Review: Maybe Perfect.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 22, 2013
I confess. I truly love a good guy. He can have faults, most people do. Yet it's not the alpha, the damaged, or the thug types that do it for me in the long run. It's the hold the door open for me, make me laugh when I'm furious at him, firmly call me out when I'm wrong, never sleep around cause I'm just IT for him type, that gets me every single time. Brendan Cole, the hero of Maybe Never and its precursor Unsuitable Men, is that kind of good guy. Even when he's wrong, as he often is in this book, I totally get why Tracy loves him with such intensity.The heroine of both books Tracy Emerson is not a good girl and I confess to having a special place in my heart for her type as well. Women work so hard to be perfect. It's reassuring sometimes when someone who is beautiful, smart, and seems to have everything, reveals how screwed up they are too. Tracy comes full circle for me in Maybe Never in that she continues to honestly face down her personal demons in hopes of something more. But more importantly she matures into the kind of person that no longer lets shame and past mistakes make her believe she should accept less than anyone else.Unsuitable Men was the first book I read by Nia Forrester. It was an impulse purchase because I read an excerpt I really liked and I've always been fond of the name Tracy. I picked up Maybe Never because it's the postscript that gives added complications, depth, and resolution to the many uncertainties left by these two characters in the first book. I also bought it because Ms. Forrester's writing style is in many ways both impeccable and accessible. It's such a certainty that I'm comforted by it when I read her books.I don't know if Maybe Never and Unsuitable Men are Ms. Forrester's best stories. I am sure, that together, they are my favorite of hers I've read so far. In both books the ambiguities of Tracy and Brendan's relationship are laced throughout the story from the very beginning until the very end and that may be what I liked the most about them. The truth is sometimes we just don't know, can't be sure and still want what we want anyway.