Thank you St. Martin’s Press & the author for review copies, including our #travellingARC!

“Second chances are when you weren’t ready for your first.”

I loved Bend Toward the Sun for all of its emotion, vulnerability, and real romance between Rowan and Harry, but one of the great parts of the book was being introduced to the Brady family – both those related by blood and those by association. I was thrilled we got to return to Cloud Tide to read Duncan and Temperance’s story. They both loved each other so much that they both got in their own way when they were teens, but years of backsliding and keeping things at arms length have not served either of them well. Right Where We Left Us is a story about two souls destined to be together and giving up the fight against fate in favor of their hearts. It’s a page-turner and you want to scream at them but know they need to be complete fools in order to figure out their truths.

Cute second book in the series. Second chance romance. Some steam. If you liked the first one you will enjoy this one too! Love the Brady family and their vineyard.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

This book made me feel all the feels, and I loved it so much. Jen Devon's writing just hits me hard in the best way possible. I loved Duncan and Temperance so much, and watching them reconnect was a joy. Also, if we don't get Mal's book, I might riot. If you loved Jen's first book, I highly recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

Fair warning, this is book 2 of a series but isn't described as such. There are so many characters, I think if you haven't read Bend Toward the Sun, you might be lost. I loved the first book and so wanted to love this as much. Sadly, not so. It was so repetitive that I ended up skimming a lot of the Temperance/Duncan plot line and reading about the others in the family, which for me was more satisfying. I never did understand why Temperance kept pushing Duncan away. For fourteen years! I love the Brady family and will definitely read more if (hopefully) this series continues, especially if the next one is about Malcolm and Frankie.

This was a great family and second chance romance. There was a strong cast of primary and secondary characters and a really great storyline and setting.

Read if you love forced proximity and second-chance romance. The plot fell short in a number of ways, the reason the main characters can't be together is pretty dumb tbh. don't read this if you also hate miscommunication.

Temperance Jean Madigan and Duncan Bradley spent a summer together when they were 18. Since then they have been on and off again. They have been off for a while now. There is this family wedding and TJ’s sister who married Duncan”s brother has a best friend Rowen who is marrying another Duncan brother. The Bradly Family decides to do a bit of meddling and get the two back together. This is the most adorable story of family and friends doing what needs to be done to get two back together. In the end all are happy

This book is the second in an interconnected series about the Brady brothers, sons of parents who recently followed their dreams
And purchased a defunct vineyard that they are bringing back to life. I highly recommend reading the first book, Bend Toward the Sun before reading this one. It is advertised that these are standalones but I attempted to read this ARC and had to put it down and read the first book before proceeding with this one due to the characters and their relationships being initially confusing. Reading BTTS helped clear everything up and was a phenomenal read. That being said, I feel terrible writing this review as I loved the first book but struggled with this one. I didn’t understand why this couple couldn’t be together and flow of the story didn’t feel organic and the chemistry didn’t feel authentic. A few times things jumped from cold to hot and back again so fast I had to go back and make sure I didn’t miss something. I love this author’s writing this story felt confusing and I had trouble being fully engaged.

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher, author for the opportunity to read and review this book before it releases.
This was a DNF at 10% for me. Chapter 4. I couldn't with the style of writing. I kept hearing a Helen Mirror style narrator reading the pages aloud to me. It read like a documentary.

Right Where We Left Us is the second in Jen Devon's inter-connected romances based on the Brady family's vineyard. It isn't necessary to have read Bend Toward the Sun before this one, but it will deepen your understanding of the setting and the friend group surrounding the main couple.

Temperance and Duncan had been intensely and secretly in love as teenagers then had a mysterious, dramatic, and traumatic split. Over the years since, while Temperance has become a doctor and Duncan the de facto manager of his family's vineyard, they have occasionally had fiery, secret hook ups but mostly attempt to avoid each other. Now Temperance's best friend and Duncan's brother are getting married and avoiding each other isn't an option.

These two have huge communication issues. Both have complicated careers and want more control over them. Both struggle with family expectations and are supported by their found family/friend group but even with them they're not willing to be fully open. Both also are kind and thoughtful people, which is a rarity that I found delightful.

Their angsty journey back to each other is a mix of pain and healing, and is both sexy and emotional. The only unfortunate thing was that they took so long to communicate that the complications that had kept them apart felt a little too convoluted.

Despite this quibble I did enjoy reading Temperance and Duncan's journey. I especially appreciated the depth of the portrayal of the group of characters and their interconnections, and of the intriguing setting, which made the story a rich read.

Jen Devon once again ripped my heart out and then painstakingly stitched me back up again, all while making me believe in love again. Jen could have easily don’t flashbacks for this book, but she beautifully unveils secrets and history with each chapter. Jen’s writing is beautiful and poetic and the Brady family is so well developed and complicated. Everyone should be reading Jen Devon, she’s on par with the Emily Henry and Kate Clayborn’s if the romance genre. I CANNOT wait for her third book. I think Jen’s new book will always continue to be better than her last.

Unfortunately this one was a DNF for me. First of all I had no idea it was an interconnected series. It took me sometime to figure out the characters and thier relationships. Then I just couldn't understand why Duncan and Temperance couldn't be together. It didn't make much sense. I love angsty romances but this one was not for me or maybe second chances are not for me.

This review breaks my heart as I absolutely loved Jen Devon’s debut. It’s shelved as one of my favorite contemporarys ever. In that book, I was obsessed with the characterization of Duncan, who was hilarious, sexy, and charming.

