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abidavisf's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Child death, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Mental illness
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Mental illness, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Death
Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Dementia
nicolehoyme's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A beautiful story about soulmates finding their way back to each.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Child death, and Death
sheinmiller's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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? It's complicated
4.5
Please check your triggers before reading this as this book deals with a lot of them but the author does have a note at the beginning of the book. This is my first book I have read by Kennedy Ryan and I have very much enjoyed it and look forward to the second book being released later this year. The story follows Yasmen and Josiah two years after they have been divorce. They have two children and own a restaurant they are navigating in the Atlanta area. This is a second chance romance but overall the book is so much about communication in general. I really enjoyed following the main characters and all the secondary characters you meet along the way. Even though it took me a while to finish the pace of the book was very fast and I truly did enjoy it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Grief, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
jjhina's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Child death, Mental illness, Death, and Pregnancy
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic and Suicidal thoughts
theswordandthesea's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
A second chance romance about grown-ass adults! Definitely outside my usual realm, but what a stunning book filled with characters who feel like real people facing real problems & doing the work to move past those problems. I’m excited to read more from Kennedy Ryan.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
kelly_e's review against another edition
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.'"
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.'"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Grief, Child death, Pregnancy, Death, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Cursing, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Dementia
depression, divorcedesirai's review against another edition
emotional
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Mental illness, Child death, Miscarriage, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent
thetaylatrese's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Sexual content
Minor: Child death
kristinaneil's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Kennedy Ryan is an absolutely lovely writer. Before I Let Go is my first foray into her oeuvre and I'm excited to return.
Before I Let Go deals with heavy themes including pregnancy loss, grief and depression. I thought Kennedy did a stellar job of moving through these themes with immense care, compassion and kindness.
My only real critique is that I'm not entirely sold on Josiah nor the couple's reunion, even though I'm happy for them. The difficulty I had was with the way he managed Yasmen's depression (during and after the dissolution of their marriage) and what transpired that lead to their divorce. Ryan attempts to make clear that Josiah's own complex trauma was at the forefront of his inability to reconcile that Yasmen's actions were imbricated by the extreme of losing a child. While I was empathetic and truly understanding of this, I felt that his realization came far too late in the book for me. Up until the very end, he still laid the blame of their marriage's end at her feet which I thought was truly unfair. Because of that, it felt difficult to completely root for them.
Otherwise, pretty good read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Child death
thereadersays's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Wow what a novel. On the surface a powerful and at times spicy romance. Ryan has also managed to turn this love story into a reflection on grief and how it can affect us. How they way we cope with things show up for ourselves and the impact is has on those around us. A lesson in choosing love in-spite of the risks. An absolutely phenomenal novel that gripped me from start to end.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Grief