I am in AWE of Tarah DeWitt, I have been since the second I first read her books. I have loved every book she’s written. There is something so special about her stories and her characters. There is so much love and hurt and finding yourself and where you belong woven into her stories, it just feels like coming home. AND THE BYRDS. They are such a beautiful family. Savor It was life changing. But I knew this one was going to be it for me.

There is honestly nothing I love more than a second chance. From the second I read that Wren and Ellis were divorced, to when he said “she’s still a Byrd”. I KNEW their story would change me. AND IT DID. The pain, the hurt, the mutual pining and the YEARNING. Watching them fight to find themselves, to work so hard to become the people they wanted to be without each other…only to realize they could do it with the other…heartbreaking beautiful.

Thanks to SMP for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This time, they'll get it right. Wren and Ellis Byrd fell in love as kids, had their son Sam when they were only teenagers, and built a life together in the coastal town of Spunes, Oregon. They were made for one another...until they fell apart. Now divorced and in their 30s, Wren runs the bakery in town, while Ellis works as a firefighter. They live separate lives, though they are hardly off each other's minds. When Sam gets accepted into college and the pair help him move in together, Ellis convinces Wren to take an extended road trip back to Spunes with him to see if they can give their relationship one last chance. Amid the gorgeous scenery of the California coastline, dreamy destinations, and a great deal of long-yearned-for proximity, Wren starts to think it just might be possible. But the two still have to contend with their tumultuous past in order to move forward. And when spoken words fail, sometimes the written word must bridge the gap. Will they make the most of what's left of forever? Or will they let each other go for good? Brimming with big feelings and packed with steam, Left of Forever is bestseller Tarah DeWitt at the top of her game.

Thoughts
I absolutely loved this story. You were rooting for both of them the whole time. They had their battles and there trust issues but there was never a time that I disliked either character. They both cared so much they just needed to figure it out together.

Wren and Ellis are everything to me. I would’ve waited five years for them.

The catalyst for change in the post-divorce relationship is masterfully done. The past is woven in seamlessly. The separate lives of both Wren and Ellis are seen and felt and understood. The way they’ve grown and changed — and not changed — in their time apart is clear. And THEN we get the actual reconnection process and, again, it’s everything. The communication, the openness, the tension, the steam, the ever present love. There are so many things I want to talk about but don’t want to take away the experience of reading some of the special moments and truths and reveals for anyone.

This will absolutely be a top read of the year and I am a Tarah DeWitt fangirl for life. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Griffin for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tarah had the ability to create one of the best most masterfully crafted piece of literature I’ve had the pleasure of reading. This story is raw, it’s real. It shows very flawed characters but how perfectly they create two half’s of a hole. Wren and Ellis story is layered in so much past, the way Tarah navigated their future but also giving you an insight on who they use to be to where it adds more the story instead of taking it away rips out your heart in every page. The love and tension between these two shines of every single page. I love getting to see them as parents to Sam and how above all they put him first but they truly never gave up one another.

Tarah’s writing has a way completely changing how you viewed a romance story before. She takes you along this journey as if you’re right there with them. Infusing humor but also giving the harder, more raw moments their time to shine. The emotions this story evokes is moving.

Wren has such a strong personality and I love despite it all she loves so fiercely being there for her family. And Ellis is a down bad man who never truly gave up his wife even in the 5 years they’ve been apart. You get to read how seamlessly they go together.

I honestly have no words for how life altering this book was for me. Tarah’s stories have always stuck with me but Wren & Ellis truly altered my DNA.

This is hands down my favourite second chance romance ever written. Our main characters and the depths of their feelings feel so raw and real. Their story is one that will stay with you forever. It’s one you’ll keep coming back to over and over again because you miss them and they feel like home. It’ll keep your heart in a vice grip and never give it back but if you’re anything like me you’ll gladly let them keep it. Try as I might, there are simply no words that truly do them or this incredible book justice. Tarah is pure magic and how lucky are we that she chose to share a some of it with us 🥹

Right from the prologue, Left of Forever sets the tone perfectly, and gives a feel of where Wren and Ellis are, and where they hope to be. Their story takes the reader through their struggles, from how they started to how they ended up where they were, and the road to their HEA.
DeWitt writes characters who feel so deeply that you cannot stay indifferent to them. Ellis, especially, feels more edgy, with this sense of determination and desperation, latching onto his conviction that he wants his wife back.
I don't know how to explain it, but I love how Left of Forever was a no-fuss, no pretension, just raw emotions, and an intentional kind of story. It is healing and will make you believe that some people are endgame.
Second-chance romances are my jam, and Left of Forever is right up there with some of my favorites. It has everything that I love: angst, yearning, phenomenal main characters, a storyline that keeps you glued to the pages, and a secondary cast that makes you look forward to their stories (hopefully).

✨️ Firefighter × bakery owner
✨️ Angst and yearning
✨️ Roadtrip and trip down memory lane
✨️ Epistolary
✨️ He pines for her
✨️ Second-chance romance

I’ve had plenty of time to think of a way to explain how deeply I love this book, and yet I still sit here with nothing to offer but the aching in my chest and the inarguable insistence that you read it.

Tarah creates character after character that cut deep and resonate - I saw so much of myself in Sage and the way she loves others, I still consider Funny Feelings one of my all-time favorites, you’ve seen my Co-Op reno review. But Ellis and Wren? Toothpick comes out clean, I am done.

I’ve been foaming at the mouth since SHE’S STILL A BYRD rung all my bones like a tuning fork and not a single moment of this disappointed. The tender, aching, interwoven love that these two feel for each other and the force with which they’re resisting it had me screaming it into my pillow and absolutely tearing up Tarah’s DMs into the wee hours of the morning. It’s painful and funny and sharp and gorgeous, and also a little filthy because it’s Tarah, obvi.

We get to see Ellis navigate his now-adult son and realize that everyone in his life has been raised (by him) to self-sufficiency. We get to see Wren discover that she knows herself and that time has dimmed nothing about her. And she is still a Byrd - it’s a testament to the surety of their love for each other (in spite of their distance) that Wren has never been anything less than family to all of the Byrd siblings. I want to consume this book; is that weird?

There’s never been love lost between these two; it’s always been there, packed and zipped away in a desperate show of self-preservation but also a deep need to save the other. They needed to figure out how to find themselves before they could find their ways back to each other. They only got lost because they forgot to keep holding each other’s hands. And seeing them hesitantly and then full-heartedly reach for each other again was nothing short of beautiful.

I am holding my heart in my hands and Tarah is poking it with a stick.