amazing! amazing! amazing! Talk about a try romance; a story of real life. The steam level was high but so well written. I just loved this book.

Wow, this book. I think that’s all I can say about it because it completely swept me away, broke my heart, and still made me cry happy tears. I have read other books by Kennedy Ryan before and she truly knows how to punch you in the gut with her words (in the best way). Do check the content warnings for this one, as it deals with some very intense topics but I think they need to be normalized! Men in therapy, love after child loss, forgiveness, moving on. It’s so so so so so good.

Ugh, the writing! I can’t get over it. I could gush about Before I Let Go for the rest of time but this is the kind of book I want to shove under literary snobs’ noses. “Just” Romance? You think this is “Just Romance”? This is a masterpiece of the human condition.

What I Liked:

A Couple with Children at the Center—We so rarely have books where children are added to the stakes of the story. I think it grounded the story so deeply in reality because as much as the main characters wanted to throw caution to the wind, they had a whole family to think about. I loved how intense the use “second chance romance” was in this book.

The Writing—Kennedy Ryan’s writing is impeccable. She crafts a world that is so rich and real, while still sweeping you away in their romance.

The Feelings it Provoked—This book made me FEEL. I actually had to put it down when I first read it because I wasn’t in the place to read it. But once I felt like I could handle it, I could not put it down and that is the best feeling.

What Didn’t Work:

Nothing, I absolutely loved this book. Kennedy Ryan is so underrated and more people need to read her books!

Character Authenticity: 5/5 Spice Rating: 3/5 Overall Rating: 5/5

Content Warnings:

divorce, still birth, miscarriage, child death, grief, depression, suicidal thoughts, car accident

This book is LIFE. No, not the cliche'. I mean REAL life !
I received an ARC, but I had to get the finished paperback AND the audio. I was expecting a lot, since Ms Ryan is one of my favorite authors ever.
Wow, did she deliver. I didn't get any spoilers, but kind of knew what to expect.
Yasmen and Josiah have been divorced when the story begins. I was about 2 or 3 chapters in and already loved these two. There is so much to why they broke up and I will tell you there's a lot-- oh the feelings! I love the fighting for the marriage/relationship trope. I was not tempted to complain, why didn't you fight harder to stay together? There are reasons and they are understandable. Ms Ryan reveals them as necessary -as I read/listened
All of the supporting characters are terrific and necessary. I love Yasmen's mother Carole.; Yasmen and Josiah's kids: Kassim 10 y/o son is so smart and very likable. He does have some great scenes with his parents and sister Deja. Deja is 13 turning 14 y/o. She's a challenge to her mom. I was so empathetic to Yasmen, but Deja is full of teen angst and has blame to lay on her mom. Yasmen has 2 great girl friends. I hope that they get a story (hint hint)
There's some beautiful romantic moments, beautiful writing. I read and listened to the audio. The narrators are perfectly cast.
The story's ending was not so easily wrapped up. This was a beautiful story. I will definitely be rereading/listening to this again and again. The epilogue is very sweet and I loved it so much!
This is MY FAVORITE book of 2022. 5 stars

I loved the beautiful story of Josiah and Yasmen! Their story follows what happens when happily ever after ends. Sometimes pain is stronger than love and pain manifests differently in all people which makes marriage even harder when there is too much heartache and not enough communication.
The characters in this book are written extremely realistic and their story is very well-conceived and written flawlessly. Their love, fights and feelings are so real I feel like I went through everything with them. I cannot stop thinking about them, their family and friends leaving me looking forward to the next installment in the Skyland series!
This book is a fabulous 5 stars! It is full of emotion and realistic moments. I highly recommend this book!
I am extremely grateful to Forever Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read a digital copy of this wonderful book in exchange for a honest review.

"Real, raw and magnificent?!" Sign me up!! I received a copy of #BeforeILetGo last. month, started it right away, and then could not put it down!
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This is my kind of second chance romance read, and if it isn't on your list yet, you need to add it ASAP!! Author Kennedy Ryan nailed this one.

