Maybe Now

Maybe Now is the third and final installment in Hoover’s Maybe Someday Series. The titles Maybe Someday and Maybe Not precede Maybe Now. In Maybe Someday, the author introduces the series’ narrative world, primary characters, and central conflicts and themes. The novel (originally self-published in 2012 and later republished by Atria Books in 2014) depicts the inception of Ridge Lawson and Sydney Blake’s relationship.

In keeping with the conventions of the romance genre, the first novel is written from their alternating first-person points of view. The two live in the same apartment complex and start to notice one another sitting out on their respective balconies. Sydney becomes reliant on Ridge’s presence across the way, particularly after she discovers that her best friend and roommate Tori is having an affair with her boyfriend Hunter. She soon starts to depend on Ridge for comfort and starts staying over at his apartment.

They build a close friendship by sharing their deep feelings, past traumas, and passion for writing music, but tensions arise when Ridge reveals he’s been dating Maggie Carson for five years. Sydney feels guilty, but she and Ridge remain friends and end up kissing. After Maggie discovers the truth, she breaks up with Ridge. Ridge then pursues a relationship with Sydney, staging an elaborate public profession of love at one of his concerts. The night ends with him and Sydney kissing and having sex for the first time.

The series’ second installment, Maybe Not (also originally self-published and later republished by Atria), diverges from the first novel’s primary plot line. In this novel, Hoover delves into Ridge’s best friend Warren’s relationship with Bridgette. (Warren and Bridgette are peripheral characters in Maybe Someday.) Warren and Bridgette become involved when they become roommates. Warren is initially excited by the arrangement because he’s intrigued by the idea of living with a girl. However, tension brews between them because Bridgette is outspoken and can be mean. Over time, Warren learns that Bridgette’s seeming meanness is a manifestation of her passionate nature. The two soon fall in love and start to date.

Maybe Now merges the storylines and romantic entanglements of the series’ first two novels. The novel picks up the morning after Maybe Someday ends. While this novel traces Ridge and Sydney’s work to transition their friendship into a healthy romantic and sexual relationship, it also incorporates more of Maggie’s, Warren’s, and Bridgette’s storylines. Told from four of the central characters’ first-person points of view (Sydney, Ridge, Maggie, and Jake), Maybe Now explores the complications of establishing and honoring relationship boundaries and embracing a found family. The novel also picks up on the themes Hoover introduces in the preceding two novels, including those of betrayal and loyalty, and insecurity and personal growth. The Maybe Someday novels are deeply entangled; while they could arguably function as standalone books, they make the most narrative sense if read as a trilogy.

Hoover’s Maybe Someday books are in conversation with other works of contemporary romantic fiction, including Just for the Summer (2024) by Abby Jiminez, After I Do (2014) and One True Loves (2016) by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and The Love Hypothesis (2021) by Ali Hazelwood. Like Jiminez, Reid, and Hazelwood, Hoover embraces the tropes of the romance genre to present passionate portrayals of love and satisfying happily ever afters.