In love. Kicking my little feet. Omigosh. Whenever You're Ready is a witty, emotional sapphic rom-com about two ex-best friends, Nia and Jade, forced to road-trip through to honor their late BFF’s last request. It's everything you want in a rom-com. 3.5 out of 5 stars

I tried, multiple times, to read this, but I could not get into it, no matter how hard I tried. It's such a shame because a romance about Jews of color going on a Jewish history-based road trip through the South should have been right up my alley. But, even the prospect of the Southern Jewish road trip wasn't enough to keep me reading. This just wasn't for me, unfortunately.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I did not finish this book. I will return to Whenever You're Ready at a later date because I really want to get into Rachel Runya Katz's books. I am very grateful for the early copy.

Whenever You're Ready is a complex, deeply introspective novel exploring multiple topics to include grief, culture/identity, friendship, and love. While there is a childhood-friends-to-lovers romance between Nia and Jade, the unfolding of the romance is very slow (post 60%) and the primary focus lies within the exploration of each character's response to grief, miscommunication, and their emotions surrounding the death of their friend, Michal. Katz's writing was beautiful but often difficult to follow. The tense (third person present) was a challenge for me personally and I often had to stop and reread sentences as the POV shifts were abrupt and often. Ultimately I did not feel like I ever truly knew each main character or felt invested in their romantic relationship. The book ends before a true relationship even begins between the two and I felt that it ended without a clear HEA. Nonetheless, I appreciate the author's commitment to diverse representation and the cultural exploration of southern Jewish history.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this book!
This book had powerful moments, especially around Southern Jewish history and the intersection of racism and antisemitism, but the characters often felt frustratingly immature to me. Jade and Nia, once close through their shared best friend Michal, reunite for a road trip in Michal’s memory after years of silence—but the reasons behind their falling-out are dragged out far too long. The romance is a super slow burn, the drama gets heavy, and no one seems capable of honest communication. Still, I loved the diverse representation, and the emotional depth, and a sweet dog named Luna make it worth the read if you’re patient.

Jade and Nia's story is messy in a chaotic sort of way. There are *BIG* secrets between them and heavy history. If you're thinking you're gonna get a semi-wholesome romance novel in, you're looking in the wrong place.

Overall, a slow-developing plot that felt like it dragged in certain places with HEAVY one-sided pining and lots of denial lol.

Props to Runya Katz for teaching me about Jewish history in the South, though!

DNF at 15%. I started this book last year and wasn't in the mood so restarted it this month to hopefully get into it as I'm focusing on queer romances. However I had the same problems, I just couldn't get into this. The writing is well done it just didn't hook me in.

Thank you for the earc in exchange for an honest review

⭐️ 2.5

I was so excited for this queer reconnection love story but these characters just pissed me off one time too many. So immature I wanted to scream!! I just didn’t feel the chemistry. I wanted more passion, more yearning. The thing that kept me going was the co flick between the twins, which was pretty compelling.

Very well written. The writing style took me a second to adjust to every time I returned to the book, but it didn’t pull away from the story. I always got to a point where I was mad I had to put the book down because I wanted to keep appreciating the story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The main qualm I had was with the miscommunication between Nia and Jade. I felt like if they were really as close of friends as the book made it out to be, they wouldn't go 3 years without speaking because of a minor misunderstanding and lack of communication.

Nia and Jade used to be best friends until a huge fight after their other best friend, Michal, died of cancer. It's now a few years later, and Michal's letters written before her death have encouraged Nia and Jade to reunite on a road trip through the South to visit Jewish landmarks. They are struggling to mend their relationship while still dealing with the grief of losing a friend.

I enjoyed this book for the plot, characters, and also what I learned about Jewish history in the South. This is the first book I've read by Rachel Runya Katz, but it won't be the last.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press / St. Martin's Griffin for the e-ARC of this title to read and review. I'm catching up on some ARC reviews that I'm totally behind on, but am so very happy to still be able to talk about these books! "Whenever You're Ready" is a really complex and unique story that tackles grief, culture/identity, and friendships in a refreshingly new way -- and I love reading something that I haven't seen done before. I've read Rachel Runya Katz's debut as well before this one, and this is something she just consistently does amazingly.

