ARC Review: "Left of Forever" by Tarah DeWitt ★★★★★

ARC Review: Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt

Heartfelt and heart-healing with a helping of humour, this second chance romance is as beautiful as it is profound! 🧡 With tropes like road trip, only-one-tent, secret letters, yearning and miscommunication, this is the summer story this year!

If you’re lost, I’ll find you.
I’ll give you my body, my heart, and my soul.
I’ll cherish every bit of yours in return.
I’ll fight with you. I’ll fight for you.
I’ll love you for everything left of forever, in every lifetime we get.

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
Wren Meridian and Ellis Byrd have known each other since they were kids and fell in love. Wren became accidentally pregnant at 17 and, because she has a pituitary adenoma, she didn’t know whether she would ever get the chance to have kids again so kept the baby. This meant Wren and Ellis had a kid and got married too soon/when they were young and it eventually fizzled out. They divorced when Wren was 28.

Now, 5 years later, 33-year-old Wren runs the town’s bakery and 34-year-old Ellis is a firefighter. They try and avoid each other at all costs – with Ellis going as far as not eating her delicious desserts at Thanksgiving. But neither of them feels like they can move on. Wren sends baked goods and a letter inquiring about an update on two missing horses during the fire in Colorado not considering Ellis is among them, and he recognises it’s her. Remaining anonymous, they exchange “Dear Stranger” letters and Ellis realises how much he misses this unfiltered version of her.

When their son Sam is going to college, Ellis decides they should go on a trip to California, to give their relationship one last chance. Wren is afraid she’ll go through the heartbreak and family upheaval again, seeing as she is so tightly knitted with the rest of the Byrd family. Will this trip make or break them?

She’s kissing me. Her lips are on mine after five long years. Five hundred years. She’s kissing me. I’m home.

This is told from the first-person present-tense POV of Wren and Ellis.

OVERALL OPINIONS
Tarah DeWitt has done it again, and better than ever. Last year, I found Savor It was the best contemporary romance I’d read. I want to alter that to the best contemporary romance I’d read last year. This year, Left of Forever is the best second chance romance novel I’ve read.

We are back in Spunes, Oregon (not to be confused with Forks, Washington – of course) and following Sage Byrd’s (Book 1) brother Ellis and his ex-wife Wren. Returning to this world feels like coming home, embracing an old friend. I was invested in them the moment Ellis said “She’s still a Byrd” in Savor It – how did you know, Tarah? – and I actually love this story more than Sage and Fisher’s.

It IS lovely that Sage and Fisher are here and we get more added to their storyline: Sage’s current house used to be Wren and Ellis’ house so naturally there’s the emotional connection to that via Wren watching Sage and Fisher; she calls Ellis to say that Fisher and Indy are staying for good which makes him happy for her but incredibly sad and lonesome; we see how Fisher has integrated himself into the Byrd family so well through his funny interactions with Silas; Fisher proposes to Sage at the end of the story – like oh my god! So cute!!

I like that DeWitt spent more time on the brothers and their bond in this book. I really want a romance for our other Byrds. Like, Micah and Kirby is a great idea and it needs to happen haha! And Silas. Dear, DEAR Silas – he deserves the world and more. He is so lovely, I absolutely ADORE his best man speech where he says that Ellis has always been his hero and that “Wren thinks we absorbed her into our family, but she’s the one who made us into hers”. They couldn’t have asked for anyone better! He had one of the best quotes:

what is bravery if not hope in action?

You know it’s good when you say “I’ll read one more chapter now and finish it later” – and you have to retract that because ohhh boy the end of Chapter 32! I was like “nevermind I must read the next chapter” haha.

This is a bit like Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey but way better. Everything about this had me screaming and crying! DeWitt really captured the heartache, regrets and pining of two people who have known each other for a very long time and miss the good times – and bad. I could picture and feel their situation so well. And then aw them falling for each other all over again, gosh! So beautiful, so funny, so sweet. The angst too ahhh – the line “I hated that I *couldn’t* hate you” hit me hard!! The miscommunication, though not my favourite trope, was done well.

(Also, as someone who has been making out when we should have been getting the dinner, I related very much to that scene hehe – but that it was insane! Like Tarah do you dabble in witchcraft? It’s like you plucked the very moment from my memories!)

<< Positives >>
🠚 The cover. So pretty!
🠚 The layout. I like that there is a format for writing and email.
🠚 The origami bird concept is super duper cute ahh!
🠚 I adored the “Dear Stranger” letters, they were so so cute idea!
🠚 These characters being in their 30s and act like such with their honest and open conversations. Makes a nice change from the usual 18-25-year-old couples in novels.
🠚 The fact there are more LOTR references in this one haha (signing off as Gollum and the Frodo “keep your secrets” moment that Silas and Ellis have)
🠚 The spice, of course.
🠚 The representation of infertility and reproductive health issues. I am sure some people will have experienced this and find the struggles relatable.
🠚 Silas! Enough said.
🠚 The Café Co-Op – there is no way this isn’t a reference to The Co-Op, another one of her books with second chance as one of the tropes and also incredibly raw and heartfelt.
🠚 It’s nice that Ellis’ ex-girlfriend remains out of the picture. I think some authors would have used the opportunity to have a cliché nasty ex who makes the FMC feel inferior wants to get back with the MMC so I’m glad this didn’t happen here.

