This was a really sweet book--I loved the dynamics between all three of the characters, four including the dead best friend who kicks everything into action with a birthday letter. The romance was believable and honest.

Rachel Runya Katz’s *Whenever You’re Ready* is a poignant and heartfelt exploration of love, loss, and the enduring power of friendship. Following the death of their mutual best friend Michal, Nia and Jade have drifted apart, their once-close bond strained by unresolved grief and a past argument. The story picks up as they embark on a road trip, fulfilling a promise Michal made, and navigating the emotional terrain of their shared history. Katz’s narrative skillfully blends humor and deep emotion, capturing the complexities of rekindling a relationship that has been tested by time and tragedy.

As Nia and Jade traverse the journey both literally and emotionally, their long-buried feelings surface, leading to a powerful examination of what could have been. The inclusion of Jonah, Michal’s former boyfriend and Jade’s twin brother, adds an extra layer of tension and introspection. Katz's ability to intertwine past regrets with present desires makes *Whenever You’re Ready* a compelling read. With its blend of tender moments and emotional revelations, this novel is a touching ode to the transformative power of love and the risks worth taking.

I spend most of my reading time with cutesy, fluffy, romantic comedies. This is not that book.

This book is dense and sad, but also so incredibly wonderful and beautiful. (And don't worry, we get our HEA. This is romance, after all.)

This story covered so much ground. Its a story of grief, and friendship, and family dynamics, and heritage, and racism, and culture, and religion, and sexual discovery and so much love. And somehow it all just WORKS. Often times with this much packed into a single novel the waters can get muddy and the story hard to follow. Rachel Runya Katz managed to deliver something with so much heart and fascinating information that I never minded how much was packed in there.

As a reader, you go on a literal journey with the characters as they go on a southern Jewish history road trip. I loved that this book taught me so much and opened my eyes to a lot all while giving me this lovely, slow burn sapphic romance. And oh, did I cry! Not like full on sobbing, but just a steady trickle of tears and so many times of gasping and grabbing my chest to keep my heart from bursting out of my body.

Nia and Jade had been inseparable ever since their best friend, Michal, introduced them at her tenth birthday party. But now it’s been three years since Michal died of cancer— since the brutal fight Nia and Jade had in the weeks after— and they're barely on speaking terms.

Until Nia reads a letter Michal wrote for her 29th birthday, asking her and Jade to go on the southern Jewish history road trip they'd planned before she died. To add to the complications, Michal's then-boyfriend and Jade's twin brother, Jonah, joins the trip. Despite the years apart and Jade and Jonah’s strained relationship, any awkwardness quickly disappears as it becomes clear how much Nia and Jade have missed each other.

Unfortunately, old issues soon arise. Nia has been in love with Jade since they were teenagers, and Jade has been so committed to their friendship that she never let herself consider something more. As the stops pass, tensions mount, running high until Nia and Jade are forced to confront what happened three years ago, their feelings for one another, and even their respective relationships with Jonah.

Wow. Just wow. This was a poignantly written love story that takes you through grief and loss, rips your heart out and shreds it to pieces, then slowly mends it back together again, only stronger. The romance was beautifully written. I loved both of these characters from the beginning to the end. Thank you, Rachel, for writing such an emotional gem!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

This is not a rom-com, but it is a love story.

It has some glorious heat, but it also has moments of raw grief.

For those who need answers right away, know that this is a book that makes you feel for about 50% like you've been dropped into a complicated friend group. However, everyone knows exactly what they're avoiding and why. It's not a miscommunication book.

For those who enjoy pining and learning, this book is for you.

Friends. This book. This. Book. Oof. I cried so many times, but it was so worth it.

Whenever You’re Ready focuses on the relationships between best friends Michal, Mia, and Jade and their close-knit (but a bit estranged for present-day Mia and Jade) friendship, and Jonah, Jade’s twin and Michal’s boyfriend. The story goes back and forth between present day and the past, so we’re witness to both the development of their relationships as children and young adults and the relationships in present day, three years after the loss of Michal to cancer as the remaining three embark on a road trip the best friends planned but weren’t able to go on before she passed.

We see Michal in the past, but also see how integral she is to the relationships between the other three, and how their grief at losing her has shaped them in the intervening years. They’re still grieving, and while they all love each other deeply there are unresolved issues that affect their relationships. The present-day parts of the story really delve into this and we get to see them working through these issues, hurts both inadvertent and intentional, and their grief not only over the loss of Michal but also over the strain within their own relationships. It’s all handled extremely well, and the characters are complex and flawed and just so real.

