ARC Review: Maybe This Once by Sophie Sullivan

Maybe This Once is the third book in Sophie Sullivan’s contemporary romance series, Rock Bottom Love. It follows the story of Charlotte “Charlie” Ashford, and Grayson “Gray” Keller. Although it is the third book in the series, it is not necessary to read the first two books, this is easily read as a standalone.

Charlie, the daughter of a famous couple, escapes LA after a viral video on social media blows up her life. Gray is the owner of the lodge where she lands, when she comes to visit her great uncle and learn more about her family history.

Maybe This Once has a strong theme of found family, which makes it a bit of a comfort read. The small town setting, and sense of community amongst the residents contributes to this theme, and makes the town feel like a warm and inviting place to visit.

While I enjoyed Maybe This Once, I found it slow at times, and it didn’t always keep my attention. I am usually a fairly quick reader and can finish a book, especially a romance, in an evening or two, but this book took me about a week to read because I kept putting it down and wasn’t especially motivated to pick it back up.

In addition there were times when Charlie’s decisions irritated me. For instance there is a point in the novel leading up to the climax which could have been resolved by a simple conversation, and the characters plan on having a conversation, but instead they fall into bed together, and as expected, the whole thing blows up the next morning. I just found it predictable and annoying. I don’t believe someone who knows their life is about to blow up if they don’t have a discussion with someone could be that distracted by sex, no matter how attractive the other person is.

Over all, I did enjoy the story, and it has a nice ending for all of the characters. I think most fans of small town romance will enjoy this. It’s also possible that I was harder on it than usual because I just wasn’t in the right state of mind given world events in the past month.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Maybe This Once will be available on February 10 2026.