Second chance romance? Say less—I’m in.

Left of Forever is a heartfelt, emotional, and spicy story about Wren and Ellis, two people who fell in love young, built a life together, and then drifted apart. Now in their 30s, divorced, and co-parenting their son Sam, they’re given one last shot to figure out if what they had still has a future. Spoiler: it’s messy, emotional, and totally worth the ride.

I loved how real and grounded this book felt. The characters didn’t just fall back together overnight—they actually took the time to unpack their issues, own their mistakes, and grow. Wren and Ellis have amazing chemistry, and their interactions were full of history, tension, and warmth. The road trip element was such a perfect backdrop for their slow reconnection (and gave us some great romantic moments).

It’s a fairly straightforward contemporary romance, but it doesn’t need to be anything more than that—it hits all the right emotional beats and delivers a satisfying love story. The side characters were also a lovely touch, adding some charm and heart without stealing the spotlight.

If you love second chances, emotional growth, and swoony moments on the open road, this one’s for you.

⭐️: 5/5
🌶️: 1.5/5

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was to read this book. I absolutely loved Savor It and knew I needed Ellis and Wren’s story.

I want to start by saying I am typically not for the reconciliation trope. I honestly haven’t ever read a novel where it was done in a way it captured me. I’ve never loved it but Left of Forever has done it.

I loved how we got to see both how strong and fierce Ellis and Wren’s love was when they first met as kids, how it changed after their baby, how it ended, and everything that happened in between. I needed all those details, I crave seeing a couple fall in love and I can say that Tarah did an incredible job at showing us this couple with a strong and tragic past fall in love all over again like it was for the first time.

Absolutely everything about this was just beautiful and I needed it more than I can explain since book one.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, author Tarah DeWitt and St. Martin's Griffin for the eArc!

The most perfectly tender 2nd chance romance featuring bf a divorced couple! Tarah’s signature wit and charm comes through in her characters so brilliantly. I loved the letter writing aspect, it added such a personal touch.

“Be good, Byrd.”

how do i move on???? how do i pick up another book and not think of wren and ellis fucking byrd????? tarah has done it yet again, this has to be my favourite from her without a doubt. i haven’t loved many marriage in crisis tropes but this was done so beautifully and with so much care. i teared up way too many times and was sobbing into my hands at one point.

i loved ellis and wren separately as individual characters as well as them together. this had everything i needed, add it to the romance hall of fame.

“I grew up around my great love, so I think maybe my heart took shape around his.”

“All i know is that it doesn’t feel like we’re done with eachother, does it?”

“I wanted it to be you, anyway.”

Obsessed. Wren and Ellis finding their way back to each other after 5 years of being divorced and only co-parents had my heart melting. The growth of both of them, going to therapy, and being open to go down memory lane and figure out what went wrong and what each of them were thinking at the time was perfection. I loved this book

When you have to stop mid-read to either cry or *just* process, you know you're reading a good book. I actually stared at the wall feeling everything I had the pleasure of reading once I had finished it.

I was drawn in by the big, loud Byrd family but fell in love with both main characters and the literal journey they completed to find each other again. If you are a mood reader like me, this is a book that would accompany a rainy, overcast day, a warm cup of tea and cuddles from a cat. You will not be disappointed in this one.

Dare I say this is my favorite Tarah DeWitt book to date??

The Byrd’s hold such a special place in my heart and I think Dewitt is (as the cool kids say say) in her BAG with this one

Maybe I just love a second chance romance but this pulled at my heart strings and me rooting for these two so hard

This might be DeWitt’s most emotionally intimate and complex book yet. Wren and Ellis’ history is heartbreaking and their journey to spending what’s left of forever together broke my heart and put it back together.

I really enjoyed this novel; the characters felt real, and the well-paced plot kept me engaged from start to finish.

MY HEART! I was rooting so bad for Wren and Ellis's happiness in the previous book of the series! How I loved this amazing book. It was sad at some points but that was a given and I was ready for the emotions. Second chances are so rewarding. This novel was simply perfect. Probably my favorite book of the year so far!

Did I stay up until 1:30 to finish this book? Yes, yes I did. Do I regret it? No, I really don't. Left of Forever is a love letter to the magic of love and a testament to the fact that even if love itself can not conquer all, you can conquer anything if you do it with love.

4.75✨ 3🌶️

wren and ellis 🥹 sweet baby angels. i am such a sucker for a second chance romance, and their story was so beautiful. the flashbacks, the letters, the YEARNING; i can’t cope. tarah really created something special with this one.

also, the final paragraph of this book wrecked me in the best way. one of the best final lines in a novel ive ever read. i had managed to keep my tears at bay reading this one until that moment.

thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and You Had Me At HEA for the e-ARC. ❤️

review posted on Goodreads + Fable, with additional post on Instagram (more to come):
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7017089103
https://fable.co/review/ab7cc55c-52d1-4ab9-bfd7-7cb924fa82e9/share
https://www.instagram.com/p/DH54iMKttea/?igsh=OHV5amUwc3lhcDBp

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this eARC!

I loved the second chance trope before this book and I would die for it now after reading "Left of Forever."

Wren and Ellis were childhood friends to lovers who had a child young and got life thrown at them.
They got a divorce after being together for so long and were able to remain amicable for their child's sake, while never really getting over each other.
I loved the found family aspect of this story from Wren's POV and enjoyed seeing Ellis open up and really work for this second chance.
I didn't love the miscommunications and stubbornness that kept them apart longer than necessary, but did feel that it added to the plot and made the ending all the more sweeter.

