This is the first book I’ve read from this author but it definitely won’t be the last! There’s something about second chance romance that has really come to hold my heart. Tarah did this so wonderfully and Wren & Ellis had such a beautiful story 🩷

This is another author that is new to me. This book is about second chance romance and marriage reconciliation. I truly loved Wren and Ellis’ love story and maybe part of it is because I can relate to being with my current partner since a young age. I loved how the author covered many real topics that can happen in relationships, especially when those in the relationship have to grow up so quickly.

I loved their connection and their character development as well. There were so many moments throughout the book I was smiling or found myself thinking “aww”. This was my second reading with a second chance romance trope and I loved the way it was done because again you can really feel the tension between them as well as the love and history. I am now curious to read the author’s other book ‘Savor It’ and will definitely be purchasing it.

*+:｡.𝓘’𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝔀𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝓮𝓪𝓬𝓱 𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱 𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓭 𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓼, 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓶𝓪𝔂𝓫𝓮 𝔀𝓮 𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝔀𝓪𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓶, 𝓽𝓸𝓸.｡.｡:+*

I don't have much to say about this book, mostly because I was so disappointed, and it's only my fault. I let myself get excited by other people's reviews again 🙃. It's so mundane I can't even make myself care. My only positive note is that I love that although both of them hurt when having to see each other and talk after their divorce they kept a cordial relationship so their child would grow up in a healthy environment. I didn't really care about their relationship at all.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚𝕮𝖑𝖔𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖗 𝕸𝖔𝖉𝖎𝖋𝖎𝖈𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

SKIP CHAPTER: 4, 23, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 36

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚𝕻𝖗𝖊-𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

Found it as "read now" on NetGalley. Wait for my review 🥰 thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press 💋

Tarah I loved this book so so much! You did a perfect job of making me believe they needed to be divorced and then did an even better job and convincing me that they HAD to be together again! I ordered the other book in this series because of this book! Congrats on this one, everyone is going to LOVE IT!!!

This book was everything I needed and more.

I love the way we were able to see a glimpse into the past for Wren and Ellis, but also see them grow in the present (individually and together). Although the crossroads are always tough, I really enjoyed seeing them tackle the hard stuff.

The added bonus of seeing the siblings move forward with their lives was awesome.

Dare I say- this second book was my most favorite! So thankful for the ARC.

Tarah Dewitt has quickly become one of my favorite authors. The way she strings sentences together is so beautiful and evocative.

That said, I’m not sure what didn’t fully click for me with this book. And let me be very clear: it’s not “bad” by any stretch of the imagination, I think I just found myself wanting more.

I felt that there just wasn’t enough yearning between Ellis and Wren before the trip. It seemed like, even though things were awkward between them, they almost immediately knew that the other person was still in love with them and wanted to reconnect.

Then, on the trip, it felt like there wasn’t enough hard / uncomfortable conversations before they started hooking up again.

I did notice that the ARC only had 270 pages, while Goodreads lists the page count as 336 so I’m hopeful that, when I re-read this book when it’s released, it will feel more fleshed out to me than it does right now. (I’ve already preordered it and I’m excited to get the final version. If my thoughts change, I’ll update my review accordingly.)

Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5

I’m going to intersperse this review with quotes I enjoyed. If you don’t want spoilers of any kind, I would skip this review, but I did try to pick ones that didn’t reveal anything specific! The review itself will be spoiler free.

“You all belong to each other, with it without me, I think. But I want someone to belong to me again, too. I wish it were still you. I hate that I wish it were still you.”

I really enjoyed this one. I really should read second chance romance more often, as it really is up my alley. The mutual “unrequited” yearning of the sub genre is so delicious. This book is rightfully hyped in my opinion, even if it’s not for everyone.

Content warnings: ectopic pregnancy (to mc, past but frequently discussed); fire/fire injury (to a side character, past. M!mc is a firefighter fire destruction is discussed throughout the book); emergency c-section, teen pregnancy

“We’re not the kids who loved each other as friends or the teenagers who were overwhelmed by want. And we’re not the bright-eyed optimists who thought we were the exception when it came to young live, who thought our love and marriage could conquer all. We’re the war-torn adults who loved each other fully and still didn’t make it together in the end.”

