Such a great book! I finished it in one sitting and it will probably be one of cozy readings until the end of my days. The plot was great and I love all the characters. I don't know if you have thought about it... but if you write a short story (or a whole book) about how they are doing in university, I would much appreciate it. I would love to read more of your books.

I loved this more than anything. I adore K.L.'s books and this was no different. I loved the New England setting and all the inherent drama of it taking place at a boarding school. I loved Sage and her friends. I adored the Carmichael twins and Luke was amazing. I loved this more than I thought I would and I need more.

Sage, Charlie, Nick, and Luke are some of the most relatable, utterly likable characters I’ve read, making this a delightful end-of-high-school romance. Now, there was drama (I mean, they’re teenagers) and growing pains and mistakes being made, but that was what made the writing so three-dimensional, and made me feel emotionally connected to each one of these characters. It was a quick read about new and childhood friends becoming adults, and it left me feeling satisfied and hopeful. This is an excellent contemporary YA from a solid author who consistently wows me!

If you’re in need of a YA read that delivers on coming of age vibes, set in a boarding school, has LGBTQIA+ rep and a dash of a low triangle then this us for you. If you’re new to K.L.Walther, this is the place to start!

I'm just so glad we have K.L. Walther in the YA space! And I'm grateful for this re-release of her debut, MAYBE MEANT TO BE (and with that gorgeous cover!) because I got the chance to experience this lovely story -- and at the perfect autumnal time.

One of the biggest things that I love about a YA (or any) story is when the setting is a character on its own. Kaethe does this exceptionally well. By the end, I felt like Bexley was a real place, and I so enjoyed being able to lose myself in this world while I got to know Sage and Charlie and Nick and Luke. And I loved that we got a dual POV, but not the POVs of the two LIs, like in most romance stories. I loved being able to get insight into Sage and Charlie's own individual journeys and the people in their lives in a big interconnected story. A great ensemble cast, an immersive setting, and some really tender, meaningful moments. (And I love me some pop culture references!)

A great YA. Love you forever, Kaethe!

A thank you to Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

I picked up Maybe Meant to Be on author name recognition alone. I loved K. L. Walther's The Summer of Broken Rules, so of course I was eager to read this novel too. I was confused as to why it was being published so closely to What Happens After Midnight, but after some research, I learned that Maybe Meant to Be is a rebrand and reissue of Walther's debut novel, If We Were Us.

Armed with this knowledge, the questions I had surrounding this novel began to make a lot more sense. It very much reads like an underdeveloped first novel, and is nowhere near the same league as The Summer of Broken Rules. I couldn't understand how Walther had regressed so much, but now knowing that this novel was actually her first, I can give her a pass.

Maybe Meant to Be follows childhood best friends Sage and Charlie during their senior year at their New England boarding school. Because Sage and Charlie are so close, it has always been assumed that they would fall in love and end up together. However, both friends are hiding secrets. Sage has been crushing on Charlie's twin brother Nick, and Charlie has not told anyone that he is actually gay and is interested in the new guy at school. Sage and Charlie must figure out how to navigate these burgeoning relationships and feelings over the course of their senior year, while juggling schoolwork, family expectations, and friendships.

Maybe Meant to Be is a pretty dense book and would benefit from being edited down to create a tighter plot. As is, it meanders through the academic year at an uneven pace, sometimes making huge leaps in time. These time switches happen abruptly and without much notice, and if the reader is not paying attention, they may miss that the plot has suddenly moved ahead months in time. The relationships are also underdeveloped and are lacking any real chemistry, especially between Sage and Nick, which doesn't make it the most compelling to read. Lastly, there are a lot of characters, most of whom feel flat and unremarkable.

On the other hand, Walther has a way of creating interesting settings and opening up exclusive worlds to her readers, such as boarding school or Martha's Vineyard. The covers for her novels are also gorgeous, and her books give off an overall fun vibe.

While Maybe Meant to Be certainly isn't Walther's best, I am chalking it up to first novel inexperience. I still can't wait to pick up What Happens After Midnight!

Rating: 2.75 stars

This book follows Charlie and Sage during their senior year at boarding school. Charlie and Sage have been best friends their whole life and everyone thinks they are meant to be together. What people don't expect is for Charlie, the guy who dates a new girl every month, to be falling for the new guy at school and for Sage to be in love with Charlie's brother.

This book was a quick read and fairly entertaining. I liked the discussion on discovering and coming to terms with your sexuality that this book provided. The book did have several shortcomings. I found that throughout this book, the author told us what was happening rather than showed it. I also wish that the backstory of Sage and Nick. They have obviously known each other for a long time, but this was never explored in much depth. I found that the main focus of the book was on Luke, since both Sage and Charlie often talked about him in their POV.

Overall, this book was an okay read for me. I didn't find that there was anything special about it and I wish the writing was better.

Sage and Charlie have been best friends since childhood, and everyone thinks they’re destined to get married. They’re both happy to play into the will-they-won’t-they role, but when Sage falls for Charlie’s twin brother Nick, and Charlie falls for the new kid, Luke, things get complicated.

