. It’s a crazy feeling to read a story and find a character so very like yourself…it’s like watching yourself through someone else’s eyes. So thank you, Alison, for making me feel ok to be unapologetically myself despite my often perceived prickly demeanor. But I digress.

When I started this book I thought it was going to be a funny and lighthearted read. And while it was funny, it actually had quite a bit of depth for a second chance romance. I got very invested in the characters and I loved how there were multiple timelines based on Maggie’s age, allowing the reader to see her at many different stages of her life.

I just loved these characters! Strong female friendships are a theme throughout and I found them refreshingly honest and real. I loved the open communication between Maggie and her love interests and I loved how well these characters did the hard things. Because sometimes, you have to break your own heart to make someone else happy.

The audiobook was great! With so much heart and emotion in her narration, @littrelly.speaking made it that much easier to fall in love with these characters. A fabulous read! Add this to your tbr today.

Thank you to @mbc_books, @stmartinspress, @smpromance, and @alison.greenberg for the #gifted copy, and also @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for the ALC.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape media for gifting me this audiobook!

This book was everything and more I needed! I loved every single word.
Even if I’m not a particular fan of love triangles this book was written splendidly and the plot was later out in a way to keep me wanting more.

Maybe Once, Maybe Twice is not just a romance book, it’s a story about living your dream, about failing, about loving and pining, about friendship and rejection, about trauma and trying to survive it.
We follow Maggie story in the present and we come to understand it through glimpses of her past.
This book was frustrating, sweet, funny, sad and romantic all in one and I don’t have to words to give it justice.

So my heartfelt advice is for you to go and read it, because it’s worth it.

♥️Tropes:
-love triangle
-second chance
-friends to lovers
-big dreams
-rising musician
-found family and amazing friendship
-woman supporting woman

‼️Trigger warnings:
-infertility
-sexual assault
-suicide
-depression


I would have loved to read a chapter where we could see how they live happily ever after (with the best man being the one she ends up with, luckily -I got worried for a minute there-).

Ps. I loved Summer and all her storyline. How what she wanted destroyed her but was also the best thing. Her story is something that should be normalised more among woman and I loved how the author approached it.

Thank you Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for the ALC!

If you like an angsty, complicated, emotional and layered romance, then this is for you! This dual timeline love story explores what happens when you make a “if we’re not married by 35 then let’s marry each other” pact with two guys. You will find yourself rooting for a guy and be on the edge of your seat to see if he’s the choice by the end.

There are some heavy topics discussed in this book so if you have sensitive issues you stay away from, I’d suggest looking at TWs.

Short synopsis: Maggie has worked her whole life to make it big in music, at the age of 35 she starts to worry about her biological clock and having babies. When she runs into two previous boyfriends, she remembers a pact she made to each to get married at 35.

My thoughts: This is a second chance romance with some teenage love and a love triangle. Each of the love stories between Maggie and Garrett and Asher were unique and special. I had a fun time picking who I thought she should end up with. I liked how she worked hard for her dreams even when life got in the way.

There is also some heavy topics including infertility, sexual abuse, death if family members, and trauma. I really liked how therapy was a big part of the healing journey Maggie went through, very positively done.

The ending did feel a little bit forced, but overall I loved how the author wrote the prospect of finding the best solution for yourself.

Read if you love:
- Second chance romance
- Celebrity romance
- Following your dreams
- Love triangle
- Mental health and therapy
- Emotional reads
- 35 or older
- Alternating timelines

Thank you to St Martins for an early copy of this book and audio book. I’d recommend the physical over the audio of this, solely due to the fact that it’s somewhat difficult to follow the timeline through audio. That being said the narrator did a fabulous job.

i’m gonna keep this short and sweet — i absolutely loved this. i couldn’t put it down and finished it in a day. i’m thankful that i had an ebook and the audiobook so i could switch back and forth. i literally dropped everything else i was reading so that i could finish this book.

it’s such a well done love triangle. i loved both men and i would have been okay with whoever maggie ended up with. one did edge out the other just a bit more for me so i was pleased that’s who maggie ended up with. it was a hard won battle. i loved the time jumps and seeing how everything unfolded. i also loved maggie’s character growth! i’ll be thinking about this one for a while!

thank you to st. martin’s press and dreamscape media for the advanced copies. my thoughts are my own.

Maggie Vine had 2 different men that she made a pact with. The pact? If we are still single at 35, let's get married. This story follows Maggie through different times of her life from her teenage years to the present. I liked the audiobook, but as it jumps around in time I think it would be easier to read the actual book. This story is super emotional and, as I am in my mid thirties, very relatable. It's hard when your biological clock keeps ticking and you still find yourself alone.

