5⭐️!!!

Wow, wow, WOW! This book is INCREDIBLE! I was so invested! Once I started, I didn’t want to stop!

I have a lot of emotions after reading this. It was unbelievably relatable for me and so many of Yasmen’s feelings/experiences are mine. I cried. It was hard not to when you feel like you’re reading a story so similar to yours.
So many quotes I highlighted are thoughts I’ve had and still do.

“You learn to live with it, ya know?”

“And there are some days when memories feel more real than those who remain, than the joys of this world.”

The chemistry between Yasmen and Josiah was insane! Even being divorced, you could still feel the love. This was a slow burn but when it hit, it was good! 🔥🙌🏻

What to expect:
• divorced couple
• second chance
• marriage reconciliation
• co-parenting
• business partners
• mental health/therapy rep

There are very heavy topics in this book. If you are someone with triggers, I recommend reading the content warning before proceeding.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Kennedy Ryan for such a beautiful story! 💜

This is grown folks literature.

What an emotional and beautiful journey Kennedy Ryan takes us on in Before I Let Go. This second chance romance is achingly sad, but beautifully hopeful. Ryan has a lyrical way of writing where even the hardest scenes are beautiful to read. The story of Yasmen and Josiah Wade finding their way back to each other after tragedy is a story of losing yourself, rediscovering yourself, and accepting who you are in all its ways. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the pretty.

I love that this story revolves around a successful black family, Yasmen and Josiah Wade, who have built their success from the ground up that doesn’t involve illegal means, which seems to be a favorite to depict on tv and film. Yasmen and Josiah came from nothing, put in the sweat, tears, and time to build the life and family they’ve dreamed of. Most importantly this life is built on a once in a lifetime love that had me envious while reading. But the nice neighborhood with the custom built home, thriving restaurant business, and once in a lifetime love doesn’t mean their lives are indestructible. Yasmen and Josiah deal with two great losses back to back that’s a wrecking ball to their foundation. That foundation crumbles under severe depression, avoidance, and hostility, which leads to a divorce. Those left to deal with the fallout are not only Yasmen and Josiah, but their children Deja and Kassim.

Before I Let Go is story about family, the one we are born into and friends who become family. It’s about the gift of therapy and how it can change and save lives. It’s about learning to love yourself again, and loving yourself in order to better and fully love others. It’s about the importance of communication and self accountability. It’s about being vulnerable while bravely going after your second chance at happiness.

It demolishes the old generational belief that black people just need to go to church, pray, and give it to God in order to come out of depression. Yes, do those things but also go see a therapist and get medication if you need to. It demolishes the idea that black men don’t hurt, don’t need therapy to get through difficult times. I love the growth we see in Josiah when it comes to therapy and getting in touch with his feelings. I love the path of healing and forgiveness we see with Yasmen. Once they heal as individuals they are able to find their way back to each other. I really enjoyed the dual point of view in the story so we fully understand not only their pain and mindsets (and how it slowly changes over the story), but how even during this difficult chapter of separation the attraction, longing, desire, and love still burns molten hot between them. Yasmen and Josiah are truly soulmates.

I really loved going on this journey with the Wades. The supporting characters were wonderful and made me long to live in Skyland and have a girl’s night with Hendrix and Soledad. I am so thankful to Forever Publishing and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read Before I Let Go. This book deserves to be developed into a TV mini series. Kennedy Ryan has crafted an exceptional story and I look forward to reading more of her works.

Y'all I loved this book. I saw someone in another review after I finished the book say this was a "Grown" romance and I couldn't agree more. This is not love at first sight but a couple who has been through some real life shit and like anyone else, is just trying to navigate life. Both Josiah and Yasmen are flawed (who isn't) but you spend the whole book hoping they can work things out. This book will easily be one of my favorite romances for the year. Its about grief, loss, healing, growth, love and above all hope.

