Before I Let Go was one of the most transformative books I've ever read. It was more than a romance novel. I felt like Yasmen and Josiah were real people. There is some heavy content in the material, but the story was told carefully and very beautifully.

One of the best marriage in trouble I read. My minor grip with them is the cyclical arguments the couple usually have, which gets tiring to read. This book balances that really well where I didn’t notice it. I loved the way family was intertwined and everyone liked the main couple and no sides were picked. I liked the character journey, emphasis on therapy. It is a heavy grief and depression book, and the different ways the MC tackled it.

I am so glad I got to read this book it is a masterpiece! Kennedy has done it again with the feels!!
This is hard to write without giving anything away but run don't walk to get your copy!!
Most romance novels start with the couple meeting and hopefully leads you to their happily ever after but what happens when life happens and you can't see the rainbow for the clouds. There are so many emotions from sad to shock to pain to anger to hurt to love to happy to.... all the other emotions
The writing is so on point it makes you think, feel and care these characters are like family so real so tangible.
I can't say enough good things about this book!!
Please read it you won't be disappointed!

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

4.5 Stars

TW/CW: divorce (in the past), stillbirth (in the past), depression, suicidal thoughts (in the past), death of a loved one (in the past), grief

I've read and loved multiple second chance after divorce books so far this year. This one was really great, but it didn't break my heart as much as I wanted it to/was expecting it to.

That said, Yasmen and Josiah were great together, their excellent co-parents and so respectful to each other while they coped with their losses. Which was a nice and different approach to the second chance trope compared to other books I've read.

I loved the open discussions about depression and all of the healing the family goes through in therapy.

I have a feeling that Yasmen's friends (Soledad and Hendrix) are going to be the main characters in the other books in this series???

I love loved this book. It is a book about pain and healing. It is a book about love, real love . As all of Kennedy Ryan's books all, this story was everything. So So good

Thanks to Forever Publishing for the free book.
What an emotional ride this book was. I instantly fell for Yasmen and Josiah and their family. I've never read a second chance divorce novel, and Ryan handled this rocky relationship so well. She captured the complexities of children dealing with divorce, unresolved feelings, and dating after divorce. I also liked how there was romance between people that know each other so well. The marriage long-haul adds so much complexity to relationships, and I liked these ideas being explored in a romance. Ryan's characters personalities were rich. She doesn't shy away from talking about therapy and how depression can change a person - for the worse and better. I loved this representation and could relate to Yasmen's journey and healing. Definitely cried while reading parts of this book. I can't wait to read more from this author.
Notes:
This is open door
TW: stillborn birth, depression, suicidal ideation

I finished this book in a night- I was exhausted by the end but it was worth it. This second chance romance was AMAZING!

This romance touches on the grief of death and depression. the regrets, guilt, and suffering that come with it all.

Yasmen and Josiah are made for each other - their marriage has suffered the worst kind of loss and the way they both handled ad dealt with has had a huge impact on them each.

They have their children, restaurant, and just life to deal with together and apart,

I loved the promotion of therapy when dealing with grief and depression. Kennedy touches on some hard subject matter but she does a great job making these characters human for me

I have never wanted a couple to make it as much as I did these two. A beautiful story with a lot of real elements.

This is a must-read for me

What a wild, exciting and scary story this is. Cut my heart open in a way I will never forget. It also filled me with joy knowing how much we can survive and love each other through.
Beautiful, sad, happy, creative and joyful. I'm lefy happy for them while still feeling the scars.

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan is by far the best book I’ve read in 2022. It hits on such a different level. I’ve always been such a huge fan – All the Kings Men Duet being one of my favorite stories of all time.
Before I Let Go broke me in so many wonderful ways but that’s Kennedy right? Josiah and Yasmen have that forever kind of love and you can feel it in these written words. Tragedy hits, and with that depression and the will to keep going. Kennedy beautifully wrote about grief, depression and trying to manage life again. I sobbed so hard for Si and Yas.
This is such Kennedy Ryan perfection. Honestly please read it – there are some deep CWs so please make sure you check those out on GoodReads. I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars, I wish I could read this book 7 more times for the first time. So excited to see what Ms. Ryan brings us next!