I loved the ending- even if it felt bittersweet. Alls well, that ends well!

Maybe Once, Maybe Twice
Author: Alison Rose Greenberg
Narrated by: Katherine Littrell

I loved this book. The dual timeline tale of a singer/songwriter who, at the age of 35, finds herself unmarried. While her 2 past loves come back into her life.
It’s a story of forgiveness, true love, and second chances. It had me laughing, crying, swooning, and hopeful for love.

I found myself cheering for each character and loving the bonds of friendship between them. I honestly didn’t know who I wanted Maggie to end up with until the last part of the book.

While parts are fun and lighthearted, it also dove into the topics of infertility/advanced maternal age, sexual assault, and death/affects of grief.

This was my first book by this author and I’m looking forward to more from her.
The narrator did a superb job, conveying emotion and truly captured the essence of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pub Date: 3 October 2023

4.5 stars [Loved it]

Wow! I really enjoyed this book. Chapter one completely gutted me (that wound is still fresh for me). Thankfully infertility wasn’t at the forefront of the story and I was able to really loose myself in this book. I loved the writing, narration of the audiobook and the characters. All 3 main characters were amazing and I had a hard time choosing who to root for. Absolutely recommend checking this book out.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this ebook and audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

3.75⭐️

Maybe Once, Maybe Twice was an easy quick read, a generally entertaining if slightly uneven story. A sort of variation on a love triangle, one side was much stronger than the other, making it hard to stay with the overly angsty side of the story at times.

About two thirds of the way in, a new and darker element was introduced, which helped explain some of Maggie’s issues and indecision, as they were underpinned by trauma. This part of the story was much more interesting, and while I can understand the thinking behind why we had to get so far in to dig this out, I also would have liked some more connections or foreshadowing earlier in the story, as it felt by far like the best and most interesting part.

Katherine Littrell did an excellent job narrating the audiobook.

Thank you Alison Rose Greenberg, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for providing this ALC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

Have you ever read a book where you are SCREAMING at the main character about which guy to choose? That was this story for me in all of the BEST ways! The best comparison that Maggie makes is saying that falling in love with one made her feel like she was flying while the other made her feel like she was crashing.

This book was SO good. I was a big fan of the time hopping to see how things came about and changed. Alison Rose Greenberg did a phenomenal job at making all of the characters (except Cole), super likeable. This story will definitely tug on your heartstrings as it talks about the struggles with becoming a mother, family, heartbreak, and second chances. I love the direction that the story went in. This was one book that I did not want to be over!

Maybe Once, Maybe Twice
By Alison Rose Greenberg
Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
Format: ALC
Pub. date: October 3/23
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I loved everything about this audiobook! I love audiobooks and this one did not disappoint. Katherine Littrell is a great narrator, so much so, I can’t wait to listen to more of her books. Still, this is a great story.

Maggie Vine, a struggling musician, has been unlucky in love. From the first moment she heard his voice she has been in love with Garrett Scholl. Garrett, a talented musician turned businessman, has always loved Maggie. But they have never managed to be available to the other at the same time. So, when at her 30th birthday she asked if Garrett would marry her when she turned 35, he agreed.

However Asher Rayes, her teenage love, also agreed to marry Maggie and he plans on following through.

Filled with love, humour, and ups and downs, Once, Maybe Twice had me rooting for love, for Maggie, for Garrett and for Asher, so much that I had a difficult time deciding which ending I was rooting for.

This book kept me laughing, crying, and feeling hopeful love would happen for Maggie. Such a good story I didn’t want it to end. Available soon, go get it!

I am so thankful to @NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and the author for the opportunity to listen to this ALC for my honest review.

'Maybe Once, Maybe Twice,' is a (well-executed) exercise in the miscommunication trope, with a sprinkle of cheating (primarily emotional, but also a kiss). I enjoyed Greenberg's writing style and the 90s baby nostalgia, but the characters were frustrating, especially given that they're meant to be mid-30s. If any of the characters could have an adult conversation, or even just read really obvious cues, the whole story wouldn't have happened and they would have just lived HEA from the start.

Maggie Vine is a 35-year-old singer songwriter (though her communication skills are on par with a 5 year old), who feels the pressure to figure out her life now that her egg supply is rapidly dwindling. She made marriage pacts with two separate former lovers, who both show up now that it's time to make good on the promise.

Marriage pacts are insulting in real life (let's settle for each other if we can't do better???) and one of her lovers spoke to that (asking why they had to wait), but super fun in fiction. Second chance romance, anyone? It was well executed!

The NYC setting was also super fun and really well done - I could really see it.