In this book the premise of Duncan’s character fell apart. I felt like his character did a complete 180 from the bits we saw of him in the first book. I can grapple with a charmingly humorous character having depths to him (which is what it should be!) but I felt the outward humor was gone and he was just this defeated character trying to make something of life and wanting his love to ‘see’ him. I was unable to connect those two characters. Maybe if I hadn’t gotten a glimpse of him in the first book, he would’ve been more palatable.

I can see Duncan wanting to be deserving of Temperance and his issues with feeling unappreciated and not the smartest, but it wasn’t given enough gravitas and didn’t, again, connect with my initial impression of him from the last book. Temperance read more or less the same but also defeated from the first book.

Second chance romances are my favorite. However, structurally, this book had a lack of momentum. We’d get interactions between Duncan and Temperance here and there before 1. getting long bits of backstory or 2. the sheer number of the Brady family and side-characters coming into play. I wanna say for the first third they don’t even spend too much time together on page.

Romance: I don’t understand their hang ups or why Temperance couldn’t be with Duncan. It wasn’t even a miscommunication trope, it was something so insidious and overly complicated and vague that I didn’t get why they were apart. I guess the bones of the misbelief is there but the dots wasn’t connected enough to package it well to the reader. Like I didn’t get how her background and family life connected to her not being with Duncan. Even after I finished the book, I still don’t get what was their character conflict. The stakes weren’t established and it made the book a slog to get through.

Pacing: At 82%, they still weren’t together as a couple so as the reader I was unable to buy-in to their HEA. The pacing was incredibly slow, and created a stop and go effect which was really frustrating, and thus took me almost two months to finish. Their entire connections feels unearned and unjustified. I think they had their reckoning around 87% and were officially together and by then it was too late for me to believe into their HEA.

That being said the reason I stuck around was because Jen Devon is amazing way in her writing craft and her words were a delight to read.

1.5 star

I really liked Bend Toward the Sun and this was a solid follow-up. I really enjoy how in-depth Jen Devon goes into the vineyard. It makes for a really beautiful setting. I liked Duncan a lot in the first book so I was glad when I saw that this book would be about him and Temperance. I will definitely read the third book whenever she writes one about Mal and Frankie.

Second-chance romances can be hard to pull off sometimes. My biggest complaint about this book is that I couldn't understand why it took them 14 years to get back together. The reasons didn't feel justifiable, especially when they were still seeing each other and hooking up over the years. I thought the things that kept them apart in the first place would be a much bigger deal than they ended up being.

Every once and awhile, you read a book that leaves you confused on your feelings about it…Right Where We Left Us is one of those books for me.

Although slow at first, I quickly became invested in Temperance and Duncan’s story, and I felt the simmering chemistry between the characters on each page I read. I’m also a sucker for a supportive family as background characters, and this story had that in plenty! There were a lot of interactions with these support characters that were heartfelt and gave more personality to Temperance and Duncan, which I loved.

There was plenty that didn’t sit right with me too. There were times the writing was way too redundant or over the top. Temperance and Duncan fight their feelings, but there’s really no good reason why they do so, and because of that there is no real reason why they stop...that turning point in their relationship was anticlimactic. Also, I wish there was a little more description of the past across all characters. Where is Charlie’s mom? What happened to Malcolm? Why did Temperance and Duncan keep their first relationship such a secret? I personally find holes in stories like this annoying, like I’m missing something I shouldn’t be. Lastly, and this one is a bit silly, but why can’t authors give their characters common names?

Back to the confusing part, I did overall enjoy this book, even with the challenges listed above. Once I got over the slow start, I had a hard time putting it down. Were there things that I wish I could have gotten from the story that I didn’t? Sure. Am I sorry I took time to read this book? Definitely not. Because of that, I give this book 3.5 stars. rounding up to 4.

Contained some of my favorite tropes- second-chance romance, found family… . Overall, not my favorite second chance book.

I really wanted to give this book a better rating because I was really happy with how the book ended, but I had to admit to myself that there were moments where I struggled to keep going. I guess maybe I had a hard time buying into their back story and what kept them apart for so long. What I did like was the angst and chemistry between Duncan and Temperance, and I had to know how their story would end, which is what really kept me going.

Overall, I liked the story. I just didn't get hooked and fall in love with the characters.

I highly recommend reading Devon's first book, Bend Toward the Sun, before reading this book, as it's the second in a series. I liked all the characters but had a hard time remembering all of them, and it had been a long time since I read the first book. That said, I'd give it 4 stars as a sequel, but 3 stars if you don't read the first book, as it's a bit hard to remember all the characters.

There was so much here I liked, and more I wanted to like… but there was also so much that felt like it dragged on unnecessarily. Loved the characters, but they got too confusing at times. Also, I needed more history of MCs to understand their actual conflict. Contained some of my favorite tropes- second-chance romance, found family… and the end was fun- but overall it still fell a little flat for me.
I received this novel as an ARC from NetGalley and St Martin’s Press

Here’s the long and short of it: I’ll read anything Jen Devon writes, with great joy, and my only complaint is that I wish I could spend more time with the Brady family! I really hoping for Frankie and Mal next?! Right Where We Left Us leads us back to Vesper Valley, where we fell in love with Rowan and Harry in Bend Toward the Sun. This novel overflows with the same achingly gorgeous writing I loved in Bend Toward the Sun. This time, we’re here for a second chance romance that has been decades in the making. Temperance and Duncan were each other’s first love, and neither moved on. The way Jen writes their years of knowing each other and longing is completely swoon worthy. Both MCs have a hurt comfort vibe, and the spicy scenes are sweltering. Don’t miss this one!