The road trip itself is an exploration of Jewish history, including some uncomfortable moments that delve into the issue of antisemitism, but also of racism within Judaism, particularly in the American South. I’ll admit that as a gentile I don’t have a lot of knowledge of Jewish history and this could have been heavy-handed, but Katz handles this with a deftness that never felt like it was lecturing while informing and acknowledging the complicated history, and particularly how that affects biracial and multiracial members of the community like Jade and Jonah, and to an extent Mia, although she isn’t Jewish.

I will admit I was a little worried after the first couple of chapters, when there was a lot of texting and the journey hadn’t yet begun, as I struggled with the formatting (which may be changed by the time this actually releases, so it's possible this will be moot) and figuring out who was who and whose perspective we were seeing from. After that, though, I was hooked.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley, but my review is unbiased and left voluntarily.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

What a good book!!! Such a good story and great writing style. This was my first by this author and will not be my last! Such a a good sapphic book!

Thanks so much to Rachel Runya Katz, St. Martin’s Griffin, and NetGalley for an ARC of Whenever You’re Ready! All opinions are my own.

WYR is an emotional book centered on grief, friendship, and romantic love, which came together for a really lovely read. Nia and Jade’s journey from friends to estranged back to friends and then lovers is so entangled in years of history that was told really well via flashbacks.

Rachel Runya Katz also does a really wonderful job of portraying grief, as she did in Thank You for Sharing, and how the loss of a loved one completely rewrites who you are and how you process the world.

As a history girlie, I also found myself learning about early Jewish history in the South, which was very interesting. A lot of it I didn’t know about in depth, and I will certainly be doing some more research on it!

I dropped a star because there were times in this book that the POV changed, and it became very unclear who was now the person “in charge”. Sometimes paragraph breaks would stay with the same person, sometimes they’d switch, but there were several times I had to reread to figure out whose POV we were inside at the moment.

POV: dual third person

You can expect: road trip, epistolary, shared grief, childhood friends to lovers, flashbacks, sensual application of eyeliner, forced proximity, only one bed (because the third person on our trip snores).

Rep: Black MC and side character, Jewish MC and side character, lesbian MC, bisexual MC, biracial MC, grief, brain cancer.

Spice: 2/5

CW: brain cancer (non MCs, past, off page), death of a friend, discussions of historical antisemitism and racism

I couldn’t put it down and absolutely enjoyed every moment of this book. I loved the author's voice, and while this is a fun book, it does also get surprisingly heavy at times. I didn't know what to expect going into this book, but it surpassed anything I could ever dream up!

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A delayed bucket list road trip with your friends leads you on a journey to healing and reconnections and so much more!

I went into this book blindly and read it so quickly! It’s such a touching story of healing from grief and loss abs reconnecting.

It’s a very character driven story and I loved getting to know Jade, Jonah, and Nia. Their friendship is pretty complex and has a lot of pain and heartache woven into it. With the past and present timelines, you get to know them on a deeper level and see how their friendship started and the tragedy of losing their dear friend Michal.

I loved seeing Jade and Nia repair their friendship and the slow burn of something more sparking between them. The book felt a bit heavy at times, but there are lighthearted and funny moments throughout that gave it a really good balance.

Katz did a wonderful job with some heavy topics like grief, loss, antisemitism and racism. Her research in Black and Jewish history in America was noteworthy and I found myself very intrigued in a topic I am very uneducated in. She captured the experiences of a mixed-race Jew in America while interweaving a sweet romance.

I really disliked Jade’s character. But I think that was the point. I had second-hand anger at her selfishness and cruelty; especially towards Nia. I do think it speaks to the way everyone deals with grief and loss differently. I just had a hard time finding Jade to be a likable character.

I had a bit of trouble keeping up with the dual timelines in the beginning. I kept having to remind myself which character was which because I mistook them often. The pacing seemed a little slow in the middle (which could have been due to the large amount of historical information - that I enjoyed but it didn’t really move the plot along)

All in all, it was sobering to learn about the history, I enjoyed the slow burn romance between the character (even when one of the characters drove me mad), I appreciated the witty banter (especially whenever Jonah opened his mouth lol) and I didn’t have any unanswered questions on the final page. I gave this book a 3.75/5

I was so excited for this one, I've been wanting a new FF romance to just hit the spot, but unfortunately this was way too much of a slow burn for me. I wanted more of the relationship and less of the coming of age. I just needed and wanted more from this story, I thought it could be so much more.

