Right Where We Left Us-can be read as a standalone

By-Jen Devon-new to me author

Publication date 6-18-24 , read 6-21-24

📃 Page count: 359 kindle

🌎Setting-Linden and Vesper Valley, PA

Quick Summary: Temperance "TJ" Madigan and Duncan Brady were childhood sweethearts @18, and now 14 years later they are on again/off again lovers. The Brady family opened their arms to TJ and her BFFs Rowan and Harrison "Harry" Brady(Duncan's brother) are getting married, which means TJ and Duncan will be forced to see each other. Will they settle for being friends or will they finally get it right?

🤷🏾‍♀️ What to Expect:
⭐ ️contemporary romance
⭐️ women's fic
⭐️ 2nd chance romance
⭐️ right person/wrong time
⭐️ childhood sweethearts
⭐forced proximity
⭐found family
⭐h has chronic illness


🤔 My Thoughts: Full disclosure I didn't read Rowan and Harry's book "Bend Toward the Sun," but didn't feel like I missed anything. The Brady family was a gift not many people got. TJ and her sister Maren grew up being second to their parents' love for each other. They didn't care for the Brady's, even offering the Nathan and Duncan money to stay away from Maren and TJ. It didn't work for Maren, as she married Nate and they had three kids. The Brady's were so welcoming to the sisters and TJ's BFFs Frankie & Rowan. The family scenes was hilarious. From the parents Gia and Will, to the five brothers and sister, they were very involved in each other's lives. Harry and Malcolm pushed TJ and Duncan together because they knew they belonged together. The angst and pining was madding at times because I just wanted them together. They had some steamy scenes too, all very hurried and passionate. I loved Malcolm and hope he gets book, can't wait!

Rating: 4/5⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice level 4/5 🔥🔥🔥🔥

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC💜! I voluntarily give an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

This is NOT a standalone, please read the first book in the series (Bend Toward the Sun) first or you'll have regrets. More characters and emotion than active plot, but that's okay- particularly if you're already familiar with them from the first book! The characters and the setting MAKE THIS BOOK. Even if half the time I wanted to bop both of them on the head and say 'you're your biggest enemy, get out of your head!'

Such a joy to read!

Duncan and Temperance have been through life side by side, but not ever quite together. FWB, sure, friends of the family as well, friendly at all times, but never going all the way to declaring a relationship. A situationship that has Duncan feeling very frustrated and ready to finally call it, one way or another.

This author's amazing writing style sweeps me up every time I open one of her books. The descriptive writing is sublime, the family histories are impressively fleshed out, and there are just so many great lines throughout! Like the first book, it takes place over an extensive time period, letting the reader grow with the characters as they weigh each event and opportunity to see just what can be done to resolve the ever-present tension between them. This sweet exchange really highlights the conflict and inner confusion on Temperance's behalf:

“I want to kiss you,” she whispered.
“You don’t have to look so mad about it,” he whispered back.

There's so much going on in this book, covering all aspects of the Brady family and extended family. Temperance is already tightly woven into the Brady clan, with her sister married to one of Duncan's brothers and her best friend engaged to another. Her struggles for identity and purpose are very relatable. Duncan, too, is ready to branch out beyond his family's expectations, and his friendship with Temperance gives him all the courage he needs.

This is top-tier contemporary romance, a book and series that I highly recommend. This author will always be on my top-ten list. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

*Thank you to St Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

Jen Devon is the queen of slow burns. And with this one, we get sparks of wildfire followed by ice showers! Temperance and Duncan are a perfect second chance opposites attract, each resisting their own orbital pulls. It's full of such lovely quotes and sentiments, but most of all family. (And also a lot of steam fogging up dem windows) This book felt like a warm hug, though you definitely need to read Bend Toward the Sun first. Else a lot of the references won't quite hit and the wedding won't feel as monumental.

Take me to Cloud Tide Winery, please!

Right Where We Left Us by Jen Devon
2nd book in the series (unnamed and unlabeled in Goodreads) with the Brady family. Contemporary romance. Second chance. Large family and many secondary characters. Can be read as a stand-alone but takes place subsequent to the first book.
Temperance Madigan has been a peripheral part of the Brady family for a long time. In her eyes, they are the ultimate goal: loving, supportive, teasing, loud, and comforting. Her own parents are lacking any true feelings for anything other than their medical community.
Duncan and Temperance have always been like magnets. Attracted but often with opposing goals. They had a brief explosive affair at eighteen, but have only circled from the outside since then. Temperance will be at the family vineyard for the summer. Maybe they can finally more forward together or regretfully break all ties.

