Julie's Review: The Opposite of Maybe

Author: Maddie Dawson
Series: No
Publication Date:April 8, 2014
Publisher: Broadway Books
Pages: 400
Obtained: publisher via netgalley
Genre: Women's Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 3/5
Bottom Line: Well-written but formulaic novel
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Just get it at the library

Summary: Jonathan and Rosie have been together so long they finish each other’s sentences—so when he (finally) proposes and asks her to move across the country with him, everyone is happily surprised. But when things suddenly unravel, Rosie sends Jonathan packing and moves back home with Soapie, the irascible, opinionated grandmother who raised her. Now she has to figure out how to fire Soapie’s very unsuitable caregiver, a gardener named Tony who lets her drink martinis, smoke, and cheat at Scrabble. It’s meant to be a temporary break, of course—until Rosie realizes she’s accidentally pregnant at 44, completely unequipped for motherhood, and worse, may be falling in love with Tony, whose life is even more muddled than hers. When Soapie reveals a long-hidden secret, Rosie wonders if she has to let go of her fears, and trust that the big-hearted, messy life that awaits her just may be the one she was meant to live. ~amazon.com

Review: The Opposite of Maybe is a well-written novel where you pretty much know the path it's going to take after a few key scenes. That doesn't mean it's a boring novel, it means that you can sit back and enjoy the ride. Rosie is one of those characters where either you like her or you feel sorry for her. I felt sorry for her. I felt that she was lost and drifting through life. She had no direction. She blamed the absence of her parents for this lack of direction. I have a problem with adults blaming their parents for their lives. To me she was stuck. She was fine with the status quo until it wasn't the status quo.

It's really the secondary characters that give this book life. If it wasn't for them, it would be flat. Soapie was wonderful and at times not so wonderful. She hid important information from Rosie and wasn't always kind. In some ways, she blamed Rosie for not being able to live the life she wanted as well. Mostly though she lived life to the fullest and had fun doing it. She was trying to teach Rosie that sometimes life is unexepected. Which Rosie shortly finds out. Life isn't always the expected, most of the time it's the unexpected that ends up changing our lives. It's not always a easy road but the easy roads aren't the most satisfying either. Rosie's friends are a hoot and stick by her through thick and thin. They tell her the things she needs to hear, even if she doesn't want to hear them. To me, those are good, real friends. Jonathan annoyed me from the first time we meet him in the novel. He never really stopped either. I could never figure out how Rosie spend 15 years with this guy. I respected the fact that they tried to make it work but I just knew that they wouldn't because both of them had changed so much.

I would like to read a book about Soapie when she was younger, before she had to become the caregiver for Rosie. She was the most interesting, well-rounded character in the novel. If you are looking for a quick, formulaic read with some fun secondary characters, then The Opposite of Maybe is for you.

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