This is such a beautiful story, rich in deep relationships between family and friends, full of hope and healing. Yasmen and Josiah have such a real and genuine love story. They went through so much loss, and it’s completely okay for even the strongest people to crumble sometimes and make mistakes. It’s so brave to admit that sometimes you need to seek help to be the best you can be and to never give up hope.
Throughout all of their struggles, I really admire how Yasmen and Josiah were always respectful of one another and always did the best they could for their kids. Before I Let Go is a powerful, inspiring read, with such important messages wrapped up in an incredible love story! I highly recommend everyone read this one when in releases next week on November 15th!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Forever Publishing for sharing an ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan is going to become a #1 read for most people this year. This author always blows me away with her writing. You go into this book knowing there will be emotions and she delivers on all the feels! This is such a beautiful, heartbreaking, and emotional second chance romance that will literally rip your heart out.. If you are looking for a phenomenal, book of the year read, this is it!

Just wow just wow…all I can say is just wow oh my gosh this is my first time reading Kennedy Ryan and I’m just shook. This was such a phenomenal body of work. It just had everything ie spice second chance romance, which is my ****, finding onself back in love in the mist of grief, like unfathomable, life-changing earth, shattering grief, and to be able to bounce back from that and find each other just wow, and I just loved how normalized therapy, especially for a black man for a black woman for black children for a black, beautiful family. Chefs kiss…I just love this and I needed more of it. I just did not want to finish the story..Yasmin and Josiah had me hooked: complex well fleshed out characters, who have experienced so much pain, and to lose each other and find themselves back together. This was such a humane real and beautifully well written that is a reflection of so many people who have lost them self to grief, and found themselves back together. This was just amazing and I love the writing, the sisterhood between Yasmin and her girls just yes I loved it and just the mature conversations that were had for real I needed more therapy don’t get me wrong cause I love that shit but everything else this was just a five out of five body of work highly recommend highly enjoyable, and I cannot wait to dive into more body of works by Miss Kennedy Ryan. Just wow.


Thank you to net galley for this arc for an honest review this was truly an enjoyable, heartfelt novel. Just wow amazing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is such a beautiful, heartbreaking, and emotional second chance romance that will literally rip your heart out. Kennedy Ryan put so much thought in creating such a real and raw love story. This was my first Kennedy Ryan book but will definitely not be my last!

The characters make it so easy to be invested in and the progression of the storyline make it impossible to put this book down. There is so much growth that happens in the book and it is amazing to see Yasmen and Josiah heal separately but find forgiveness within their hearts. Yasmen is such a strong relatable character and Kennedy Ryan does a great job of representing depression. You could feel all the pain and heartbreak the family went through.

This book will have you feel every emotion as the characters navigate grief and loss and how to cope. The big emphasis of therapy in this book is amazing to see especially as the characters process major life events. It just makes me so happy to see characters learn that therapy is a good thing!

The chemistry, passion, and connection is so palpable and you cannot deny that Yasmen and Josiah are made for each other. The amount of love they have for each other is incredible!

I feel so blessed and honored to have been able to read this and I cannot wait for it come out on November 15th!

this book is a masterpiece
five star read
* slow burn
* second chance romance
* the dual pov adds so much more perspective
* i loved how this book touches on mental health & encourages therapy. especially for black men.
* this book brought me through so many emotions. it made me sad, happy, enraged, and laugh.
* it is honestly the best romance i’ve ever read. it’s so realistic & raw.
* I CANNOT WAIT FOR MORE IN THE SERIES
* check trigger warnings.

Before I Let Go is officially one of my favorite reads this year! When it comes to Kennedy Ryan I know the book is gonna be emotional with the best angst! These characters are so captivating and I loved reading their story. This book has a lot of my favorite tropes, including second chance. These type of books easily capture you and with Kennedy’s writing you never want to stop reading.

Overall this book is a MUST READ if you love books with angst and characters whose story not only break you but also put you back together. I can’t wait for everyone to read this one!!

I am not even sure what to say besides WOW. This book was absolutely phenomenal and will remain a favorite of mine. There is some trigger warnings, such as suicidal thoughts, child loss, and depression.

The mental health rep was amazing in this book. This was a great marriage romance, even though they are technically divorced. There are some tough topics, but Ryan does a great writing about it and making it so real.

The characters were ones that you couldn’t help rooting for and feeling for. This is my first book by Kennedy Ryan, and I can’t wait to read more. Maybe they won’t top this one, but I’ll have to find out. ☺️

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, for this free review copy. Before I Let Go is on sale November 15th, 2022.

The type of story, writing, and characters that live in your mind & heart forever. This is one I will be rereading time and time again.