Synopsis: Childhood friends to lovers Wren and Ellis loved each other fiercely, but that didn’t stop time and pain to separate them. While still divorced, they maintained a distant relation but kept things polite for the sake of their son, Sam. With Sam moving out to college, Ellis proposes an extended road trip on their way back to try to give their relationship another chance.

“Sometimes I think I regret it even still but… there are different kinds of hurt. There’s the kind you inflict sharply and quickly-like emotional blunt for trauma- and then there’s the other kind, like a slow-building poison in your veins. I think it starts with withholding love, but maybe it starts with withholding hurt, too.”

Pros/things I liked:
* The yearning was masterfully done and had me absorbing this book. I stayed up far to late on the day I started it because I just wanted more. This probably serves a solid 2 of the stars given and is very much a personal taste thing.
* I think it was a really good choice of having two times to follow, even if it meant that the synopsis on the back of the cover didn’t kick in until about 40% into the book. The book started a couple months before they go on the road trip, building up their past and their current tension.
* The characters were grounded and realistic. They grew with the story and with feedback from eachother and it was really lovely to see.
* I thought it was really interesting to have protagonists in their thirties with a grown kid. It’s not frequently seen and I appreciated how it was done.
* While not the child of divorce, I have seen divorce absolutely wreck families, so I appreciated that the characters were very mature about it the whole time.

“I wanted her to go to bed, I wanted to rip down whatever walls we’d erected between us. I wanted to get her however I could again and I wanted her to let me care of her […] and for us to be happy.”

Cons/things I didn’t like:
* The ending really dragged and was much longer than it needed to be. It felt like a 50 page epilogue.
* There’s a lot missed by not having read the author’s other work, especially Savor It. Especially in the ending, it loses a lot of impact if you have no care for the side characters, which I didn’t since it was built into the story that you would have already met them. I don’t think it’s fair for them to not be considered a series.

More quotes I liked:

“My heart took shape around hers, too, and it will never go back.”

“I wanted to be connected to my wife again. I want to learn about her dreams and make them come true. I want to love without restraint. I want to say the good things without reservation and not be afraid to say the bad or difficult things, too.”

“I used to keep a mental tally of the laugh lines that’d deepened around his eyes, secretly excited each time a new one would appear. I don’t think he’s gained anything new over the last few years, and it makes me unbearably sad.”

“I miss you, too sounds glib. You have been missing from me is more accurate. There’s a void where you lived in me.”

There’s even more that I highlighted in my own copy but this review is only enough, I’ll set you free now :)

Disclaimer: I received this copy via NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for a fair review. This did not impact my feelings in regard to the book.

Oh, my heart! ❤️ This book put me through it! At first, I was nervous—I wasn’t sure I’d connect. It started slow, and I braced myself for disappointment. But then bam—Part 2 hit, and suddenly, I was obsessed!

The way the MMC and FMC’s love story unfolds—from childhood to teens to adulthood—is nothing short of breathtaking. The loss, the fear, the longing, the true undying love… gasp—my heart couldn’t take it! 💔✨ Tarah Dewitt crafted something so painfully beautiful, so deeply emotional, that I felt every moment.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶
Quotes:
"I miss you, too sounds glib. You have been missing from me is more accurate. There's a void where you lived in me."

"I'm begging you to fight with me, do anything with me. Just be with me."

Thank you, NetGalley and Tarah Dewitt, for breaking my heart in the best way possible! 🥹💖

I really loved this book. It was perfectly angsty and realistic, and the way Wren and Ellis came back together was really beautiful. I only have one gripe with the book. The cooking scene was over the top gross out weird. I think the capsaicin burn can be achieved without people needing to be black out vomiting drunk. It read like a grasping attempt at base humor to break up the angst of the book, but it just felt out of place to me. I was also very confused about the cooking class at a winery being Indian food. As an Indian person that lives near wine country, I have never ever seen Indian food paired with a wine tasting. Indian food cooking is wayyyyy too complicated for a winery cooking class? It felt culturally incorrect to be making that kind of food in a winery kitchen. Like Samosas require a deep fryer? It pulled me so far out of the book that I don't think the romance afterward was as enjoyable as it should have been.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH! INFINITY STARS!
I think this is my favorite second chance romance of all time. This was pure perfection. I will come back with more thoughts later.