I ended up liking this book, but it started soooo slow. It’s not a particularly long book, but the inevitable romances are slow burners which isn’t my favorite. I found it hard to stay engaged, which is more of a personal preference than a knock on the book itself. The beginning was pretty confusing for me though because there were a ton characters in the first few chapters. This takes place at a boarding school, so there are a lot of minor characters that the main characters interact with. They end up not being particularly important and once I realized that, it got easier to focus on the plot instead of remembering who each person was. Overall I liked the story, but it took until I was around 50-60% through for it to get interesting. Thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and K.L. Walther for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the immersive setting of this boarding school book, and the tight-knit, larger-than-life friendships portrayed here. Walther's escapist voice is a joy as always!

I'm super sad about this one, because I really wanted to love it! I started it with high hopes as the blurb sounded right up my street. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get hooked to the plot or the characters.
I would like to try read it again though, when I have more time.

Really emotional and made me look at things differently, plus I just loved the romance between both couples and the boarding school dynamic, Walther always writes it so well

Dnfed at idek what percent because i was so uninterested.

I'm so upset about this because I love KL Walther's books and I was expecting so much from this one but I did not vibe with it to be very honest.

Get ready because I'm ready to rant.

So basically this story follows two best friends, Sage and Charlie. Sage is straight and she's in love with Charlie's brother, Nick. However, Charlie is gay and he's making an effort to hide it by dating literally every girl on campus.

I don't know but I just don't like it when a character isn't open for who they are but maybe i was just overthinking that idk. Even though he's gay, he doesn't end up treating the girls he dates in a right way and i also didn't vibe with his relationship with Luke idk why.

Also, sage's storyline was so dry. I started to question if she was even a main character in the first place or not. She literalky treated Nick so bad and I'm sorry but I cannot like her. She's just so impatient.

I'm sorry but the characters in this book are just shallow. There was no angst. Maybe it wasn't just my type of book and ya'all might like it but i just did not vibe with it.

I LOVED summer of broken rules and what happens after midnight but this book was not IT for me.

This book plunges you straight into the lives of these students at Bexley, without much of an introduction or background. I found it very confusing in the beginning, almost like we started in the middle of a story and that made me lose interest in the story and the characters. Some aspects of the plot seemed a little insensitive, also predictable. I just couldn't get through it. I DNF at 38%. I'm still giving it 2 stars, because the writing wasn't horrible.

I always love KL Walther's work. This book was charming, as always. I really enjoyed the alternating POVs between the two main characters. The plot could have been better, but it was a cute and easy read!

This was a fun and fast read! It takes place in a boarding school and is full of storylines of romance, friendship, and identity.

While it was fun, and I did enjoy the characters, I also felt that they felt a bit shallow in a way. I would have loved for them to have more character development and more of a depth in general then maybe I would have been more invested in the characters.

However, I did love the banter between the characters and seeing how all of the different characters interacted. The story was told in alternating POVs between 2 of the main characters, and I loved getting to see their views on various storylines.

Overall, a cute story but I just wish the characters had a little more depth!

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this one and that's totally on me as I just may not be the target audience.

🏫 YA coming of age
🏫 Boarding school
🏫 Friendships & relationships
🌈 Queer rep
🏫 Dual POV
🏫 Miscommunication done well

The Summer I Turned Pretty vibes....but not.
Sage is best friends with twin brothers Charlie & Nick. Its giving love triangle vibes....but not.
She is falling hard for Nick while Charlie has eyes for someone else. Her friendship grows and blossoms with Charlie which causes some drama between the dynamic.

We get Charlie + Sages alternating pov but they aren't the two in a relationship so we actually get TWO relationship stories.

Thank you netgalley and K.L. Walther for this ARC

At their boarding school, best friends Charlie and Sage have always been the talk as being “more than best friends,” that they’re in love with each other, that they should be together. Turns out, they like different boys. How do their individual journeys in finding love affect their friendship, but most importantly, their relationships?
Oh my heart! This was such a loving story about loving the guy, loving your best friend, and loving yourself. I felt so much more for Charlie! And, as for Sage, what a strong best friend. This book took coming of age to another level, and it was such a joy to read. Full disclosure: one of the final chapters definitely made me cry.
YA readers, you’re going to want to check this one out!
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I DNFed this book. I wasn't a fan of the pacing and I felt like it was time jumping a bit too much. I do think she's improved massively from this book though having read What Happens After Midnight.

The Summer I Turned Pretty if it was set during the school year with the brothers being the Sprouse twins and one of them is secretly gay.

K.L Walther does it again; another YA romance that hooks you from the start. I can’t get enough of these wholesome, yet impactful books. If you liked I Kissed Shara Wheeler, you’ll love Maybe Meant to Be!

I loved the characters and their development throughout the book. I respected the way K.L wrote Charlie and Luke, with so much care and love. There are a lot of important themes explored here that likely resonate with a lot of teens/young adults. I think this is a really important book to be out in the world.

highlights:
- boarding school setting
- cozy summer read
- queer characters
- dual narrative
- coming-of-age story
- new england setting (I think?? lots of martha’s vineyard references, but never quite gave us a solid location for the school)