I fell in love with these characters and the story was so well written. The sibling dynamic between Jonah and Jade is particularly well-written and emotional.

The writing perfectly captures the complex emotions and different relationships between the characters. I loved the road trip setting and found myself learning so much while reading. The story handles heavy themes like grief, antisemitism, and racism with sensitivity and nuance.

"Whenever You’re Ready" beautifully shows the enduring power of friendship and the courage it takes to embrace love. It's a heartfelt and thought-provoking read, ideal for anyone who appreciates stories about deep connections and whirlwind emotional road trips.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Whenever You're Ready by Rachel Runya Katz is a compelling novel that will captivate fans of character-driven queer romance and those looking for a nuanced exploration of loss and healing. While I was unable to finish reading the book due to it not aligning with my usual preferences, I found it difficult to fully immerse myself in the story.

Summary: This book was closer to three stars for me for the first 25%, in the four-star range for most of the middle and then the payoff in the last section of the book was outstanding - five stars - and I was bawling. Hence the four star rating overall and my review structure.

Background: I LOVED this author's debut, Thank You For Sharing. You can read my review to see why it worked for me: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/ab598b5d-2fb3-402e-a36a-683b60a04f07

First 25%: I really felt the strong sense of emotional connection and that feeling of missed time between the love interests. But I had trouble distinguishing the characters in the beginning. And the pacing was slow, in part because of the fissure between the love interests and because there is a big gap of information with the dual timelines. It was not always holding my attention but because I loved the author's debut, I was determined to trust the process.

Around 25-75%: Be warned: This book is a SUPER slow burn. In this part of the book, the actual road trip was really interesting. I learned a lot (and took some online research tangents to dig a bit deeper). And while I get the purpose of the dual timelines and meting out context and background, it was sometimes frustrating and I didn't love the impact on the pacing. In this section, I felt the distinction between the characters much better and I was settling in for a 3.5-3.75 star situation.

Last 75%: The payoff was excellent. The way everything comes together, especially in the last 10%, was intense and delicious and had a lot of emotional depth. Between the main relationship, each character's relationship with Jonah and each character's relationship with grief and Michal, I spent the last few chapters feeling a lot of feelings and crying. It was quite beautiful and moving and really brought up the average for me.

I think this is one of those books that would get better on a second read for me so I'll definitely be checking out the audiobook when this is published.

Some content notes that come to mind: big warning for grief (very close friend dies from a brain tumour), discussion and examination of slavery, historical racism and anti-Semitism, infidelity (not between the main characters).

Whenever You're Ready by Rachel Runya Katz
challenging, emotional, reflective, sad, slow-paced
Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Whenever You're Ready has a great storyline and hits hard with the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender, adding in the grieving process of a loved one. All while providing the reader with a sapphic friend-to-lover situation. I read somewhere that the author likes to describe her stories as rom-traum-com and I feel like this is quite an accurate description. This one was a tough one to read for me. The writing style felt a bit chaotic at times. I'm not sure if it was meant to be third person point of view but it got confusing with the switching back of forth between the characters and lost whose pov I was supposed to be following. I finally gave up trying to figure it out and just went with the story. But I feel I lost some connection to the characters. My favorite character was the one who died, the parts that included her were the best. Whenever You're Ready is a slow burn, perfect for those that like their romance complex and with layers.

My honest review of a digital copy offered by the publisher and netgalley.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I enjoyed this book and think you will to.

his novel is a sapphic romance that tackles multiple social issues. The conflict, romance, and friendship between Jade and Nia was written very well and was a pleasure to read about. The way the author covered the subject of grief was very accurate and made the novel very emotional. Overall, this novel was an amazing read.

Thank you St. Martin’s Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I was interested in this book when I saw that it was centered around a road trip across the South and that the roadtrippers would visit significant Jewish historical sights. But it was more than that. It is a story about healing, letting go, and discovering that the one you were meant to be with is right in front of you the whole time. I loved it. The author explored Nia and Jade's relationship (friendship to lovers). She also explored Nia and Jade's friendship with Michal (the letters made me cry). And then there was Jade and Jonah's (Jade's brother and Michal's boyfriend during her last cancer battle) very strained relationship. Add in some very interesting stops and a carsick dog, and I found this book delightful.

Oh my gosh, When You're Ready was an absolutely amazing story of grief, friendship and love with well written and complex queer characters, and a slow burn romance that felt real and relatable.