MAAAAANNNNN, this book was good. It was heavy in a few places, but also so beautiful, and well written to boot. I really loved that we got flashbacks and current time, so we could get the full picture. This story was absolutely worth picking up. 4 stars!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this arc!

This book follows Nia and Jade as they navigate their friendship and their feelings for each other. Their friend, Michal, has passed away from cancer. Their story is told with some flashbacks. This book was so sad and heartfelt. I am not entirely sure how to express my feelings about this. Johan, Jade's brother, is also a part of their story, and I cried at the sibling conversation towards the end. I would recommend the audiobook for most of the story. It really helped with Nia and Jade's chapters.

Rating: 4/5
I received an ARC for my honest opinion.

This book is beautifully written, layered with deep and sometimes heavy themes. Within its pages you’ll find grief, racism, antisemitism, queerness, and—at its heart—a moving story about female friendship.

The story follows Jade and Nia, but it’s also about Jonah and their late friend Mishal, who passed away from brain cancer three years earlier. The group had once planned a road trip through Southern Jewish history, but after Mishal’s death, they drifted apart and never took the journey. Now, as circumstances bring them back together, we see how each of them has struggled in the years since—and how, slowly, they begin to heal, reconnect, and confront not only their grief but their own personal challenges.

I especially loved the friends-to-lovers arc between Jade and Nia. Watching them circle around their feelings felt so realistic and tender, though I’ll admit there were moments I wanted to shake Nia and yell, just tell her already! Their journey was frustrating in the best, most authentic way.

Rachel Runya Katz has such a gift for writing stories that break you down emotionally, only to piece you back together with hope and love. This book balances heartbreak with joy, reminding us that sometimes friends really are what you need most—and yes, there’s even the world’s cutest dog (minus the unfortunate car sickness moment 😂).

Overall, this is a road trip novel that seamlessly weaves together themes of grief, friendship, ancestry, identity, love, and healing. It’s emotional, tender, and hopeful—perfect for readers who love stories that make you cry, laugh, and reflect all at once.


I want to thank NetGalley and SMP for the opportunity to review this book.

In love. Kicking my little feet. Omigosh. Whenever You're Ready is a witty, emotional sapphic rom-com about two ex-best friends, Nia and Jade, forced to road-trip through to honor their late BFF’s last request. It's everything you want in a rom-com. 3.5 out of 5 stars

I tried, multiple times, to read this, but I could not get into it, no matter how hard I tried. It's such a shame because a romance about Jews of color going on a Jewish history-based road trip through the South should have been right up my alley. But, even the prospect of the Southern Jewish road trip wasn't enough to keep me reading. This just wasn't for me, unfortunately.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I did not finish this book. I will return to Whenever You're Ready at a later date because I really want to get into Rachel Runya Katz's books. I am very grateful for the early copy.

Whenever You're Ready is a complex, deeply introspective novel exploring multiple topics to include grief, culture/identity, friendship, and love. While there is a childhood-friends-to-lovers romance between Nia and Jade, the unfolding of the romance is very slow (post 60%) and the primary focus lies within the exploration of each character's response to grief, miscommunication, and their emotions surrounding the death of their friend, Michal. Katz's writing was beautiful but often difficult to follow. The tense (third person present) was a challenge for me personally and I often had to stop and reread sentences as the POV shifts were abrupt and often. Ultimately I did not feel like I ever truly knew each main character or felt invested in their romantic relationship. The book ends before a true relationship even begins between the two and I felt that it ended without a clear HEA. Nonetheless, I appreciate the author's commitment to diverse representation and the cultural exploration of southern Jewish history.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this book!
This book had powerful moments, especially around Southern Jewish history and the intersection of racism and antisemitism, but the characters often felt frustratingly immature to me. Jade and Nia, once close through their shared best friend Michal, reunite for a road trip in Michal’s memory after years of silence—but the reasons behind their falling-out are dragged out far too long. The romance is a super slow burn, the drama gets heavy, and no one seems capable of honest communication. Still, I loved the diverse representation, and the emotional depth, and a sweet dog named Luna make it worth the read if you’re patient.

Jade and Nia's story is messy in a chaotic sort of way. There are *BIG* secrets between them and heavy history. If you're thinking you're gonna get a semi-wholesome romance novel in, you're looking in the wrong place.

