Five Huge Stars for one of the best and most emotional books I've read in a while! Ms. Ryan always reaches in and grabs my emotions with both hands and tugs. She writes flawlessly and with such innate sensitivity that it's hard to imagine she can be in touch with so many topics. But yet she is.

Yasmen and Josiah are the perfect couple. They tackle life with enthusiasm and joy until tragedy strikes and they can't navigate it. Yasmen is suffering such intense depression that she can barely get out of bed to care for the children, leaving Josiah to manage their restaurant and deal with all the other business issues. They can't find common ground in dealing with their losses and instead of pulling closer together, it tears them apart and they end up divorcing. But even though their marriage has ended, their love is still very much alive even if they don't trust it.

Ms. Kennedy deals honestly and brutally with grief, depression and loss. She shows a no holds bar view of life as a mother struggling to perform the basic daily functions. The emotions depicted in this book are so powerful and raw and they feel tangible and real. Kudos to Kennedy Ryan for not shying away from tough topics. I truly appreciate the way she tackled this subject matter and showed the evolution of a family in agony to one of healing. It was painful and yet beautiful. It was a masterpiece.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Such a beautiful book!

Yasmen and Josiah were married, built a business, they are devoted parents. But life dealt them some difficult cards that they didn’t process well and they divorced. Individually and for different reasons, they both started therapy and learned healthier ways of handling things.

I loved the mental health representation.
I loved that this book showed the hard work of marriage.
I loved that this book acknowledges that “the pain and the grief and the sorrows forged us together as much as the joys”.
I love the way these people parent.
I love the way these people love each other.

This book felt real and believable and honest and raw and true. I really just can’t say enough, but if you like steam and you want a unique take on a romance novel with great mental health representation—read this!

I love romance novels about new relationships but there really is something to special about characters who have been through sh*t together and find ways to fall deeper in love.

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan is a truly remarkable book. I was hooked from the first chapter and could not wait to watch Yasmen & Josiah’s story unfold. The layers and depth of their characters made them and their story feel so real. Kennedy Ryan does it again!

Holy wow. Talk about emotionally wrecked in the best way. Yasmen and Josiah have such a growth journey and it made me completely invested in everything they went through and them getting their HEA. The healing and forgiveness help these two find each other again in this second chance romance. Do keep in mind, this is heavy on realistic mental health struggles and healing, which is beautiful, but may be triggering for some readers. This one will crush you, but you'll love every moment!

A HUGE Thank you to Kennedy Ryan and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing me with this e-ARC via NetGalley!

Honestly, before you even read this review, just go order this damn book.

In the simplest of terms, 𝙱𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝙸 𝙻𝚎𝚝 𝙶𝚘 is a devastatingly beautiful novel about a divorced couple navigating life while co parenting their two children, running a thriving business together and healing from past traumas… in addition to trying to piece together the complicated remnants of their past relationship. I know that doesn’t sound simple at all but this story is soooo much more than that and I wouldn’t be doing this masterpiece justice by leaving you with such a bare-bones description.

If you think this is just a book about love you are in for a rude awakening! Yasmen and Josiah Wade are the vessels through which we explore facets of GROWTH. Growth after loss, grief, and trauma. Growth after heartbreak and divorce. Growth through therapy and mindfulness. Growth through Black joy, community and family.

𝙱𝙸𝙻𝙶 is the perfect blend of “hope and healing” with a healthy dash of passionate love. The romance is *chef’s kiss* You could literally feel Yasmen and Josiah’s chemistry radiating off each page. Their love is so raw & vulnerable, how could you not root for them??!

I should’ve reviewed this days ago but I really needed time to reflect. I felt so moved and challenged by what I read and I’m only 24 with 0 kids and a mound of unsuccessful relationships under my belt 😭 Even so, I feel renewed by the lessons Yasmen, Josiah, and the rest of their clan taught me. MISS RYAN MAAM YOU DID THAT!

I CANNOT believe this is my first Kennedy Ryan read! I’ve clearly been missing out!

Possible triggers: divorce, loss of parents/loved ones, stillbirth, PTSD, depression, suicidal ideation

Rating: 5/5

*All opinions in this review are 100% my own.*

Pub day: TOMORROW! November 15, 2022. I know y’all got those card numbers memorized so why you even thinking about it?! Just order it!

Genre: Romance
Tropes: Second chance, divorce, angsty

WOW! I am not sure I have the words to say how mucch I loved this book. I am a divorced mom of two and I was nervous going into this emotionally beautiful second chance love story. Kennedy Ryan’s writing made me feel all the angst, pain and love Si and Yas felt. The writing is absolutely perfect! Kennedy Ryan makes you feel like you are standing with these characters going through their pain with them.

