Review: Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

Although I am typically not a fan of the new adult genre (no real reason -- my old ass just can't relate), I had read Hopeless by Colleen Hoover, and loved the last half of it.  Maybe Someday wasn't a bad read at all -- in fact, I quite enjoyed it -- but I had some major problems with the plot and characters.

At twenty-two years old, aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to decide what to do next.

Sydney becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony. She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one…

@Goodreads

The novel opens right after Sydney finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with her longtime friend and roommate, courtesy of the hot guy she's been watching play guitar from her balcony in the evenings.   She quickly moves in with said hot guitar playing stud and his roommates, because she has nowhere else to go.  (I'm pretty sure I wouldn't move in with strangers under any circumstance, but whatever, I just went with it.)  Ridge is the hot musician, and shock of the century!, he's deaf.  He strikes a deal with Sydney to write lyrics for his band in exchange for free rent, and an attraction quickly blooms.

Then we find out Ridge has a girlfriend already.

Now, I know what you're thinking -- Ridge sounds like a piece of shit.  That's what I thought, too.  But, in Ridge's defense, adultery does happen, and it doesn't necessarily make a person a piece of shit.  At least that's what I tell myself.  Personal story time!: I cheated on, and then immediately left my first husband for my current husband.  My first husband wasn't a perfect guy, though, hardly;  without going into any details, we'll just say that he didn't treat me very well.  I didn't set out to cheat on him, it's just something that happened, and I owned up to it immediately, and that's that.  It was an extremely difficult time for me, and very hard for me to handle in every way imaginable, and keep in mind, my ex-husband wasn't the best.

Ridge's girlfriend in Maybe Someday is pretty much perfect.  Sweet, beautiful, kind, friendly, you name a positive adjective, and she fits it to a tee.

So therein lies the problem. While I enjoyed the romance that developed between Ridge and Sydney, I couldn't stop myself from thinking that Ridge is just a jerk.

I have some very specific reasons that I did not agree with Ridge's decisions... SPOILER ALERT!  Don't read ahead if you are interested in reading this novel for yourself and haven't yet.

I mentioned that Ridge had a girlfriend already when meeting Sydney.  What I didn't mention is that Sydney didn't know about Ridge's girlfriend for weeks.  It just never came up.  Even though they were living together, developing a huge attraction to one another.  

Ridge's girlfriend is perfect, as I mentioned, and they also have a good relationship.  They're not constantly fighting.  They're not unhappy with one another.  They love each other, a lot. 

Then we find out that Ridge's girlfriend has a serious medical condition and only have about 5-10 years left to live.  That's right, she's perfect, beautiful, and dying.

So put that all together, and no matter how you play your cards, Ridge is kind of an asshole for even allowing feelings to develop for another woman.  The story would have been much better if Ridge didn't have a girlfriend to begin with, let alone a perfect, beautiful, dying girlfriend that he pledged to support endlessly.