I loved Savor It! So, I was excited to go back to Spunes, Oregon for Left of Forever! I love the Bryd family! They’ve stolen my heart. The narration for the audiobook was fantastic! I definitely recommend listening to the audiobook!

Wren and Ellis were both really well developed characters! I could really feel their emotions and understand their motivations. I really loved them together. I struggled to understand why they separated in the first place, but I was glad they found each other again! I’m a sucker for second chances! I especially loved Ellis’ devotion to Wren. I loved how much he loved his family!

I definitely recommend reading this book, but recommend reading Savor it first! It can be read as a stand alone, but Fischer and Sage have my heart!

Read if you like:
❤️ Small Town Romance
❤️ Dual POV
❤️ Second Chances
❤️ Found Family
❤️ Letters & Journals
❤️ Roadtrips

Tarah's best work yet! All of her books find some way to worm into my heart and settle in, and this is one I'll be thinking about for a long time. I loved how relatable the storyline was, even though I've never been married---or divorced. I thought both Wren and Ellis were excellently developed with enough character growth and dynamic personality traits to keep them interesting. Tarah is such an amazing writer, her words flowing easily and wholly sucking you into the story in a way that makes it impossible not to devour.

Highly recommend!

A sweet, nostalgic story of two estranged young childhood sweethearts moving into their empty nest phase while navigating their lingering feelings after their divorce.

Infinity stars.

I read the ebook months ago and it changed my life. Then I devoured the audio version in less than 48 hours and this book changed my life again.

I cannot adequately convey how beautiful. lush, emotional, heart wrenching, and perfect this book is. The story, the characters, the WRITING, and now the audio??? Knock me over with a feather.

I'm now fully convinced that no one other than Megan Wicks and Connor Crais could have done this book justice. They brought all the emotion, all the heart ache, and all the intensity to Tarah's words—and I was RAPT. Absolute perfection.

Thank you forever to MacMillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

the 5 ☆ streak for books about Byrds continues🌲🌊🐦‍⬛🥹!!! my expectations for this book were SO high from the snippets we got of them in Savor It and i’m so pleased to say that Tarah not only met my expectations but exceeded them in so many amazing ways!!! i love them so much🥰🥰🥹🥹🤭🤭

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2nd read: idk how but it got better with time?? i loved it the first time around but listening to the audiobook elevated it and made me even more obsessed!!! hearing the emotion in their voices as they struggle through reconciliation & trusting each other again nearly brought me to tears!!! i HIGHLY recommend this book (& savor it!!!)!!! pls pls read them!!!


thank you SO much to the publisher & netgalley for the free e-arc & audiobook in exchange for my honest thoughts!

✨ALC REVIEW✨

I listened to this is one day, that's how completely captivated I was. Five stars for entertainment, five stars for the vibes, five stars for the characters, five stars for the plot, five stars for making my cry, five stars for the spice, five stars for the humor. FIVE FREAKING STARS.

This was such a beautifully written second chance. I love a good second chance, especially when they tug on your heartstrings. The tropes in this are delicious: childhood friends to lovers to marriage in crisis to divorcees to marriage redemption to lovers. You get small town, found family, road trip with amazing banter, and forced proximity that has you giddy AF.

I loved the journey that these two get to take to see if they can do things right this time around. I loved them getting to learn to love each other again. I loved that the love never left. I absolutely ate these two up and rooted for them SO HARD.

I loved their chemistry, I loved their teasing OH SO MUCH. I giggled and found myself smiling way too much.

Everything was adorable. I just loved every aspect of this book. It just truly felt like such a breath of fresh air.

For me to finish an audiobook in a day, it has to enchant me - it has to capture my attention fully. And this did just that.

Wren and Ellis are a gorgeous couple. I loved their personalities and I love how raw and vulnerable they get for each other. I love how real they felt. I love how, even after everything, they just want the other to be happy. These two are truly best friends and I'm so glad they found their way back to each other. These two are just meant to be -plain and simple.

I could go on for hours about how beautiful this story was - but I think we get it! Just know, this is definitely worth the read or listen. I highly recommend this one and it's definitely pushed me to read more from Tarah asap!