Overall, a slow-developing plot that felt like it dragged in certain places with HEAVY one-sided pining and lots of denial lol.

Props to Runya Katz for teaching me about Jewish history in the South, though!

DNF at 15%. I started this book last year and wasn't in the mood so restarted it this month to hopefully get into it as I'm focusing on queer romances. However I had the same problems, I just couldn't get into this. The writing is well done it just didn't hook me in.

Thank you for the earc in exchange for an honest review

⭐️ 2.5

I was so excited for this queer reconnection love story but these characters just pissed me off one time too many. So immature I wanted to scream!! I just didn’t feel the chemistry. I wanted more passion, more yearning. The thing that kept me going was the co flick between the twins, which was pretty compelling.

Very well written. The writing style took me a second to adjust to every time I returned to the book, but it didn’t pull away from the story. I always got to a point where I was mad I had to put the book down because I wanted to keep appreciating the story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The main qualm I had was with the miscommunication between Nia and Jade. I felt like if they were really as close of friends as the book made it out to be, they wouldn't go 3 years without speaking because of a minor misunderstanding and lack of communication.

Nia and Jade used to be best friends until a huge fight after their other best friend, Michal, died of cancer. It's now a few years later, and Michal's letters written before her death have encouraged Nia and Jade to reunite on a road trip through the South to visit Jewish landmarks. They are struggling to mend their relationship while still dealing with the grief of losing a friend.

I enjoyed this book for the plot, characters, and also what I learned about Jewish history in the South. This is the first book I've read by Rachel Runya Katz, but it won't be the last.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press / St. Martin's Griffin for the e-ARC of this title to read and review. I'm catching up on some ARC reviews that I'm totally behind on, but am so very happy to still be able to talk about these books! "Whenever You're Ready" is a really complex and unique story that tackles grief, culture/identity, and friendships in a refreshingly new way -- and I love reading something that I haven't seen done before. I've read Rachel Runya Katz's debut as well before this one, and this is something she just consistently does amazingly.

At the center of this story is a road trip between friends, who reunite to take the Southern Jewish History Tour their dead bestie always wanted them to go on together. This is the strongest part of the story for me by far, as we get a ton of real historical information (that the author clearly researched well and knows a lot about) that's interesting and compelling. It feels like we, the readers, are along for the trip with the characters. Examinations of all of the characters' differing (and overlapping) personal cultures, races, and religions are also done beautifully.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot out of the friendship or romance themes in my own reading. I think longterm friendships are so beautiful, because you have been with people through so many different stages of your life: sometimes you're in the same place at the same time (both emotionally and geographically) and other times you're completely misaligned, but you can always come back to the "home" you find in these other people. I got this feeling about.... halfway there, with these characters. There's distance between them because of some sort of fight or tension that happened before the events of this book, and I find that they all consistently run from problems or uncomfortable situations instead of facing them. This is such an interesting idea to explore against the overall backdrop of grief (especially WHO gets to grieve a loss "the most" - best friends, lovers, family?) but ultimately I didn't feel the soul-deep connection between our trio of friends, who are decades-deep in their tight-knit friendship. And the romance(s?) almost feel like an afterthought, even though they *could* feel like a delicious moving forward after years of tension and conflict. I hope other readers can take away that feeling!

This slowburn really annoyed me. I didn't like the characters and I did not like this book at all. I just thought it took to long to get to the plot or the point.

People falling in love in the wake of grief is so powerful. This is a story about friends going on a road trip to honor their friend who passed and along the way, they revisit feelings that they thought were long-buried.

This was a beautiful and emotional read. I think I loved the flashbacks more than the current-day parts. Rachel Runya Katz has such a way with words and description that I felt like I knew every single character within the first twenty pages. Their dynamics were so realistic and messy in a way that friends who’ve been attracted to each other are.

I’m excited to see what Katz writes next.

More sapphic romances!!! I loved everything about this book. It was sweet and the world needs as many queer love stories as it can get

DNF @ 35%

I TRIED. I tried so hard to get into this book because I loved the premise. Unfortunately I just didn't vibe with the writing, I just didn't find it engaging.

Wow I loved this so much! All of the main characters were so well developed and I totally understood their motivations and the basis of the conflict between them. I loved the focus on the non-romantic relationships being just as important in the story as the romance, while definitely being a romance.