Duncan can’t keep his eyes off Temperance. He’s been in love with her for a long time. But as the only family member without a higher education degree and the construction work he does, Duncan doesn’t feel worthy. There is also a secret back from their teenage days that he needs to resolve. Temperance isn’t really part of the Brady family and her own parents are pressuring her to give up the medicine she loves.
There is a lot of longing and yearning. Angst. I loved both Duncan and Temperance and felt their pain and love. Over and over. A hundred pages less would have helped the unending suffering. All of those pages added to the story and family and love. Like his secret schooling. Or the animal prints in the floor of the remodel. All enriching. And great storytelling. Still too much. So that’s the main reason for my rating of 4 rather than higher. Beautiful, engrossing, angst and eternal love.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley. I will read the author again.

This is the second book in a series by Jen Devon; the first is Bend Toward the Sun. The first book introduces the Brady family and focuses on Harry Brady and his budding romance with Rowan who doesn’t believe in soul mates and love.

This book picks up after the first book and while I don’t believe you have to read the first book before this one, I would recommend doing so because it was SO GOOD!

The second book focused on Duncan Brady and longtime friend, sometime girlfriend Temperance. I honestly found her to be a very challenging character to like. This is supposed to be a slow burn romance but it was super frustrating seeing how many times Duncan laid his feelings out there just to have Temperance get mad at him for doing so. But then she also gets mad at the idea of him with other people. When people joke about Duncan sleeping around, she gets upset. Yet she doesn’t want to be in a relationship with him. It was annoying to be frank. It’s because of her character that I rated this 3.5 stars; it’s due to the first book and the promise of the next about Mal and Frankie that I rounded up to 4 stars.
I hope book three is an enjoyable as I found book one!

Eeeekkk! I love a second-chance childhood romance!!! "Right Where We Left Us" was romantic and spicy, just how I like my romance books! This is the first book by Jen Devon I've read and I look forward to reading more of her work.
Special thank you to the author, St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

Right Where We Left Us by Jen Devon is a contemporary romance that focuses on second chance romance and found family.

Temperance and Duncan have a history, and both of them want to stay away from each other. However, both of them are integral part of each other's lives. They are attracted to each other, but both of them resist due to secrets. Will they find a way to each other?

Before reading this book, I was not aware that this was a part of a series. Though, after a while, the connections are explained, the reader might feel a bit adrift initially. I did enjoy some aspects of the book, especially the setting and the banter between the friends and family. I felt that the book could have been shorter, and I would have liked it better.

Thank you, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this book.

Right Where We Left Us is a right person, wrong time, first love, second ish chance mixed with forced proximity love story between Temperance and Duncan.

Temperance and Duncan have been circling around each other for years and finally the tension and angst boils over when his brother and her best friend get married and they have to help with wedding prep. The more time they spend together causes them to realize the defenses they built for themselves weren’t as strong as they thought and when all those old hurts and insecurities come to light they begin to understand they were just standing in their own ways.

I would love to see a story about Temperance’s friend Frankie and Duncan’s brother Malcolm-the two of them might be oil and water but something can be said for an opposites attract story and I would very much like to stay in the Brady family orbit.


Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

“You’re still holding a big piece of me hostage inside you, and I don’t know how to get it back.”

I struggled with this book – there were some really great parts, and some parts that were not so great. Temperance and Duncan had a great summer together when they were 18, but since they, they have been on and off. When one of Temperance’s friends is marrying Duncan’s brother, Temperance finds herself back in her hometown, and in close proximity to Duncan. They’ve hurt each other over and over again, but they are slowly getting to each other.

I’ll start with what I really liked. Duncan. He is the sweetest. You can feel how much he is into Temperance. His parents seem kind of great as well. There were definitely some scenes where I felt the chemistry between Duncan and Temperance. Those were the best! I also really enjoyed Temperance’s friends and her passion for helping people.

