Well this is my favorite romance of the year.

Every time I read a book by Kennedy Ryan I think there is no way she can out shine her last release, well, she did it again. I loved both characters Yasmen and Josiah and I loved that they were older, with older kids, in the thick of the collapse of their marriage while still trying to co-parent and be business partners - all of it just felt so raw and authentic it was hard not to be invested in every single part of this story. The underlying message about depression and therapy was so well written, some of the exact same things I have felt as a mother came out of Yasmen's head like she knew exactly what I needed to hear.

The CHEMISTRY was off the charts. The emotions made me feel something in the depth of my soul. You really have to read this book.

4.75

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review*
To put it simply this book was beautiful. I’ve heard of Ryan’s ability to create thoughtful, relatable, dynamic characters and now that I’ve read one of her works all I can say is everyone is right.
This book had me crying, smiling and laughing. I’ll be recommending it to everyone I know whether they’re a reader or not.

The only reason this isn’t a five star is because I had some personal issues with Josiah and it made the 3rd quarter of the book a little less than exciting for me. I do think those issues could’ve been resolved if he had more chapters or his existing ones were longer but otherwise I can’t think of a bad thing to say about this book

With every Kennedy Ryan novel I read, I feel at a complete loss to do them justice with a review. I don’t have adequate words to convey just how powerful and moving her writing is. Ryan’s latest, Before I Let Go, is no exception. She has woven a story of loss, healing, and second chances that is stunningly good.

To friends and family, Yasmen and Josiah were relationship goals - a shining example of a happy marriage – until they weren’t. Blow after unexpected blow shook their once rock-solid marriage to its foundation and created a chasm they seemed unable to bridge.

Post-divorce, Josiah and Yasmen found a new normal: running their successful restaurant together and co-parenting their two children. What didn’t change was their deep love and respect for one another. Josiah never wanted the divorce and was shaken to his core when he lost the one thing he believed in, the one steady presence in his life that he was sure would never abandon him. Yasmen felt Josiah’s absence like a physical ache. He was her first love, but drowning under the weight of grief and trauma, divorce seemed the only option.

While Yasmen found a therapist she connected with and began to claw her way out of the darkness, Josiah only began therapy to serve as an example for his young son. Stubborn and skeptical at the start, Josiah started to confront past trauma and acknowledge the ways it had impacted his life, and his relationship with Yasmen. Their lives were still irrevocably intertwined, between the children and the business, and their love for another was evidenced in every shared memory and inside joke. When a business trip forced them together, lines were crossed and all the old feelings that had been hidden under a layer of hurt and recrimination spark to life.

Before I Let Go was tender and poignant while packing a powerful emotional punch. There was laughter and tears and most importantly: hope. Yasmen and Josiah’s struggles felt all too realistic and the unexpected place they found themselves in was heart wrenching. The love was still there but buried under grief and pain.

Kennedy Ryan has been candid about her own struggles with depression and mental health, which came to a head while writing this novel. That intersection of real life and fiction likely went a long way in making this remarkable story that much more realistic. Ryan is a born storyteller and Before I Let Go is an achingly beautiful story of two people who stumbled and fell, only to travel a rocky road back in hope that it leads them home.

"It wasn’t your love I couldn’t find under all that rubble. It was me I had to find. I had to dig myself out."

Kennedy Ryan will forever be an auto-buy author for me. She has the uncanny ability to write the most beautiful and heartbreaking stories that make readers feel all the things. Before I Let Go has been high on my anticipated reads list since the book was announced. This book did not disappoint.

Before I Let Go follows a divorced couple finding their way back to each other. The book explores the hardships of marriage and parenting coupled with deep grief and depression. It is full of raw emotion packed with real vulnerability. There were many parts of this book that were tough to read and digest, because they hit so close to home. While I spent a lot of the book crying cathartic tears, I also felt seen. Ryan's words encapsulated so many of my feelings and struggles over the past two years and put them into the words I could never fully articulate myself. The amount of passages I highlighted are ridiculous, which speaks to the power of these characters and their experiences.

I adored Yasmen and Josiah and were rooting for them to make it from page one. Both are in obvious pain trying to navigate life apart while also co-parenting and owning a business together. They have palpable sexual tension, but fight it at every turn. I appreciated how both characters needed to heal and go through their own grief journeys in order to make the relationship work. In the end, there was no blame placed for their struggles. The pair had to change and grow apart from each other before they could belong together. The positive depiction of therapy and proper medication for depression was refreshing. I know first hand the power of these two things, which literally saved my life the past two years.