Kennedy Ryan is one of those authors whose books you just automatically buy. She had me convinced with Queen Move and Reel but Before I Let Go is such a beautifully written second chance romance novel. She did so well with explaining how grief and depression will lie to us and have us making decisions that we normally wouldn’t have. Kennedy also did a great job at discussing the negative stigma placed on therapy within the Black community. I loved how Josiah and Yas both went to therapy and worked out every single issue they faced and developed the tools necessary to fix them. Their divorce and the losses they endured also greatly affected their kids; Kennedy once again perfectly incorporated that it’s okay to not be okay and everyone needs someone to talk to sometimes. The tension between those two was so thick you could cut it with a knife but babyyyyy when they did reconcile, the heat was jumping off the pages🥵 They ultimately decided they were better together than apart and seeing them get back together really made my heart
smile. Don’t walk, run to your nearest book store when this one comes out. You won’t regret it!

Thank you to Netgalley, Read Forever Pub, and Grand Central Pub for this Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Netgalley for an ARC of this book! I’ve willingly read and reviewed it. All opinions are my own.

BEFORE I LET GO by Kennedy Ryan was everything a reader might want in a second chance romance: a poetically written story that will break your heart before painstakingly gluing the pieces back together again in their rightful places, one step toward the promised happily ever after at a time. Because of that, there aren’t many words to truly sum up this beautiful book that will do it justice it deserves, only five stars.

Following a time period of great loss that resulted in their divorce, Yasmen and Josiah have settled into a life being business partners in a successful restaurant, and co-parents to their two children. When Josiah starts dating, Yasmen is hit with the realization that she is still wildly attracted to her ex-husband and can’t seem to ignore that fact, despite them both trying desperately to keep their distance from each other in order to move on. Both characters have been beaten and bruised by life and the things said in heated moments, but still, they can’t ignore the pull.

BEFORE I LET GO was one of the best second-chance romances I’ve read so far, and not just because I was rooting hard for Yasmen and Josiah to find their way back to each other, but because their path to understanding the whys of the emotions that led to their breakup and divorce was so relatable and real. Through all the ups and downs we, the readers, see them go through, it’s obvious that Yasmen and Josiah were meant to be together. But it’s only through the growth they experience by going to therapy to deal with their grief, getting better for themselves, but also for their family, that Yasmen and Josiah were able to reunite stronger than before to finally live the life they’ve always dreamed of together.

I’m so looking forward to seeing Yasmen and Josiah again in (hopefully!) Hendrix and Soledad’s books!

TW: Stillborn/pregnancy loss, depression, death of loved ones

From the DROP this book had my heart in my throat.

Then it had it dropping to my feet and kept it there for a LONG time.

I literally stayed in bed all day reading. I couldn't stop, even though there were times I wanted to put this book in time-out.

I appreciate the hard topics talked about within in the book or what the book is centered around. It was hard to read. So many times I just cried.

Ms Ryan once again creates a world that feels so real that I wanted to just slap the characters and hug them at the same damn time.

Before I let Go by Kennedy Ryan had me in all of my feelings. Yasmen and her husband Josiah had a love that everyone, including them would last forever. Life's unexpected tragedies tested their love for one another resulting in the demise of what was once a picture perfect family. To complicate matters they remain business partners and are co-parenting their two children. Throw in two new love interests and your looking at an intense dynamic.

My favorite aspect of this book was the love they had for one another on spite of their inability to see eye to eye on coping with loss. They were willing to do whatever was necessary to heal themselves and their children. The need for therapists becomes a necessary component in their journey of healing. Josiah's willingness to try therapy to give their son peace in seeing a therapist brought tears to my eyes. Seeing this father at aside his own aversion to therapy is an excellent representation of fatherhood. Read this five star read as soon as you can get your hands on a copy.

I have yet to read a Kennedy Ryan book that doesn't leave me feeling completely satisfied when the story ends. For me, her writing is beautiful and her characters captivating. Before I Let Go is no exception. This was clearly a tough story filled with characters struggling with life issues that cause unbearable pain, sadness, and personal change. While this could have been a total downer to read, this incredibly talented author brings her A-game yet again and weaves the characters' story with so much love, spice and hope, I was left feeling completely filled with joy at various times throughout the story and especially at the end.

I always find something that draws me into the world she creates with her characters. She handles their problems head-on and her characters' reactions are not only plausible but downright realistic. I never finish reading one of her books without feeling I've learned so much about the issues the characters are dealing with while also reading and enjoying a beautiful, tender love story that evokes all my emotions. This book is filled with life lessons for us all. It was easy to read and held my attention from beginning to end. There's lots to be said in this book. It's all important and well worth the read. Do not miss it!