Unfortunately, for me, the things I didn’t like outweigh what I did like. There were SO many characters introduced at the beginning that I felt like it was so difficult to keep track of. Apparently this is a second book and I didn’t know it (that’s on me for not doing my homework and checking it out beforehand).

There is so much useless prose in the book that did not add to the plot. It really made the book drag on. When I say this was a slow burn, I mean it was sloooooooooow. Duncan wanted have an in-depth conversation with Temperance, and they were interrupted. The first time that happened, I was okay with it. But then it kept happening, over and over. It was just too much.

I just didn’t devour this book the way that I wanted to, the way that I expected to. That’s okay. It didn’t resonate for me, but that doesn’t mean it won’t resonate with someone else. This book will be perfect for those that really love a true slow burn, second chance romance.

Thank you to SMP Romance for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

This is a sequel to Bend Toward the Sun, and both the author and early reviews I saw recommended reading the series in order. I had read Bend Toward the Sun, but quite a while ago. I went back to re-read the synopsis before starting this, but I still felt a bit lost at times. I think this could have been improved with a family tree or character chart and a quick reminder of what happened last time. If you haven't read Bend Toward the Sun yet, I recommend reading them one right after the other.

Temperance and Duncan have clashed or loved each other since childhood. They kept their romance a secret, but now, they are back together with lots of forced proximity.

This is a delightful summer romance that made me nostalgic for times gone by. I especially enjoyed reading about a water balloon fight, cupcakes complete with fortunes, and the general belief the Brady family has in play.

There were some quite challenging moments and a few more secrets than I prefer. But I loved the magic of the location, the Brady family, second chances, and great chemistry.

Very classic small town, corny, summer book. I loved the pinning the MMC did, I felt like the book was a little too long and drawn out. The main characters obviously still loved each other that none of the "conflicts" added anything because you knew they would end up together.

I did enjoy the spicy scenes, they weren't overdone and the connection between the main characters filled it with extra angst. Another thing I enjoyed was the way the MMC spoke about and to the FMC. There was always respect and love from him.

This book was so good! I love a second chance romance and this one was top tier. The characters were excellent. The plot was stellar. I enjoyed every page and can't wait to read more by Jen Devon.

I'm starting to realize Second Chance Romance just isn't for me.

Right Where We Left Us is a story about Duncan & Temperance and the wild ups and downs they've had over the years. They were together in their teens and now in their 30s, they aren't really sure what they want. As they mention. More than once. Over and over and over.

I'm not going to lie, I liked Duncan from the start. He seemed like a fun character for the most part but he's so aggressively hard on himself throughout most of the book that it just put a bad taste in my mouth. Temperance was fine as the FMC but just constantly felt like she was pulling me back and forth with her thoughts on Duncan and her parents and what she actually wanted to do with her life whether it was do what her parents wanted for her or what she actually wanted. I get that there needs to be issues the characters are going through, but it was the same 2-3 things being talked about that it just seemed overly repetitive.
The flow of the story was a little weird to me and I couldn't figure out exactly what the timeline really was in the end. There were a few '2 weeks later' mentions but the entire first half of the book I wasn't even sure where Temperance lived or if she was on vacation or didn't actually have anywhere to live.

I did push through though and the ending was cute. Not really sure I'd read the future books that I'm sure are planned for this series.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Oh sweet heavens this book was achingly beautiful. I adored every minute of it. I grinned and giggled like a fool, teared up, and swooned. I think I highlighted multiple passages from each chapter that were just so poetic, but not cheesy. Duncan and Temperance broke my heart a little, then put it back together. Second chance perfection. With only blips of their teenage love being told to us throughout the book, the author convinced me that these two had a complicated past. As adults, they’re always drawn to each other both knowing it can’t go on like that forever. Flawed humans, secrets and hurts, deep family connections and love…it came together beautifully. I can’t believe I haven’t read the first book in the series but I am definitely going to! Please give us Mal and Frankie. I’m begging.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Jen Devon and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.5 stars

I have some mixed feelings about this book. I was debating rating it a 4 star, but I'm going to settle with 3.5 because it seems more right.