Yasmen and Josiah’s love story was absolutely beautiful and I am so thankful I got the opportunity to read this. I requested this on NetGalley on Sunday and was approved on Monday and RAN to get started on it before it was published — I am a day late posting this but this book deserves every bit of hype I’ve seen for it and SO MUCH MORE.

Yasmen and Josiah are divorced after losing Aunt Byrd (Josiah’s mother figure) and Henry, their child who was stillborn after Yasmen had an accident in the restaurant they own. It’s been two years since they got divorced and are amicable for the most part, and coparent their two children, Deja and Kassim. Despite being divorced, we see how both of them have deep rooted feelings for each other still, but neither want to admit it to themselves or anyone around them. They both move in and date other people, but eventually the attraction between them comes to a head and they give in to their desire for each other.

Their story is definitely one of pining and is such a slow burn but there’s sizzles and sparks flying all over the place as they fight to hold back their feelings. I can confirm the author writes some hot af smutty scenes!

Besides being sexy, at the heart of this story is love and grief. Besides their love for each other, the love Yas and Si have for their kids is so heart warming - even when at times their oldest, Deja, lets her resentment for her mom get the best of her to the point where she says hurtful things to Yas. It was hard to read Deja saying hurtful things to Yas but I found it super realistic because she’s a young kid who’s going through the trauma with her parents of losing their family members but also going through the trauma of her parents splitting up too. I felt for her! I did love though, when Josiah made it clear her disrespecting Yas was not okay, that was 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 so lovely to see how much respect and love he still had for his ex wife even if they did have their problems. And Kassim — boy genius who was such a little sweetheart making sure not to hurt his moms feelings and dealing with his own trauma and fears was super sweet to read.

I loved that therapy and owning your trauma and facing your fears was such a key part of this book! Yas goes to therapy prior to the events in the book and throughout and even as a mostly “healed” version of herself she still goes through some raw emotions that made me choked up. I also loved that Si started out not really thinking therapy would help and then he started going for Kassim and it turned out to help him and open up more to both his therapist and Yas.

The mentions of depression where definitely some of the more emotional parts for me and I applaud the author for researching not only what mothers have dealt with when they have had a stillbirth as well as consulting with therapists because she really included some poignant insights on depression that hit home for me and choked me up a bit. “Depression is an altered state of mind. Not just feeling sad, but the chemistry of your brain, your hormones. Your body is a participant, held hostage to depression just as much as your mind.” This quote and a couple of others that followed in this scene really opened my eyes a bit to how I view my own depression, and seeing Yas talk out her feelings with her doctor was so important to me and I imagine so many others who read this and experience the same feelings and thoughts.

I truly am so glad I was given the opportunity to read this book. I’m not usually someone who enjoys second chance romances but this one feels like an exception because it felt like the stakes were so much higher, and the author did an absolutely stellar job of not only making this a story about redeeming love but also a story about grief and forgiving oneself as well as the person who may have hurt you most and trusting them with that love. I recommend this to everyone, but if you’re a fan of second chance romance, mutual pining, slow burn, the one bed trope, and fantastic mental health rep, you’ll love this!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever/Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Is there anything that Kennedy Ryan writes that isn't a masterpiece? The answer is no and the latest evidence is Before I Let Go. This book touched me in a way that I wasn't expecting. Not because I've gone through what Yasmen and Josiah have but because marriage is hard. Life is hard. And even on the hard days, the love is still there.

Yasmen and Josiah's second chance romance was poignant, passionate and powerful. Filled with nuance and soul (and I'm not just talking about the food). The healing journey they took separately and together was raw and gritty and real. It made my chest ache and my heart soar. And when all was said and done, I wanted more of this incredible family and their epic love.

This was my first Kennedy Ryan book and it was perfect. I loved everything about it. It was filled with raw emotion and honesty. The dual pov was a critical part of the storytelling, and this was beautifully told.

Thank you so much Booksparks and Forever for my gifted copy in exchange for a honest review.

4.5 stars ☆ Now this book is how you would write a second-chance romance. It’s been a bit hard to find a good second-chance romance book and I’m so glad that this one lived with my expectations. It made me sob so many times cause I’m so connected with the characters so much.

josiahyasmen, my loves <3

Kennedy Ryan’s writing is just amazing and this is just the second book I’ve read by her which means I need to read more of her works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for the ARC !!