Tarah expertly manages to convey achingly tender emotion in her books and Left of Forever is her best work yet. The beauty of love, heartbreak and loss are so seamlessly blended into this story and makes readers feel like they're a part of Ellis and Wren's journey to find each other again. Tarah writes a beautiful symphony of these two characters and their complexity. The way the flashbacks of their younger years connect to and influence their present selves is vividly clear on the page. Tarah manages to show how Wren and Ellis grew up while falling in love and even while apart, they never grew away from each other. The invisible string connecting them both is apparent on every page of their story. Readers will gravitate to this story for the swoon-worthy characters that we fell in love with in the first book, Savor It, but they'll remember this story for the crack-your-heart-open-and-stomp-on-it emotions that it elicits from the first chapter to the epilogue.

I loved this second chance romance book so much! This was my first book by this author and I will definitely be picking up more!

First off, thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published on May 20, 2025.

This book follows Wren, a baker, and Ellis, a firefighter in Spunes, Washington. They met when they were children, had a son (Sam) at a very young age and divorced around 5 years ago. This story follows their way back to each other after their son goes off to college and forces them to confront their past (while on a trip together through California).

I will start by saying, I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I am newly married and the thought of being divorced is not top of mind for me and I thought it would be hard to relate. However, Tarah has a way with her words! I came to love the second chance romance, as well as the Byrd family.

The pepper situation had me giggling and the origami birds made me swoon. Also, the whole written letter situation while trying to save the horses... AMAZING!

My only question/complaint for the editors.. It says Wren got pregnant at 17, but mentions about half way through the book that she is currently 33. That would make Sam 16... There is no way this boy is going away to college at 16. Am I the only one who caught this? I even went back through the book to double check. Anyways... this didn't take away from the book, but the math was not mathing. LOL

Overall, a super cute book that I would recommend to friends. The spice level is medium, but the emotional feelings and connections were strong! 4/5 stars for me!

Thank you, Tarah DeWitt.

This book was so beautifully written. We were introduced to Wren and Ellis and Sam in Savor It, but we really got to know both Wren and Ellis in this emotionally charged story.
I was prepared for a lot of heartbreak and while it's still a big part of the story, DeWitt's writing was so focused on the healing that the fractures that I was afraid would be all consuming were brought in with care and some humor and a lot of therapy.
These two truly deserve each other and the world, I'm so thankful that Tarah took our obsession from nearly one line in Savor It to give us this book so we, too, can love them with everything left of forever.

All the thanks to St Martin's Press for and ARC of this book!

Coming May 20, 2025!

Wren and Ellis Byrd first fell in love as children. Life came for them and the responsibilities and heartbreaks of life slowly pulled them apart. Five years after their divorce, Ellis pitches a road trip to Wren to explore if they can open up their hearts and find each other once again. Can they find what's left of forever?

This spicy, delight of a story was everything Ellis and Wren deserve. It was funny, heart wrenching, and and intimate. And it was an absolute joy to return to the town of Spunes and reconnect with the Byrd family.

🐦‍⬛ Second-Chance Romance
🐦‍⬛ Life After Divorce
🐦‍⬛ Slow-Burn
🐦‍⬛ Road Trip
🐦‍⬛ Meddling Family

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC. I love this series! If you haven't already read Savor It, I would definitely encourage you to check it out!

I have to admit that second chance romances, particularly ones in which the main couple has been married and then divorced, scare me a bit but I love them.

Wren and Ellis were childhood best friends turned high school sweethearts turned teenage parents. They married young, raised their son, Sam and ultimately fell apart. Five years after their divorce and attempts to move on, they are still very obviously in love.

