Maybe This Time
By: Kasie West
Publication: July 9th 2019 by Point
368 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Source: Personal Kindle Library (on sale $1.99)
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Goodreads description--One year. Nine events. Nine chances to . . . fall in love?
Weddings. Funerals. Barbecues. New Year's Eve parties. Name the occasion, and Sophie Evans will be there. Well, she has to be there. Sophie works for the local florist, so she can be found at every big event in her small hometown, arranging bouquets and managing family dramas.
Enter Andrew Hart. The son of the fancy new chef in town, Andrew is suddenly required to attend all the same events as Sophie. Entitled, arrogant, preppy Andrew. Sophie just wants to get her job done and finish up her sketches so she can apply to design school. But every time she turns around, there is Andrew, getting in her way and making her life more complicated. Until one day she wonders if maybe complicated isn't so bad after all . . .
Told over the course of one year and following Sophie from event to event, this delightful novel from master of romantic comedy Kasie West shows how love can blossom in unexpected places.
Kasie West is an auto-buy author for me. I can always count on being pulled into her story and characters. I can always count on clean content and a relationship to root for. I have other authors that I consider to be auto-buy but I don't think anyone else is as consistent as Kasie West. And I love that. I love knowing that if I can get my hands on one of her books that I will enjoy it. And I have every single time. Of course, there are books that she's published that I've enjoyed more than others and some I've enjoyed less. But that's to be expected. Maybe This Time fell into the category of ones I enjoyed but didn't quite love.
Sophie is working at the local florist. She dreams of going to design school in New York after high school and getting out of her small town in Alabama. She is one of those characters that I could understand but sometimes found myself cringing with her inability to keep her mouth shut when she was upset--her biggest flaw. She also has to learn (as most of us do) that there are two sides to every story and relationship. This was true for her relationship with her mom, dad, best friend, and of course with Andrew too.
Sophie's best friend, Micah, was one of my favorite parts of this entire book. She works for her dad's catering business as a waiter. She's organized beyond the norm and my fellow planner heart just wanted to squeeze her.
Of course, I have to discuss Andrew. His dad was a chef on TV and he's since traveled around to small businesses to try to help them improve. This requires them to travel around which doesn't allow Andrew to make friends easily. He's a little arrogant, a lot defensive of his dad, and seems to quickly learn from his mistakes, unlike Sophie who takes a bit longer.
Sophie, Micah, and Andrew are thrown together repeatedly at various town events where Sophie works with the flowers and decorations, Micah works with the food, and Andrew takes pictures. Micah easily becomes friends with Andrew as she tends to see the best in people. Sophie and Andrew, however, have a hate-to-love relationship. They are really combative with each other and have a slow-building relationship. Sometimes slow builds are great, but I think the amount of time between interactions (or events the characters worked at) interfered with my enjoyment.
I wonder a little at the choice of setting for this book. Small town Alabama. I grew up in a small town in Alabama. I actually still live in a small town in Alabama. Some aspects of the town felt stereotypical in a negative way. Yet, I also couldn't necessarily say any of it was wrong and definitely none of it was out of the realm of possibility.
Maybe This Time fell in line with what I expect from Kasie West. This wasn't one of my favorites even though hate-to-love relationships are often a win for me. I think Sophie's attitude and inability to keep from verbally attacking others when she was upset forced me to keep my distance from her a little. I also think this book was a little more conceptual than Kasie West usually does. While conceptual works at times, I felt it hindered my connection to the characters and their journeys. Maybe This Time gets 3.5 Stars from me. Have you read Maybe This Time? What did you think? Let me know!
