*4.5

Another hit from Kennedy Ryan, no one is surprised. I loved reading about Soledad's journey to become the best version of herself. She wanted to learn how to love herself and know that she is enough and she doesn't need a man. Judah comes along and is the sweetest person ever. He knows that she has sworn off men for now but all he wants is a chance, when she is ready. He is the best father to his kids and I just love him. My only problem is that I feel like they didn't spend enough time together outside of sex. I know it was there but I wanted to see more of the emotional bonding.

I received an arc through netgalley.

4.5 Another stunning Black romance from Kennedy Ryan with a saga of self-discovery and growth for the woman main character built in.

Soledad's life is left spinning after the FBI arrests her husband for financial crimes right as she discovers her husband's infidelity. She is left raising their 3 daughters in a very expensive neighborhood in Atlanta with no job and frozen bank accounts. Soon she is developing her career as an influencer, leveraging her lifelong talents of building community, making people feel heard, and kitchen and household hacks. She is dating herself.

...And also avoiding a strong pull to Judah, the forensic accountant at her ex's workplace who discovered his financial crimes.

Read if you love:
- women rising from the ashes of a toxic relationship and getting a second chance at true love
- Black romance w/Afro Puerto Rican rep
- relationships where both have kids from previous relationships
- a glance at healthy coparenting (Judah and his ex)
- Autism rep of multiple types
- A bad ass female friend group that cheers Sol on

I can't wait to see what Ms. Kennedy has in store for Hendrix next!

Thanks to Read Forever and Netgalley for the e-ARC. All thoughts my own.

From the ashes....

A domestic phoenix rises...
Soledad was the stereotypical domestic housewife (think RHO....) until her wobbly house of cards came crashing down. She now has to figure out real world problems, like money and who she is.

Judah is a father to twin boys, successfully co-parenting and moving on....maybe with Soledad (who is working through her hot mess stage).
Recommend!

You know when you hope a sequel is as good as the first book? This 2nd installment of Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland series was everything I was hoping for and more!

Soledad is one of my new favorite main characters. She is incredibly strong, smart, funny, and takes care of business💪🏼 and her relationship with her daughters was so captivating and real. I absolutely loved her friendship with Yasmen and Hendrix (continued from the first book) and how much of the book involved the three of them! They had me laughing and taking in all the tender moments of this strong, supportive sisterhood. As for Soledad and Judah? I loved all of it. The communication, the maturity, the chemistry- this was a romance with DEPTH and I really liked seeing how the more complicated aspects of their lives were handled both on their own and together. This was a book I picked up and read any chance I could get.

Side note: While you could read this as a stand-alone, I think it’d be best to read them in order to get the full background of this series. And I can’t wait for book three!😍

⭐️: 5 / 5

Publication Date: March 5, 2024

I want to thank Forever and Net Galley for allowing me to get an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The first chapter starts out with a new family of characters and their unique situation. It leaves you wondering where their life will go from this point forward. Time jumps three years and that’s where the story really begins.

Some of my favorite aspects of this story, were Judah’s chapters. I didn’t think I’d be into him more than Josiah from book 1 but I was wrong. I absolutely adored him and seeing him with his sons. Our FMC Soledad is one of my personal favorites as well. I love that she has a mixed background and her development in this book is amazing to see.

Overall I can’t recommend this book enough! If you haven’t read the first it’s a great way to dip your toe into her writing. The characters do show up here and the first book gives their journey.

Would recommend for those who are fans of
- Autism rep
- Puerto Rican rep
- Afro-latina FMC
- Character driven stories
- Atlanta setting

⚠️ grief

Another great romance from Kennedy Ryan. I absolutely loved the drama in this. In book 1 of the series, we could see that Sol’s husband sucks. But with Sol’s book…holy moly. I loved seeing Sol have an epic comeback. Loved that this was a mature romance where both people had messy lives that were able to make it work together. So good!

4.5/ 5 stars

This Could Be US is a Black Contemporary Romance. It is the second book in the Skyland series.

This book could be read as a standalone as it has different narrators. However the characters are in both books. And this definitely reads better to me after reading Before I Let Go first.

This book made me feel so much. It is full of amazing rep including: BIPOC, female friendships, autism, and single parenthood. Plus it's nice to see characters that are around 40 years old.

This is Soledad's story (she is Yasmen's best friend from Before I Let Go). But there are some chapters from Judah's POV too.

Soledad has 3 daughters. We met her and her husband Edward in Before I Let Go. Judah is an accountant. He is divorced with twin autistic boys who need a lot of care.