Before I Let Go is a stunning second chance romance about a previously married couple finding love again. It’s an epic love story that shows how grief and loss can change a person, but also how time, patience, and love can heal them.

Josiah and Yasmen were in love and then something happened. It’s not that they fell out of love, it’s that life wrecks their relationship. They have two children and a business together, so they’re always going to be in each others lives but they have been divorced for a few years and they’re trying to find their new normals now that some healing has happened. What they find is that just maybe they’re not as over one another as they thought.

I loved both of these characters so much. They went through something that rocked them and they crumbled. I think we would all like to assume that if we went through that we would be strong and stay with our partners but I think until you’ve been through something like that you just don’t know.

Finding each other and finding their way back to happy was such a beautiful thing. At times I was frustrated with both Yasmen and Josiah but I loved how much they truly cared about one another and respected each other. I rooted so hard for them to find a way back together. I loved the part therapy played into their story and of course I loved their children and seeing them both as parents. They always tried to stay on the same team even when they weren't together.

This is a story that hit me all up in my feels. Kennedy Ryan has the sort of writing that really speaks to you. It’s beautiful and brilliant and I was moved by this story. It was extremely emotional at times, but it also had some light hearted moments and times that made me laugh. Yasmen and Josiah’s story will break your heart, but by the end it will be mended. This book was excellent and I highly recommend it!

Thank you @netgalley and @readforeverpub for an early copy of Before I Let Go by @kennedyryan1. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Before I Let Go tells the story of Yasmen and Josiah, who finds their way back together after a devastating divorce. They have been a great team so far after their divorce, co-parenting their 2 kids and managing their business together, though they are always drawn and attracted to each other even after their separation.

For a novel that's so emotional, heart-wrenching, and intense, I finished this in less than a day. No matter how painful the story is, I just couldn't put this one down. It shares the side dark side of marriage, that love itself isn't enough. It has tugged my heart in a lot of ways and Kennedy Ryan has made me feel for the characters, she has made them real for me. I think I cried buckets as I was reading through Yasmen's struggles as she battles with her depression and the aftermath of her choices during the darkest time of her life, Josiah's reluctance to open up and process the losses in his past, Deja's teenage angst, and Kassim who, like his father, has also hidden his thoughts, fears and feelings - these are just some of the main points of the book that made the story so emotional for me, and made me realize the importance of communication in every relationship, may it be romantic or parent-child relationship. Communicating how you feel is always a vital part in every relationship, but not everyone could, and Before I Let Go emphasizes that it's okay not to be okay, it's okay to seek help from someone else when you need to.

Before I Let Go has got to be one of the best books I have read in my lifetime. If I could give it 10 stars out of 5, I would. 😅 Go pick this up on it's release date November 15th, 2022. I would definitely recommend this especially if you're a fan of Kennedy Ryan's works (she's really good at eliciting so much raw emotions through her writing). I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for her next novel!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 for Before I Let Go

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#bookreview #bookrecommendation #bookrecommendations #arc #arcreview #arcreviewer #arcreviews #netgalleyreads #netgalleyreview #netgalleyreviewer #netgalleyarc #netgalleyreader #netgalleybooks #BeforeILetGo #NetGalley

"I wonder if the sad I'd be without you would hurt less than the way I'm sad with you."

Thank you to @readforever and @netgally for an ARC of Before I Let Go. Before I Let Go is out next week on 11/15!

Before I Let Go just confirms that Kennedy Ryan is the most underrated author on Bookstagram. Why are we not seeing her all over this place!? Her characters are so layered, and complicated in the best way possible. They're mature, and funny, yet so realistic and grounded. Her writing is poetic and her descriptions bring the settings to life in a way that you feel you're in the scenes - the smells, the sounds, the tastes. Her dialogue is like listening to friends over a glass of wine. The second-chance love story between Yasmen and Josiah was heartbreaking and woven so beautifully together I really wasn't sure what would happen. Yasmen's relationship with Day was also so authentic and accurate that between the two I cried, I cheered, I laughed and then I cried and cheered and laughed some more.

Please read the trigger warnings. Ryan writes about hard things but in a way (at least for me and this one hit very close to home) that is cathartic and emotional. I miss her characters when they're gone. I think about them. If that's not a sign of phenomenal storytelling I'm not sure what is.