Unfortunately, I didn't like how Garrett and Maggie treated people - they were in love with each other and emotionally involved while dating other people <spoiler> (they both, at points, admit that they're only stringing along their gf/bf and don't intend for it to be longterm - does the gf/bf know this? No). Garrett kisses Maggie while engaged to someone else, without the intention of ending said engagement. If this is what the dating pool is like, y'all stay safe out there.

So anyway, I spent the whole book rooting *against* Garrett, but not for Asher. I couldn't root for any of the relationships because of how terrible they are at communication. You can't have a good marriage, or even relationship, without solid communication, so I just didn't buy that a HEA could hold past curtain drop, and so I couldn't get invested in rooting for anyone.

Thanks, NetGalley and St Martin's Press, for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Read if you like:
♥️ Soulmates
💋 Friends to Lovers
🔺 Love Triangles
🥈Second Chance Romances
1️⃣ Single POV

Read this book if you like messy! This one has all the messiness from our MC making two pacts for marriage at 35 with two different men at two different points in her life; one with her teenage first love and first everything, and the other with another musician that the timing just never seemed to work out.

When our FMC is feeling her biological clock start to tic, it truly makes all the messiness amp up. The past and present timelines really added to this story.

Which man will she pick? The one that was her first love as a teenager or the man that they have so much in common and has always been the one that timing never was working out.

Thank you so much to the publisher for my ARC of this one!

I enjoyed listening to this story about Maggie and how she thought her life would look at 35 as opposed to how it currently is. The audiobook narration was excellent and though I'm not a big fan of love triangles, I found this one was written extremely well.

Thanks to Dreamscape Media for the copy of this ALC!

Maggie Vine watched her mother go through life avoiding a lasting love, so she did her best to make sure it wouldn't happen to her by making the "if we're 35 and still not married, we'll get married" pact with two men, Garrett and Asher. Now she's 35 and they're both back in her life, so she's left with some choices to make.

Alison Rose Greenberg is so good at writing books that are really addictive and hard to put down. Maybe Once, Maybe Twice was a fun read wondering who Maggie would end up with and definitely going on a team for one of the guys over the other. But - Alison also explores some more emotional themes that are very real for women today, like not wanting kids when your partner does, sexual assault, and the reality of having kids when you're over 35. I loved the dual timeline aspect of this to really add into the "both guys could work" concept. While I liked the ending, it was a little rough... but I expected it to not be a straightforward HEA after reading Alison's first book, Bad Luck Bridesmaid.

This was narrated SO well by Katherine Littrell - but if you do audio, you just have to pay close attention to the quick mention of the MC's age at the beginning of each chapter to follow along well!

Read this if you:
- enjoy celebrity romance
- think someone can love two people
- have had a conversation about having kids with a partner
- are 35 years old
- like plot and lots of emotions with your romances

Narration:

I added a star for the narration because it was so good. I didn’t even notice she was imitating the MMCs voices because it wasn’t weird or put on like some narration can be. Great job!

Content:

I have so many mixed feelings about this book. It was too much and yet not enough all at the same time. The premise is great, the writing is good quality. But I do desperately wish this was two separate books. I think each story would have much more weight and the time they deserve if each love interest was its own thing. Also speaking of love interests, this doesn’t just have the two in the blurb, there’s another one that felt prominent and confusing, with on page intimacy as well which I am all for spice but it really didn’t serve a purpose or show anything about their dynamic.

I felt so frustrated with this main character. She’s a bit of a catch all, she acts different at different times without ever calling herself out for acting like that so I don’t think it was purposeful. She is a confident singer yet stays silent through so many of her earlier miscommunications (not talking about the TW of this book, actual SA trauma that is on page). This is big on the miscommunication trope with one of the love interests. With the other he’s just a perfect caricature with no flaws so I didn’t really buy the hesitation.

The prose jumps around in timeline a lot which I found very fun. But it also used flashbacks. If you already have an established narrative that can jump why are there pages on pages of a detailed flashback when you could just do a short chapter of that age? Really ruined the purpose of jumping timelines.

Overall, this left me feeling confused and dissatisfied. And don’t get me started on the ending, there is a very weird 3rd act breakup that I also just simply don’t get. There’s also a certain overarching topic that impacted her best friend’s relationship so I don’t see why she wouldn’t also bring that up early on in her relationship since it was so important to her (and conversely her friend). This book was unfortunately not for me.

Some things I liked: the main character’s relationship with her steadfast best friend Summer. I loved the camaraderie of women in this story. I also felt like the chapters when she’s a teenager really had that teen voice and they did act their age. I also liked a lot of the plot points and topics that were tackled I just wish they had more room to breath and process.

Thank you to NetGalley and dreamscape media for this ARC.