This is a three-hour novella about two people who can't stand each other sharing an apartment, and honestly, that's about the perfect runtime for this particular story.
Maybe Not is Colleen Hoover's companion piece to Maybe Someday, pulling fan-favorite Warren out of the supporting cast and handing him the mic. If you spent time with him in the original novel and thought "I want more of this guy," Hoover wrote this for you specifically. If you haven't read Maybe Someday, you can still follow along fine — the connective tissue is there for fans, not as a barrier for newcomers.
Here's the setup: Warren moves in with Bridgette, a woman who seems to have made emotional unavailability into an art form. She's sharp, hostile, and utterly uninterested in being charmed. Warren's operating theory is simple — if someone can generate that much animosity, the wiring for equally intense love must be in there somewhere. It's a classic enemies-to-lovers premise, and Hoover knows it. She doesn't pretend she's reinventing the wheel. Instead, she leans into the banter, the friction, the slow thaw, and trusts her timing to make it work. Mostly, it does.
The funny moments land because Hoover has a real ear for comedic escalation in dialogue. Warren's confidence borders on delusional at times, and the way Bridgette deflects with hostility creates exchanges that genuinely made me laugh out loud — something I say about maybe one in ten rom-com audiobooks. The humor here isn't decorating the romance; it IS the romance, at least for the first two-thirds. When emotional vulnerability finally surfaces, the shift hits harder because you've been laughing the whole time.
Now, the audio performance. Jason Carpenter narrates solo, and this is where I need to be specific rather than just telling you he "does a good job." What Carpenter gets right is Warren's particular brand of overconfidence — that tone where a character is clearly performing bravado while being more invested than he'd ever admit. During the snarkier exchanges, Carpenter hits a cadence that feels like a guy who's rehearsed his comeback lines in advance, which is exactly who Warren is. When the vulnerability sneaks through — those quieter beats where Warren drops the act — Carpenter dials back without overcorrecting into melodrama. The contrast works.
What doesn't always work is sustaining energy across longer stretches of internal monologue. Carpenter settles into a rhythm that, for some listeners, becomes a kind of vocal cruise control. I noticed it during a couple of the middle sections where Warren is reflecting rather than sparring. One listener put it bluntly: the narration "made it hard to pay attention." I wouldn't go that far, but I'll say this — if you're listening while doing something else, those reflective passages might drift past you. The dialogue-heavy scenes pull you back in every time, though.
The single-narrator format means Carpenter is voicing Bridgette too, and he handles it about as well as you'd expect a male narrator to handle a female lead — competently, not spectacularly. The banter still pops because the writing carries most of the comedic weight. But if you're someone who needs distinct vocal characterization for each speaker, or if dual narration is your baseline expectation for romance, that's worth knowing going in.
Compared to Hoover's full-length novels like Ugly Love or November 9, the compression here is both a strength and a limitation. You get the fun, the chemistry, and the emotional arc, but Bridgette's transformation from ice queen to someone capable of lowering her guard feels rushed in the final act. At novel length, Hoover would've given that shift room to breathe — you'd feel the resistance cracking gradually rather than watching it happen because the story's running out of pages. It's the difference between watching a character earn a moment and watching a plot point arrive on schedule.
I'm genuinely glad this exists as an audiobook rather than just a print novella, though. The dialogue — and there's a lot of it — benefits from being performed. Comic timing on the page is one thing; hearing it land with vocal inflection is another. Carpenter's delivery on some of Warren's more absurd lines adds a layer that silent reading would miss.
For a better sense of what Carpenter can do with material that gives him more room to work, my review of Finding Perfect covers a performance where the longer runtime really lets him stretch out.
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Skip)
If you loved Warren in Maybe Someday and want a fast, funny enemies-to-lovers romp, this is a no-brainer. Hoover newcomers who enjoy banter-driven romance will have a good time too. Skip it if you need deep character development in your romances, if dual narration is non-negotiable for you, or if spending a credit on three hours of content makes you twitchy.
At 4.21 from listeners, the rating tracks. It's a fun, quick companion listen that rewards fans of the original while being accessible enough for Hoover newcomers. But at three hours, it's hard to justify a full Audible credit when you could put that toward a ten-hour novel. Stream it, grab it on sale, or pair it with another short listen — that's the right way to approach this one.