At the center of this story is a road trip between friends, who reunite to take the Southern Jewish History Tour their dead bestie always wanted them to go on together. This is the strongest part of the story for me by far, as we get a ton of real historical information (that the author clearly researched well and knows a lot about) that's interesting and compelling. It feels like we, the readers, are along for the trip with the characters. Examinations of all of the characters' differing (and overlapping) personal cultures, races, and religions are also done beautifully.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot out of the friendship or romance themes in my own reading. I think longterm friendships are so beautiful, because you have been with people through so many different stages of your life: sometimes you're in the same place at the same time (both emotionally and geographically) and other times you're completely misaligned, but you can always come back to the "home" you find in these other people. I got this feeling about.... halfway there, with these characters. There's distance between them because of some sort of fight or tension that happened before the events of this book, and I find that they all consistently run from problems or uncomfortable situations instead of facing them. This is such an interesting idea to explore against the overall backdrop of grief (especially WHO gets to grieve a loss "the most" - best friends, lovers, family?) but ultimately I didn't feel the soul-deep connection between our trio of friends, who are decades-deep in their tight-knit friendship. And the romance(s?) almost feel like an afterthought, even though they *could* feel like a delicious moving forward after years of tension and conflict. I hope other readers can take away that feeling!

This slowburn really annoyed me. I didn't like the characters and I did not like this book at all. I just thought it took to long to get to the plot or the point.

People falling in love in the wake of grief is so powerful. This is a story about friends going on a road trip to honor their friend who passed and along the way, they revisit feelings that they thought were long-buried.

This was a beautiful and emotional read. I think I loved the flashbacks more than the current-day parts. Rachel Runya Katz has such a way with words and description that I felt like I knew every single character within the first twenty pages. Their dynamics were so realistic and messy in a way that friends who’ve been attracted to each other are.

I’m excited to see what Katz writes next.

More sapphic romances!!! I loved everything about this book. It was sweet and the world needs as many queer love stories as it can get

DNF @ 35%

I TRIED. I tried so hard to get into this book because I loved the premise. Unfortunately I just didn't vibe with the writing, I just didn't find it engaging.

Wow I loved this so much! All of the main characters were so well developed and I totally understood their motivations and the basis of the conflict between them. I loved the focus on the non-romantic relationships being just as important in the story as the romance, while definitely being a romance.

Thank you St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the DRC of Whenever You're Ready! All opinions in this review are my own.

I'm glad I had reviewed the synopsis of Whenever You're Ready ahead of time because it is not one to go into lightly. Jade and Nia have not talked in three years, since right around the time their best friend died from cancer. As they are nearing 30, they are determined to cross the final item off Michal's bucket list, a tour of Southern Jewish history. Not only must Jade and Nia confront both their grief and their feelings for each other on this road trip, but Jade also must work through her grief in relation to her brother Jonah as well who was dating Michal at the time of her death.

I find I don't typically gravitate towards books with heavier topics lately but I figured I would try Whenever You're Ready. Although it is categorized as a romance, I think it is important to know that the romance is not the most addressed relationship or emotion, especially in the first half. I found this to be more about grief and friendship, especially the exploration of why romantic relationships are given more importance than friendships.

My only complainy is that at times the narration can be difficult to follow. The point of view would switch between Jade and Nia's inner thoughts but because it is still told in third person and it would switch during chapters, it could sometimes be difficult to figure out which person's thoughts we were currently hearing. I wish it had either been written as first person so you would only see one name and know who "I" was referring to, or it was told with an omniscient third person narrator so you had everyone's thoughts whenever they were shared.

Overall, Whenever You're Ready is an emotional undertaking, but it is so worth it!

My eyes were practically glued to the pages as I read this book in one sitting.

With a rich backdrop of Jewish history, grief, and coping this road trip will change Jade and Nia’s friendship forever. After the tragic loss of their close friend Michal Nia and Jade take the road trip of all road trips. I loved the deep dive we got for Jade and Nia’s friendship. Driving home the importance of a lasting friendship and sometimes all you need is the love of your closest friend and the courage to embrace who you are.

, Nia and Jades journey is one for the ages.

This book is part road trip and part emotional journey. It travels back and forth between the past and the present so you get a full picture of the relationships, both past and present. You also get an understanding for the bond and subsequent grief the characters are going through with the loss of a friend. The friendship is the basis of the relationships, but do they both want more? This road trip allows them to explore this relationship as something else. I also enjoyed that the trip included Charleston and Savannah because my family did a road trip to both of those places, so that brought back fond memories. This sweet saphic novel will warm your heart.

Thank you to St. Martins for a gifted copy.