The characters were nuanced, the "real life" details were spot on, and Ryan somehow made this one completely engrossing (and spicy!) while also hitting the nail on the head with challenges long time relationships can face. And how stunning is this cover?! One of my favorites from 2022 for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for my gifted review copies.

A family centered novel in the romance genre following a woman who grieves the loss of her 3rd child while navigating her recently ended marriage along with raising 2 children with residual emotions. Set in Atlanta, the main characters own a restaurant inspired by family recipes and home cooking - so be prepared to find yourself hungry and craving food that sticks to the ribs. Still, the grief is the pervasive thread and it is handled with care and authenticity. Well done.

Even though it started off strong, this book just wasn't for me. I couldn't relate to the characters at all. The daugther in this book made me want to DNF it so badly but I didn't.

This book along with Queen Move are my favorite books by Kennedy Ryan. Both books tackled subjects really relevant to me and felt them deeply. Flawed characters who are such good people. How can one not root for them to win?

One of the things my parents told me is that tragedy or trauma can break a marriage. It is important to know how your partner deals with stress or if they have had a significant loss. This story was so poignant because marriages are tough enough but when Yasmen and Josiah Wade hit a rough patch, they were unable to weather the storm together. What I loved about this book was that it showed that married couples could grow as individuals and maybe repair the relationship they had. There was never a question about love because Josiah and Yasmin never wavered about their love for each other, but it was just obscured by the other pains they were feeling about a lot of things. Communication broke down and so did their marriage.

The author wrote this story in such a way that it was relatable, emotional and by the end, inspirational. With consistent work in the mental health area, brokenness may be healed. The issue of children actually helped Yasmin and Josiah, though their daughter was driving me up the wall. I did love how they managed to co-parent in relative harmony and the restaurant was like another child of theirs. There was sufficient roots for this tree to be securely grounded, so once the relationship was pruned and cared for, the tree once again had life.

Bravo to Kennedy Ryan for another heartfelt second chance romance.

Before I Let Go was my first book by Kennedy Ryan and it won’t be my last.

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. After the divorce they love their lives in tandem until 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?

Oh y’all this book had me going through all the emotions: grief, sadness, hope, love. My heart broke for both Yasmen and Josiah. The things they experienced shattered their relationship but they are each other’s great love. This book is raw, real and Magnificent just as COHO says on the cover. It reminds me of Seven Days In June which is also amazing. Highly recommend this honest look at what actual relationships are.

I’m hopping on the “this book is great and you should read it” train. I heard nothing but rave reviews before reading this book. I went in expecting to be amazed and I was not disappointed! Yasmen and Josiah are divorced and coparenting two kids. They’ve experienced many losses of loved ones and are finding ways to cope and handle their grief. In the process they find their way back to each other. Y’all this book had me crying at work. I was wiping away tears with a napkin 😂😭. I switched to the audiobook at work. Jakobi and Wesleigh do an amazing job narrating.

I loved that this book tackled the topic of Black people and mental health. Especially black men. I grew up being told by family and in church that “You don’t need therapy.Jesus will fix it”. When I told people I was going to study psychology in college, some were so disappointed. This stigma needs to be talked about more and I loved that it was included in the book.

Before I let go has very quickly become one of my favourite reads of 2022. It’s my first Kennedy Ryan but this book is so good, that she is now an auto-buy author.
The book is about Joshiah and Yasmen, a divorced couple whose lives are still intertwined through their shared business, kids and trauma. We follow them on an exploration of loss, grief, depression and a soulmate kind of love. Kennedy is able to write in a really grounded ways about life’s lows but is equally able to write a stunning romance that is one for the history books. The romance in the story is quite simply stunning. I loved every single second and was devastated when it ended.
I would recommend this book over and over (I already have been).

Before I Let Go is a masterpiece. It's lyrical, hopeful, devastating, beautiful, breathtaking, thought-provoking and heartbreaking. I fell in love with this expressive, vivid and emotional love story that had me teary eyed. From the superb story line to expertly developed characters to the vivid narration, this book had me engrossed throughout. This is a poignant and haunting story of love, loss, grief, redemption, and second chances. Before I Let Go is STELLAR. The storytelling is EVERYTHING. OUTSTANDING!! Wesleigh Siobhan and Jakobi Diem - their narration is sublime.