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Tarah DeWitt for an ALC copy of this beautiful story!

I recently gave myself permission to stop reading a book at any point for any reason. I'm so glad I didn't listen to myself. The beginning took longer to grab my interest than I I would normally like but I continued because I love Tarah Dewitt and knew she would deliver. And boy did she deliver. The payoff would not have been as sweet without the beginning.

Much like the eyeball read, this audio changed my life. I am always more emotional over books when I’m listening, but even more than usual I could feel the emotions, the yearning, the heartbreak, the love…everything! Between Wren and Ellis. There is no one like Tarah DeWitt, and this audio is absolutely PERFECTz . hats off to the narrators. They are SUPERB!

Thanks to macmillan audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review!

Left of Forever is my first foray into Tarah DeWitt’s writing, and I really enjoyed it.

I loved the setting and all of its details. This felt like such a rich story, and I’ll definitely go back to read the first book in this series.

There was so much emotion between the lines of these pages. Wren and Ellis burned for each other, and I felt the steam coming off them. I swooned as they rekindled their relationship, and my heart warmed as they healed.

I recommend this for readers who enjoy spicy, angsty romances with characters in their 30s.

What to expect:
💕 marriage in crisis / divorced couple
✨second chance romance
🧁 she owns a bakery
👨‍🚒 firefighter MMC
🚙 road trip
🏘️ small town
🥵 hot and spicy

I tandem read this with the audiobook. I highly recommend that format. Connor Crais and Megan Wicks sounded great!

My rating: 4.25⭐️

Thank you so much Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ALC!

Infinity stars!!

I have loved all of Tarah's books, but this one is on another level for me. This is an all time favorite book that I will be rereading endlessly. Left of Forever is not just a romance book. It's full of found family, heartbreak, tender moments, self discovery, healing, and hope. I found myself relating so much to these characters. This is a soul book for me. Each page made me ache in the best way. By the end, it had completely unraveled me and left me raw. I could seriously go on and on about the masterpiece that this is.

Left of Forever is a second chance romance between Wren and Ellis Byrd. They fell in love as kids, had their son, and then life happened. They end up getting divorced. They're both trying to figure out life without each other. The painful yearning that I felt from them both had me crying several times.

I loved every aspect of this audiobook. Connor Crais portrayed the perfect Ellis Byrd. His deep and gravelly voice fit Ellis's personality perfectly to my brain. Megan Wicks was phenomenal with Wren Byrd. Not only did she portray her attitude spot on, but she also her emotions so well that I couldn't help but be sucked in and sobbing for most of this book. I truly felt as if I was on facetime with them hearing their story. They took two fictional characters and made them REAL for me.

Left of Forever has:
- Second chance romance
- Small town
- They write notes to each other
- Found family
- Firefighter MMC
- Baker FMC
- Road trip
- One tent
- top tier YEARNING

I will be shouting and crying about this one into eternity!

This audiobook is actual perfection. Connor Crais & Megan Wicks were the most perfect narrators to portray Ellis & Wren and I was absolutely feral over the dual narration. 10/10! This is going to be a new comfort listen for me.

I don’t know how but this heightened my reading experience the second time reading this beautiful book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this arc.

When I saw the cover for Left of Forever, I knew I needed to find out more. I haven’t had a chance to read the previous book (Savor It) yet, but I had no issues jumping right into this one.

Left of Forever was an emotional and angsty second chance romance. It’s about love, family, and friendship, but also how love can grow, shift, and sometimes break. For me, the second chance romance trope hinges on the reason for the separation and this one nailed it. It’s so rarely just one thing that breaks a relationship. It’s the culmination of unsaid words, resentments, and ultimately deciding to not to keep choosing the other person. I’ll admit that some of the moments in the book hit especially close to home and I could 100% relate to both Ellis and Wren and understand how everything fell apart. I do wish there would have been an even bigger focus on them communicating honestly with each other instead of physically, but I understand that closeness is a language in itself. I loved how united the Byrd family was (especially in their meddling) and it was beautiful to see everything come full circle in the end.

