Review: Maybe This Time

Maybe This Time
Kasie West
Published July 9, 2019

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. - from Goodreads

Sophie works for a florist in a small town, which means she's working at practically every big event in town.  And since there's really only one caterer in town, too, it's inevitable that her path will cross with theirs and with Andrew, the son of the celebrity chef helping the caterer grow his business.  Although they get off on the wrong foot, Sophie eventually realizes that Andrew is not as bad as she thought he was.

Since I started blogging, I've been seeing the name Kasie West around.  A lot.  I really liked the premise of this book, so I thought it would be a good place to start and get an introduction to the author.  The story has a bit of an atypical structure - each part takes place at one event, such as a wedding, Fourth of July barbeque, or Valentine's Day party, and there's really nothing of the characters' lives in between.  Since they're only spending a couple hours with each other every few weeks, I wondered how well Sophie and Andrew would get to know each other.  Honestly, I didn't think they had a ton of chemistry - he seemed far friendlier with Sophie's best friend Micah, who he actually spent time with outside of the events.

At first, I thought the adults in this book were pretty terrible.  Sophie's mom seemed like a flake, and she knew nothing about her daughter.  Andrew's dad screamed at everyone, and Sophie's boss Caroline seemed to leave a lot of her work to other people (especially clean up!).  As the book went on, I began to realize that there was a lot more depth to many of the characters, and I appreciated that.  I began to see them in a new light.

Even Sophie experienced growth.  She really wants to go to design school in New York City, so she spends a lot of time thinking about what she wants to submit in her portfolio, but Micah kind of forces her to examine why she seems so desperate to get away from their small town. I really liked Micah - she had a good head on her shoulders.

I enjoyed West's writing - it was easy to read and the story flowed nicely, even though the structure was pretty segmented.  Although I wasn't totally buying the romance, I did enjoy that there were several other types of relationships featured in the book.

3.5 stars