#BeforeILetGo #NetGalley

A binge worthy book hangover for the ages!

I binged this one hard, I could not put it down. Regardless of the heartache, angst and turmoil that Kennedy Ryan took me on. I gobbled every word.

The journey of healing this family too was awe inspiring.

An HEA truly deserved.

3.5 stars

I am a HUGE fan of Kennedy Ryan. Like, she is on my top 3 favorite authors of all time, and I'll read and recommend anything she has written/will write in a heartbeat. I am also a huge fan of the marriage in trouble trope, so it was safe to say this book was going to be a hit for me, right? Well, unfortunately, something about this one just didn't work for me as much as I would've liked.

Now, I do want to say that I absolutely loved the focus on therapy in this book. i feel like in a lot of books, the love between two people suddenly and miraculously heals them of any trauma they might've had in the past, and I just find that very unrealistic. I love that in this book both characters first have to seek therapy and work on THEMSELVES for their relationship to every work again. I thought that was absolutely beautiful to read, seeing them work on the trauma they faced and learn to better communicate with one another first. Kennedy (as usual) did a fantastic job navigating writing about depression and loss with a lot of care and research, which is why she remains one of my favorite authors of all time.

Now, the romance just didn't work much for me. I tend to compare this author's books to my favorite one of her, Hook Shot, not because I want them all to be like it, but more in the sense of "did it make me feel half of what Hook Shot made me feel when I read it for the first time?" and this one didn't. Although It is not my least favorite book by this author, it also wasn't close to my favorites by her. Something about the romance was missing for me to fall in love with their love. I just didn't feel the chemistry and a lot of times it felt like what they wanted for each other when they got back together was more about the sex than the emotional connection that they had for one another. A lot of their love was more told than shown and it made it hard for me to believe. I do love how much they grew by going to therapy and working on themselves, the change in how they talked to each other and talked about their past and their present and how they feel and felt. That was definitely a positive!

I absolutely rooted for Yasmen from beginning to end but Josiah also wasn't a favorite for me. There were a few things about his POV that bugged me a bit, and although he did go through what was probably the best character development in this book, he just wasn't a favorite for me.

Overall, this was a bit of a disappointing read by one of my favorite authors. I would still recommend it because Kennedy Ryan is just that good at writing the emotional aspects of her books, but i don't think it would be my first recommendation for anyone who has not read the author's books before.

A beautiful second chance love story! I really appreciated that this book was so well-rounded; it had the hot and sexy aspects of a traditional romance novel, but it also had a lot of substance and real world elements that made this feel like a uniquely believable story - something romance can never seem to do - ha! Kennedy Ryan is a genius, and dealt with sensitive subjects in a delicate manner. I'll definitely be recommending this one to everyone I know!

‘Before I Let Go’ is a contemporary romance following a divorced couple in Atlanta, who own a restaurant and are raising two kids together. The story unpacks the reasons for their divorce and if they can overcome their trauma and come back to each other.

2.5⭐️

I did appreciate the inclusion of depression, the value of therapy, and grief — especially in connection to motherhood.

I could not connect to either character or really care for their marriage. Chapter 1 they get engaged and in Chapter 2 they are divorced. We saw nothing of them actually in a healthy marriage but we are supposed to root for them but I could never get there.

Now, I would be remised if I didn’t talk about how this is supposed to be a Black love story. To keep it short, it honestly didn’t feel like it. If you changed the names and the setting to a different city, it could be for any random couple which I think is my real problem.

I really wanted a romance story I could feel invested in and connected to, but this was not it for me. I am sorry.

My heart!!!! 😭 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐒𝐓!!!! 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐅. Ugh. 𝘐𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘴!!! When Kennedy Ryan announced this book, I already knew it was going to hurt, but man I was not ready for it. 𝐓𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭. Truly a 𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦. ⁣
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Josiah and Yasmen loved each other so much, but they went through some situation that changed their marriage. 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡. 😭 Now they are co-parenting after their divorced, and working together for their restaurant. It's been a few years, and Yasmen finally started to feel like herself again. But Josiah felt that it's time to move on. 𝗪𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞? 😭 ⁣
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And can I just say the scene when their daughter told her why she's so mad....😭😭 𝐈 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝!!! I loved it so much though. I 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯!!! And one scene in particular, I won't mention it, but man. I feel for Yasmen. ⁣
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This is is 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲. It's about healing, loving oneself, mental health, suicidal, depression, and family love. ⁣
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I 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐋𝐘, 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐋𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒. Read it if you haven't. But do check trigger warning.