I read half of the book via ebook and the other half via audiobook. Both narrators did a great job, but I loved Connor Crais’s performance so much, I almost went back to relisten to the first half. lol It was a fun treat to have the audiobook feature duet style text messages and letters too (ie: Connor Crais narrates letters/messages from Ellis while Megan Wicks narrates those from Wren). This was a really wonderful listening experience.

Audiobook Review
Overall 4.5 stars
Performance 5 stars
Story 4 stars

CW (from the author):
Ectopic pregnancy—occurs off page
Conversations referencing infertility in the past
Explicit language
Explicit sexual content
Death of an unknown character that occurs off page, caused by a fire

*I voluntarily read and listened to a review copy of this book*

Tarah did it again! I loved Savor It, but Left of Forever hit all the feels and left me swooning. This book was beautiful, moving, and oh so hot. The personal growth by both characters and their no nonsense communication made their connection even hotter once it finally boiled over (again). Connor Crais and Megan Wicks gave wonderful performances and I highly recommend listening to this one. 10/10- no notes.

“One day…when we’re very old and gray…one of us will open our eyes to a day that the other won’t…but we’ll smile knowing how full life has been…knowing how we spent forever…everything left of it…together.” - Wren (cue the tears).

Left of Forever is such a touching second chance romance. Sometimes couples go through things and they are not sure how to come back from it and this book was a perfect example of that. Although Wren and Ellis divorced the love they had for each other shined throughout this book. I thoroughly enjoyed their love and romantic connection and could see how it was possible for them to struggle within their marriage without the loss of love.

For the audiobook performance, my goodness. Connor and Megan did a superb job! I could not stop listening to this audiobook and finished it in one day. They did a great job at making me feel like I was just as invested as they were in the character’s lives. One of my favorites thus far.

🎧
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️
👩🏼‍🤝‍👨🏽Second chance
🏡Small town
👧🏼👦🏽Childhood friends
🛏️Forced proximity/one bed
🚗Road trip
👩‍🍳 Baker
👨‍🚒 Firefighter

This book had it all from witty banter and all the emotions to steamy tension and spice!
Divorced couple Ellis & Wren head on a road trip home after taking their son to collage. Their journey home and back to each other will have you feeling all the feels. Ellis is swoon worthy as he pulls all the stops to show Wren that they should try again

This time they’ll get it right. 🙌🏻

Gah I LOVED this book so much.
The writing is so fantastic. Like 🤌🏻🤌🏻 ate it all up and left no crumbs!!

Wren and Ellis quickly became one of my all time favorite couples and I think this book will live in my head rent free for a very long time.

Spicy 🌶️ second chance romance 💝 emotional 🥹
Witty 🙌🏻 so good you can’t put it down ‼️

Pre-order now!! You NEED this one.
Release date: 5/20/25

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this audio arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much for allowing me to listen to the audiobook for Left of Forever. Tarah DeWitt is an instant buy for me and this book may be in line to be my new favorite. I already knew I would love Wren and Ellis, but wow. The yearning. The yearning from both of them! I love the pacing of the story and the peeks into their early years together. This book had me laughing, crying and squealing. She’s still a bird!!

The audiobook narrators were perfection! I’m obsessed.

P.S. I’m getting greedy, but I need books for Silas and Micah now. I love the Byrds and I need them to all have their HEAs.

THANK you so much to Netgalley and Macmillian Audio for this ALC. Seeing this approval come in on a Monday morning made this the BEST start to week and I’ve been in a giddy mood ever since.

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There’s very few times where I find a book and just KNOW. I will take in the cover, the title, the description and just KNOW I will be in love. This book had everything I look for in my “perfect romance novel” and it did in fact, DELIVER.

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The hook:
5 years after Ellis and Wren divorced, they’re sending their son off to college. With the passing of time and with a lot of growth, Ellis and Wren come to realize that maybe their love story isn’t over. They decide to road trip up the California coast on their way back from dropping their son off at college and learn whether they’ll get a chance of taking back what’s left of forever.