THEMES 🎭: second chance romance, divorced partners, co-parenting, business owners, HBCU grads, mental health, self discovery

CW ⚠️: suicide ideation (not described in detail), depression, stillbirth, grief and loss (off page)

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan is a stunning second chance romance about Yasmen and Josiah. Living in the aftermath of divorcing her college sweetheart and dealing with the losses of two loved ones, Yasmen is simply trying to stay afloat mentally. Although she and Josiah have found a good rhythm co-parenting their two children and running their restaurant together, there is still a lot of dust settling in the air. Tensions from unresolved issues continuously arise, however, there is no greater tension than the electricity in the air between Yasmen and Josiah. Will they be willing to give their marriage a second try? Or will they let bygones be bygones and go their separate ways?

LET ME TELL Y'ALL SOMETHING. When this book first popped up on my radar a couple months ago, I had a good feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was going to be an unforgettable read. AND BOY! BILG touches on topics such as mental health and therapy with such grace and ease. This book was written with those who have struggled with mental health issues, who have gone through tough periods in their lives, who have sacrificed their relationships with loved ones in order to maintain their relationships with themselves. I thought the way Kennedy Ryan wrote the therapy sessions, inner monologues, and conversations about mental health were soooo true to script. So well done. 🤩

I loved the world building! I can't wait to read more from the Skyland series. Kassim was also one of the purest angels to ever exist. I loved how hard Yasmen and Josiah were willing to work in order to come back together, whether it was expressed to either person or not. I LOVED the representation of Black men being in therapy. It's truly a taboo topic in the Black community, so to see Josiah make the effort to be better was very refreshing.

Including the recipes was GENIUS (because I was going to ask for them anyway lol).

The plot for this second chance romance is unlike anything I’ve ever read before! Lord, the tension between Yasmen and Josiah was making me want to slam my head against the wall because of how intimate every private moment felt, regardless of what the conversation was about 😭. At around the half way point, I was down for anything to happen at that point. It’s definitely a slow burn, but it’s soooo rewarding in every way. Also, THE SPICE?! Immediately yes. (CHAPTER 39!)

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (easily)

I absolutely loved this emotional, profound, and exquisitely beautiful second chance romance! Yasmen and Josiah's moving story was so compelling that I couldn't stop reading, needing more as I devoured every moment! When Yasmen and Josiah first met, they fell hard and fast for each other, and their chemistry burned bright and hot. They planned their life together and it was all going as designed, until it wasn't. They had heartrending life losses that shook their very foundation. They both delt with it in different ways and couldn't understand why they weren't in sync. Now they are divorced, working together, putting their children and business first. They never stopped loving each other, but could they be vulnerable enough to try for a second chance, or strong enough to trust that they won't break their heart for good? I was totally consumed by this breathtaking, emotional, and sizzling story. I loved both Yasmen and Josiah, they felt real and authentic and their relationship was so raw, poignant, and hard fought. They were so perfect for each other and their passion and chemistry only grows more explosive. I loved seeing the relationships they had with their kids, and with their friends who added so much heart to this story as well. This journey through love, laughter, loss, guilt, anger, hope, and healing will have you in tears of heartbreak and joy! I love Ryan's writing style and she did not hold anything back when she wrote this book. She tackled heartbreaking topics with honesty, and empathy, not taking any shortcuts, allowing us to feel every emotion that all of these characters felt. Ryan takes us on an exhilarating journey that will leave you raw and breathless and totally satisfied. I loved every word of this beautiful, poignant, and sizzling epic love story!

Kennedy Ryan does it again! This is an absolutly stunning book. Kennedy's writing is so flawless and this story was the second chance romance that everyone needs to add to their TBR!

Before I Go was a very realistic second chance romance story. Josiah and Jasmen are soulmates. They share a once in a lifetime love that we can only dream about. They are working hard to raise their two children and grow their business, the restaurant Grits.

Their dreams are shattered when Josiah's aunt Byrd dies followed shortly by Jasmen's devastating loss of their stillborn baby Henry. Jasmen descends into a deep depression that leaves her reeling. The once loving couple divorces.

This was such a great story tackling issues such as pregnancy loss, mental health and healing. The storytelling was slow and methodical as it showed both character's point of view. All of the characters were well drawn, and you were able to connect well with them all and become invested in their outcomes.

4.5 stars- Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Glorious, heart wrenching and full of emotions. I was absolutely immersed and gripped, and I'm devastated to have finished it'

Kennedy Ryan is such a talented storyteller and Before I Let Go sees her at the top of her game.

Wow. I have been left with a bursting heart . . . a story of love, family, unbreakable bonds, bravery, pain and hope. I will never forget the characters, what they endured and how they loved. I feel that I will be forever touched by Josiah and Yasmen. I loved this book so much!

