Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt is exquisite. I knew I needed Ellis and Wren's story as soon as Ellis announced "She's still a Byrd" to an entire town meeting in Savor It. (While this book can be read on it's own, I highly recommend reading/listening to Savor It first. And The Co-Op too, if you're itching for more.) Wren and Ellis grew up together and got married young when Wren got pregnant. Add on top of that the responsibility for Ellis's younger siblings, after their parents died, and they had to grow up very fast and take on a lot of pressure. They decided to divorce when their son, Sam, was in middle school. Sam is graduating now, and moving away for college. Ellis decides this is the perfect time to see if he and Wren can come back to each other, by taking a road trip home, just the two of them. Second chance books are tough, because the reasons for the separation often seem either too petty to have caused a rift or too monumental to get over. That's not the case here. Ellis & Wren had genuine issues, that felt very real and lived in, but they don't pass by any of the steps needed to figure out where things went wrong and communicate their way back to each other. Ellis even spent time in therapy (!) Tarah DeWitt's writing always brings me to tears, and this was no exception. I will be hydrating fully the next few days, but it's so worth it. I'm not sure I will be able to handle Silas Byrd's book; I'm pretty sure I cried every time he was on-page, but I also can't wait for it. ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, and I'm so grateful for that.

I loved Consort of Fire, and was really looking forward to spending more time in this world. The Kraken is my guy, and I really liked the views on imperialism that thread through this book. I’m usually a proponent of a 300 page romance book, but with as much as this book had to do, I found myself wanting more. More of the characters giving words to their feelings, more of Einar’s backstory, more time spent with the mystery of the island and the plots against our three. I think I may have preferred if this and the next book were just one big, honking novel, but I had a good time here, as Kit Rocha always delivers. Definitely start with Consort of Fire and Queen of Dreams, if you want any context for what is going on. ARC received from NetGalley. Book out 5/6/25