Si and Yas are divorced with two kids and a business they run together. As you read this book you find out the events that lead up to their divorce and the feelings and love they have for each other. I found myself thinking about this book when I was not reading it.

I loved the love that Si and Yas have between them no matter what life brings them. I loved the friends that surrounded this family and the love they gave each other. This is one of my top reads of the year and I highly recommend it! It is an amazing, emotional ride that I am happy I went on.

This book played with my emotions and I am here for it!
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There is so much to love about this book. The own voices representation. A second chance romance with a mature couple. A look at how relationships can break down over time even if the love doesn’t diminish completely. The challenges of raising kids as a divorced couple, and trying to keep it friendly. Then the challenges of trying to figure out what to do when a spark reignites. And bravery to start again….with all your imperfections.
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I’ve never read Kennedy Ryan before and their writing blew me away. It is full of angst with pockets of utter Black joy and I loved those moments.
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As someone who has been married for almost 25 years, many aspects felt real, relatable, and written for me.
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Out Tuesday, and I highly recommend but know there are some triggers - divorce, stillbirth, depression, and suicide is mentioned. I want to thank @readforeverpub for the e-ARC, I can’t stop thinking about this story.

If I could only use one word to describe this book it would be...life-changing. Truly, I don't see how a person could read this incredible book that Kennedy has blessed us with and not feel changed by it. This is a love story between two successful Black business owners, Yasmen and Josiah, and while I loved their love and felt that they were soulmates, the real love story was between Yasmen and herself.

She and Josiah suffered so much loss and Yasmen lost herself along the way. She fell into a depression so consuming that she couldn't find her way out and the only way she had a fighting chance in doing so was to let go of the man she loved most.
"Losing our marriage hurt in a way I can't even describe to you, but losing the other battle? For myself? That would have been fatal."

I was in awe of Yasmen's journey. To have the frame of mind to know you need to give up on something/someone you love in order to save yourself while still pushing forward and being the best mom you can be is a battle that not every woman wins.

This story is real and raw and it hurts but it also heals. It's not all darkness, there are definitely stars in the sky. Hendrix and Soledad are amazing characters and genuine friends who stand by Yasmen's side. I felt like I was in my own therapy sessions when Dr. Abrams and Dr. Musa would pop up and it was soothing.

This story is nothing short of magical.

Perfection. Utter perfection. Kennedy Ryan can take two broken people and make them whole again in a beautiful character redemption arc. I laughed, I cried, and I believed so hard in Josiah and Yasmen. This book has everything: a divorced couple trying to navigate through coparenting and also being coworkers, dating after divorce, the teenage years, depression, death of family members, loss of a child, an amazing friend group, having feelings for your ex, and jealousy post divorce. From the very beginning I knew this book was going to break me, but in the best of ways. It is impossible not to feel for the loss Josiah and Yasmen have been through. Both MCs are likable and I just found myself rooting for them, even when it seemed to be impossible. A true second chance romance, you can’t help but know this pair is meant to be together and are true soulmates in every sense of the word. Yet even soulmates have struggles and I appreciated the large role that therapy played for many of the characters. Therapy is normalized (especially for Josiah) and helps each person it touches work through their struggles, feelings, and frustrations with the divorce that has broken the family apart. Sometimes a romance can get carried away in the fantasy aspect, but the conversations and moments between Yasmen and Josiah felt so real and so authentic to the story that I never doubted I would still arrive at a “Happy Ever After”, even through some of the dark places. The “one bed” trope ise a nice nod to traditional romance, and the bedroom scenes are top notch. The past experiences and memories between Si and Yasmen make the spice top notch. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who believes that self reflection and hard work can mend a broken heart, and that love can be a powerful thing when two people are working towards it. This was possibly the best book I have read all year and am thankful to Forever and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

5⭐
R because Kennedy knows how to bring the heat!

Was there a perfect 100 read of 2022 than this? No, I think not. This book was absolute perfection. Kennedy Ryan is a national treasure and must be protected at all costs.

This book just had everything. Yasmen and Josiah felt so real and their emotions were so raw throughout this book as they explored what it meant to raise kids and run a business together after a divorce when they're still attracted to each other. And what was so beautiful was to see how these two worked on themselves and owned their issues in therapy, with their kids and to each other rather than just assuming they could fix each other.