Kennedy Ryan has delivered a masterclass in all the different ways love can both save us and destroy us- She makes your heart break and soar in equal measure. Trust me when I say that if you want to learn something about love, marriage, family - how it can hurt, how it can soar - read this book.
It is a book that cries out to be read and that sadly still carries truth.

Recommend recommend recommend. Absolutely amazing.

Quite possibly my favorite romance of the year! This story follows divorced couple Yasmen and Josiah whose marriage fell apart after the still birth of their son two years ago. The mental health and therapy rep in this book is some of the best I've ever read! Yasmen went into deep depression and struggled to cope after the loss, ultimately asking for a divorce which broke Josiah's heart.

Now these two are juggling co-parenting as well as owning and running a restaurant together. A story of second chances, healing and such incredible vulnerability and raw emotion. I truly loved how real these characters felt as individuals, as parents, and later as lovers trying to work out what the next stage of their relationship would look like.

Great on audio narrated by Wesleigh Siobhan and Jakobi Diem. I can't recommend this one enough - the hype truly is real for this incredible book. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. The cover is absolutely STUNNING too!! Recommended for fans of Seven days in June by Tia Williams or Come away with me by Karma Brown.

Thanks to NetGalley for this eARc. This was a good read. What a story. My first Kennedy Ryan but I will look for others. The couple that I was rooting for!

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬💭:
I’ve never read a book by Kennedy Ryan before, but I’ve heard a lot of great things about her. Thank you so much to Forever Publishing for this gifted copy. The cover is absolutely stunning and i was thrilled to receive my finished copy!

𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐛📝:
Yasmen and Josiah’s marriage was supposed to last forever, until tragedy breaks them apart. As co-parents, they still fulfill their role to their children. But they continue to have an undeniable chemistry they cannot seem to escape and they question if it’s too late for them or if they are meant to rekindle their love.

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.💫/5. I really found this story to be so realistic and raw. I couldn’t help but root for Yasmen and Josiah and was so invested in their story. Having dual POVs made it so engrossing that you could just feel for the both of them. I really liked how the author highlighted how each and every one of us processes grief differently and the representation of mental health is fantastic. I truly could not see and predict where their love story was headed, but I was really satisfied in the end. This was definitely an emotional read and there are a couple of TWs in this one. Highly recommend it if you’re looking for an emotional contemporary second chance romance.

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚: 𝘌𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴, 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘰𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘐𝘴 𝘜𝘴, 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮

Dear Kennedy Ryan,

If you’re not Kennedy Ryan, feel free to check out these words, but this is an open letter via the review route for her. Kennedy, you are a GD wordsmith, a poet, a goddess of the written word. Living in Before I Let Go has been nothing short of a painful reflection. I’ve had your book for some time, and I’ve waited on reading it because I knew it would require an internal fortitude that I haven’t had with books that reflect the real nature of love and marriage. At its core, Before I Let Go is an examination of the difficulties of marriage in the face of external traumas. To face that can be anxiety-inducing and difficult, but frankly, it’s necessary. This fiction you write under the reductive title of romance asks us to face our situations as a means to make better choices; you’re an exacting taskmaster, requiring your readers to experience their lives through the specter of your work. It’s why you’re a brilliant author, why your books are finding themselves on best-of lists. Yes, people want a release from the doldrums of life through fiction, but more importantly, they want to be seen too. And you do this brilliantly with Before I Let Go.

These are the simple, yet complex truths of your book as I see it (for whatever that’s worth).

Mental health has, until recently, been a lower-order priority in our world. People have lived with pain, stuffing down woe out of the shame of appearing weak. Men, especially, as your book suggests. Even more, men of color have borne this struggle more heartily. Before I Let Go illustrates this beautifully through Yas, Josiah, and Kassim. Josiah and Yas process their trauma in very different ways showing the spectrum of grief and depression. In a way, Josiah represents the old guard at first, a former generation that called on both men and women to eat their pain and move forward, planting deep wounds in their psyches. Each forward action was meant to undergird the character of the person. Instead, over the years, it cripples in the face of future trials. New woes push into old bruises, walls become fortresses, and vulnerability is erased, creating difficulties for relationships. We see this represented initially in Josiah.

Yas becomes the in-between. She illustrates the learning of mental health, the investigative process. She’s the sojourner of this journey, testing and failing and trying again. Through this practice, she finds progress and becomes the purveyor of understanding in handling Kassim’s experience.