Soledad spends a lot of this book focusing on herself and her daughters. So this is a romance. However much of this book reads like Women's Fiction. There are definitely some amazing reveals (that I enjoyed a lot). And the two main characters are both strong, wonderful people. The book is super slow burn. But then towards the end it is super sexy. I sort of wish that there had been more fade to black.

Once again we get to see the amazing female friendships of Yasmen, Soledad and Hendrix. I love these women so much. There is also exceptional neurodivergent rep. The detail that the author goes into about Judah's kids is so meaningful.

I absolutely loved Sol's journey. And I really enjoyed her job and all of the social media influencer stuff. This really is a beautiful book. I'm looking forward to Hendrix hopefully getting her own book next.

I was so happy to be back in this world. Before I Let Go was one of my favorite 2023 reads and this one was just as good, if not better. The same with BILG, this one reads more like women’s / contemporary fiction than romance but I’m totally okay with that. This as a powerhouse of femininity and friendship and Kennedy’s beautiful words alway stick with me long after I finish a book. Soledad was such a strong presence and I adored her from the very beginning. She was so hard-working, strong willed, and a fantastic mother. I love Kennedy’s heroines so much. Then, there was Judah freaking Cross. The relationship he had with his kids was EVERYTHING. He was so gentle and kind - definitely made me tear up a time or two. If you’re looking for beautiful characters, gorgeous writing, and swoon-worthy romance, this book surely takes the cake.

This is easily one of my most anticipated books of the year, and I knew it would meet every one of my expectations! This series so far it just perfection, and I know Hen’s story will be just as good!

Judah and his ex wife’s friendship and family is so admirable I loved every scene they were in together but I also loved how keeping both women in his life, you could tell just how much mar he felt for Soledad. It stands out in the way love really should, and that really just sells his character and his love for her so easily.

Soledad is a wonderful mom, and I loved her balance of taking care of her children, but also standing up for herself. This is the crutch of the story as Judah helped prosecute her ex husband, and the kids don’t take kindly to that. However, Judah and Soledad’s love is so strong, so clear, and the only path either of them could take. Such a beautiful story!

I cannot even begin to say how excited I was to get the perspective of Soledad.

If you have read Kennedy Ryan’s previous book, you know that Soledad is married to a jerk. He who shall not be named got exactly what he deserved.

Mostly what I loved about This Could Be Us is Soledad’s love for herself. She found her voice and as a woman it’s so hard to find our voice, especially when we lose it to a man. You don’t have to be married with kids to relate to Soledad while she’s on her journey. Most women can relate to that feel of trying to fall in love with ourselves and just how hard that can be sometimes.

Autism is spoken about so beautifully as well in this book. Kennedy Ryan did great job touching on how autism impacts a family and how it presents differently even in twins.

A stunning romance that highlights the power of self-love. Soledad (who we met in Before I Let Go) has been married for 20ish years to Edward. If you’ve read Before I Let Go, you’ll know we get glimpses into the life of Soledad and the direction her marriage has gone. At the onset, Soledad is dealt one blow after another, shattering the delusion of her life.

Soledad is determined to make life better for her and her girls. If nothing else, to prove to herself that she can do it. While yes there is a romance (and we’ll get to Judah in a moment), my favorite aspect of this book was that Soledad recognized that she needed to learn to trust herself again and set out on a journey to do so.

Focusing on the romance with another human component, this is a slow burn. Judah is respectful of Soledad’s solo journey and doesn’t want to overshadow or interrupt that. He is patience and waited for her to be ready. Judah is one of my new favorite Kennedy Ryan heroes because of how he interacts and wants to take care of Soledad, while giving her the space that she feels she needs. Judah is also co-parenting with his ex-wife for their twin boys.

This book has beautiful family dynamics, doesn’t shy away from the challenging and difficult topics and has found family with Yasmine and Hendrix. There are subplots in this novel that speak to the value of community and what it means to show up for other people.

Kennedy Ryan is an author that I don’t think I’ll ever stop reading and loving. Her writing is beautiful and you can feel the care she takes with the difficult (but important) topics she weaves into the story. Her characters go through a journey but I trust she’ll take care of them by the end of the story. I will read anything she publishes and cannot wait to continue reading her backlist.

I cannot recommend this book enough! You do not have to read Before I Let Go before this one. They are interconnected standalone novels, but I do think you’ll get more out of Soledad’s story if you do.