I didn't read "Savor It" before this, but felt that I could follow along with these characters and setting easily.
I truly enjoyed the emotional rawness and awareness that was captured in this story and these characters. I felt that this was an accurate representation of the difficulties of marriage and life while still keeping things interesting.

I loved getting to see more of Wren and Ellis in this! Their story and second chance romance had much more on the line than a lot of other second chance love stories, they had their son Sam in the mix and even while separated had to find a way to be around each other and coparent. The road trip to spend time together and try to see if they could repair their relationship was such a fun way to explore their relationship. I am loving this interconnected series, being from the PNW, I get all of the PNW vibes and I love to see it, and am wishing I could go to Spunes, Oregon (not to be confused with Forks, Washington. Dewitt is quickly becoming one of my auto-buy authors.

Thank you for providing me with a copy of this eARC! I have read a few of Tarah DeWitt’s novels previously, and I genuinely think this is her best work yet. The story was so beautiful and you could really feel all of the emotions the characters were experiencing while still maintaining realistic expectations. Cannot recommend this book enough to everyone I know!

Thank you @netgalley and @st for this eARC.

Release date: 5/20/25

Tarah Dewitt can write beautiful declarations that the reader feels in their soul. This book is filled with so many great passages regarding love and second chances— so much great dialogue.

But I find the work feels inconsistent. I struggled fully understanding Wren as a character and therefore their relationship didn’t always make sense to me. Superficially, it works. They married young and have now been divorced for 5 years, but they aren’t truly over each other.
But there were parts— like how they poured themselves out in their initial letters— that just didn’t work for me (as beautiful as it was). Also, some of the spicier scenes felt forced. Maybe it was my reading pace (I’m very slow with physical reads), but it all felt a little clunky.

The best part for me is that I couldn’t help but picture Jason Kelce as Ellis, the burly wildfire fighter. Wren was harder to nail down. Her description never fit the character in my mind.

Overall, it was a good Tarah Dewitt novel. And even though I’m finding her books to be good, not great, I still expect that I’m going to want to read Micah’s story when it comes out.

CW: multiple spicy scenes, divorce, parent death (off page), miscarriage (off page)

Left of forever by Tarah Dewitt

“It’s like I’ve finally come alive under my own skin again. The version of me I was meant to be, misshapen heart finding its matching piece.”

If you like a second chance romance with secret penpalling, roadtripping, and whole ass adults that go to therapy and then work through their problems together…then this is the book for you!

Also full of unique family dynamics that are invested in the main characters and the outcome of the relationship…it’s very evident that they want to see the main characters find “what’s left of forever” in each other.

Thank you to NetGalley for featuring this book! Was so amazing!

Tarah DeWitt does it AGAIN.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars for Wren and “she’s still a Byrd” Ellis.

Left of Forever was one of my most anticipated reads for 2025. The way I ran to NetGalley to get my hands on this!! 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️ Add this book to your TBR immediately and (im)patiently wait for May 20, 2025.

Wren and Ellis grew up together, had a son in their teen years, spent years married, and then…unfortunately divorced. Now almost 5 years later, they’re about to decide if they want to fight for what’s left of forever.

DeWitt’s writing gets to the heart of the story, is character-led, and always infuses humor just when you need it. This is DeWitt’s best yet, and I’m not sure I’ll ever look at vanilla ice cream the same 🫣 This is a story of being brave enough to hope and loving someone enough to fight.

📖 childhood friends to lovers
📖 second chance
📖 dual POV
📖 road trip

Left of Forever is EVERYTHING to me. It’s easily one of my new favorite books. Tarah DeWitt’s writing is so stunningly beautiful. I was hooked on each word, I couldn’t put it down. I truly don’t know how she manages to get better with each book!

This follows Wren and Ellis, two characters introduced in DeWitt’s previous book, Savor It (I highly recommend this book as well!). You don’t necessarily need to read Savor It before reading this book, but Left of Forever will be much more enjoyable if you read Savor It first!

Wren and Ellis grew up together, had a baby together as teenagers, and got divorced 5 years ago. Now their son is off to college and Ellis suggests that they take a road trip back to their hometown after dropping him off—one last chance of seeing if they can spend what’s left of forever, together.

Thank you so much to Tarah DeWitt, Saint Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the eARC. Left of Forever comes out May 20th, 2025.

“I’ll love you for everything left of forever, in every lifetime we get.”

Tarah DeWitt’s writing absolutely shines in this novel, the way she creates a seamless blend providing snippets into Ellis and Wren’s past while keeping us in the present was beautifully done. The way I was gripped from the beginning with the letters and then to follow Ellis and Wren as they give themselves another chance—there was never a moment where I wasn’t hooked on the story.

The yearning and tension and hurt was palpable it had me gripping my kindle, I was absolutely captivated. I love second-chance romance because there’s always so much history between the main characters and this story was no different. Both Wren and Ellis had their own journey and were even better when they came together.

Despite the loss that is explored in their story, an ectopic pregnancy and a separation of five years, Left of Forever still felt like a warm hug and like coming home to family, all in a small gloomy town on the coast of Oregon.

I’ve loved Tarah’s previous novels but there is something about Left of Forever that felt so raw and emotional that shifted something in me and served as another great reminder of how magnificent the romance genre is as a whole.

If you’re a fan of second-chance romance, heartwarming stories, and just a f*cking good time, then do yourself a favor and pick up Left of Forever when it’s out on May 20!