Every word of this book felt so true and heartfelt. It was a reflection on life, love, loss in this way that was beautiful but also messy and just felt so true to life. I love these characters. I am obsessed with them. I want them to be happy and THANK GOODNESS this is series so we have hope to see more of their happiness in the future. Absolutely one of the best romances of the year and it is just as good as everyone has been saying. Every romance reader needs to read it!!!

What happens when a divorced couple have an unexpected second-chance romance? When life dealt so many blows to a couple's life, their marriage may not be strong enough to survive them. This is what happened to this book's couple. The couple are amicably co-parenting their two kids and spending lots of time together due to their thriving business. Yet their attraction to each other remains strong and as they renew their romance, all the troubles that had led to their divorce appears again. Will their romance survive, or will it perish in this second chance of love?

This is the first book in the Skyland series by Kennedy Ryan. It features a mature couple who got a second chance at love. This book dealt a lot with mental health and how seeking help is so important for one's wellness. I enjoyed how open the story is about mental health, and how the road to being better requires time, effort, and support. I enjoyed the heroine's growth, but it would have been better if the hero's growth has more details added to it for me to feel like his change is as exemplary as the heroine's own. There were also a few secondary characters that needed some more growth in my eyes, but I hope that future books in the series would show those changes. Overall, it's an interesting read and I look forward to reading more of the Skyland series in the future.

**Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own.**

OMG I loved this book so much. The characters and the plot was so realistic and relatable I was hooked and couldn't put this book down. Josiah and Yasmen were such an amazing couple both with their own layers and depth and I loved that the author gave us such a poignant story about marriage, love and second chances. The story was raw, angsty, emotional, and heart breaking and will give you all the feels while taking you on an intense rollercoaster ride. Kennedy Ryan has never written a book I did love and this was no exception. As with all her books, I keep saying it was my favorite and then she gives us another masterpiece to surpass her previous one and that is was this was....a masterpiece.
This phenomenal page turner was an engrossing, gripping tale and a definite must read. I would highly recommend it to lovers of second chance romance.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever for the ARC

Kennedy Ryan knows how to write raw, real, aching romance. This is a second chance romance featuring a divorced couple that have been through devastating losses (CW includes stillbirth at 36 weeks). It’s not an easy read, but the deep love and attraction between Yasmen and Josiah made the pain worth it.

My heart broke for them and what they went through, and it was satisfying to read the story of them coming together again. They each come to some significant realizations during the book, and their individual growth was really well done. I also really loved their two kids, and how the parent-child relationships were written.

This is a book that reinforces the truth that people grieve in different ways, and that underscores the importance and major impact that therapy can have in a person’s life.

All the stars in the sky couldn’t compare to the remarkable beauty of this story. From the flashbacks to the "Grief is a grind. It is the work of breathing and waking and rising and moving through a world that feels emptier."

All the stars in the sky couldn’t compare to the remarkable beauty of this story. From the flashbacks to the present, I was deeply entranced by Josiah and Yasmen. They worked hard and loved hard until it became earth shatteringly impossible. Kennedy Ryan’s portrayal of depression and the trenches in which one can get stuck in was raw and real. The losses coupled with their heartbreaking divorce affected all of them in different ways. Not only does this story show the emotions of Josiah and Yasmen, but also their children Deja and Kassim and how everything affected all four of them. I felt the devastation, but I also felt the love.

My favorite quotes:

"But I want to stand with you when it rains, when the wind comes. When it’s hard and the odds are stacked against us."

"I’ve learned that life isn’t about taking what you deserve, it’s about getting all you can while you can because it’s short."

I received an advance copy of this book at my request and voluntarily left this review.

“After how we’d loved each other, the way we hurt each other was destroying us.”

In true Kennedy Ryan fashion, Before I Let Go is an immersive, beautifully crafted story about characters written so well—so real—that they leap off of the page and settle into your soul.

Yasmen and Josiah Wade thought that their love was the kind that would last forever, but extreme loss and trauma caused a rift too wide to bridge. Two years after their divorce, they’ve found a new normal, co-parenting and running a business together. But, despite the separation, they always seem to pull each other back in. Is there enough of a connection to give their love a second chance, or is it time for them both to finally let go?

Firstly, I will say that this book grabbed me by the throat and did not ease the pressure until I read the epilogue. Yasmen and Josiah go through the ringer, and you’re there every step of the way. There were moments when my heart felt like it was breaking, and moments where I laughed out loud. Ryan builds a community of characters that all add depth and breadth to the story, and oft times, some much-needed levity.

Ryan is masterful at her craft; her prose has a unique lyrical quality to it that will have you constantly highlighting passages as you read. I’m typically not this effusive in my reviews, but this book was EVERYTHING. Probably my top read of the year, by a long shot. Add in that gorgeous cover, and I am all the way sold.