<< Negatives >>
🠚 I wish more of the divorce had been covered, specifically the buildup towards it. I suggest doing this through more journal entries. We get when they were younger: when she noticed how he had changed, and their first kiss… and then that’s it? Why stop there? Imagine the huge amount of depth that could be added here by including Wren’s thoughts about her wedding day, the happy times, the trying to have another kid, the operation table finding out that she nearly died, the avoiding, the betrayal. So what if it takes up 20-60 more pages? It would absolutely be worth it and I feel like this would be so beneficial to the lack of conversations they have about their past (except at the end).
🠚 I do feel like surely surelyyy after all these years, she would have seen his writing before. Also, when he leaves that note, I think she should have recognised the handwriting, not just the L being the same. I like that she has this moment – if this book had been written solely from Wren’s POV, this would have been quite an impactful, shocking plot twist.
🠚 There was a missed opportunity: they talk about never having make-up sex when they were together but after their argument in Chapter 33, they do actually do that. I’m surprised they don’t make any remarks about it.
🠚 Could have expanded on the part where he laughs for the first time in front of Wren when talking about the “rumor mill”. This is probably the first time he’s laughed freely in front of her – I would have loved her reaction to this. Likewise for when she discovers that Ellis has still been checking in on her mother – we’re missing that reaction to this newfound knowledge.
🠚 I think there could have been more interractions with Sam, seeing as he is an important part of the family. Like perhaps Wren is unsure about the future and could confide in him at one point.
🠚 The moment Wren gets her phone stuck between her breasts and Ellis gets the chilies in his eyes and you-know-what – I didn’t vibe with it. It was a bit too silly for me.
🠚 Some of Wren’s blurts, like the “not sex”, felt too cringey.
🠚 The chapters near the end felt like they went by so quickly.
🠚 I think I’m missing why they all had band aids at the end.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Wren꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ When she said that she “always needed people” I felt that, too! She is so kind and caring, and very strong.

“I. Love. You. I would choose *you*. Over everything! Over everyone.” He’s a statue other than a rogue tear tracking down his cheek. “I still would. I still love you. Whatever you want from me Ellis. It’s all yours. It’s always been yours.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Ellis꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ The still visiting and looking after Wren’s mum. The improving on his communication so he can openly tell Wren how he feels about her, unlike in the past when he shut his opinions away. The “Thank you for kissing me tonight” email (OMG)!!! A man of action, indeed! Aaand the fact she said she always wanted to travel to Europe so he brought Europe to her via the holiday trip? STOP IT! I really love Ellis, the way he works on himself – even goes to therapy when he had been against the idea originally – to become this better person for her.

“It terrifies me to think that I might’ve let this life go by without finding my way back to you. Never again, Wren. I promise. Never again. I’m not letting you go… If you won’t have me back anymore, then I’ll find you in the next life. You’re the only thing that makes me believe in that. In something bigger than myself. The way I have felt about you has been the only thing that’s felt like… like it can’t be contained in one body or lifetime.”

FAV QUOTES
• I’d learn how love could change; how it could grow from friendship into more, into something that felt infinite. Love could be loud and supernova hot, and something soothing and quiet, too.
• Ellis’s eyes find me first, because of course they do. They always have and probably always will. Even if it wasn’t him finding me first, I think I’m helpless when it comes to his gravity, like all the life between us created some fundamental reflex.
• “Stay,” he rasps. There's a commanding edge to it that makes my shoulders pull back, awareness running down my neck like a fingertip. Ellis doesn't *ask* for what he needs, let alone make demands.
• My chest is an empty, barren cavern without her. My heart took shape around hers, too, and it will never go back.
• The sight of him brings the usual pang, but when he looks my way and his mouth looks into a half-formed smile, I find myself smiling back, reflexively. He stares at me and I at him, and whatever shredded and frayed thread is still between us pulls unbearably tight.
• I let myself look at him. *Really* look at him. 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. He still looks good, though. Painfully so.
• “I fucking miss you.” | ‘I miss you, too’ sounds glib. ‘You have been missing from me’ is more accurate. ‘There’s a void where you lived in me’.
• “All I know is that if I found out heaven was real and got there first? I’d hang back in the waiting room and save you a seat.”
• I should have desensitized myself to him and the maelstrom of emotion he stirs up in me. Instead, it’s as fresh and bright as the neon sunrise sparkling across the waves right outside my window and just as hard to look at directly.
• I have genuine butterflies when I finally lie down to go to sleep. But... they’re heavier than butterflies, with different wingspans and speeds. More like birds.
• I kiss her because she’s kind and clever and so pretty it takes my breath away. She’s mine and I’m hers, and all of my life’s greatest happiness can be traced back to her, so I kiss her because I want to, and forget the rest.
• “That man is the best sort of good. He’s the kind of good that doesn’t want to be seen or fussed over with accolades. He’s a man of action.”
• I’ll run my fingertips over the vows on his skin and the birds on his back. A hummingbird for Sage, a crow for Micah, a red-tailed hawk for Silas, a swallow for Sam, and a wren for me. I asked him if he knew that wrens mated for life when he got it, to which he laughed and said no. I got a matching wren on my lip last Christmas, because if he can carry all of them, I can carry him.

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I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Tarah DeWitt and Little, Brown Book Group for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

A huge thank you to the Little, Brown Book Group Influencer program for providing me with a paperback copy.

“Left of Forever” is out now!