ARC Review : More Than Maybe by Erin Hahn

Title : More Than Maybe
Author : Erin Hahn
Genre : YA contemporary
Release Date : July 21st, 2020
Publisher : Wednesday Books

⭐⭐⭐⭐½

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Growing up under his punk rocker dad’s spotlight, eighteen-year-old Luke Greenly knows fame and wants nothing to do with it. His real love isn’t in front of a crowd, it’s on the page. Hiding his gift and secretly hoarding songs in his bedroom at night, he prefers the anonymous comfort of the locally popular podcast he co-hosts with his outgoing and meddling, far-too-jealousy-inspiringly-happy-with-his-long-term-boyfriend twin brother, Cullen. But that’s not Luke’s only secret. He also has a major un-requited crush on music blogger, Vada Carsewell.

Vada’s got a five year plan: secure a job at the Loud Lizard to learn from local legend (and her mom’s boyfriend) Phil Josephs (check), take over Phil’s music blog (double check), get accepted into Berkeley’s prestigious music journalism program (check, check, check), manage Ann Arbor’s summer concert series and secure a Rolling Stone internship. Luke Greenly is most definitely NOT on the list. So what if his self-deprecating charm and out-of-this-world music knowledge makes her dizzy? Or his brother just released a bootleg recording of Luke singing about some mystery girl on their podcast and she really, really wishes it was her?

“Love is the lyrics to someone else’s melody”

Erin Hahn has officially become one of my favorite contemporary author. More Than Maybe is my first book of hers, so I went into it without really knowing anything, but Erin Hahn somehow manage to exceed all of it.

This book follows Vada, a music blogger and aspiring music journalist, and Luke, a songwriter who only loves to write songs but not perform it. They both met during joint composition-dancing class, and they both worked together at a bar. So to put it simply, More Than Maybe is a love letter to music. From their texts to their activities, all involve music in one way or another. Music is everywhere in this book, and as someone who loves listening to music, this made me enjoy the book more. I have to admit that I didn’t recognize some of the songs mentioned in here, but honestly it’s more fun that I could discover new songs while reading.

While music enhance my enjoyment toward this book, it’s actually the romance that made me love this book. I think Erin Hahn manage to perfectly capture the feeling of teenage love, in the sweetest and realest way possible. Based on the summary, I originally thought it’s only Luke that has a crush on Vada since the beginning, but turns out they both have a crush on each other. It’s definitely a nice surprise, and you can imagine all the longing/pining/yearning this book has (spoiler alert : a lot). Erin has such a way with writing that the whole time I read this book, it feels like I’m the one who become friends-and-then-something-more with my crush.

“It’s noticing things. Seeing parts of them even they might not know exist because you’ve been studying them since the moment you first laid eyes on them”

This book also tackles the subject about family, particularly toxic relationship between Vada and her father. Getting out of toxic relationship is no easy task, especially with a family, but I think Erin Hahn handle this subject quite well and resolve it clearly. There’s also the matter between Luke and his father, since his father didn’t approve of Luke’s dream to write songs but never perform it. This subject wasn’t really discussed a lot here, but again, I think Erin wrap this problem nicely.

All in all, More Than Maybe is a story about loves and relationship, imbued by music. If you’re a fan of soft-and-slow romance, I highly recommend this book to you ❤

*I receive an ARC from Netgalley in exchange of honest review. Thank you Wednesday Books for the book!