To start off, I have read Bend Toward the Sun by this author. I read the eARC last year and loved it so much that I picked up a physical copy as well. I was really looking forward to being back in this setting and with these characters again. This book is a true second book in the series. I do not recommend reading it as a standalone. I honestly think this is the strangest thing that this is considered a standalone book. If I had not read the other book, then I would have been completely lost, especially in the beginning. I wouldn't have known the characters or their personality or really what happened or was going on in this book.

I loved the setting, as with the last book, this setting is amazing and I truly enjoy reading about this place. I liked the characters and I really enjoyed the writing style and how things were described and written. I did find the pacing off at times and kind had this notion of "when will this book end" but at the same time enjoyed other parts and was immersed in the story. The second chance just felt off. I didn't love that they just pretty much hooked up all the time while still denying that they wanted to be together. Duncan went from wanting to be with her to deciding he wasn't good enough to wanting her and it was just this weird push back and forth that confused me. I still don't completely understand why Temperance didn't want to be with him other than she had her heart broken by him before. Just the fact that she kept going back to him for hookups was mind baffling to me. I understood her caution with not wanting her heart broken, but not so much why she kept going back in the 14 years they were apart.

As I said, I do have mixed feelings about this one. While I did enjoy parts of it, other parts just felt off to me. I'm glad I read this one though and I'm looking forward to the next book in this series...and yes I'm calling it a series because that's what it is.

This story is the quintessential second chance romance trope. Duncan and Temperance fell in love at 18 and fell apart when life got in the way. Never getting over each other for years they bounce between spicy and romantic. Duncan persists and Temperance balks and so the story goes.
Actually I did like this quite a bit not realizing there was a first book about this Brady family. But this story can work as a standalone. I'm sure to read Bend Toward the Sun and wait on the next. Thank you netgalley and St Martins publishing.

Quick Summary: A first love to let's-get-this-right romance

My Review: Right Where We Left Us by Jen Devon is a hit and miss love story that highlights a second chance, close proximity situation-ship.

About the Book: Temperance Jean Madigan and Duncan Brady share a history. It has been both good and not so good. You would think that by now they would have been able to sync up. Yea...no. Unfortunate circumstances and such have kept them in a crazy loop. When they are expected to get on with things associated with the wedding of their loved ones, something has to give. Will their relationship come full circle, or will it collapse altogether?

My Final Say: I love a good first love story. Is there ever a course that runs smooth? Temperance and Duncan went by the wayside to get to their own special version of partnership.

Other: The chemistry and tension between these two was felt from the beginning. It was easy to see that they were on an inevitable collision course.

Rating: 4/5
Recommend: Yes
Audience: A
Re-read: Yes
Status/Level: 💛💔💞

Sincere appreciation is extended to the author, to the publisher (St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin), and to NetGalley. Thank you for granting access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't realize this was the second in a series and was overwhelmed with the number of characters and how they fit together. Turns out I did read the first book but it didn't really clear anything up for me. This focuses on the relationship between Temperance and Duncan. They were close in high school but now she seems to be really mad at him for a reason I never did figure out. The writing was okay and I loved the idea of the big happy family and how close they were. The vineyard in the story is in Pennsylvania but in my head I could only picture it somewhere out west. I am going to predict that there will be another book because there is one more Brady brother that needs to be paired up.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital copy.

Temperance and Duncan have an off and on against friends with benefits situation. As a family wedding draws near the two are drawn back into their small town and avoiding each other becomes increasingly difficult. For Duncan he’s been a goner for Temperance since they were kids and he no longer wants to hide behind the guise of a casual relationship forcing Temperance to face her fears.

Not only is this one for the fans of Jen’s previous book, Bend Towards the Sun, as it features some familiar faces, it’s for the second chance romance, small town, man falls first, misunderstanding, opposites attract romance lovers. It's spicy but for those without the tolerance there is so much sweetness and love wrapped in her words that it makes it a whole lot more comfortable for the untrained palette.

Jen Devon is the most underrated but hugely talented romance author but I am disappointed in TikTok because her books don’t get the attention they so rightfully deserve. So read Right Where We Left Us. Read Bend Toward the Sun. Let Jen break your heart and slowly put it back together again. I promise you that you’ll be left satisfied in her almost poetic exploration about our capacity as humans for love.

This book has solidified my place in Jen’s fan base.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for providing an ARC through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.