Content Warnings: infidelity, sexual content, emotional abuse, racism, cancer, body shaming, toxic relationship, death of a parent (historical; discussed), physical abuse, ableism.

In Before I Let Go, Soledad was one of female main characters, Yasmen’s, best friend and she seemed so timid and muted to me, a full time stay at home mom/wife with three preteen and teenaged daughters. But in This Could Be Us, Soledad is faced with terrible news that her husband is a lying, cheating, stealing, fraudulent criminal and creep (confirming her suspicions) and instead of letting it destroy her, she takes her power back, becoming her strongest, most healed, most confident, creative, and free self. Not only does she find self love again staring in her mirror while she focuses on “self partnering,” but surprisingly she finds passion, commitment, open communication, patience, and love from your next “book boyfriend” Judah Cross. Although I wouldn’t classify this as a romance (I would more so call it contemporary fiction) there is a steamy romance that begins completely off limits and secret. Just like in Before I Let Go, the portrayal of Fem Friendship and its unconditional love, support, and importance touched me. Also like in the first in the series, mental health, therapy, healthy co-parenting, and everlasting grief are major themes. This one also represented certain folks on the autism spectrum very openly and respectfully. I’m such a fan of Kennedy Ryan and am already looking forward to the third friend in the trio, Hendrix’s, book coming out in 2025! 😍

Before I give any synopsis, just go and buy this book. You won’t regret it! (And while this is the second in a series, you don’t have to read the first to get into this book)

Soledad is a strong, intelligent woman who has been taking care of her kids and husband for many years. One day, out of nowhere, everything comes crumbling down. This book is about how Soledad comes to know and love herself. I won’t spoil it too much for you, but there’s so much goodness in this book. There’s growth, love, getting back, and empowerment. This story will stick with me for a long time.

4.25 stars

I read Before I Let Go in the fall of last year and it was one of my favorite books of the year. I loved Kennedy's way of writing this strong group of women and the friendship they had. I was so excited to see that we would be getting a story for each of them women, and Soledad's book didn't disappoint!

In this second installment of the series, we see Soledad's life fall apart: her husband betrays her in the worst way and she has to pick up the pieces for her and her daughters to survive. Soledad goes through a healing journey throughout this book, and during it starts to get friendlier with Jonah. She has to decide if she wants to open up her heart to getting hurt again or if this is just repeating past mistakes.

I loved the overall message in this story. While this is a romance, I think this book is also so much about growth, loving yourself, putting yourself first, and healing. Making sure that you love yourself and who you are before letting someone else in. Soledad goes through a journey in dating herself and finding ways to make herself happy and whole on her own, before relying on anyone else for that.

This book also has a beautiful tale of friendship. I loved how close Sol, Yas, and Hendrix are. They are quite literally squad goals. We also had some touching moments with Sol's sister that were beautiful!

My absolute favorite part of this book was Judah and his sons, though. Kennedy starts the book with an author note about the autism rep in this book and her personal experience with an autistic son. She does such a beautiful job showing the complexity of the disorder, the spectrum of presentation, and even the different opinions those within the community have. I loved Adam and Aaron so much and am so happy she included their stories in this book.

The only critique I have with this is that it did feel a little insta-lusty and both FMC and MMC were obsessively thinking about the other when they'd only talked to the other person for like 5 minutes. We didn't get as much of a development in their relationship as I would have liked to see them getting to know each other and falling in love. However, I do think the book was much more focused on Sol's journey, so that's why we had a little less of them as a couple.

Overall, a fantastic next installment in this series! It had so much heart and I loved the strength Soledad showed. I cannot wait for Hendrix novel!! I have a feeling she will be my absolute favorite of the trio!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was FANTASTIC! There's so much to love about it, and it's truly a must read.

First. THE. TENSION. Without giving anything away, the MMC and the FMC meet in a super high-stakes situation. It immediately adds tension to their relationship and gives us a bit of that forbidden romance energy. It's consistent throughout the book and I loooved it.

Second. The realness! This love story is far from perfect. It's tricky, it's messy, it's a bit gray. I really like a Hallmark-y romcom, but this was a wonderfully refreshing break from rainbows and butterflies into something a bit more challenging and real. The MCs both have families, so as they navigate their relationship with each other, they also have to navigate how their children handle new dynamics. Kennedy Ryan also wrote autism into this book in what I think was a truly wonderful representation on so many levels. It really added to the book in a special way and I'm so happy she made the decision to include this.

