Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Before I Let Go

Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

44 reviews

booksalacarte's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Before I let go 5⭐️ 3🌶️

Second Chance Romance

Divorce

Found family

Therapy

Grief

Ptsd

This was such a beautifully heartbreaking, and at the same time, heartwarming book. The characters were so well flushed out and full. The writing was full of poetic inner monologues and glaringly real dialogue.

It felt like a love letter to therapy and the power that it has.

The character of grief is profound in this book. As someone who has lost in a similar way, not skirting around the grief but instead staring it in the face and explaining it in such a poetic way… it was so cathartic to read grief in such an open way.

I loved this book.

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noodlesny's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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ebartsch85's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I know this isn't shocking information, but Kennedy Ryan is a Goddess.

This book may be really difficult for people to read because of the traumas within the book, but gosh dang is it beautiful.

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abidavisf's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am stunned and awed by this book. Kennedy Ryan has taken my heart in her hands, broken it, and then healed it.

I can hear Yasmen and Josiah’s voices so clearly in my head, feel everything that they felt. I have been in a somewhat similar situation to Yasmen (though it cannot compare to the enormity of Yasmen’s loss), and to be able to hear both her and Josiah’s sides was completely gut-wrenching while also incredibly healing. I considered possibilities about my former partner/relationship that I never have before. The demise of a relationship, the loss of trust, it has all been captured so realistically and with so much heart. I feel like I should be devastated, but I actually feel a sense of closure.

There are moments of beauty and tragedy within Before I Let Go that are then expertly juxtaposed with humour and hope. 10/10. A must read.

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kelly_e's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Title: Before I Let Go
Author: Kennedy Ryan
Series: Skyland #1
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4.75
Pub Date: November 15, 2022

T H R E E • W O R D S

Riveting • Raw • Beautiful

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love alone couldn't solve or save everything.

It couldn't save their marriage.

Yasmen wasn't prepared for how her life fell apart, but she's is finally starting to find joy again. She and Josiah have found a new rhythm, co-parenting their two kids and running a thriving business together. Yet like magnets, they're always drawn back to each other, and now they're beginning to wonder if they're truly ready to let go of everything they once had.

Soon, one stolen kiss leads to another...and then more. It's hot. It's illicit. It's all good--until old wounds reopen. Is it too late for them to find forever? Or could they even be better, the second time around?

💭 T H O U G H T S

Before I Let Go was my first venture into Kennedy Ryan's repertoire and I picked it up at the beginning of 2024 simply because I desperately wanted to read my ARC of book two in the series, which was releasing in February. What a pleasant surprise this one was!

I absolutely loved this second chance at love story!

It is so much more than a romance and it's filled with such deep and raw emotion. Yasmen and Josiah are both complex and such fully developed characters. Getting both of their POVs allowed for an in-depth look at how each handled the same event in completely different ways. There is so much power in this aspect of the storytelling, because it showcases how one event can affect people entirely differently based on a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

Their ability to put aside their differences and continue to run a business together and co-parent their children is incredibly beautiful and mature. Not only does Kennedy Ryan focus on the romantic
relationship, she also demonstrates relationships of friendship, parenting, and maybe most importantly, the relationship with self, with such integrity. Don't get me wrong their passion and chemistry lifted right off of the page, but I loved that it was so much more than that.

The secondary characters were also fantastic and it made me really look forward to continuing on with books in this series. Again the bond between Yasmen and her friends felt so organic, supportive and life-giving. I want more of that in my books.

Before I Let You Go was an absolute gem! The characters and the relationships are one I won't forget and it was easy to immediately jump into This Could Be Us as soon as I finished. While I await another installment, I look forward to exploring more of her backlist.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• steamy romance
• the second chance trope
• romance with depth

⚠️ CW: grief, death, child death, miscarriage, pregnancy, infertility, medical trauma, death of parent, mental illness, depression, sexual content, divorce, suicidal thoughts, cursing, panic attacks/disorders, car accident, injury/injury detail, dementia
o
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"You have no idea what it takes to get out of bed most morning, but I do it. Everything hurts, but I keep doing it."

"Grief looks different for everyone. You saw her as falling apart and me as strong, when maybe she was doing something I wasn't able to do."

"'I told her it wasn't that I wanted to take my life,' she says. ' But that I didn't want to live it. I'd wake-up disappointed that I wasn't still asleep and think, Oh, my god, I have to do this again. I have to be here again. The only that got me our of bed was knowing I had to take care of my children, even though I had no desire to even take care of me. All day I had to remind myself of how much they would miss me if I was gone. Of what I would miss if I wasn't here, even though here was the last place I wanted to be for a long time. I ached every moment of every day.'"

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noodlebooknook's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow the hype does not lie with this book 5 Stars!!!

I am normally not a fan of second chance romance because almost all of them one person majorly majorly messed up and it’s hard to see how someone would forgive them but this book goes into how grief and mental illness and bad circumstances a cause issues that are deeper than whether you love someone or not but in the end if it’s meant to be it will be.

The writing was beautiful without being too flowery

The dialogue was seamlessly casual without taking away from the flowery language in the non-Dialogue sections.

There were 0 cringe items which is almost impossible for a modern romance and even as someone who hates pop culture references these blended so well into the story I wasn’t even mad at them.

My only criticism at all is really a criticism of the contemporary romance genre in that every book as so may sex scenes which hers were very well written I just wish I could find romance books with tension without necessarily reading smut scenes.

But overall this book made me cry and laugh and think about my own grief and relationships it was just so so good

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allysonw_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have never cried as much as I have while reading this book. Like I sobbed and that doesn’t happen often when I read despite me being a pretty emotional person As someone who has gone through depression and certain types of ideation I was amazed at how detailed Ryan was in describing what it felt like. For example there’s a certain part in the book where Yasmen describes what her day to day felt like at one point. She says “I’d wake up disappointed that I wasn’t still asleep and think, Oh, my God. I have to do this again. I have to be here again.” This is just one of many parts of the book that really hit the nail on the head of what it’s like to really be in a deep pit and feel like there’s no way out. What I love about this book is how layered it is and how it doesn’t hold back in digging into the ugly parts of life. Yasmen and Josiah are imperfect people who went through unimaginable tragedy, and I think showing the conflict in their relationship early on and leaning into the awkward parts of their life as a divorced couple helped to showcase so well the nuances of being in love and illustrate what they had to go through to come back together. This is a book that I know I’ll be re-reading for years. Ms Kennedy Ryan, you hit this one out the park.

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