A review by kala_b_reviews
Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

challenging dark 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is what I get for just blindly diving into the book without reading the blurb. Mind you, I was always going to read the book but, I think if I read the blurb, it would have prepared me for the heaviness of this book.

Yasmen and Josiah’s story was the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful story of a pair of soulmates that lost their way and yet kept finding their way back to each other.  

The way that I was literally in tears already 2 chapters in?!? This story is going to stay with me forever. It was so difficult for me to get through this book. I had to start and stop so many times. I was so team Yasmen from beginning to end but found myself forgiving Josiah as well…as if I was the one in this relationship 😂 But this book just had a way of sucking you in from the beginning and never letting you go (The breaks that I took were to get tissues and calm my heart down). 

The themes that this touches are so heavy but it’s heavy because Kennedy has written these two characters in a way where you feel connected to them, so their pain becomes your pain, even just a little. One thing that stuck with me is Yasmen’s relationship with her daughter Deja. I don’t wanna get TOO personal but, I’ll just say that the mother and daughter dynamic totally resonated with me.

I think this is one of the most amazingly written story by Kennedy Ryan and beautifully narrated story by Wesleigh Siobhan and Jakobi Diem. I will definitely be continuing on in this series and checking out the rest of Kennedy’s other books but, I’m gonna need to take a day or two to heal my heart a bit. And the way I know that is because I’m reading the discussion questions at the end of the book and I’m tearing up again 😭New favorite author for sure!