Fans of well-crafted angst, fantastic writing, and a unique spin second-chance romance will absolutely devour this book. I cannot wait to see if Ryan expands this universe even more.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This author had me anxiously anticipating this story with the title alone. It hinted of a story I knew would take me on an emotional ride I wouldn’t forget.
In general, this read surpassed all my expectations!
Yasmen and Josiah is an emotional story that elegantly portrays the complicated dynamics couples face when they realize that love is not enough.
Flawlessly written, it was well paced and the characters were so well developed it added to the emotional component of the story.
Smart, insightful and thought provoking, this author dared to create a story where the couple is faced with serious and delicate issues forcing them to make some tough decisions. Brutally raw and realistic, Jasmen and Josiah struggle with the push and pull of what they thought they could have to what they do have.
Are second chances always possible?
Read this story and decide for yourself!

Wow - this book tore my heart apart and put it back together no less than 10 times. I cried, I laughed, I hoped and ached with this family. Kennedy Ryan is a master writer and this story was devastatingly beautiful.
Thank you to Forever-Grand Central Published for the advanced copy of this via netgalley.

This is a beautifully written novel about loss, healing, grief, and second-chances. Anyone who’s been knocked down by hard times and had to fight their way back up again will feel a connection to these characters.

Yasmen and Josiah broke up after many years of marriage following an an incredible tragedy that struck their family. They each have their own journeys through therapy and healing in order to find their way back together again. I am amazed by Kennedy Ryan’s ability to write depression and grief in such a powerful way, and there were scenes in this book that were so heartbreaking, raw, and real that I found myself tearing up as I read them. This is an emotionally gripping novel full of hope, resiliency, love, and family. It is an easy 5-stars, and an auto-recommend, and one of the best books I read this year.

Thank you Netgalley and Forever for an arc of the newest gem from Kennedy Ryan.

Before I Let Got is an amazing second chance romance between now divorce couple Yasmen and Josiah. They divorced two years ago after some big loses, but share not only two children but a restaurant that they had dreams of expanding once upon a time. This book had some fabulous reputation of mental health especially desperation and therapy. It differently has some triggers that I will at the end of this review that people need to keep in mind, Kennedy Ryan delivered anther amazing, emotional, heart wrenching, entertaining, sizzling, romantic hopeful book that I could go on and on about how it made me feel. She also keeps giving us stories that are hard to talk about but need to be talked and written about.

Yasmen and Josiah romance you knew was going to be emotional journey from the start. I loved the realistic journey they took and worked thru. Even the journeys their children had to go thru felt realistic. Yasmen and Josiah sizzled together and you could fell even though both are trying to move on the love was still present but the hurt was also something that needed to be worked thru, The Wade family to me was half of heart of this book, The friendship between Yasmen, Soledad and Hendrix was the other half of the heart of this book. I read some great friendships in books but for me these three took the cake l they where entertaining, funny, emotional and I just wish we could have the other two women books already. I can’t say enough about the great job Kennedy Ryan did with the issues of depression, mental health, and how she tackled therapy in this book. She hit so many points when it comes to these issues. The topic of grief as well had something tackled very well in this.

Some other high points in this book for me was the character writing. I don’t think I ever appreciated Kennedy Ryan’s character writing until I read this book. Minus a couple of exceptions I wanted to hear almost ever characters story, I wanted to know more about Soledad, Hendrix, Mark, Vashti, etc stories. I even could read the children stories. I just loved the character writing in this. Loved the communication in this between characters. Yes Josiah and Yasmen do have some miscommunication but some of that is because issues they had to work thru, But other than that I felt communication was a high point in this. I loved the relationship parents had with children in this. It felt realistic. I could go on and on about this book and Kennedy Ryan as an author.

Giving Before I Let Go five big stars. Amazing book that all should pick up.

Content warning depression, grief, mental health, loss of parents/care givers/loved ones, loss of child/stillbirth, divorce, divorce from child perceived, parent dealing with Alzheimers (side characters), thoughts of suicide..

Every time I pick up a Kennedy Ryan book I always have this "oooh this will be fun" kind of feeling and then she snatches my soul from my body. This was amazing and honestly it's fulfilling a need of a second change already married that I haven't really read before. I support Yas wholeheartedly and although I'm usually really big fans of Kennedy's heros, Josiah was harder for me. I'm glad he got there though, and I really appreciated that he was down bad for Yas throughout.

I am also really happy that Kennedy is getting the mainstream recognition that she truly deserves. We love to see it and I hope that the world takes this book and runs with it,