I need to read more Kennedy Ryan ASAP. I do not know how to add to the stunning things that have already been said about this book with any level of nuance. I will just say that this was so unique and so well done. I am currently running to look for my next read from Ryan.

BEFORE I LET GO, written in first person dual POV left me feeling obsessed and undone over a divorced couple slow burning their asses back into a marriage.
Ryan introduces Josiah and Yasmen Wade a divorced couple who are also business partners of a soul fusion restaurant, GRITS located in Atlanta, GA. "Girls Raised In The South." (If you know - you know)

The story moves you from pain to humor. One minute I'm crying, mad, and frustrated. I found myself thinking of my dear IRL Aunt. I have a need to just hold her in my arms and give her comfort. But moments later my toes point down, my girly parts twinkle like fairy lights over the words "THIS IS MINE" Whoa, hold on a minute...

Their children, daughter Deja, son, Kassim, and proud pet parents to Otis. We have a "Sheldon Cooper" son and a "Beyonce" content creator daughter of hairstyles, trends, and tutorials on social media. Together they create a beautiful and hilarious family dynamic. One of my favorite moments was Thanksgiving dinner.

“We always go around the table and say what we’re grateful for,” Deja tells everyone.

“Glad you remembered, Day,” Yasmen says, linking her hands under her chin. “You want to start?”

“Oh, sure,” Deja says. “I’m grateful for all my new followers. You can find me at Kurly Girly on the Gram and TikTok.”

Ryan includes a cast of fabulous secondary characters best friends Hendrix and Soledad. Everyone needs a Hendrix in their life:

“Wasn’t prepared to see your ex quite so moved on?” Hendrix discreetly glances over my shoulder. “Well, get more prepared. They’re almost here, and she does not get to see how much it bothers you. Right now, ma’am, I need you to find your happy place, go there, and bring a bad bitch back.”

It's giving a voice.
It's giving culture
It's giving confidence
It's giving beauty
It's giving a sneak peek into my POC life.
It's Giving…

Before I Let Go reads as a screenplay bought to life or a tv series. The pages paint a picture of a beautiful household with such great details of sadness and joy alongside a restaurant in the stages of rebirth. You will laugh and cry and turn the last page with joy.

Basically, ALL THE FEELS

Yasmine & Josiah. Divorced. Second Chance.

This story is full.This story is complete.
These two meet in college fall in love and start a life together, marriage, a business, children & family. Then life happens and they get divorced. They still work together and they raise their children together. Its been almost two years of their new normal that they haven’t quite adapted to yet but they’re trying, which is why Josiah is dating. Which is fine cause they’re divorced , but WHY is she in my living room?

This is a divorced couple that are doing divorce in a way we’ve never seen before. There’s no fighting, bitterness, or hostility. Yasmin and Josiah are friends. They love each other. Now you’re probably wondering why they are divorced, you’ll have to read the story to find out why. However, I will tell you that the journey that led them to get divorced was what I consider an act of self care.

While I was reading the e-ARC I was full of emotions, namely anxiety, then there was the anticipation, the confusion, then more angst, and finally relief.
There is friendship, family, grief, love and Otis. I fully enjoyed the ride this book gave me. The writing is great. The story and the characters are people you know and love. I wanted nothing but happiness for everyone in this book they deserved it no matter how difficult it was to reach ,but when they arrived it was chef’s kiss. Now there were a few moments that I gave a side eye to, but that just means that it’s a well written story with some complexity to it. I appreciate how the subject of therapy and mental wellness was an important part of the story but not the focus, it was written with care and thoughtfulness.

I recommend this book especially if you are like me and are not usually a fan of second chance romance(‘cause what we need to circle the block for🤣) this will story happily surprise you.