My most anticipated read of the year! Like preordered without even a cover! It’s another hit by Kennedy Ryan and this one will put you through the ringer! This book is different from her others in a

Josiah and Yasmen are a divorced couple of two years who co-parent and co-own a business together and their journey back from grief to being whole people, both individually and together.

This book hits a lot of big themes and emotions including grief, loss, miscarriage and still birth, depression and how you can heal form those but it takes time and sometimes you have to be alone to find your way back. But also there’s joy in the healing and finding yourself again. I truly liked how real Yas and Si were, so we’ll developed and multidimensional. They weren’t perfect by any means, making mistakes, speaking in hate and anger towards each other, breaking the love they had worked for. Then coming back to each other understanding their personal whys and working to have genuine, honest conversations.

My one critique would be that I would have loved more of them being a couple again, going to couples and family therapy. I think 75% of the book was them working and healing individually which was great but I would have appreciated more healing as a couple and a family beyond an epilogue stating they do. It felt like they just popped right back into him living there.

Overall a fabulous heart wrenching, beautiful book!

Before I Let Go is Kennedy Ryan at her best! This story is a carefully constructed study of grief and complex relationships. Yasmen and Josiah are divorced and trying to figure out how to successfully co-parent two children and co-own a growing business. One of my favorite aspects of this story was the relationship that Yasmen had with her best friends, Hendrix and Soledad (and their families). Josiah even has his own group of friends that he calls on for support, even though they don't appear as often in the story. The care and love that Yasmen and Josiah shared with their children was heartwarming, especially after they experienced so much tribulation as a family.

Josiah is one of the most complex male leads I have ever read in a romance. The journey that we see as he works through all of the loss that he's experienced in his life is heartbreaking but relatable. And seeing him learn to be emotionally vulnerable with his Black therapist is a great example of how representation in key occupations can allow patients to be more open and comfortable. There's so much to love about Before I Let Go, and I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a second-chance Black romance that examines sensitive topics like pregnancy loss, depression, and grief.

Thank you to Forever Pub and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I fell in love with Kennedy's work many years ago, and I've been a huge fan ever since. This book, like all the others, pulled me in early and kept me thirsting for more until the very end.
From the beginning, I felt a connection with Josiah and Yasmen. I've endured some of their tragedies, and I saw a lot of myself in Josiah. I understood his coping mechanism. It's amazing how two people can endure the same tragedies, and each finds a different path to healing, or at least their definition of healing. I appreciated that Kennedy touched on issues that are so huge in our world today. What I loved about this story was the balance between joy and pain. I laughed and smiled, just as much as I wanted to cry. It was real life in word form, and she did an excellent job putting it all together.

Every word from Kennedy earns a 10-star review, in my opinion. She tackles real-life issues in such an amazing way, digging deep into your emotions and leaving you feeling emotionally charged. I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to read Before I Let Go early, via NetGalley. I almost didn't want to start it, as it the case with every new Kennedy Ryan book, because I know that once I pick it up, I won't want to put it down. Another beautifully written, soul gripping read!

Kennedy Ryan can do no wrong, this book is so good. I loved seeing them go to therapy and work out what's actually wrong. Josiah learning how to process things and learn his part in what went wrong with Yas was excellent. The relationship they have with their kids and how they navigate that as their relationship progresses is done so well. I just loved seeing them fall back in love with each other.

This book is very heavy as it deals with the fmc having a stillbirth in the past.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Oh my goodness, where to begin? First, I looooooooved this book. Kennedy Ryan is a master at writing realistic, fully fleshed out characters. This book was no exception. A week later and I haven’t been able to pick up another book because there is no way it could come close to Before I Let Go. Major book hangover.
We meet Yasmen and Josiah about two years post divorce. They have a good co-parenting/co-owner relationship going when one of them decides it’s time to fully move on and begin dating. As expected, complicated feelings arise on both sides that ultimately results in both characters doing some deep work to truly look at the various factors that contributed to their divorce.
I love how the author handled some very sensitive topics and the emotions and struggles were honest and realistic, no quick fixes or weird teenage-y angst from grown folks.
I do wish there was a trigger warning for pregnancy loss, When I saw the direction the book was going in, I almost put it down. I’m thankful I continued to read because the author’s words mirrored so closely my experience with stillbirth that it was almost freeing to read how Yasmen and Josiah eventually navigated such an enormous loss.
I was given an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.