Third. The writing. This one goes without saying, but Kennedy Ryan is a DREAM of an author. Her books hook me from page one and I adore her style. It's elevated but approachable. I speed through her books... not because they're written simply, but because they're written so well and her stories are captivating. She's on a special tier of romance writer and she's an author I'll always enjoy reading.

Overall, this book is a great read and one I will absolutely recommend.

Rating: 4 stars
Steam Level: 2
Format: 📖

I’m a big fan of Kennedy Ryan’s work! Previously I loved The Kingmaker and The Rebel King duet (5 stars) as well as the first book in this Skyland series, Before I Let Go (4.5 stars).

A few months ago for a 24 hour period, NetGalley offered the ARC (advanced reader copy) of This Could Be Us to anyone who requested it! I jumped on that immediately. It’s no surprise I loved my buddy reading experience of this book with two friends. We previously read Before I Let Go together so continuing to read this one just added another level of richness.

This is my first NetGalley ARC. It releases on March 5th.

My Thoughts:

Overall I loved this story so much but I did have a few reservations about it as a romance.

This would be an amazing general fiction or women’s fiction novel but I found the romantic plot to be a bit lacking. There was too much time spent with Soledad still married to Edward, who we already know is a terrible human from the previous book.

You know based on where the story begins that a time jump is coming. Unfortunately it wasn’t a long enough one for me to believe Soledad was ready to be in a relationship again. We also didn’t get enough scenes or time with Soledad and Judah together.

But as a story about starting over, finding your strength, and building community with other women plus the parenting element of raising girls and raising children with autism, IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! Kennedy Ryan is such a powerful writer!

It did lead me to adding All About Love by bell hooks to my nonfiction TBR. Referenced many times, Soledad used her mother’s copy of this title as a guide for healing and starting over.

It also sent me diving back into Kennedy Ryan’s backlist to see what I hadn’t yet read from her and I picked her Hoops series for my spring TBR.

Kennedy Ryan is such a great storyteller She knows how to pull you inside the book and make you care about the journey . When your husband has lied to you and gets arrested how do you rebuild when accounts are frozen. Soliead shows us exactly how to repair and how friendship is essential. Judah seems like the one to have her world crumbling but the support he shows is heart swooning

Huge thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I gave Before I Let Go 5 stars so I had very high hopes for this book. I wish I loved this more, but it just didn’t feel like a romance to me because they didn’t get together or even kiss until the 60+% mark. The first 25% was wild and I was enjoying the drama and getting to know the characters, but then things really slumped in the middle. I wanted Soledad and Judah to actually have more page time together, and the “dating myself” and social media posts etc bits were too cheesy for me and felt more like a women’s fiction storyline than a romance.

The first part of the book between Edward and Sol were hard to read but I really appreciated Soledad’s growth over the story and she was an interesting main character. I also enjoyed getting to see Yasmen and Josiah again 💜
The autism rep in this was beautiful and I’m glad that was part of the story!

Overall this fell short for me because of how much I loved Before I Let Go, but if you’re into romances that are slower paced and don’t mind the main couple spending majority of the book apart due to some heavy handed self empowerment storylines, you might still like this.

This is more than a romance, it is a story about empowering yourself and healing deep wounds. Soledad shows us her resilience and how she fights tooth and nail to overcome all her problems, all her fears, all her pain and move her family forward.

Judah is one of those good boys that makes you swoon so hard, he is so upright, so sweet, such a good dad. The dynamic between Sole and her friends is wonderful. Although it is in the background, I really liked the explosive chemistry between Judah and Soledad and the way in which Judah always supports and helps Soledad.

As always with Kennedy Ryan, her stories make you think, this is a powerful, moving story about love, friendship, second chances and rebirth. Very interesting. Highly recommended

Another stellar book from Kennedy Ryan, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Her newest book, This Could Be Us, is just as gorgeous and emotional as the first book in the Skyland series (which I raved about on main many months ago). This book focuses on Soledad and Judah, and whew do these two have a lot to overcome. That’s one of many things I think Kennedy does so well in her romances; I’m constantly wondering HOW these two characters are going to find their happy ending. She always makes the journey so worth it!!

This book was a very emotional read for me. Yes, the words on the page are strung together beautifully, but I think the exploration of self love and how we define strength made this book particularly special. It’s also clear that there was a lot of care taken in the research and handling of nuanced, sensitive topics. This Could Be Us was one of those books I felt so lucky to read in my lifetime. It’s the kind of story that makes you want to love yourself and that is so special!!