"With my arms stretched toward infinity, it feels for a moment like worship. Like a collection of sacred sounds consecrated to say thank you for friends and family and hope, that elusive emotion I didn't realize was such a rare commodity of the heart until I had none."

Thank you NetGalley and Forever for the advanced copy, I’ve never been so excited to receive an ARC! Kennedy Ryan makes me cry every damn time.

Kennedy Ryan has such a way of writing about emotion, you feel what the characters feel, especially grief and pain. Kassim made me cry, Deja made me feel so sad for my mom, and I’m sending Kennedy Ryan my therapist bill for the anxiety this gave me.

The few flashbacks there were could be hard to tell when it began and ended. I’m not the biggest fan of pop culture references, and while this book used them sparingly, I didn’t love them.

I felt like some of the conversations, particularly with or about therapy and communication, followed a strict script and were repetitive.

Also if my therapist said the Golden Gate Bridge thing to me I’d have a menty b right then and there - did not love that

A beautiful and emotional story about the way grief changes a person, adjusting and working with that change, and working to build the life you want after unimaginable tragedy. I cried so much! The pain felt raw, but there was also plenty of laughter and love to go around. Overall, it's a really beautiful second-chance romance for two people who never really fell out of love. It's an all-timer, for sure.

"We're stronger than we've ever been before. Tender wrapped in tungsten. The most vulnerable parts of me sheltered by rock devotion."

"How a man you've kissed a million times still has the power to make you weak in the knees, I don't know...I know I'll never take it for granted. We've been through too much, and what burns between us shines brighter and hotter for having been tried."

Yasmen and Josiah, once madly in love, are now divorced but still raising their two children together and running a restaurant together. Over the course of this book, they navigate their journey back to each other to overcome all of the things that broke them apart. Ryan handles so many tough and emotional topics: divorce, the loss of a child, depression, the stigma about mental health and therapy, and so much more. The moments between them and throughout the story are so real and raw that it's easy to forget you're reading about fictional people. Ryan even managed to squeeze in one of my favorite tropes- only one bed. I loved seeing this powerful representation of love, especially Black love, and can we all just take a second to appreciate this gorgeous cover? The picture doesn't do it justice! Thank you @readforeverpub for giving me a chance to read an early copy of this book, and for the gifted finished copy. It's out next Tuesday, November 15!

A deeply emotional novel that keeps you engaged every moment. Cathartic in many ways too, especially for those of us who have had traumatic relationships. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

I am a huge Kennedy Ryan fan so I jumped at the chance to read this book!! This story was a little different than I’m used to reading from this author. It starts toward the end of what seemed to be a beautiful love story. Two lives that are interspersed with their children and business. They once had an amazing love but due to a traumatic turn of events they lost their way. This is a story of trying to find their way back to each other. Yasmen and Josiah show us that their love is worth fighting for. Kennedy Ryan did not disappoint with this one,

Emotional and authentic second-chance romance!

Before I Let Go is such a stirring read. I want to start by saying, please check the content guidance before reading the book. (I’ll put it below my review.)

This book made me cry a few times with its raw and honest description of how depression and grief feel and how much it affects not just the person dealing with it but the people around them. Yasen and Josiah are divorced, but their lives are woven together as parents and business partners. They navigate their lives dealing with the fallout of their divorce and trying to move on -- but finding it difficult to do so, for their attraction to each other never really went away.

What’s lovely about this book is that it stresses that happily ever after isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Love isn’t the end all be all for a successful marriage. Time, consideration, effort, communication, and honesty are just as important. I like the flow of this book – how both Yasen and Josiah matured individually and together. The moments with their kids are great and probably what gutted me the most in this book, for kids always feel the aftermath of a marriage falling apart. Add grief into the mix; it takes a toll. The author has beautifully written the struggles of being a parent and trying hard to make your children happy.

Another beautiful thing about this book that I appreciate – is the importance of therapy. If only everyone in this world has access to healthcare! I appreciate how this book handled their problems toward the end; it clearly shows the characters’ progress after seeking help and trying to put what they learned into action.

This book has a lot of delightful secondary characters too, and I especially adore Yasen’s friends. I’m looking forward to reading more books from this series. I highly recommend it!

Thank you, NetGalley and Forever, for the eARC.

content guidance (taken from the blurb): depression, complicated grief, stillbirth, passive suicidal ideation.