And Kassim represents the now, the space where generations such as Gen Z feel more comfortable leaning into their mental health difficulties. He represents the promise of future generations asking for help and receiving it. He represents the promise of men, especially men of color, living more vulnerable lives, stating that they aren’t okay, and being comfortable with an imperfect masculinity, one that doesn’t need to fix and protect and explain trauma away.

If you leave your book, Before I Let Go, and miss all of this, if you get lost in the romance portion of this book (which is okay because, darn it, you craft love stories that transcend time and space), then we’re missing the impact that your book has the power to make on changing attitudes about mental health struggles. It’s essential that our world changes its perspectives and takes action. And this book is a manifesto of that truth.

What I love most about you is how you connect the community. In book after book, women as a community is a common theme. They edify, exhort, and entertain, which is true of Before I Let Go. Yas, Hendrix, and Soledad together are strong. They are newer friends, but emotional and mental support nonetheless. They become as essential as your main characters because they speak wisdom into their situations. One of my favorite parts comes in the latter part of the book when it’s revealed that Yas has been sleeping with Josiah. When Yas divulges her secrets, it gifts Hen and Sol the space to do so as well. It’s then that they are empowered to feel feelings and make plans for action. You remind us that the female community is necessary for uplifting women.

Even more distinct is you as a BIPOC author. Your books share the experiences of your race and culture. Since you are a masterful storyteller, you invite all readers into this space, educating and illuminating. Your voice is my favorite portion of your stories because it grants me entry on your terms. However, you connect us to a shared experience: infant loss, marriage difficulties, divorce, depression and anxiety, parenthood, etc. You graft your identity as a person of color with others’ identities seamlessly, reminding us that, while our skin might have different shades, we can see our experiences reflected in the experiences of diverse others.

As I was reading Before I Let Go, I felt the pain of Josiah and Yasmen’s broken relationship because I live in a broken relationship. Do we have different experiences, come from different cultures and racial backgrounds? Yes. Yet, am I able to understand the pain of not being understood, of different grief processes? Absolutely! You write viscerally emotive, artfully decadent romance. You feel it in your bones, your heart, your mind, and your spirit. Call me dramatic, but I leave your books altered, enlightened, and challenged. Every. Single.Time.

I hope readers don’t miss on reading Before I Let Go because it’s a difficult subject, because it will put them through their paces, or because it will make readers uncomfortable. The beauty of your books is its promise: romances end in happy endings. After the journey of a thousand tears, the payoff for this newest book is a pot of gold filled with hope.

Kennedy Ryan knows her way around words and people’s hearts.
This is so beautiful and emotional and raw heartbreaking and heartwarming book. I had to stop and cry and take a moment for myself when I read some of the chapters. It’s just too much bug so real at the same time.
Read it and you won’t regret it

It’s been a few days since I’ve read this book but today it’s release day and I couldn’t let pass the opportunity to talk about this book.
OMGGGG it was amazing, this is my 5th Kennedy Ryan book and i can say that her books never disappoint. The topics she tackles are beautifully done and with a subtlety that is easy to process even the hard themes. This book in particularly deals with divorce, grief, depression and it does it really carefully and grounded. The events the main couple goes through is heartbreaking and it ponders the question whether love is all it takes to maintain a marriage. I still don’t know the answer but what i do know it’s that Yasmine and Josiah love each other like no other and the way this author writes their struggles and feelings is truly captivating. I couldn’t put it down once i started, the angst and tension was so well written and the built up had me screaming!!! Also the spicy 🌶 scenes DID NOT DISAPPOINT! This woman knows how to write her steamy scenes!
Overall one of the best second chance romance I’ve read (and I’ve read quite a few) and everyone should pick it up!!!

Yasmen & Josiah Wade vowed that their love will last ‘till the wheels fall off’ but tragedies put a strain in their marriage & love wasn't enough to save it.
Yasmen & Josiah are learning how to co-parent, how to run a thriving business together, how to find their OWN rhythm without the other.
But like magnets, they get drawn back to each other. One stolen kiss leads to kisses, it becomes hot, it becomes amazingly them, until wounds reopen.

This was my FIRST Kennedy Ryan book & it made me go through the MOTIONS!
This story made me HURT, made me ANGRY, made me BAWL.
As a mom, as a wife, that's still going through depression & anxiety.... the way these DARK emotions were expressed.. it was if Kennedy Ryan could see into my SOUL. This story was more than I ever thought it would be.. Thank you for making me feel seen & less alone in the real world while getting lost in the fictional world you made for us with this book. Thank you 🖤