When Ellis and Wren help move Sam into college, Ellis convinces Wren to take an extended road trip back home with him. Ellis believes they are meant to be and wants Wren to give their relationship one last chance, away from the expectations of their family and pressures of their small town. It’s an opportunity to speak honestly about the things that drove them apart and about the ways they still love one another.

Left of Forever was everything I hoped for and more; I cried and I sighed and I rejoiced at Ellis and Wren finally getting their happy ending.

4.25

This was such a realistic second chance and it completely had me in my feels. Coming off of Savor It, then this, I now need MORE BYRDS!! I didn't expect to get teary eyed (I did three times), nor did I think I'd be sobbing reading that last page, yet I did. I swear, the next time someone has any unsavory opinions on romance books, I may end up throwing this in their face. It was a truly beautiful story and this cured me of my book funk, only to put me right back into one.

Absolutely loved it and can't wait to see what's ahead -- HOPEFULLY MORE SILAS!!!!!!! I'll start a petition if needed.

3.5 stars!

When I requested this book, I didn't know that it was part of an interconnected series—now that I know, I wish I had read Savor It first!

My first Tarah DeWitt book, and it didn't disappoint. The storyline was cute and a great second-chance romance. I enjoyed how she interconnected the letters to the road trip after sending their son to college. I think my one point of feedback is that I wish there had been more conflict and exploration of that conflict between Wren and Ellis. I feel like they immediately had "gotten over" ultimately what made them divorce in the first place. I also wanted to explore their struggles with TTC further. I liked the use of the journal, but it just stopped all of a sudden. I think the lack of this plot line made me feel like they were together too quickly, if that makes sense.

Overall, I love a second-chance romance, and it was an enjoyable read. Would definitely recommend picking up Savor It first, because there was a bit of context missing for me throughout this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with this ARC. I can't wait to read more from this author.

I absolutely loved reading Ellis and Wren’s story. It was so moving to read about two people who lost their way in their relationship have real honest conversations to try to repair the past damage. Tarah wrote those moments in such a raw, emotional, and funny way that I found myself totally immersed in the sensations the characters were feeling. I also enjoyed the DPOV narration so you could see the characters evolve from both sides. I highly recommend this book!

This review is going to come off sounding a little stalkerish due to my obsession with Tarah DeWitt. I found her novel Funny Feelings as a Kindle Unlimited book without knowing much about her writing. Right off the bat, her main character’s name is Farley. My dog’s name is Farley…. As in Chris Farley, the famous comedian. These two pieces of coincidence smacked me in the face and I got sucked in by the banter and really smart mouth characters. Then there is hot Dad with a very smart child who is deaf. Okay…. I’m reviewing a different book so I better tie this up by saying… I was a fan fast! I read every book she has written as fast as they came out. Most recently, I read Savor It and as soon as our author mentioned Wren and Ellis and their young marriage turned divorced parents, I hoped that we would get their story!

To say that Left of Forever spoke to me in ways that no other book has is an understatement. Met my husband at 19, became pregnant and a mother by 20 and divorced then remarried means that I believe in second chances. My other connection to this story is that Ellis has the same middle name as my first born child and it’s also my son’s son’s name. Yes, my grandson’s name is Orion taken from his father’s middle name. How does Ms. DeWitt do this to me?
Okay, now to the story…. Wow! I don’t want to spoil this book by revealing any of the poignant moments but the letters that lead to revelations of deeply buried feelings made me ache for this couple and what they lost in not being equipped to handle hard stuff. I have to share this:


“Staying together and staying happy together does not come within its share of struggles. And you know what? So often the villain is simply Life. Life doles out circumstances that make relationships hard. Healthy communication and conflict resolution are much more difficult than anyone talks about”

This is an author’s note to the reader and it is one of the best ways I’ve ever seen written about why successful relationships are so much work.
So here is a beautiful story of a second chance story that makes my heart soar and ache from the joy and pain. I felt things really close to home and this one is probably more personal to me than most other people reading this book. I highly recommend it for reasons that I hope will resonate with you because getting a chance at a do-over is a beautiful thing to watch.

Signed, a fan forever
(Promise not to start actually stalking but when do we get Silas’s story?!!!!)