--

Here’s the short:

Second chance, friends to lovers
Pregnant and married young (age 17 and 18)
Firefighter x baker
Divorcee’s co-oparenting
Therapy, mental health, growth
Dual POV

--

My overall thoughts:

I think about 15% in, I could already tell this was going to be incredible. Everything just felt like it clicked- the pain and yearning, the frustration, the pride all come together and Tarah makes you FEEL it. I almost don’t know if there’s enough words to properly write this review, but I will try to be as concise as possible because I somehow want to INK this story into my skin.

THE WRITING - absolutely stunning. Powerful and relatable. Tarah has a unique style in which she uses a lot of analogies and connects what she’s explaining to a the most unique descriptors. I’m clearly not able to even express how her words feel. I very rarely feel the need to highlight or pick out a quote from a book. I felt absolutely compelled here and one that stuck out to me was “[the car] smells like him in a an overwhelming way. Something that kicks up an old full body response. I’m a Heinz 57 bottle of emotion, upside down and shaken, waiting for the inevitable plop.” Like are you kidding! I pictured in my head this so visibly, was already in tears at the scene happening and this just made my sob pour out of me like ketchup in a glass bottle. I had to rewind just to listen to it again, stunned that would bring out that emotion in me.

Another quote that made me gasp and again, rewind to immediately hear it once more was “all I know is if I found out that heaven was real and I got there first, I’d hang back in the waiting room and save you a seat”. This WRECKED ME. In the best possible way.

I also loved how Tarah brought in background / explained the meaningful moments in their life when doing “flashbacks”. They’re not flashbacks and that’s what elevated the writing for me. It’s expected that in second chances we have full chapter flashbacks (honestly, like Co-Op which I still loved). But here, she intertwines journaling and reflection to bring back bigger moments that are woven within each POV in current day. And she was able to do so without dragging along. I was glued to this story. I also love how some of the callbacks to their time together before the divorce wasn’t always a linear explanation. Tarah pops in pieces of their past into the current day story relevant to the current experience, rather than in a traditional linear sense of working back up to current day.

I could probably write forever (ha) about the writing, the character growth, the call backs to her other books, etc. But something unique to me and elevates this even more is how the title ties into the story. It’s like a lightbulb moment when you hear the title of the book woven into a story. And it’s easy for that to come across cheesy - this instead felt unique and made me go “OH!”. This made a perfect ending for me, as she once again talked about “taking whatever is left of forever” back. Couldn’t have asked for a better ending to this story.

I felt SO MUCH!!! Ruined me for good and I already can’t wait to listen to this again to experience it all another time.

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🎧Audiobook specific notes🎧:
-This was dual narration and dual POV
-Although dual, the written communication (letters, emails, texts) are read in duet style (i.e a letter written by the MMC is read by the male narrator even if it’s the FMCs POV
-Connor Crais is an instant listen for me. He is one of my top 3 narrators so I already knew this was going to be great just with him alone.
-Although I recognize Megan Wick’s name, I couldn’t instantly recall her voice. But as soon as I hit play and heard her, I was so happy. She has such a soothing voice it felt like a cozy blanket
-Together their performances were phenomenal and I want more of this combo
-The production felt even more elevated having the letters/emails/texts be read in duet style. It helps so much in audiobooks to clearly define where the page would cut to a written communication. Huge fan of this when it’s not a full duet.
-As a ride-or-die duet narration fan, I would still give this a full 5 stars for audio specifically !

Dual POV
Second chance romance
Small town
Baker x firefighter
Divorced couple
Spicy

Dual Narration - Connor Crais & Megan Wicks
Always love Connor Crais and Megan Wicks was a new narrator to me she did fantastic loved her voice.

This is book 2 in The Spunes series

I found this to be heartwarming and sweet. The story follows Ellis and Wren high school sweethearts, friends all their lives and young parents who married young and lost connection after going through some tough times.

You follow them on the road back to each other. They learn to communicate and listen to each other. So sweet and I loved every minute of this book. Would definitely recommend to a friend!